New and truly revolutionary versions of Flash Player and Adobe AIR named “Incubator” (formerly Molehill APIs) were made available on Adobe Labs. To those who are unfamiliar with the new release, it features hardware accelerated 3D graphics support.

As Adobe puts it: “The Adobe® AIR® and Adobe Flash® Player Incubator is a technology preview program for more adventurous developers who are willing to experiment with Flash Platform runtime features that are in early development stages.”

New Incubator builds of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR available here:
Download Incubator Builds and check Wiki

If you are keen on exploring 3D capabilities right away, you can use one of the pre-release versions of the popular 3D frameworks that also announced Incubator support. To see a list of all features that are included in the Incubator builds, check out this post.

3D frameworks supporting Molehill:

• Away3D 4.0 Alpha
• Flare3D 2.0
• Aerys Minko
• Sophie 3D
• CopperCube 2.5
• Zest3D
• Alternativa 8 (available soon)

Here are some LIVE demos:

(make sure you have Flash Player Incubator installed first)

Added on March 9:

• Grid Map Generator
• AGAL Demo (cool shape morph)
• Snowboard Demo
• DeltaStrike
• Fractal Tree Generator
• Simple Game Physics Example (M2D)

Added on March 8:

• Flickr Coverflow
• Spiral Carousel
• Full Quake 3 game
• Sofa (Sophie3D)
• Fiat 500 (Sophie3D)
• Fractal Sponge
• Normal Map Shader
• Animated Creatures
• Bloom Demo
• Molecule Viewer(article + demo)

Added on Feb 27:

• Quake 3
• Zombie Tycoon
• MAX Racer Demo Alternativa 8 (150MB)
• 40k polygon terrain demo
• Shallow Water Manipulation
• Hi-res Head Model (OBJ)
• Duck Demo
• MD5 Animated Model Demo
• Environment map test
• Animation blend test
• Environment map diffuse test
• 2D performance demo: with molehill and without
• Treasure Dungeon
• How fast is molehill (article and demos)
• JigLib Physics Demos (Away 4.0) – demo1, demo2, demo3, demo4, demo5
• Plane and triangle by Ryan Speets (demo + source)
• Ambiera CopperCube Backyard Demo
• Radiolarian
• Starfish
• 500 Particles
• Away3D + JigLib
• Voxel Renderer

Videos (only new stuff):

• Tanki Online 2.0 Trailer (Molehill)
• See What Flash Can do with the Molehill 3D API

Just Source Code:

• Molehill Spinning Cube on Gist

Tutorials and Articles:

• Digging more into the Molehill APIs by Thibault Imbert
• Molehill from scratch with Adobe Flash CS5
• Simple 2D Molehill Example
• 2D Sprite Sheets with Molehill by Tinic Uro (demo + source)
• How fast is molehill (article and demos)
• Molehill 3D APIs article by SwfGeek
• Changing the web, again article by Thibault Imbert
• Using FTD and Away3D 4.0 by George Profenza
• Quickstart for Molehill and Away3D by John Lindquist
• Simple Bunnyhill Demos (article and sources)
• Per-Polygon Distance Fog tutorial by Pixelante
• Per-Vertex Distance Fog tutorial by Pixelante
• Fast Vertex Lighting tutorial by Pixelante
• Demystifying Molehill – Part 1 – good read
• Using Flash 3D API in haXe
• Converting wii game to Molehill (Video Interview With Mandreel)
• Convert C++ application to Molehill using Mandreel
• Molehill Getting Started – great article, recommended
• AGALMiniAssembler Primer
• AGAL basics

Related News:

• Unity3D announces support for publishing to Flash Player
• GameBuilder Studio announces Molehill support
• JigLib adds Away3D 4.0 (Molehill) support
• HxSL – haXe Shader Language (announcement and manual)

Now, let’s change the web!
Follow me on twitter @pauliusuza for more news and updates on #flash and #molehill

3D support in Flash

First of, the most important announcement in my mind, full 3D support in Flash Player. While there’s no details about the technology itself, we have seen Kevin Lynch demo a 3D racing game which looked nowhere far from stunning and the processor was hovering around 0-1% of CPU. This is HUGE! With the current adoption rate of Flash Player (73% in 3 months) it will be the most popular 3D gaming platform once released to the wild, surpassing Unity3D and other smaller competitors in no time.

Game Controller Support

This is epic as well – Kevin Lynch demoed controlling a game running inside a browser using mouse and then switching to a steering wheel and a PS3/XBOX type controller. By itself it means that Flash will finally be able to use a whole new range of game controller devices. However I think that this might be a hint to a whole bigger announcement Adobe could make in the next few days – PS3 support? Xbox? Who knows…

AIR for Android and TVs

AIR for Android SDK is now publicly available for download. Any developer building an app in AIR can now package their app for sale in the Android Market. Also it is now possible to build an app for Google TV, which runs Android. Adobe blog has more info.

