I am planning on making a casual educational game and was looking to do that on the flash platform for broad exposure. I am wondering what are some guidelines to determine if it is warranted to create the project purely in flash or puruse a combined Flash/Flash builder project?
How can I include all my graphics and animation files as well as my AS classes into a builder project? Does it even make sense to do that. I read that creating UIs and connecting things is simpler in Flash builder and I plan to have some interaction with the client and central server where some basic data wouold be stored? Is this a good candidate for a combined flash/flash builder approach?
Also I want this to be launched on mobile and desktop platforms if that makes a difference
Thanks in advance...
You can export all assets, made in Flash IDE to .swc file, and then attach this file to FlashBuilder Project using "ProjectProperties"->"Actionscript Build Path"->"Add SWC..." dialog. After-that you'll be able to create instances of the animated symbols within Flash Builder.
Related
With all the security issues with Flash lately I am looking at alternatives for if/when Flash is retired at my work. We use strictly IE 11 and IE11 seems to be very finicky about css3 animations. I see the new Flash has the ability to publish the file as embeddable actionscript files instead of a swf file. Is this a viable alternative to Flash or is this vulnerable to the same security issues Flash has? My assumption is the vulnerabilities exist in the Flash players but I want to be certain.
No. Apples and Oranges, really.
The Flash Player is a runtime environment of the Flash platform (AIR being another). It "plays" .swf files.
ActionScript is the scripting language that an apropriate compiler (mxmlc, for example) compiles into .swf files.
I see the new Flash has the ability to publish the file as embeddable ActionScript files instead of a swf file.
You can embed any file, but guess where you embed it into? Into the swf file.
Again, ActionScript is the programing/scripting language and an swf file is the compiled result.
Flash CC can also export to JavaScript/HTML/CSS. That means that instead of creating a .swf file, a bunch of JavaScript/HTML/CSS files are created.
As you can see in the link you provided, the feature sets are not equivalent.
Note: The 3D Rotation tool in the toolbar of the Flash Professional CC workspace is disabled when creating HTML5 Canvas documents because it is specific to SWF projects and not supported in the HTML5 specification (see Figure 3).
There's a whole bunch of other things not supported
Recommendation
If one comes to the conclusion that the Flash platform is not an appropriate publishing platform any more, why bother sticking to the Adobe Flash program?
It appears to be disadvantageous to cling to the program, just for the sake of keep on using it.
Why not use the CreateJS library on its own? Or any of the other dozens of great JS libraries? There's a lot to explore in the post-Flash era and it is very exiting. It's not a good idea to stay behind, still coding in dead languages, hoping that there's a translator to communicate with the Present. Try to order a pizza in Latin and you know what I mean.
If the goal is to target multiple different platforms, there are alternative tools to do this like defrac or Haxe that allow you to compile from one languages to many platforms.
The answer to the question if compiling ActionScript to JavaScript/HTML/CSS is a reasonable workflow for the future is no. It might be a good tool to port existing projects, but not to neglect the current developments in the JavaScript/HTML/CSS realm.
I seem to get almost weekly Java updates. All these technologies can have security issues, it's just that Adobe react quickly, and release a fix as soon as possible. That does come with a certain amount of publicity.
About using CreateJS on its own, you could do that, and come up with your own libraries to create hierarchy, synchronizing sound to visual events, asset management, etc. You could also do everything purely in code, if your imagination is good enough to do that. Or, you could just use Flash Pro, and get all of those things for free.
After already searching the site for the answer to the question, I've found this:
Is it any way to run two instances of debuggers?
I need the Flash Professional CS5.5 version of the answer to this question.
Basically - I need to know if there's a way to debug 2 different .fla files in Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5 at the same time. One of them implements the Adobe AIR framework (for using the SocketServer class), the other is a standard AS3 project. It'd be nice if I could debug the client-server interaction easily using the IDE rather than using extensive means to do so.
Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.
This is not an answer to your question but a suggestion to take a different approach.
The Flash IDE and it's debugger are inadequate but for most trivial programs. Variable inspection and breakpoints work randomly and it's next to impossible to drill down into more complex objects. Flash IDE is all right for creating the visual resources for Flash programs but for any serious coding, it just falls on its face. The compiler included with the Flash IDE is also very poorly written and generates unoptimized code.
