Read the article on Photon Storm

The article shows that Flash Player is already fairly optimized for graphical composition operations when compared to blitting. Both showed similar framerates. However, the cacheAsBitmap operation caused an exponential increase in memory consumption when the number of sprites on stage increased. Ironically, the comparison was run by the creator of the Pixel Blitz library who, I’m sure, had a difficult time presenting the results.

There are some good details in the article so if you’re interested, read the whole thing before you decide if you agree.

Have you done any work with bit blitting or sprite sheet animation? Have you found it to be beneficial? Tell us your thoguhts.

This version will not be backwards compatible, however, there’s finally some Decent Documentation!!! There’s also a new blog devoted to KS.

GO GET IT NOW!

Here’s some of the new features. You can view all of them by checking out the change log.

• Usability
  • REFACTORED all classes with usability and stability in mind.
  • UPDATED all ASDocs
  • ADDED several new methods in the TweenFactory for easy tween creation.
• Synchronizer and Time
  • REFACTORED The way time is handled throughout.
  • ADDED ISynchronizerCore and example core classes. This allows advanced users to switch between different methods of timing (e.g. enterframe or timer based)
  • ADDED FrameRateUtil for getting instantaneous and averaged framerates of the system. The FrameRateView now makes use of this class and has more options.
• Action Architecture
  • REFACTORED action classes and extracted several interfaces from them.
  • ADDED jumpToTime and jumpByTime functionality to actions.
  • ADDED Looping via a new group called KSLooper.
  • REMOVED complicated and rarely used action triggers from AbstractAction.
  • ADDED togglePause() method and progress variable to AbstractAction (for getting percentage complete of an action).
• Tweens
  • CHANGED constructors in KSTween. Emphasis is now on using TweenFactory.
  • IMPROVED Object parser in TweenFactory
• Action Groups
  • ADDED Syntactic sugar to the group constructors. using an array in the constructor for a parallel group adds a sequence and vice versa.
  • ADDED totalDuration to groups to show the duration of all child actions in a group.
  • ADDED KSRandomGroup.
  • REMOVED KSSteppedSequenceGroup because it seemed kinda useless.
• Loading Actions
  • REFACTORED Loading actions. Now they’re much easier to use and more powerful.
  • ADDED KSLoadQueue for quickly creating a class to load files from the network in a batch.
  • ADDED the resultList property to the ILoaderAction interface so that you can quickly access the loaded files in a batch.
• Misc
  • RENAMED several classes and reworked package structure
  • ADDED KSAsynchronousIteration for running processor-intensive for loops spaced out over a period of time so that they are essentially asynchronous.
  • FIXED several minor and major bugs.

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!

Prizes:

The top 3 entries will each recieve:

• Respect and admiration from your peers!
• Your demo will be posted (along with your name, company name, and link to your website) on the KitchenSyncLib project page at Google Code for no less than 6 months. Winners will also be announced on the dispatchEvent() blog viewed by thousands of cool, smart people like you every week.
• Your demo will be presented (with credits) as an example during the KitchenSync presentation at <head> web conference (and potentially at future conferences)
• Your lead developer will be made a contributor to the KitchenSyncLib project at google code.

The First Prize entry will also recieve:

• $100 USD cash!
  

The Second Prize will also recieve:

• A signed copy of the ActionScript 3.0 Bible

OK. I know it’s not much but this is an open source project. Anyway, FUN is the best prize of all!

Judging and Criteria:

Entries will be judged by the contributors to the KitchenSync project (and perhaps by vote on dispatchEvnet())

Entries must use KitchenSync version 1.5 or later. Custom variations may or may not be accepted.

Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• Use of features of KitchenSync including animation, sequencing, etc. Make something that shows off the KitchenSync libarary.
• Visual Pizazz! Make something that looks f*$@ing awesome.
• Performance. Demos that perform above 30fps on the average machine will be preferred.

Judges will choose the three best entries or fewer if they all suck or more if they are all awesome. Entrants that are not chosen may not be featured or contacted.

Guidelines for submitting:

Please send a zip file containing the following by email to contest@dispatchevent.org

• Finished, rendered SWF file for your demo.
• Source code and / or FLA files
• Max dimensions 600 x 600px. Max size 1MB.
• Keep total duration under a minute.
• Include in the body of the email
  • A brief description of your entry
  • Your Name
  • Your company’s name
  • A link to your site
  • Your contact information

Tips:

• Get the latest version of KitchenSync here.
• Don’t rely on non-system fonts or large media files.
• Use the latest version of KitchenSync and submit bug reports to the project site (i’ll probably fix them)

Deadline:

Submissions are due on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 12:00 PDT. Winners will be announced on www.dispatchEvent.org on or prior to Thursday, October 23rd, 2008.

Legal junk:

By participating the entrant waives all rights and ownership of the entry’s contents and the entry will become open source (if not already) as part of the KitchenSync library. As such, you may not submit anything that you do not own the rights to and you may not want to include special, proprietary code. Don’t worry, we won’t steal your code or use it for anything sinister, however, if you’re entry is selected, it will be used to promote KitchenSync and the source code may be made available to the public.

By participating in the contest, each participant agrees to release and hold KitchenSync, its creators, and the dispatchEvent() blog harmless from any and all losses, damages, rights, claims and actions of any kind in connection with or resulting from participation in the contest and/or acceptance, possession, or use of any prize(s) including, without limitation, personal injuries, death, property damages and any claims by third parties or otherwise based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy. Entrants acknowledge that Sponsor is not responsible or liable for any warranty, representation, or guarantee, express or implied, in fact or in law, relative to any Prize.

Essentially, if you plan on suing me over this, don’t enter.

Good luck and Thanks!

• Improved performance (50% faster!)
• Filter tweens
• Tween MovieClip animations on the timeline
• Use a KSSequenceGroup like a function queue

I’ll be posting some demos over the following days. In the meantime, check it out!

• Tweener
• TweenLite (and flavours)
• Boostworthy Animation System
• FuseKit
• Go
• and KitchenSync 1.1

Note: After some helpful feedback from readers (THANK YOU!) I added TweenLite to the list of libraries I reviewed. I should add here that these are fairly superficial observations about how things work and don’t go into incredible detail. If I steal any features, I’ll look closer ;-D

Keep the comments coming!

Tween Engine Comparisons (updated)