KoolMoves 7 technology preview

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Originally Posted by Stoke Laurie

but unless I read you wrong

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Yes, you did.
I was talking about flash environment and AS3.

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Originally Posted by Stoke Laurie

the future power of KM relies on the quality of its' components, and their ease of use.

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The future power of KM relies in its versatility, its ease of use and its price.
The components are just a part. Many users don't use them at all.
(do you see any components on necromanthus.com and inside of all those examples?).
But this is not the main point here.
In the past years we had an insignificant number of requests for AS2 support.
And I don't think AS3 is "gonna change the world".
It's just a step behind, like many others.

I want to close this subject. Don't you agree?
:smoov:

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Originally Posted by Bob Hartzell

One avenue that I can see right now is 3D. Also, it will be possible to create effects which are computationally more sophisticated than we currently have in place. To stay competitive, we need to go down this path.

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I totally agree.
As I said before, AS3 is an excellent choice for any NEW project.
And AS3 support for KoolMoves was a MUST.
What's going to be ... time will tell.

I understand your viewpoint as an accomplished programmer you have achieved great things using as1, and as you say rarely if at all do you use components, however my only point was that the only area in which we have a slight shortfall compaired to flash is the availability of components, and if as3 made their creation easier, perhaps we could see some movement in that direction.

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Originally Posted by Stoke Laurie

my only point was that the only area in which we have a slight shortfall compaired to flash is the availability of components

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Stoke, you're wrong again.
See the attached image.
And those are the Default components only.
There're hundreds of custom components stored in external files.
As I told you before KM is powerful because of its versatility, its ease of use and its price.
Most of the users are asking for new features (not for new components).

p.s.
I agree with you. A programmer doesn't need components.
They're generic scripts, and a dedicated script runs always faster (it has been designed & optimized for a certain task).

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Originally Posted by necromanthus

Stoke, you're wrong again.

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Wrong? Again?

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Originally Posted by necromanthus

Most of the users are asking for new features (not for new components).

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Not sure who all these most are your are quoting, as I said before the component improvements in v6 were a big hit, plus when we were asked in here by Wilbert for a wish list, there were a significant number of replies

Whatever we get in v7, we will all make of it what we can. Look forward to seeing the 3d Nebula.

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Originally Posted by Stoke Laurie

Wrong? Again?

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Ahhh ... sorry (I missed that "shortfall").
But as I told you before, components are very useful for newbies (or for artists who don't want to learn AS).
And because I want to see happy KM users: the Adobe Flash CS3 "FLV Player" component is a nightmare: 52KB and a waste of processing power.

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Originally Posted by Stoke Laurie

Whatever we get in v7, we will all make of it what we can. Look forward to seeing the 3d Nebula.

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KM7 is a big step ahead.
You'll get much more than a "3D Nebula" (but I need more "classes", and Bob is working hard to add/fix them).

cheers

For whatever the reasons, certain components are legendary. A good example is an RTE (Rich Text Editor for the newb). We are halfway there now. I've just been dinking around porting my old html editor into AS3 with the km7beta as a class. Now IMO Wilbert or anyone of the other gurus in here could code one better so that isn't my point....my point is...why not make it a component?. KM7 with an RTE....that is off the hook and if you don't think people use rte's in full flash sites, your dreaming. They've been around for years...earned their keep and if we could offer one as a drop in component I personally think that would be one very popular component indeed.

I won't sweat it either way because should we not blow the doors off the competition with an internal RTE...someone will class one in :)

A RTE component would be possible but I have no idea how many users would use it. The internal KM AS3 components are skinned using bitmap images and that means a new native component would also mean creating skins for it.
A light weight 'alternative' would be to use a context menu ( http://www.waterlijn.info/km/as3/RichTextMenu.html ) but I know it's not the same.

Chris I for one would be greatful for the HTML editor as a class. Especially if I can send it reference to a text file and if was capable of handing it back through it's methods.

Unlike the media player where you would want to personalize it or make it unique, an RTE needs basic workhorse layout and could easily use precanned sprites for font size selection and formatting choices (bold, italic,etc). I'm just as sure Macromedia/Aobe has no idea who MIGHT want to use an RTE but their lasting through version after version proves their usefulness and the fact people ARE in fact using them.

Forums, admin panels, comment boxes and more are a few uses that come to mind and many users might want to store the native html in databases and re purpose it after the fact (much like I and many others have done with Flash/Flex blogs, forums and etc) in it's native form pulled into another Flash textfield.

Not trying to shake coconuts here, just mentioning how some components earned their place through popularity and have nothing to do with being a newb or not :)

If I wanted to recreate my Flex blog usin KM7 when it releases (which I most likely will), I would love to see an internal RTE component. If it doesn't exist I would HAVE to class it in because my blog (as an example) absolutely relies on RTE's both on the end user frontend as well as my desktop admin panel which lets me edit existing articles since they are sent to another admin RTE where it picks up the formatting like butter.

Pretty nifty example btw Wilbert :)

Component: Media Player, Please remove some and provide more beautiful skin, Some of those skin looks like stone age design. :)

Components are time saver or maybe live saver for me, if I sit-down to build one it may takes days.

I have made a great deal of use of Chris's text editor and found it ideal for the purpose, if either you or Wilbert intend to extend its capabilities, I for one would be a very willing recipient.