Stage Video

Native performance for video running inside Flash on tabled devices, mobiles and desktop. Again, awesome!

You can experience MAX conference streaming live using new Flash Player P2P technology:
http://max.adobe.com/online/

Let’s see what day 2 of MAX 2010 brings us!

Today we have released the second version of our award winning puzzle – Alchemist 2 and this time it’s for Google Android platform and it’s build using Adobe AIR 2.5 for Android.

Alchemist 2 features a lot of improvements over it’s predecessor, including a completely new gameplay engine, new gorgeous graphics, adaptive AI and unlockable achievements.

Buy Now! | Get FREE DEMO

Adobe’s own Michael Chou was kind to feature our “Alchemist” game in their technology announcement post which you can see here.

We at InRuntime Ltd. have been working closely with Adobe for the last couple of weeks to deliver our new games across a range of new platforms and devices using pre-release and lab versions of Adobe CS5 family products. As a result of that “Alchemist” game is currently available in three formats:

• Adobe Flash 10.1 version for web (optimized for mobile) – play for free
• Native app for iPhone and iPod Touch – info | purchase
• Adobe AIR Mobile for Google Android (technology preview)

If you are attending MWC 2010 this year, make sure to stop by Adobe’s booth at Stand 1D45 in Hall 1 and see “Alchemist” running on a wide range of devices!

During the next few weeks I will be posting information on our company website and this blog about cross-device and cross-platform development using the exciting new tools available in Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5). Please follow us on Twitter @inruntime and @pauliusuza to get the latest updates!

Thanks!

Read Documentation
Download AS3 Scale9 Bitmap (5454)

Demo:

Scale9SimpleStateButton (top left), Scale9SimpleBitmapSprite (top right) and original skin files (bottom row)

ENJOY THE EMA 2008 SHOW!

For your convenience the video feed is served through Akamai CDN so the connection and sound quality should be top-notch wherever you are.

Here are some tips to avoid unfortunate problems while doing freelance work:

No rocket science

As a service provider you have to give away the completed product ONLY after the full payment has been made, or at least such guarantees are in place (such as Escrow process). If you don’t have such guarantees – you can be easily ripped off and not paid for your work.

Client’s size or his reputation should not be a factor for trust. Especially if you are an in-house developer, ask yourself: why would a multinational company with years of reputation and millions in cash would give the development of it’s most anticipated online product to your hands? Why do they care to bargain until the price gets ridiculously low?

Trust can be gained through depositing funds in Escrow and releasing them shortly after adequate project steps have been finalized, this will help both sides to feel that the project is going well and no one is trying to fool anyone. If you don’t use Escrow for your projects, make sure that you at least ask for an advance payment that should cover your basic development costs. The worst thing that could happen is to spend weeks on something that will not be published online at all. Even if you get ripped of and your source code get’s decompiled and reworked, you still have the benefit of claiming copyright rights to the final published work and putting it in your portfolio.

Budget and Timeline

Project’s time line and budget CAN and often DO change. Communicate any technical problems you encounter as soon as possible to your client and ask for extension of development timeline / budget if it is necessary, especially if you are working on an hourly basis – every minute you delay will cost you money.

If the project is large it is hard to keep track of every little detail, shift of deadline or little change in the specifications. So it’s very good if you communicate with your clients through an online tool such as Basecamp, then you can easily keep track of the changes to the project and adjust the budget / timeline accordingly.

Communication

Communicate professionally without getting into personal details with the client and keeping your tone official. Always remember – this is just business, there’s deadline, requirements and budget – nothing else nothing more. Use email as much as possible, if a problem occurs it helps to keep the emotions down to minimum and pick your words carefully. Respect the client and never talk with him in a disrespectful manner, if it happens that you are on the verge of a big conflict – take a walk to cool down, think how you can solve the problem and finish your project without escalating the tension.

Things To Avoid

• Avoid clients that get too personal too early. Calling you “buddy”, promising you fame and fortune, a new 3G iPhone, shares in their business or a vacation with them in the Caribbean.
• Avoid people who undermine your professionalism by citing your age, race or religion. It is discriminatory and should not be tolerated. In my current company the greatest talent is 18-24 years old, most of them are better than me in one discipline or another.
• Avoid projects that are below your budget requirements, in case the project goes flop the advance payment will not be enough to cover your basic development costs.

