If you want to trace something in flash but you want to load the flash in a browser, you can rework your trace statements to display them with the Firebug extensions.

Instead of using trace() you can use the following:

var flash_variable = ‘testing 123′;
getURL(”javascript: console.log(’”+ flash_variable +”‘)”,”_self”);

These statements will appear in the Firebug console inside Firefox. For more options, you can view the full capabilities of the console: www.getfirebug.com/console.html

You could create a new function that automatically traces to both sources, but make sure it is not switched on by default, or it could cause problems and expose data to maliscious users. AP

Just a quick shoutout to say thanks to a few gun actionscript coders out there who are generously sharing their top-notch work…

• Shane McCartney / www.flashdynamix.com and specifically this great post on GIS mapping interfaces in actionscript
• blog.pixelbreaker.com - Mac Mousewheel scrolling in AS2 and SWFObject add-on: Size limiting for full window flash (my favourite)
• Mario Klingemann / Quasimondo - the legendary flash bitmapexporter: compress and save images through flash / actionscript
• Abdul Qabix - despite all the confusion, it turns out you can access bitmap data (BitmapData.draw()) on a different domain in Actionscript 2, you just need to manually call System.security.loadPolicyFile(”http://otherdomain.com/crossdomain.xml”) and the domain hosting the image must have a crossdomain file. (Flash loads it automatically for data, but not for images).
• JSON for AS2… we also made an update to the Actionscript 2 JSON class to fix ordering bug of object properties
• More coming soon…

What a wonderful industry we work in… Jon, thanks for clearing this up for us.

Enjoy Jon’s narrative on the web design-development process

3D Hardware Acceleration will revive Director Shockwave for Online Gaming - I’m putting my balls on the line here people by proclaiming that Director is coming back bigtime! As much as we would deny it, we’re all suckers for sexy 3D graphics, and the only way to do 3D properly online is with Director, because it (unlike Flash) supports hardware acceleration.

That’s not to say that the application in its current form has much of a future (bloated IDE, ~50% browser penetration, dwindling developer base, cross-platform projector issues) because as we all know, it hasn’t been getting a whole lot of love recently. However, it all comes down to giving people what they want. Online audiences are increasingly responding to online / portable / casual games - and the main way they are currently being delivered is with Macromedia Flash (I know it’s official by now, but Adobe Flash just doesn’t sound right for some reason).

But as much as we deny it, we’re all suckers for sexy 3D graphics, and the only way to do 3D properly online is with Director, because it (unlike Flash) supports hardware acceleration.

…so maybe the future of Director is not quite that rosy, but I am betting that the only thing that it really does uniquely (hardware accelerated 3D graphics) is alive and kicking. In the absense of any other promising platforms, I’m going to get stuck into lingo (thank the lord for javascript syntax) and take a one month actionscript-free diet.

And if it doesn’t end up working out that way, I guess I’ll see you at Centerlink!

(On the other hand, they could easily add 3D hardware acceleration to Flash, or Adobe Apollo, but I’m not holding my breath…)

References:

Director coming to Intel Macs, says Adobe