Hey guys! I'm just a student who's looking into building about 1 or 2 flash files that would need both the movie-making and actionscripting capabilities of Adobe Flash Professional. Problem is it costs $120, and that's a huge burden to me!
I've did some research and found a few free or open source programs, but they are either:
a) For making animations ONLY
b) For writing Actionscript 3 ONLY
So here's my questions:
1) Is there any way I can make a flash movie using a program from a), and then inserting AS3 into it using a program from b)?
2) Or are there any free programs that are similar to Adobe Flash Professional?
THANKS!
Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets:
http://www.sapphiresteel.com/Adobe-Flex-Development-in-Visual
They have a free version and a paid version. The paid version is several hundred dollars less than flash professional or flash builder. There are plenty of other tools out there but other than this, no real feature-complete IDE that supports both visual design and coding. Well, there is the design view plugin for flashdevelop, but it's buggy at best:
http://designview.sourceforge.net/#
(Search Flex Design View)
http://www.flashdevelop.org/wikidocs/index.php?title=3rd_Party_Plugins
http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/viewtopic.php?t=2934
http://www.steamed-design.com/2009/07/free-flex-ide.html
And that is pretty much what you're lookin at. There may be some stuff of interest in these posts, but no real solution:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_for_Linux
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/974078/alternatives-of-flex-builder
Related
I have no programming experience at all. I've always wanting to know how to program games and have some fun with it. I started with Corona SDK because I heard it was really simple (and it was very simple), but I decided against continuing in it (I had only programmed a character to jump until I realized --> ) because I realized that when I advance in it, I am going to end up having to pay for it.
In my search for a new cross-platform sdk to learn (since I don't have time, like most people, to learn and program 15 different apps in 15 different native languages), I found Moai SDK. I was turned away from Moai since its target audience are people with prior programming experience.
Later, I found Adobe Gaming SDK. Although I doubt it is in any way as simple to pick up as Corona's Lua, if I figured if I have to learn something knew, I may as well learn something new that is as established as Adobe and their gaming SDK.
I have a few questions though...
1) What language does Adobe Gaming SDK use? (Pretty sure it is Action Script 3, but I do not know much about that either.)
2) Just how cross-platform is it? (Which devices?)
3) Where do I start!
4) Is it free?
#3 is the most important question for me since I don't have any programming experience, but I am willing to learn on my own. Honestly, I only want to learn how to program (2D) games; therefore, is there a source you can direct me to in order for me to learn from scratch and just gaming.
Any and all help is greatly appreciate!
P.S. If you have any other SDK or something that you think could suit me please help. Also, I am a cheap person, so i would prefer for resources to be free as well. Also, please check back if you answered my question because I sometimes forget a question or will have a follow question since I am a major novice.
THANKS!
1) What language does Adobe Gaming SDK use? (Pretty sure it is Action
Script 3, but I do not know much about that either.)
Yeah, it's ActionScript3. You can also code in C/C++ using CrossBridge.
2) Just how cross-platform is it? (Which devices?)
Using Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR, for short), you can make your game available to several devices running iOS, Android and Windows, as long as they have the minimum requirements to run AIR.
Your game will also run on any browser with the Flash plugin, which includes Linux, Mac and Windows.
3) Where do I start!
There are plenty of materials about game development in Flash/Actionscript3, but I would recommend you to learn about a game engine first. It will make your life easier and will help you make a game faster (which will boost your motivation).
Two famous Flash game engines are Flixel and Starling. Start by checking these GamedevTuts+ guides: how to learn Flixel and how to learn Starling (there is an article about how to learn Flash/AS3 too).
4) Is it free?
Yes, all the tools you will need are free.
As a general advice, I would recommend you to take a look at GamedevTuts+. It has several resources about game development, from simple concepts to more advanced things. You will find articles for people with no programming experience at all. It's a great place to start as a novice game developer.
As a second advice, you could also use Phaser to create your games. It's an easy to learn HTML5 game engine, it doesn't require several tools to develop with (all you need is a code editor and a web server) and your game will run on any modern browser.
This is my first post on Stack Overflow.
Are there any IDE's for ActionScript 3 which can provide the following:
-Graphical Interface for drawing
-Writing code with good debugging, dynamic feedback, refactoring etc
I have recently rekindled programming flash games in ActionScript 3 and am using Flash CS3
as it provides means of drawing my graphical objects and writing the code.
