REQ: Ported Flash Player

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

sorry, but i must say i hate flash, for interfaces it sucks (mainly overdone, clumsy and big filesize), and for games, well, i aint seen many that are any good, perhaps the xaio xaio games, but thats it, those aliveis games sucked pretty badly.

Try this flash game:

http://www.titoonic.dk/products/games/spider/

it't one of the best, once you understand how to control the spider :)

[Guest Rob.P]

gradiation,

In the meantime there is a behaviour you can install in Director that will convert Flash files into C programming files, you can then compile them with the SDK stuff and have a working flash application.

I have used it and made 2 successful test conversions, but I'm like you still groping around in the dark when it comes to the SDK.

I'll be back with the link to the behaviour if you want it.

[Guest gradiation]

Yea that would be cool, and an example would be cool too. cheers

[Guest gradiation]

Just playing with FlashCommServer, and just thought wouldn't it be cool if (whent he flash plugin arrives) you could use your camera as a webcam. s*** i know refresh rate and all, and expensive, but cool non the less. :)

[Guest Xpressive]

sorry, but i must say i hate flash, for interfaces it sucks (mainly overdone, clumsy and big filesize), and for games, well, i aint seen many that are any good, perhaps the xaio xaio games, but thats it, those aliveis games sucked pretty badly.

Midnight -that's not true at all. It always depends on the guy who DID it. Here are some better example of how Flash could be used:

www.x-pressive.com

(A complete working, expandable OS-like Interface. Notice the very short loading time here!)

www.espresso-games.com

(High quality, professional flash games -nothing to do with most of those 'crap' games available :)

www.dont-angry.com

(A full feature board game completely done with Flash)

So you CAN do amazing and professional things with Flash -it's just a matter knowledge and time. And of course it'd be a great thing to have that all on a phone :(

Mike

[Guest muff]

So you CAN do amazing and professional things with Flash -it's just a matter knowledge and time. And of course it'd be a great thing to have that all on a phone :)

I agree that Flash can be used for very professional stuff, and that file sizes can be kept down (though the games on the example site you suggest are bloated by special standalone player - the games themselves are probably quite small)

and indeed that flash games on the phone would be cool...

However, I doubt that the phone can execute the interpreter code quickly enough to run games properly

Flash struggles to do decent game speeds on a good PC, and I'm talking arcade games, not simple puzzle ones (though sometimes even these have quite a bit of actionscript in the background)

If it doing the interpreting of the scripts and the graphics code then I suspect it will pass out.

I'd love for someone to prove me wrong, but I just dont think that Flash gaming will come to the SPV :(

[Guest ClintEastman]

If you DON'T do certain things (eg Alphas) and have nice clean code (no onClipEvent(enterFrame), have not used one of them for about a 2 years now!!!) then it's not too bad, and im sure flash could be put to good use for gaming. But it is hungry as hell. IMHO :)

[Guest gradiation]

If you DON'T do certain things (eg Alphas) and have nice clean code (no onClipEvent(enterFrame), have not used one of them for about a 2 years now!!!) then it's not too bad, and im sure flash could be put to good use for gaming. But it is hungry as hell. IMHO :)

I agree, but how do you live without onClipEvent(enterFrame) :(

There are many things you can do to decrease file size and CPU usage, using gifs instead of complex vectors is often a good choice file size wise, and can also help with animation so flash has less points to calculate.

And simplifying code so that there isn't several hundred scripts running at once, should free up memory.

In games it can often me a good idea to have one clip controlling everything, that way only that clip is hoging the CPU.

I'm sure that the smartphone should be able to manage simple games it's just up to us to try and streamline them as much as possible.

[Guest ClintEastman]

There are many things you can do to decrease file size and CPU usage, using gifs instead of complex vectors is often a good choice file size wise, and can also help with animation so flash has less points to calculate.

Optimaze :)

[Guest muff]

personally I find it easier just to write the games in c :)

[Guest midnight]

heheh, well said muff :)

[Guest ClintEastman]

personally I find it easier just to write the games in c :)

Oooohhhhh Ark Her!!!! :(

Anyway i don't DO games!

Like i have said before, most of my stuff is CRM Systems and backend database stuff (PHP, MySQL) which isn't so easy in c now is it clever clogs? :D :lol:

[Guest gradiation]

Stick it to em clint :)

I'm a pretty much larounder, can develop stuf from games, to full CMS systems.

