Archive for the ‘AS3’ Category:
Even Better Flash AS3 FPS Stats
I had written a post a while back about using the Handy FPS box. Recently I was sorting through some code and remembered I had found a prettier more informative as3 fps stats box. This one is from Mr. Doob, you can download it from his Google Code Repo.
Example Code:
import Stats;
addChild(new Stats());
[ via ricardocabello ]
Tinic Uro answers flash player performance questions
Tinic Uro (Adobe Flash Player Engineer) has yet another great writeup in relation to performance and flash player. His latest article answers a lot of questions and comments Ajax-heavy developers are making against flash. Understandably Tinic defends his software, I guess I didn’t expect him to agree with those stating flash is a CPU hog.
Decide for yourself. Personally, I’m going to trust an Adobe Software Engineer instead of the typcial company Javascript guy that always tries to shit on flash. There is a time and place for both.
swfAddress 2.1 Bug: Special Characters cause infinite loop
I was working with the flash deep linking tool swfAddress and came across a ridiculous bug. Apparently the new v2.1 doesn’t support certain special characters. I’m not sure of which exactly, but I know for sure you can’t use a : (colon). Trying to set the deep link URL to a string that contains a colon will cause the javascript to go into an infinite loop and eventually crash the server it is hosted on unless you navigate away from the page quickly.
Reverting back to v2.0 helped the problem. Apparently v2.3 will have a fix for this bug.
Play With Spider – Flash 3D
OneMotion.com has put together a neat experiment using flash and 3D (Papervision?). The demo is basically just a spider crawling around following your mouse in 3D perspective. There is a crontrol panel to alter different characteristics of the spider (Body Scale, Speed, Leg Reach, Height, etc…).
Great Job, creepy, but cool!
Blog Archive » AS3 Code Libraries
Adrian Parr has put together the most comprehensive list of AS3 code libraries that I have seen. Just about anything you would need on a daily basis is there with links to the respective websites.
Great job Adrian!
Connecting to a Flash Media Server using RTMP
RTMP is the protocol used by Adobe’s Flash Media Server to stream content into flash. Most of the help documentation doesn’t touch much on this method of connection and is limited to sources not easily available to users.
Read more »
Actionscript 3 Layout Organizers
Great layout manager, super simple and easy to setup. Give it a go and let me know what you think.
Actionscript 3 Layout Organizers Examples and Source Code | SOME RANDOM DUDE.
Flash Media Server Bandwidth Checking
Recently I found out that Flash Media Server has it’s own built-in bandwidth checker. A bandwidth check comes in handy when you want to stream a different quality of video to the user depending on their connection speed instead of forcing them to download a higher quality than they can handle.
I could write up an example for how to use this new functionality, but it would turn out just like the one Adobe wrote up in the FMS documentation.
Streaming Server Bandwidth Calculations
A very important part of streaming any type of media is the bandwidth. You want to stream the best quality possible, but keep the stream constant. This can be a very tricky thing since all your users will most likely not be at the same connection speeds. Adobe has a great article on the math behind calculating different kinds of bandwidth for one-to-many (video on demand) setups and many-to-many (video conference) setups.
[ via Adobe FMS Dev Center ]
Fix Flash SWF Caching
Anyone who has worked with a client knows that when the project launches, the work is never over. Often after launch you are prompted with a list of changes the client requests. In another case, you may have missed a large bug that hinders the user’s experience. In either case, you are left with a common problem when you are ready to push your new changes live: Flash Caching. By default a user’s browser will cache your swf files, rendering the user unable to see the new changes you just pushed. It is almost always a guarantee that that “user” is in fact your client on the other end of the phone telling you in a heated tone “NO, I still do not see the changes”. I have found the common tactic of tacking on random URL parameters to the swf’s location doesn’t always work for those in IE. It seems the browser often ignores the extra parameters when decided to load the new swf file or pull it from cache.
To fix this problem once and for all, I have been using a similar method. Instead of tacking on parameters to the URL, I include version numbers in the actual file name. This will ensure the browser will reload the new file. I embed my “shell_v1.swf” in the HTML and pass it a variable called “app_location” with a value of “myApp_v1.swf”. “app_location” is the URL path to to my actual app swf. The shell then loads the app and displays it. The app swf should also be labeled by version to ensure it will be reloaded with new versions. This should be easy for users programming in AS3, since you will most likely have your preloader in a separate swf.
Learn Actionscript 3
Grant Skinner has released his “Introduction to Actionscript 3″ slideshow from one of his workshops. There is 167 jam-packed slides full to the brim of useful information for those transitioning from as2 to as3.
[ via The Flash Blog ]
Loading and Parsing XML in Actionscript 3 – Part 1
In this first example, I’m going to show you how to load an external XML file into flash using actionscript 3 (as3). I like using XML for external config files or when the client will need to edit the content without flash.
Read more »
How to get a DisplayObject’s BitmapData
There are many uses to using a DispalyObject’s (MovieClip, Sprite, Loader, etc…) BitmapData. The main reason I find myself using it for is for scaling an image I loaded smoothly. I load the image from an external source, then pull it’s BitmapData and set it’s smoothing to true. Then I can scale the new image without it getting too grainy or pixelated. This is the same effect as selecting the “Allow Smoothing” checkbox if you are using a Bitmap from the library.
In this example, we will get the BitmapData from our MovieClip (myMC) and create a new Bitmap (b), then add it to the stage:
var bd:BitmapData = new BitmapData(myMC.width, myMC.height, true,0xFFFFFFFF);
bd.draw(myMC);
var b:Bitmap = new Bitmap(bd);
addChild(b);
I used the BitmapData.draw() method to pull the movie clip’s (myMC) pixel information. I can then use that data when creating a new Bitmap. All that is left is to add the new Bitmap (b) to the display tree (addChild).
MyDeco 3D Room Planning
The guys over at specialmoves have launched a new site for mydeco. The site is the brain child of Brent Hoberman, who also started lastminute.com. His vision was to revolutionize the way that people shop for their home.
Site is built in Flex and uses a flash 3D engine (Papervision?) to render the real-time 3D views of your layout.
[ via theFWA ]
2D Google Maps Driving Simulator feels like GTA 1
The guys over at Geoquake have taken the new Google Maps API for Flash and created a 2D driving simulator. It is super cheesy and doesn’t have any obstacles, but is still pretty neat. Your even able to choose between 4 different vehicle types.
Feel free to skip this demo and just download GTA 1 or 2 from rockstar, at least that game comes with rocket launchers and moltav cocktails.