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I just heard about this over at Google News. It's front page. lol. Wow. And here I am, still with Flash MX 2004.
So what exactly does ActionScript 3 mean for games? Could we potentially start seeing SNES quality games? How about a flash RTS game with online mulitplayer? I want to know what AS 3 will allow us flash enthusiasts do. Any ideas?
"How about a flash RTS game with online mulitplayer?"
so it begins....if anyone needs me I'll be outside, reading a book or something, ignoring all mentions of flash9 for a while...tooodles
Sure thing. You go on ahead and enjoy yourself under the hot sun.Quote:
Originally Posted by chriserrorplain
I was just wondering what kind of applications Flash 9 will let you build. Could it be used to build fast/efficient interfaces as opposed to those made with AJAX? Does it allow effective web service consumption?
lol @ Chris.
Mate, wait for the "Well, F9 isn't powerful enough for my game idea, but I'm going to work on it and F10 will be able to cope with it". They will come, oh yes.
Squize.
Mind if I join you? I got to do my first Flash 8 project only 2 weeks ago. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by chriserrorplain
haha!!...you took the words out of my mouth ...LOL :D ....heh...oh, they will :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Squize
Edit:
nevermind, they switched the link back...
Andross, AS3 doesn't let you make anything, you still have to do it. SNES quality games could have been made with Flash 5 AS 1. AS3 just improves on code execution. I think its been totally remade, AS 2 while looked different (strong syntax) and all that other stuff still operated under the same mechanics of AS 1. AS3 does not.
If your smart enough then you can make anything. If a full physics engine has been made in flash with AS1 so can a SNES game and an RTS. Just gota be smart about it
however i've heard some stuff about the new media class, allowing you to read byte data from a song i.e create a mixer, but i never saw anything like that in SNES games ;)
There still isn't a single game out here that could not be done in Flash 5.Quote:
Mate, wait for the "Well, F9 isn't powerful enough for my game idea, but I'm going to work on it and F10 will be able to cope with it". They will come, oh yes
If you don't agree, then you just don't know your flash well enough :)
I was looking through some of the sample as3 files when I noticed there is no help in the flash as3 preview. Did they forget to add it? Also I noticed it says Flash 9 Public Alpha at the top instead of flash 8 as3 preview, did I download the wrong file?
no, you downloaded the correct file, and yes there is no help, read the release notes, there's a few things that have been disabled as well, like autoformat
Thanks, this is the first time I've started looking into as3. It says that the as3 compiler now compiles swf into bytecode. Is this real compilation like compiling a C++ program or is it one of those fake asp.NET "compiling" things?
If it is true compiling, then does this mean our swf's are not only faster but more secure?
gots no idea man. I'm gonna go with... maybe
You need to be a bit more specific. Compiling is compiling. C++ compiles to machine code, this is why it's such a pain in the butt to port. If you are asking if AS3 does that, the answer is no, as you mentioned in your own post. AS3 compiles into bytecode. Bytecode runs in a virtual machine of some sort, be it the Common Language Runtime for .NET, the Java Virtual Machine for Java, or the Flash player for AS3.Quote:
It says that the as3 compiler now compiles swf into bytecode. Is this real compilation like compiling a C++ program or is it one of those fake asp.NET "compiling" things?
Interesting to note that while C++ (and C) compile directly to machine code, both Java and .NET use "Just In Time" compile processes to compile their respective bytecode into machine language at runtime. This is why both of those languages are able to approach C++ speed in certain operations (Java in particular as it's been tuned more).
The plus side of all this is that bytecode can be obsfucated very well. So we might see better security coming out of this after all. We can certainly hope :)
Here is my first Flash9/AS3 experiment (FP9 needed):
http://www.hot.ee/tonypa/balls.html
It has 100 balls (vector, line only) moving on stage, checking for boundaries and changing directions. It also shows current fps and fps set in document.
And this is exactly same thing made with Flash8/AS2 (FP8 needed):
http://www.hot.ee/tonypa/balls1.html
I cant see any speed difference between 2 versions.
same, guess it might be only in extreme circumstances that you will see a difference. Like andre's 3D engine.
try setting the number to 1000 balls and then see ;)
hm, I will try to make example of stage sized bitmap being moved which should show if new VM can draw any faster on stage.
why not chuck a few particles in there as well and re-fresh the bitmap on every frame. Just to be safe :)
Argh, please stop with all the SNES comparisons!
I hate seeing Flash compared to an old system. You can't. There are still some Spectrum games that you'd have a mare converting to Flash, but Flash is more powerful than a Spectrum right ?
Instead of thinking of being able to compete with a SNES ( Which btw it can't ), think of it as "Cool, I can do a game like HA3, but only a lot, lot bigger", and then do it :)
Squize.
OK, this test shows full stage bitmap (550x400px, jpg, 50% compression) being scrolled at each frame, speed should be mostly affected by how fast FP can draw it. Flash9/AS3 version:
http://www.hot.ee/tonypa/bmp.html
Flash8/AS2 version:
http://www.hot.ee/tonypa/bmp1.html
Just trying to see the perfomance increase promised:
Flash Player 9 achieves up to 10 times faster performance through ActionScript 3.0 and a new ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM), which features a Just In Time (JIT) compiler that translates ActionScript bytecode to native machine code for maximum execution speed.
Maybe I am just not seeing it correctly.