Another Adobe self-appreciation session. This time with a 007 theme! Sigh. A couple of guys are playing as spies in suits. They’re visiting lab stations to hear about the amazing new features of CS4! One guy has a fake British accent. Sigh.

10:35 showing off ability to control light switches via flex and third party hardware.

10:40 a spy is demoing new AE-like timeline.

Also bones and IK.

He just copied the motion information from one area of the FLA to another.

10:45 Showing off new features of photoshop. Not worth talking about here. You can see demos online.

10:48 Flash Catalyst (Thermo)

(I’m pretty excited about this because we’ve really needed a step in the workflow between designers and developers for a long time. However, time will tell how well this tool will fill the gap)

Showing off the new transitions. Looks pretty smooth.

Taking graphics from Illustrator and converting into a scroll bar with just a few clicks.

Showing off “round-trip workflow” where graphics are taken from illustrator to Flash Catalyst and then back to Illustrator.

FXG - a subset of mxml which is an interchange format between illustrator/ps, flash catalyst, and flex.

Showing off component states in FC. Allows designers to build entire view including view states and transitions. Pretty cool. Designers, start studying!

DVDs of FC beta will be given out after the session!

10:59 More spy schtick! Let’s head to the development lab. sigh.

11:00 Project alchemy. Converts C/C++ code and libraries into AS3 which can be compiled to SWFs.

(Wow. There are numerous applications for this.)

Showing Hello, World ported from C++ to AS3 to SWF.

Demoing ported Zork in Flash

Demoing OS encryption tool ported to flash.

Brendan Hall introduces libvorbis in flash. Essentially allows you to parse Ogg Vorbis in Flash by using an open source C lib. CSound would be another thing to check out which they didn’t mention.

Same thing with RAW camera images.

Alchemy allows you to run C code in the background asynchronously as well!

Showing Doom and a NES emulator (SMB). Flash player running as3 converted from C code running dumped roms and emulating the NES. Or something like that.

(My head spins with the possibilities)

11:10 The spies throw a bone to the ColdFusion nerds in the audience. The crowd partially goes wild.

New version of CF called Bolt.

I’m starting to wonder if the British accent is actually fake. Sounds weird and now I’m not sure.

A small yet determined portion of the audience is madly impressed with the new CF features which go over my head.

11:15 Showing off some Flex and CF integration.

FlexBuilder themes. “Agent B” gave a shout out to Juan Sanchez who i’ve been hanging out with all weekend and is a way cool guy!

11:20 Demoing Flex in MS Visual Studio or maybe just AMF with C#… I didn’t quite follow.

11:23 Dreamweaver

Support for arbitrary frameworks like JQuery. Including in live view.

Allows you to render JS out to HTML so you can see how it is being rendered in the browser.

11:28 The Deployment Lab. Jim Corbett as a scientist. Looks surly as usual.

Showing off the Google indexing of SWFs. (I saw a talk on this yesterday and I’ll talk more about that on another post). In a nutshell, a special virtual user that Google created navigates every link in a special, text-only version of the flash player. In this manner it indexes all text, static and dynamic, in the entire applicaiton. Pretty fucking incredibly awesome!

11:35 Flash Media Server 3.5

Dynamic streaming lets you change sizes of video dynamically when bitrates change without glitching at all.

New flash media live encoder. Shows live video that can be streamed and recorded simultaneously (a la Tivo)

RTMFP - Peer-to-peer flash player communication. Eliminates the server from flash player communications.

11:41 More spy shit. Enter Ted Patrick

Adobe Groups. groups.adobe.com A new, official site for organizing Adobe user groups. Available in loads of languages by Q109.

Profiles of users. Kinda like MeetUp or something but just for Adobe Groups. Search for user groups in your area. For all Adobe products, not just Flash.

YAY! Max is in LA next year! Oct 7-9

11:48 END

12:03 talked to “agent f”. Accent is real! Confirmed.

Anyway, I’ll be around all week. I’m staying with a friend near the conference center until Thursday with the exception of Tuesday when I’ll be basking in luxury at the Mariott. Feel free to send me an email if you want to hang out or invite me to an elite Adobe party or hospitality suite! Mims at mims wright dot com

I’ll be the one that looks nothing like my blog avatar.

As a member of IGDA I was recently informed of an event in January called the Global Game Jam and I wanted to share it with you. Basically, game developers around the world meet up for an intensive, creative session to create a game from nothing but a few rules and a group of strangers. It sounds really fun and I hope to be a part of it next year.

Global Game Jam

Here are the slides from my presentation

…was a pretty cool example of integrating flash, video, and the real world. It still didn’t make me want to see the movie though.

http://eagleeyefreefall.com/

This version check is very simple. It checks a version number in the client code against a version number of the library (or external classes) when the main class of the library is initialized. It is also completely optional (so average users don’t need to mark up their code with version numbers).

Here’s an example:

Say you normally initialize your library using:

MyLibrary.initialize();

Which calls the initialize method:

public static function initialize():void {
   // initialize library here
}

If the external code changes unexpectedly (say through an SVN update) this could cause problems that are difficult to trace. The solution is to modify the initializer to match the client code version with the initializer version.

public static const VERSION:String = "1.6";
public static function initialize(versionCheck:String = VERSION):void {
   if (versionCheck != VERSION) {
       throw new Error ("The version check failed! This library is version " + VERSION + ". Update your code or GTFO!");
   }
   // initialize library here
}

And when you run the initializer, use the version number you’re expecting.