That’s about it. I am sure that learning from someone else mistakes is better than learning from your own.

And I wish best of luck to you all in freelancing!
Paul

During these few months a lot has happened in my life, new job, new industry, new experiences – both good and bad. It was all overwhelming for me however I felt that I was lacking something. While trying to solve a million of daily tasks and work related problems in my head I forgot my best friend – Flash.

So I’ve made some adjustments to my schedule and since beginning of this month I’m officially a freelancer (again), woohoo!

To strengthen my position and to get you, dear readers, interested in what I do, I’ve put together a simple portfolio website which will be constantly upgraded and updated with new additions during the next 6 of months. Showcase site uses Papervision3D as it’s main rendering engine and also features a very cool custom made search engine which in theory could handle 1.000.000 items without hanging the Flash Player!

No more taking. Ladies and gentlemen – click away: http://www.uza.lt/showcase, besides this link the showcase should be accessible via a dedicated link in the top menu.

And as always, don’t forget to leave feedback (bad or good)!

It has been a wonderful experience to see this technology mature in Adobe’s Apollo pre-release program and to take active part in this process. I want to congratulate the Adobe AIR team and all pre-release program members for their great work and valuable input into finally getting AIR through the door! Woohoo!

You can get Adobe AIR 1.0 here:
http://get.adobe.com/air/

Flex Builder 3 and the open source Flex 3 SDK was also released:

More information on Flex 3 SDK
More information on Flex Builer 3

What is really nice to see is that AIR pre-release program enabled developers outside Adobe to create AIR development tools that are available to us all from day one.

Today I recommend you to download this ultimate set of free tools and libraries for AIR 1.0 Javascript development:

Aptana Studio 1.1 IDE:
http://www.aptana.com/studio/download

Aptana Studio 1.1 Plugin for Adobe AIR 1.0 (includes SDK):
http://www.aptana.com/air/

The Aptana looks very polished. It is now the most complete solution for delivering Javascript based AIR applications, so don’t hesitate and start downloading

After installing Aptana and the AIR plugin you will probably need some libraries to speed up your application development.

Well guess what? ExtJS, one of the most complete Javascript UI frameworks on the planet has also updated their framework to version 2.0.2 which brings exciting new features and full compatibility with final Adobe AIR 1.0 release.

ExtJS 2.0.2 downloads and documentation:
http://extjs.com/download

You can see AIR 1.0 and ExtJS in action by downloading this great (and actually useful) task management application:

ExtJS in action – Simple Tasks 2 (AIR application)
http://extjs.com/playpen/STasks2.air
More information

If you like to further enhance your AIR development experience with ExtJS you will probably need a good code completion solution. Aptana already comes with a built in code completion engine that is pretty good for custom Javascript development, but if you want to work exclusively with ExtJS you might consider installing one of additional code completion plugins.

Spket IDE is the most complete ExtJS development solution that not only gives you code completion but also generates dynamic documentation from your latest ExtJS sources. Free for personal use – I highly recommend it.

To install Spket for Aptana Studio 1.1 do the following:

• Start Aptana and navigate the application menu to: Help → Software Updates → Find and Install… → Search for new features to install → New remote site…
• Name: “Spket”, Url: “http://www.spket.com/update/”
• Continue through the install process
• Restart Aptana Studio

To enable ExtJS code completion inside Spket do the following:

• Window → Preferences → Spket → JavaScript Profiles → New
• Enter “ExtJS” and click OK
• Select “ExtJS” and click “Add Library”, then choose “ExtJS” from the dropdown
• Select “ExtJS” and click “Add File”, then choose the “ext.jsb” file in your “./ext-2.x/source” directory
• Set the new ExtJS profile as the default by selecting it an clicking the “Default” button on the right-hand side of the “JavaScript Profiles” dialog.
• Restart Aptana
• Create a new JS file and type: Ext. and you should get the Ext Code completion options.

Spket is now set up to use as an alternate Javascript editor inside Aptana Studio. To open a .js file in Spket right click on the file and select “Open with…” → “Spket JavaScript Editor”.

However, if you would like Spket to be the default editor for all of your .js files (including File > New…) do the following:

• Window → Preferences → General → Editors → File Associations
• Select “*.js” from “File Types”
• Select “Spket JavaScript Editor” and click “Default”
• Select “OK” to close the Preferences window

Other Libraries

The following libraries are also fully compatible with Adobe AIR 1.0:

Dojo Toolkit 1.1.0 Beta 1
More information

That’s it, enjoy your new development environment and build great AIR applications!

