Here’s a quick list of new stuff listed in Adobe’s demo page:

1. New Text Engine
2. Inverse Kinematics
3. Custom Effects
4. GPU Compositing: New but has some serious problems at the moment. More info at Tinic Uro’s blog.
5. Dynamic Streaming: Not useful at the moment yet because it needs to work with a new version of Flash Media Server. This protocol allows lossy delivery.
6. Improved Drawing API: Senocular has a detailed tutorial about it. The new Vector data type and drawPath and drawTriangles will give significant performance boost for Papervision3D and all other 3D engines.
   
7. Native 3D: Native but very raw. Only supports rotation inf 3 dimensions. But I’m sure it means a lot for Papervision3D guys. There’ll be significant performance improvement in the never version of Papervision3D.

And some features not covered in the demo:

1. Dynamic Sound Generation: You can directly talk to the sound card (sort of)! Try Keith Peter’s demo and be a musician using your mouse.
2. FileReference Runtime Access: Now you can directly work on user’s local files. Previously, you need to upload a file to the server, download the file from server and then you can edit it. It’s much easier now. For more info, please refer to Draw Lgoic’s blog.
3. MouseCursor: A new class to set Mouse cursor.
4. Text field using device fonts can be animated now, transparency or scaling are all possible out of the box.

Every single feature leads to a whole new area of excitement to explore. You can see the new functions here.

Shang :: May.18.2008 :: adobe, news :: No Comments »

Via FUG(Singapore Flex Usergroup),

Colin Moock is coming to Singapore on 12th May!

Colin Moock is the author of best selling ActionScript books of ActionScript 1 - ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, ActionScript 2 - Essential ActionScript 2 and ActionScript 3 - Essential ActionScript 3. All his books cover both depth and breadth. Even though the most recent book is named “Essential ActionScript 3″, it’s more detailed than most of other books on the shelf, namely “ActionScript 3 Bible”, “Flash CS3 Complete Training” or “ActionScript 3 Total Solution” etc. It’s THE book for learning ActionScript 3.

Register for the event now!

Shang :: Apr.07.2008 :: adobe, news :: No Comments »

Flash CS4 will be able to export *and* import a new source format called XFL. An XFL file is a .zip file that contains the source material for a Flash document. Within the .zip file resides an XML file describing the structure of the document and a folder with the document’s assets (graphics, sounds, etc). - From Colin Moock

Shang :: Mar.13.2008 :: adobe, news :: 3 Comments »

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/mediaplayer/

Back in 2006 MAX conference, someone asked whether Adobe would release a FLV Player. They replied that they had some plan. 2 years later, their plan was finally revealed. More than just a FLV Player, it’s also a desktop YouTube and it is “professionally very very pretty”.

Coming out at the same time as AIR, it’s a perfect “one stone two birds” strategy. If you want to try AIR you definitely should start with Media Player because it’s by far the most useful AIR application for everyone (not only for developers or designers). If you want to try Media Player you have to install AIR.

Shang :: Mar.08.2008 :: adobe, news :: No Comments »