I have noticed that:
1. Debugging is not particualr great
2. No dynamic feedback whilst programming (suggestion or auto populate)
3. No refactoring etc
I have looked into other IDEs such as Flex Builder and even looked at plugins for my favorite
IDE's such as Eclipse and IntilliJ but have not found my answer. They tend to talk heavuly about
how they provide good coding tools but not much, if any, tools on the graphical side of things.
It would also be ideal for me if what ever IDE I use I am still able to migrate the entire project
so that it can still be opened usign CS3. Additionally, I am a Windows user.
At the moment I am contemplating drawing my sprites in CS3 and doing the code in another but
surely there must be an easier, perhaps more sensable approach?
Many thanks in advance for any help.
No, there is no IDE like that, and given the decreasing popularity of Flash it's unlikely that something like that will ever be developed.
The coding environment has improved quite a bit in newer versions of Flash Pro, but it still doesn't approach anything like Flash Builder or FlashDevelop. It's not uncommon for people to create graphics in Flash Pro and do coding in another editor.
This is easy. FlashDevelop for code. Flash IDE for graphics. You may want to graduate to CS5.5 or CS6 (if you can find a copy)if you want to go mobile. Otherwise CC.
I would like to know if you have ideas about the LIMITATION of AS2.0? I've done some research about the difference of AS2.0 and AS3.0 but I need to have a clear understanding about the limitation of AS2.0 in order for me to confirm that AS3.0 is superior than its predecessor before I continue my study in AS3.0. Thank you.
I used to develop games in ActionScript 2. I was very resistant to ActionScript 3 when it came out - I didn't even touch it until about 2 years after it was released.
When I finally did make the effort to learn it, I became frustrated with myself for not learning it sooner. It was so much cleaner and more powerful. I was able to create actual libraries for future projects as I worked, and download libraries for things that I didn't have the brain to develop myself, like physics.
It is extremely beneficial for you to learn ActionScript 3 - first off, lets look at what's happening with the two:
AS2 is being removed from future releases of Flash.
AS3 is still being worked on. A noteworthy example of this is the recently developed Stage3D API, which grants extremely efficient rendering for Flash.
Here are some core advantages of AS3 vs AS2:
It's object oriented. This is almost mandatory when working with large applications or games.
Because of this, there are hundreds of libraries available for AS3 that cover things like physics, particles, animation, MVC concepts, rendering improvements, etc.
Much nicer to use.
Easier to extend your knowledge once you get a grasp of the basics of object oriented programming.
It performs a lot better.
Easier to recycle code for future projects.
Learning ActionScript 3 will greatly improve your chances of being able to pick up additional popular languages like C#, Java, PHP and so on.
Much easier to find support - take a look at the quality of answers on Stack Overflow between AS2 and AS3.
You can create AIR applications, which can be built for iOS and Android devices.
The only reason you need to care about is that it's an obsolete language. Don't waste your time with AS2. There's a quantum leap from AS2 to AS3, not only in terms of what you can do, but in terms of the quality of the language itself.
As someone who made the transition in 2007 to AS3 (after using AS2 since 2000) here are the main advantages:
Speed. When it was released, AS3 was 10 times faster than AS2. Today considering all the new features Adobe is introducing like Native Extensions, it's a lot faster than that.
Publishing to mobile or dekstop apps. Face it: browser Flash is slowly dying.
New features such as Stage3d or StageVideo.
Learning AS3 will make you a better coder
AS2 is no longer supported in Flash Professional, so if Flash Pro is part of your design cycle or you ever want it to be, that's obviously a big limitation. (Adobe has said that the Flash Player will continue to support AS2, though, so if you don't use Flash Pro to develop you can still get by).
In terms of functions/behaviors that exist in AS3 but not AS2, Stage3D is one. I'll leave it to someone else to make a list, but basically, AS3 is the better (and definitely faster) choice for any situation I can think of.
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/
So I recently discovered this Source Mate tool for Flash builder with all the cool stuff like code fixes, hinting, code completing etc., but I was wondering if there is any free alternative for this tool? Cause I don't think that paying for such tool is worth it when we need to pay a huge money for the Flash Builder Eclipse copy itself..
Should I just go with Flash Develop?
You're not forced to buy Flash Builder, Adobe is decent enough to give the Flex SDK away for free, so you can use FlashDevelop or FDT (latter not being that cheap either though, but comparable to SourceMate with the difference that it's a complete IDE).