ini na!!

You have a flash / flex application where you want to allow users to customize the text formatting, font style / font weight for some text box. So you would provide a small set of fonts which would all get embedded into the swf.

If we working with external fonts in Actionscript 3.0, the external font must have a class definition for allowing the Font class and ApplicationDomain to detect and register it. We can produce class definition for the external font  with embed tag in Flex or Font symbol in Flash library. 

With Flex 3.0 and mxmlc (Flex SDK 2-3) there’s the embed metatag where you can even define font character ranges which should be embedded for reducing compiled external font swf size:

[Embed(	source='font.ttf', 
	fontName='Font Name', 
	unicodeRange='U+0021-U+0021, ... , U+2122-U+2122')]

or with this tag :
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Perhaps ActionScript 3.0 is more proprietary than it was last week. It’s still extension of ECMAScript and still holds a lot of the core values, namespaces and package. Maybe EcmaScript 4.0 was stillborn, and maybe the harmony will change the future of language/ the standards committe.

I think our joint concerns are better served if we keep in mind that most valuable point is abc file , no matter which language it compiling from (actionscript 3.0, haXe or javascript). So let keep saying to yourself “In flash platform I trust..!”

It’s a simple AIR based debugger for flash & AIR apps.
Arthropod is really easy to use, the only thing you need to do is import the Debug class, write a log message with the log function, start Arthropod and publish your site / AIR application.

Nice application to try

With new event on Sound object (”samplesCallback”) and other improvement capabilities (such dynamically create audio) in Flash Player 10, hope there’s someone already create FP 10 MIDI player and available for free on next several months.

Could somebody tell, is there possibility of making MIDI player in FP 10?

Tags: Flash, Actionscript 3.0

One day several years ago after Actionscript 3.0 released, I’ve been believed the time will coming someday if this 3D engines will be porting to Actionscript.

Mascot Capsule 3D and Mobile 3D Graphics has been used as technologies  for Mobile 3D programming for the Java™ Platform Micro Edition on Sony Ericsson feature phones.

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Defenition of Merapi originally a volcano in Central Java, but there’s a new term about Merapi :

“Merapi is a bridge between applications written in Java and those running in and created for Adobe AIR™ (Adobe Integrated Runtime™).”

Merapi has huge potential and we can looking forward discovering possibility when we can combine the power of Java with the richness and ubiquity of Adobe AIR.

Another project is Artemis active on Apollo (Adobe AIR beta) era but it was abandoned. Today the project rebirth under the name of Merapi.
Merapi use Java to connect AIR to the desktop. The project will be (unfortunately not yet) distributed as a freeware and then as an open source project on Google Code.

Using Merapi, Adobe AIR™ applications can “talk” to other software that the user has installed on their computer. In addition, Merapi allows AIR™ applications to serve as a user interface to just about anything that a Java™ application can do on a user’s computer.

I am very excited about this new protocol on Flash Player 10. The new RTMFP protocol in Flash Player 10 provides an alternative to RTMP allowing developer to develop real-time communication applications with an improved user experience.

Applications like chat and games are great examples from this technology. This new protocol has been designed for communication solutions, not massive content delivery.

Another great news is UDP protocol now available on Flash Player 10 beta. Adobe chose UDP because it’s an efficient protocol for low-latency streaming video conversations, voice conversations or other similar solutions. UDP combined with the high-fidelity of SPEEX audio, will allow Flash developer to build great voice and audio solutions targeting Flash Player 10. To enable RTMFP and the UDP transport, authorization from a future server-based technology such as Adobe Flash Media Server will be required.

Nice news, Flash Player 10, code-named “Astro,” enables run applications and animation smoother and faster with expanded use of hardware acceleration. With capability to moving several visual processing tasks to the video card, and the CPU is free to do more.

In 3D features, lightweight and native built in 3D effects make easily transform and animate any display object through 3D space while retaining full interactivity.

More informations regarding prerelease  of Flash Player 10, read here

Dari 3 (tiga) 3D Engines Actionscript3.0 yang populer saat ini (PV3D, Away3D, Sandy3D), masing-masing punya kelebihan dan kekurangan masing-masing.

Tapi dari semua API yang mereka tawarkan, seperti API tool lainnya yang ku anggap point penting pertama kali adalah API yang mengurus event.

Papervision3D (sorry ya..) kuanggap terlambat untuk urusan Event ini. Sampai versi Beta RC1 saat ini, event yang ada cuma FileEvent, hari geneee.. cuman ngurusin dispatch loader saja?

Away3D dan Sandy3D sudah agak mendingan.

Event di Away 3D (versi 1.9.4) :

FaceEvent
MeshElementEvent
SegmentEvent
MouseEvent3D
Object3DEvent
LazyEventDispatcher


Event di Sandy3D (3.0.2) :

BubbleEvent, BubbleEventBroadcaster, EventBroadcaster
QueueEvent
SandyEvent
Shape3DEvent


Saat ini MouseVent3D dari Away3D yang suitable dalam project yang membutuhkan informasi koordinat x,y,z dari mouse-trigger di scene 3D swf kita.

Agak repot bila pakai Sandy3D atau PV3D. Papervision3D malah cuma menawarkan MouseEvent bawaan class Sprite di Object3Dnya, alhasil cuma koordinat 2D yang didapat, apalagi bila dirender dalam 1 container maka localX dan localY yang di-dispatch jadi statis belaka, capee deh!!

Sejak dari pertama, Flash IDE menyimpan sources document dalam format yang kita kenal sebagai .fla.
Format .fla nyaris tidak bisa dibuka di software third-party lainnya karena spesifikasinya tidak pernah dipublikasikan.

Pada versi mendatang dari Flash Ide, yaitu Flash CS4 memungkinkan untuk meng-export dan meng-import format source document Flash baru yang disebut XFL.
XFL berformat .zip yang berisi material-material yang diperlukan sebuah dokumen Flash.
Terdapat file XML yang menjelaskan struktur dokument, dan sebuah folder yang berisi asset-asset (graphic, sound, dan lainnya).

Penjelasan resmi dari detail format XML belum ada pemberitahuan. Tetapi Richard Galvan (authoring product-manager) memastikan bahwa Adobe akan mempublikasikannya, dan memperbolehkan took-tool Third-Party untuk meng-import dan meng-export XFL.

Mestinya nanti akan ada banyak Third Party lain yang menyediakan fasilitas export ke XFL, seperti PowerPoint, 3D tools, Photoshop dan lainnya.

Yang lebih menarik bila Adobe me-release compiler XFL ke SWF secara tersendiri, pasti tidak repot membuka Flash IDE untuk meng-compile XFL ke swf. Cukup seperti commandline tool saja, apalagi free, misal namanya XFL-to-SWF compiler.