Introduction

As you might know, Shockwave Flash has been around since 1996. Today the highly evolved Flash Player 9 is the most popular software on the planet. According to the latest statistics (2007/11/11) available on Adobe.com, Flash Player reaches 99.3% of desktop Internet users and over 95% of internet users have the latest version, that’s over 3.3 billion desktops worldwide. It is also one of the few software packages that reach users behind corporate firewalls.

So before jumping into the bandwagon and joining millions of Flash content developers let’s see what is this technology all about and what you can squeeze out from it for yourself.

Flash for Designers

If you are a designer or graphics artist you will love to work with Flash CS3 IDE. The easy to use software gives you access to a stage area and a set of tools to quickly prototype your ideas as vector drawings and then animate them using keyframes and layers. You will also find that some Adobe Photoshop CS3 effects (dropshadow, glow, etc…) and blend modes are already integrated into the environment so you don’t have to jump from one software to another if you want to achieve a desired look.

When done drawing you can export your creation in various formats ranging from postscript for print or rasters and vector formats for web to high resolution video files.

Skills that you will need:
- Vector drawing know-how
- A bit of creativity

Skills that might help you:
- Animation know-how

Where to go from there:
- Add interactivity, animation, video and sound to your drawings and designs, make them come alive.

Flash for Animators

If you are an animator you probably already use Flash

Flash for Website Developers

If you are a website developer, Flash can be a very important addition to your existing skillset or it can be a total turning point in your career. Flash will open you the doors to many well known brands that invest largely into creative web advertising. Clients want video, sound and interactivity, they also want the content to be available to widest possible reach without any browser incompatibilities.

Flash is unique in a way that it gives you the content delivery, media and scripting capabilities in one package. You can use it to create animations, interactive components, or full blown broadband websites with 3D – it’s your choice.

It also plays well with existing Javascript libraries if you decide to do hybrid web development (HTML+JS+Flash).

However I suggest you to be skeptical when learning Flash and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Skills that you will need:
- Web development skills

Skills that might help you:
- OOP knowledge
- Artistic skills
- Knowledge of C# or Java

Where to go from there:
- Get some inspiration visit The FWA and see what are the world’s greatest brands up to.
- Sell your creations online via FlashDen

Flash for Web Application Developers

Corporate customers can enjoy the benefits of MXML language and Flex framework. MXML is an XML based language for creating visually rich corporate web and desktop applications. The language together with Flex IDE which lets you create data-driven applications without writing a single line of code.

Skills that you will need:
- Web application know-how

Skills that might help you:
- OOP knowledge
- Database know-how

Where to go from there:
- See what Flex is all about
- Check out what’s new in Flex 3

Flash for C# and Java Developers

Actionscript 3 introduced with Flash Version 9 will feel familiar to C# and Java developers.

The third ActionScript language version (based on ECMA-262 edition 3) has features such as interfacing, clearly defined class/package structure, refined event system and strongly typed variables, making the language very clear and easy to understand and extend to your needs. You can even draw graphics pixel by pixel, write byte arrays, communicate to sockets and load content from other websites using REST and SOAP, control video streams, sound and user interaction using easy to understand syntax.

There are several IDEs available for Actionscript 3 besides Flash CS3 which is more targeted at designers and animators. Flex versions 2 and 3, the opensource Flashdevelop 3 and Powerflasher FDT 3.0. What I personally find very nice is that Flex 3 and FDT 3 are both based on Eclipse so you will feel like at home using these tools.

Skills that you will need:
- OOP knowledge

Skills that might help you:
- Strong C# or Java background

Where to go from there:
- Create and publish stunning websites filled with visual effects, create advanced corporate web and desktop applications, or just have fun quickly prototyping your ideas and publishing them to web or desktop using Adobe AIR.

Flash for Game Developers

If your call is creating games – Flash is your best friend. At your disposal – open source 3D engines (such as Papervision 3D and Sandy), Physics engines (Fisix), specific data structures and even game creation frameworks.

Skills that you will need:
- OOP knowledge

Skills that might help you:
- Strong C# or Java background

Where to go from there:
- Create and publish your games to web and desktop using Adobe AIR.
- Track their usage using Mochibot
- Make money by selling in-game advertising through Mochiads

Some Final Suggestions

• If you are a coder, DON’T use Flash CS3 IDE for development. Unfortunately it lacks proper code completion and debugging that are available in other tools and it lets you cheat around the language specification thus making your code non-reusable. I suggest starting of with Flex 3 IDE
• There are lots of open source libraries for Actionscript 3 for extending your website, game or application.
• If you are undecided which Actionscript version to learn – start with AS3, it’s faster and more capable than AS2.
• Stay on top of news and see what the Flash community is up to, make a bookmark

Hope that was helpful!
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