Flash 10 rumours

[phantomflanflinger]

Me again. I'm still not dead. No, I don't have any juicy info - I'm looking for it.

We've read all the yak about Flash Player 10, so where are all the Flash 10 rumours?

Anyone know anything about "Flash 10" -player ? Rumoured release date?

I hope Flash 10's much-hyped 3D effects will be easier to implement than Papervision export classes. I bet everyone else is hoping that too. Flash has needed a workable Z axis for years!

[PAlexC]

There are videos floating around of presentations / demonstrations of the new version. Drastically improved animation and tweening tools.

[phantomflanflinger]

There are videos floating around of presentations / demonstrations of the new version. Drastically improved animation and tweening tools.

Where? All I've seen are presentations / demonstrations of what Flash Player 10 can do, as I said.

[gerbick]

start here... and narrow your online search to "Flash CS4" and not Flash 10, and you'll hit on the stories for what you're looking for.

[phantomflanflinger]

OK, delete this then.

I've been away from Flash for a long time.

[gerbick]

naw, it's all good. I was just helping you with your search here and out there.

[phantomflanflinger]

Well, you did that. I've never called any of them CS anything, just the 'real version numbers', that's why I didn't find the stuff.

Although: I still haven't found much new info. No-one knows a release date and I won't know everything I need to know about 3D until I get CS4. I do some work in 3DS Max nowadays; it's no fun getting 3D models into Flash CS3 and I'm hoping for improvements.

[gerbick]

CS4 is slated for an October release. Also, look into Papervision, Away3D, and the purported 3D possibilities in Flash... a good read here.

I don't think you're going to have much more ease via the Collada, or *.ase into AS3 method, really.

[PAlexC]

F*cking hell, October? I'm still justifying CS3's features.

[chrismitchell]

damn.. I should've probably waited for CS4 as I just recommended to a client to buy CS3 LOL

[jAQUAN]

I always wait until the adoption of the player is large enough before I start using a new version anyway. So you have six months to a year after flashplayer 10's release anyway.

[phantomflanflinger]

Good news about the October release date. I hardly used the new features in CS3 but I'll be early-adopting CS4 and making use of it straight away.

Papervision I've used, but, in terms of productivity, it's not really an option. No UI = slow productivity. It takes too long to get 3D objects from 3DS Max deployed into Flash this way and then there's the loading time and performance issues. Flash Player 9 wasn't "meant" to do 3D: when it does, it's like it's doing a party trick. Flash Player 10 has "proper" 3D support.

Away3D looks powerful, although I think I'd have the same productivity problems, I haven't tried it. Since the airtightinteractive blog said:
# FP10 wins in terms of performance. This make sense when you consider that the 3D math is being handled internally.
# FP10 wins in terms of SWF size (6k versus 110k). Away3D has to load in all the 3D code externally.
I think Flash CS4 may have what I need.

Although.. Imagine Flash with a full 3D GUI! In CS4 I won't be able to click CTRL R, import a 3DS file and tween objects around in 3D, which would be perfect. Flash CS5 maybe.

[phantomflanflinger]

(I can't edit my last post - didn't I used to be able to here?)

Having read about it, Away3D looks a lot better than Papervision and I think I will try it, once Flash CS4 comes out. If I can re-use the Away3D AS on many projects and don't have to re-code each time (much) I may have a viable workflow here for getting 3D content from 3DS Max to Flash Player.

[jAQUAN]

FP10 technically only has a 3d plane and z-depth. It does support meshes so there is still going to be a performance hit. With all the hardware the player is now leveraging for video playback, it seems obvious that it will start to take advantage of more hardware.

Until then, if you're serious, you might just stick with shockwave.