Posts Tagged ‘Flash Player’
April 29th, 2010
Today, Adobe announced Gala, Flash Player 10.1 with Hardware H.264 acceleration on the Mac. Thought I would take it for a spin and watch House on Hulu (since Hulu’s video player has always kind of been a hog).
Here’s some quick findings. Click on an average* CPU usage in the table below for a screen shot.
You can see how the average* CPU usage drops. Interestingly Chrome was the best performer overall in terms of Flash’s CPU usage. But it does have that “Google Chrome Helper” thing, which, pared with Flash player, total over 100% CPU usage themselves. When not playing the video, the “helper” either left or went to very small amount of usage. In the Firefox and Safari cases my average* temperature stayed below 140° F, but using Chrome kept it above 140°.
It will be interesting to see Gala take shape, especially since Apple just released the API for video decoding acceleration.
People aren’t so lazy when you give them the tools.
If you have the hardware configuration, you can find Gala here.
*My “averages” are not entirely scientific. I was doing some of the math in my head while watching Activity Monitor as the videos played and tried to take the same screen shots at the same time in each that gave somewhere near the average. The videos are different from player version so as to see a visual difference. Running the same exact file in each player version would be a start to a better test.
February 16th, 2010
After writing this very lengthy comment on Brother Chuck Freeman’s (@ChuckStar) blog post responding to Brother Kevin Suttle’s (@kevinSuttle) excelent blog post regarding AIR and Mobile devices, I thought I should really post here on my own blog and #keeptheblogchainalive as Kevin says. There are a great deal of questions regarding AIR and Mobile devices, and I have had a few rolling around in my brain for some time. Be sure to read Kevin’s post then Chuck’s post, and you’ll get all the context.
(more…)
February 15th, 2010
Adobe is pushing mobile devices in great new directions. First announced was Flash Player 10.1 concept on devices, then the iPhone packager with the upcoming CS5. But today, Adobe goes one step further with building AIR for Android devices (and quite probably more).
(more…)
January 15th, 2010
Update 06/30/10: Some links have been updated and some changes have been made to the installation steps. The same installation work for CS5 as well. Just replace CS4 with CS5 and you’re good.
Flash Player 10.1 beta has been out for a little while, but Adobe doesn’t have any information on how to use the API in Flash CS4. They have instructions for Flash/Flex Builder. In fact, even Lee Brimelow had to ask how to use it from the Flash CS4 IDE. So here is how to get it running.
1. Be sure to fully quit out of Flash.
2. Download and install the player plugin for browsers. Also download the StandAlone players and place them here:
Mac: /Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/Players
PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Players
3. Scroll to the bottom of the download page, you will need to also download and unzip the Player Global SWC.
**The Player Global SWC is no longer available as a direct download (although it should be). You will need to download the Flex 4.1 SDK. Once you do, unzip the package and browse to: flex_sdk_4.1/frameworks/libs/player/10.1/. Copy the playerglobal.swc.
4. Back up the FP 10 playerglobal.swc and replace it with the new 10.1 version.
You can find it here on Mac: /Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/Common/Configuration/ActionScript 3.0/FP10
And here on PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Common\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\FP10
Now let’s make sure it works.
1. Start Flash CS4 and create a new AS3 .fla.
2. Create 2 new Dynamic text fields, and give them instance names of text1 and text2.
3. We need some code. A topic of discussion lately has been Multitouch, and since the multitouch API is FP 10.1 specific, let’s use that. Open the Actions panel (opt+)F9 and copy/paste the following code:
import flash.ui.Multitouch;
{
text1.text =“gestureEvents work”;
} else {
text1.text = “!gestureEvents”;
}
if (Multitouch.supportsTouchEvents)
{
text2.text = “touchEvents work”;
} else {
text2.text = “!touchEvents”;
} |
**Previously I had extraneous code. It has now been removed.
Test Movie will throw errors because CS4 doesn’t have a standalone version of FP 10.1 (there isn’t one publicly available yet), well, because the IDE has issues. But you installed FP 10.1 earlier can use Debug Movie (cmd(cntrl)+shift+enter) to test. Or you can Publish and Run (cmd/cntrl+F12) in the Browser. Text1 and 2 should report back if GestureEvents and TouchEvents work on your computer.