MyLibrary.initialize("1.6");

Some things to notice with this approach:

• I used a string instead of a number for the version number so that it would allow for sub-sub version numbers and other markers, e.g. “1.6.24 beta r545″
• Because there is a default value for versionCheck in the initializer, providing a version number is optional. Using MyLibrary.initialize() will still work and throw no errors.
• Unfortunately, there is not much you can do if the version numbers don’t match except to warn the client that the external code has changed. Still, I’ve found this to be very useful.

The code for my initializer in its entirety after the jump…

From KitchenSync.as

/**
* The current version of the library. Use this to verify that the library is the
* version that your software expects.
*/
public static const VERSION:String = "1.6";
 
/**
* Flag noting whether the engine has been initialized.
*/
private static var _initialized:Boolean = false;
 
/**
* Initializes the timing core for KitchenSync. Must be called before using any actions.
*
* @param frameRateSeed must be a DisplayObject that is added to the display list.
* @param versionCheck a string for the version you think you're using. e.g. 1.2 This is recommended
*                                         but not required. It will throw an error if you're using the wrong version of KS.
*/
public static function initialize(frameRateSeed:DisplayObject, versionCheck:String = VERSION):void
{       
 
	if (_initialized) {
		throw new IllegalOperationError("KitchenSync has already been initialized.");
	}
	if (versionCheck != VERSION) {
		throw new Error ("Version check failed. Please update to the correct version or to continue using this version (at your own risk) put the initialize() method inside a try{} block.");
	}
 
	// Initialization code omitted
 
	_initialized = true;
}

My current configuration is Mac OS X 5.2 + TextMate 1.5.7 + Flex SDK 4.0.0.3504. I have two shell scripts in place:

1. /usr/bin/mxmlc
2. A TextMate run bundle set to a hotkey, “command + R”
3. I’ve also have my Flex SDK set to the absolute path of: /Developer/SDKs/Flex/4.0.0.3504

This configuration requires a flex-config.xml in the same directory as the AS3 class file that you’re compiling. When you run the TextMate script (or something similar in your Terminal shell) it will compile the filename you pass in and default to using a config.xml which acts as a local flex-config.xml file. All of these can be customized as needed.

Example Flash 10 3D cube rotation:

Obviously, the above swf won’t work without Flash player 10 installed.

Download the source here.

KitchenSync version 1.6 is released! Guess what feature it doesn’t have yet… That’s right! There is STILL NO Color Tweening (unless you count ColorMatrixFilter tweens which it does have). However, I hope I can crank out and release version 2.0 over the next two weeks which would have it.

Here are some of the features that 1.6 DOES have:

• Added a TweenFactory which provides an easy to use interface for creating new tweens including an object parser similar to FuseKit’s interface. You can now use something like:
  var tween:ITween = TweenFactory.newTween({target:foo, properties:"x:0~100, y:500~200", duration:"3seconds", scale:1~5});
• Altered KSTween to use multiple tween targets. Now includes methods like addTweenTarget(). This allows you to tween multiple properties with a single KSTween object!
• Added an optimized implementation of IAction called KSSimpleTween. This class showed a 25% performance increase over KSTween!
• Added SoundTransformTarget for changing volume or panning of a sound.
• Added new action groups including:
  • KSSimultaneousEndGroup which causes all children to end simultaneously. This is like a parallel group in reverse.
  • KSSteppedSequenceGroup for sequencing PowerPoint-like applications. This automatically pauses the group after each child is completed. Instant slideshow!
• Finished adding IAction interface. This allows more flexible and customized use of the synchronizer by allowing you to create actions without using the AbstractAction superclass.
• Also added ITween and ISynchronizerClient interfaces
• Changed the license from LGPL to MIT license.
• For a complete list, check out the ChangeLog!

To get the latest version, go to the Google Code project page. Thanks and enjoy!

Read!

*My dear grandmother is prone to use expressions like this.

Step 1: download the Flex 4 SDK and the Flash player 10 (debug version).

Step 2: Create a fresh config file that will target Flash player 10.

Step 3: Use MXMLC to compile your Actionscript or MXML file.

Step 4: Explore AS3 with Flash 10!

I’ve only tinkered around a bit at this point. But as soon as I get a chance to build a crazy app, I’ll have a more thorough write-up. So far, I’m quite excited at the new features. Be sure to read up on the following:

new Vector class

The inverse kinematics package

The new Shader class

The all new text engine package

Happy birthday to me. Adobe CS4 is scheduled to launch on my birthday, next Tuesday. To catch the unveiling, register here.

You’re having an awesome birthday bash and you send out an email to all your closest friends… that is, all your closest friends except ‘Ed’. Now you’re faced with the embarrassing situation of having to invite your friend Ed post-invitum. But don’t fret, here’s a simple solution that will save you loads of embarrassment!

Go from to

Step 1. Find the original email

Did you send a copy to yourself? Good! If not, check your sent folder. Not there? Ask your mom to forward the invite back to you.

Step 2. Forward to yourself and BCC your friend.

Click on the forward button. This time send it to yourself! In the BCC field put the name of the person (or people) you forgot. BCC stands for “blind carbon copy” and the names on this list won’t be listed so they’ll ony see your name listed.

Step 3. Delete “fwd:” from the subject line.

That’s a dead giveaway that you’re a loser and a fuck-up who doesn’t care about his friends.

Step 4. Remove the quote formatting.

You know the blue line that runs down the left side of the text that you’re forwarding? That’s the quote formatting. It may also appear as a “>” or some other symbol. Taking that stuff out is the last step in making your email look fresh.

If you’re using Mac Mail, just highlight the quoted text and press Command + Option + ‘ (apostrophe) until the blue line disappears.

Also make sure you remove the text that says “Begin forwarded message:”! Duh!

Step 5. Make sure it looks right and send!

If done properly, your email will look exactly like a brand new email and your friend will never know that you don’t really like them that much!