[Guest muff]

Oooohhhhh Ark Her!!!! :(

hehe

Anyway i don't DO games!

Like i have said before, most of my stuff is CRM Systems and backend database stuff (PHP, MySQL) which isn't so easy in c now is it clever clogs? :D :lol:

but then you cant do back end systems in Flash either :lol:

at the end of the day it's horses for courses, it's only the syntax that's different :)

[Guest ClintEastman]

I'm a pretty much larounder

Does that mean you like boys AND girls? :) :(

Me and grad don't need to recompile to be cross platform. :D

[Guest gradiation]

lol, but NO! :)

And nice point Clint (no i was refering to ur ......... u know what)

[Guest ClintEastman]

Alright me and grad Vs muff and midnight out side NOWWWWW!!!

COME ON THEN YOU WANT SOME????!!!!!!

[Guest muff]

Me and grad don't need to recompile to be cross platform. :(

no but at the moment you cant play your games on the SPV :)

[Guest gradiation]

BRING IT ON!

NOW WHERES MY CAN OPENER?

[Guest ClintEastman]

no but at the moment you cant play your games on the SPV :)

Ahh, he's got us there Grad! :lol: :D :cry:

One interesting thing about flash on an SPV (and im not gust talking games) is that you wouldn't need to decert to run it! (im sure most SPV's arn't decerted :cry:).

[Guest gradiation]

u got girl :)

Plus our development time is gonna be much lower, and for online applications it's gonna kick ass, no more waiting to load everything again.

[Guest Rob.P]

Here's the nail for the Flash Vs C++ fight,

Sharp-Software

Had a couple of moderately successful tests but haven't been able to do it again, don't know enough about the Compiler prog or programming in C.

Hope one of you has better luck.

[Guest gradiation]

With flash, new stuff will probably be out every couple of days, and it means many many more people can start doing something at least, i mean as much fun as it is sitting round on modaco waiting for someonelse to do something cool, i'm sure people would apprechiate it more if they had the chance to make something them selves, without learning some hardcore coding language.

Beat that one :)

[Guest muff]

First off, I am for a Flash player - just dont think it can run fast enough

Secondly surely the flash player needs certing to play the swf's? or else the phone needs de-certing

as for Flash being easy to learn, well sure if you was to fall into the trap most web sites suffer from - bloated, dull intro type stuff

good flash actionscript is like any other language - it takes crafting - and in that, it isn't structured the same way as other programming languages - not even the same as Lingo it's big brother

plus getting newbies to learn Flash is a bit of a dead end programming wise - it's not directly transportable to other usages - whereas C/C++ are used all over the place

development time lower? we can argue that one another day

dont get me wrong, I'm not at all against Flash, it's one of the many languages/tools I use, I just think that with the SPV as it stands that the platform isn't powerful enough

when we get faster processors, then things change - but I would still recommend C over Flash for gaming any day - cant get 60fps out of Flash - 30fps is hard enough on big PC's for intense games

even on the SPV, 60fps for C is possible (depends on the game), and certainly 30fps is rock solid

portability:- isn't as issue if the game/app is written with this is mind

if someone comes up with a player that runs Flash as full speeds on the SPV I'd love it - but even then would probably stick to C for games

plus the final point is that you Flashies are waiting for us C'ers to make the player for you - you should be nice to us :)

[Guest gradiation]

I agree with most of what you said, yes C is THE BEST way of programming games, it's just that flash IS easier to get into and there are more resources where people can get help.

I'm not saying flash is the solution to everything i'm just saying it is a lot easier to get into than C, and your point against it being like no other language is untrue, actionscript is based on the fundamentals of javascript, and this can lead onto many other things, once u've leanrt one language it's usually just a case of leanring another syntax.

C/C++ may be a more widely used language, but my point are down to the eas of getting into it, people could start by just making simple screensavers, or a simple comic style animation peice and go from there, as with C/C++ u need to know a lot just to say hello world :)

And the point about certification, the flash player should be the only thing that needs it, as swf's are content, i mean, u don't have to sign everyt webpage u aim to show on the SPV now do you.

I think the argument about flash is gonna be around for a while, but the points stay the same, it may not be the best way to do somethings, but the ones it is, will surely kick ass.