Check Christian Cantrell‘s Adobe Dev Center post about Multitouch if you are unsure if your system supports it.
Have Fun!
January 14th, 2010
Yesterday, Tobias Schneider @tobeytailor released his JavaScript Flash runtime – Gordon. This runtime allows Flash swfs to run on the iPhone in Safari. Although currently Gordon only supports Flash Player 1 (that’s not a typo), this is pretty monumental. It’s a great step in the right direction in getting Flash on the iPhone. This looks pretty much like a precursor to what Adobe sneaked at MAX in October 2009. There they showed how Flash could be rendered with HTML5 canvas tag. The difference here is that this is the actual swf playing. It’s actually JavaScript turning the Flash to SVG.
It should be said that Gordon is not the actual Flash Player, but some JavaScript wizardry that somehow renders Flash on those oh-so-beloved-yet incredibly-frustrating-for-the-Flash-Community iDevices.
** Edit: 01/21/10
Peter Elst states in his blog post:
To be very clear: it is *not* running the SWF file — its parsing it, converting it using Javascript and outputting SVG. Running that same SWF file on a native Flash Player, even on a smartphone would be a fraction of that in terms of CPU usage.
**
That’s still pretty cool. Tabias used an existing language to do this. (You should read Peter’s posting for more info.)
Tabias has stated that he is working on another release to get FP 2 targeted swfs to run through Gordon. If Adobe isn’t careful Mr. Schnieder may render all their hard work of tricking iPhone to play swfs almost completely wasted. Maybe they should just hire him.
January 12th, 2010
Back in October of 2009 Adobe showed off the ability to publish Flash files as iPhone applications. That sent the Flash world into a tizzy that we still have yet to come down from. The apps looked like iPhone apps, they installed out of the Apple Store like iPhone apps. In fact, if you didn’t know the people that created them were primarily Flash developers, you would have never known the apps were created in Flash (that is if Adobe didn’t tell you, too).
Then comes the Android Phones, and in particular, the Nexus One. (ok so the image below doesn’t show the Nexus, just the Motorola Droid. The Nexus One is a bit too expensive without service.) Reports are that Nexus One will handle Flash Player 10.1 when Adobe is ready, so too, will the Droid and Palm Pre.
That’s cool. Actually that’s awesome. I can’t wait to be able to hold the Flash Player in hand. But that’s within the staunch walls of the browser.
Maybe this whole Flash compiling to iPhone thing is an even better idea. Compiling an application or game as a device driven app is much more compelling to me than running that same app through the browser and it’s limited sandbox and often ugly UI. I mean, there is a greatly growing number of AIR applications being released into the wild, taking Flash out of the browser. So why is the mobile push for Flash pretty much staying in the confines of the browser? Why not go further than that?
How about a compiler for Blackberry (Storms, Curves, etc) native applications? What about Android?
The Nexus One looks very promising compared to the iPhone. Android OS can certainly handle intensive applications on the Droid, so the Nexus One should be able to as well. If the Flash compiler can perform well enough on iPhone, why can’t we get a compiler to other devices as well? And if Adobe really can’t stand Apple as much as we think they do, then why not push for native apps on devices that could have the potential of bringing this iPhone madness to an end?
We continue to feed the iPhone/iPod tyranny by creating content for them. Instead, we should be trying to focus on making content for those that can match up to the iPhone. It’ll make innovation better. Maybe we’ll eventually see a device that will render the iPhone obsolete.
Simply, I want to be able to compile device driven (non-browser) applications and RIAs to multiple platforms and OS with minimal effort. Please.