I'd suggest to switch over to using FlashDevelop - it's a free, open source IDE that runs on top of the Flex and Air SDKs and uses a better compiler that performs more optimizations. (You can mark functions for inlining, etc.) The debugger - while not Visual Studio - is much, much better than the IDE: breakpoints work and object properties can be inspected easily.
Because FlashDevelop is geared towards coding, you can create a project in it with multiple source files, define your resources and then compile to multiple platforms. Compilation is usually fast with hundreds of source files (don't import every type in every package) and you can do debug/release builds. If you can port your code from Flash to FlashDevelop, you'll have a much easier time managing your project.
Hi can anyone give me a link to a flash library that can use vector images or merge with flash profressional cs6 movieclips?
Vector images made in Illustrator or Flash Pro CS6?
Would cs6 profressional native be enough to make a 'optimized' game? using less memory etc.
I'm looking for a flash game engine that I can still code for like FlashDevelop and Flashpunk but can do vector graphics as well.
First of all, a few things to be aware of:
Flash supports vector graphics. This is implemented in the base code of the language, and thus you will be able to use vector graphics no matter what you are doing (though some prebuilt engines will require raster images instead for various reasons)
FlashDevelop is in IDE, or Integrated Development Environment, which means that it is a tool, like notepad or microsoft word, but in which you type your code. It is not a game engine.
As it seems you've discovered, Flashpunk is designed for raster graphics, not vector graphics.
How "optomized" your game ultimately turns out is a result of you, not the tools you are using. If you use art assets with thousands of vertices in your vector graphics there is no code base in the world that will save your game from being unoptimized. So yes, you can make a fully optimized game using just Flash CS6
Flash CS6 is really two things in one: Content creation tool (for making or grouping art assets) and an Actionscript Integrated Development Environment.
Keeping all this in mind, you can indeed develop content in flash, then export that content from flash to FlashDevelop. The prefered way to do this is SWC importing. Basically, you build a .fla file in Flash with all your graphics and sound, assign a class name to each flash DisplayObject in your library you want to use in FlashDevelop, go into publish settings in flash and enable .swc output, and publish. Then import it in FlashBuilder and you can simply call
this.addChild(new graphic001())
Within a class you have written in flash builder (one that extends DisplayObjectContainer, of course).
A good example tutorial can be found: Here
To answer your original question though, just in case I'm wrong and you are ready for this (or the next guy to view this question is), I'd recommend using the Citrus Engine. Nape physics engine is pretty easy to work with and once you're feeling confident with the traditional displayList format you can begin using the starling framework without having to switch to a different engine. However I would like to point out that I really don't think you're quite ready to do this quite yet. It may be best for you to work through a couple of "make a game" flash tutorials first, such as this one.
I am not a Flash/ActionScript developer but I need to achieve a very small task in Flash. I need to display user audio input level in Flash. I found that I can do that using ActionScript (according to this).
I have no idea what tools I need to use and generate a SWF file.
Any help highly appreciated.
You can use the Flash Pro IDE (eg Flash CS6), Flash Builder (Adobe), or FlashDevelop. There are also a few more like FDT and IntelliJ.
If this is a quick and dirty no/low budget scenario for you, I would recommend FlashDevelop.
If speed is of the utmost importance and you don't have time to learn, then Flash Pro CS~ would be a good bet.
If you're an experienced coder and will be using the tool a fair bit, Flash Builder (as a commercial product) is a good bet. Though FlashDevelop is also a good open source alternative to Flash Builder.
They all have tutorials on their websites on how to get your environment setup and start creating swfs.
http://www.flashdevelop.org/
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash-builder.html
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash.html
http://fdt.powerflasher.com/
http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/
I've been developing a project in AS3 but decided to switch to AIR instead, as I found out it's impossible to save files on user's hard drive without prompt appearing. My question is, what changes do I have to expect? is the code written in same AS3 syntax/style? Did instantiating objects / drawing shapes / positioning system / stage change in AIR? thanks.
Everything is the same from a code perspective, except that the AIR SDK includes quite a number of new APIs that are less restrictive and geared toward application development since the deployment target is no longer a web browser.
If you can, you should take a day or 2 and read thru the documentation so you will know what's available to you. Make sure to select the most recent versions of AIR and Flash Player under Packages and Class Filters: Runtimes so the docs are populated with what you need.