There will be tons of package and class submissions at the exchange. Just you watch and see :)

I will repeat it at every opportunity until KM7 releases.........

this platform is going to explode with activity because it's that cool

Packages and Classes. My "Koolmoves 7 rocks!" words of the day :)

http://krazyaboutpizza.co.uk/editor_class1.jpg

Yeah but does it spin round and round?:rolleyes:

Bob and Wilbert have been burning the midnight oil :)

The new NATIVE rte component working with dynamic data

Unbelievable. At this rate I might as well leave my jaw on the floor. This platform is off the hook :)

Very nice boys.

Wow I love this RTE, is it easy to add and manage?

Looks great! Thanks Bob and team. And of course Chris for bringing it up in the first place.

:cap:

@Stoke

Take mine...and toss it in your recycle bin. Trust me...you'll never need it again (nor miss it) once this one arrives.

@ghol

It's easy as pie to use and just like our file extension...it's "fun" to play with too :)

@Nightcap

It's all them bro :thumbsup:

@All

My old html editor was to be an example at the new km website. I would like to officially request that any space that would have been used to show that html editor be focused on this new RTE component or have mine dropped completely and replaced with another fine selection from the exchange as it makes no sense to show how you could build one when Koolmoves now has one.

This new RTE component IS important. It will earn it's keep for Lucky Monkey just as it did for Macromedia/Adobe.

If you think components are useless...don't use any. If you do use components....you just got a famous one added to your platform thanks to these guys.

You forget one important thing Chris.

Your RTE works great and is AS1 based.
It's good to have an AS1 based one also !

Chris, its like you saying throw away your Beatles LPs, because there is new stuff to listen to, without the Beatles we wouldn't have the new stuff!,
By the way Wilbert, not wanting to be too gready, but I don't suppose I could celebrate the lauch of V7 on my accordion by any chance!?

Very, very slick, gentlemen!

I recreated my KM pages using the new beta.

No new content yet but it shows it is already possible to create something useful with the current beta.

http://www.waterlijn.info/km/

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Originally Posted by w.brants

I recreated my KM pages using the new beta.
http://www.waterlijn.info/km/

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Well done!
But do not forget about this one:
http://necromanthus.com/KoolMoves/AS3/BumpMapping.html
:smoov:

Impressive

That DateChooser is a great addition. You guys ever sleep ? :) :) :)

Is there a date of when we can expect the launch of KM7?

Thanks

From what I can tell it should be fairly soon. The core stuff seems to be there.
Be patient learning AS3 will be worth the effort but I know Bob and the team want to make sure doing it in KM is seemless, and the components should make things much easier.

Late Oct or sometime in Nov. There are still a lot of loose ends.

Just wanted to add my 2pence.

I've been using KoolMoves for the last year or so and without it I think I would have had a tough time getting into implementing flash design work into my sites.
I still don't have a sufficient handle on the actual coding yet, but this is what I love about KM. It just lets you get on with the design.

It also makes learning code like AS fun again.
The first language I learnt was Basic (talking Amstrad cpc464 days - I was about 12) and I loved that language because I could just mess with it and study the results.

If I was to offer some advice to the folk designing this stuff (KM 7 and beyond) I would suggest a feature so that new designers who don't mess with the code too much initially can piece stuff together and then still have the code there to look at so they can see how if they were to do the same thing without a graphical interface they'd understand how to code it.
Basically I'm big on trial and error learning and being able to see the code you visually put together would be great..hopefully that made sense to someone.

Right now in KM 6.2, I don't think you can do this.

Oh yeah, I recently saw a presentation on Flash cs4 (I think) and there was a demonstration about object bones.

Will something like this be possible eventually in Koolmoves?

Thanks and keep up the good work.

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Originally Posted by Kel33

Oh yeah, I recently saw a presentation on Flash cs4 (I think) and there was a demonstration about object bones.

Will something like this be possible eventually in Koolmoves?

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Here is something much more advanced than 2D bones:
http://necromanthus.com/Games/Flash/3D/monster.html
Those are real 3D bones and that's a realtime vertex animator.
Just wait for KM7 and you'll get many other "tasty" things.
:cap:

Thats pretty kool.

I like the idea of being able to link objects and then only having to animate 1 object to get a reaction/movement from the other linked parts.
Not sure how I'd use this yet but I'm sure I'll come up with something.
:)

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Originally Posted by Bob Hartzell

Late Oct or sometime in Nov. There are still a lot of loose ends.

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So there wouldn't be much point in buying version 6 at this stage would there? Guess I'll stick with version 5 till then.

You get free upgrades with a purchase now until at least Nov 2009.

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Originally Posted by Bob Hartzell

You get free upgrades with a purchase now until at least Nov 2009.

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I see, thanks. I misinterpreted the update policy where it said updates end with version 7.x, I took it to mean when 7 was released.

A small example of extending the components. Change is coming.

http://krazyaboutpizza.co.uk/index.php?page=241

A small example I created before with external assets.
Now everything is embedded in the swf and the components are gui created.
The component skins are also selected using the gui.
http://www.waterlijn.info/km/as3/ListDemoBrushed.html

A small example in AS3 and KoolMoves 7 Beta, it is snow effect.
With this effect I made my Christmas PostCard.
http://www.byweb.es/byweb-KM7-Labs/snow1.html

Another component interaction demo
http://www.waterlijn.info/km/as3/Com...eraction2.html

The stage contains two components, a media player and a listbox.
The playlist of the media player was transfered to the listbox since it doesn't have one itself. The listbox was rotated 90 degrees left so the thumbnails had to be rotated 90 degrees right to make them appear fine. An event handler was added to the media player to add the thumbnails when a playlist is set.