What’s Really the Deal With HTML5 and Flash?
October 20, 2011 in Technology
HTML5 (or, as it’s more commonly known ‘HTML’) is a hot-subject these days — in large part because of the ways in which it is seen as supplanting Adobe’s Flash [...]
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The State of Flash & Hardware Acceleration
April 25, 2011 in Technology
My off-grid Oregon antics notwithstanding, I’m putting the final touches on my talk for FITC Toronto next week. Entitled “Delivering the Best Flash HD Video: Stage Video and OSMF“, the talk covers a lot of different subjects relating to the new stage video feature in Flash Player 10.2, including hardware acceleration, the WMODE embed parameter, optimizing encoding for stage video — and, of course, how to use OSMF and/or Strobe Media Playback to benefit from Stage Video without learning any code at all.
Writing this talk gave me an execute to get better acquainted with some of the details of hardware acceleration in the Flash Player, which led me to post my latest installment in the State of the Flash series. “The State of Flash & Hardware Acceleration” covers the recent advances in how Adobe is exploiting the computing power available in local device hardware, and tries to put them into a bit of a longer term perspective.
The key bit of history:
Again, this has all been relatively recent. Adobe first made hardware acceleration available (via ActionScript) in full-screen mode with Flash Player 9.0.115 (when Adobe also added support for H.264 video to the Flash Player). They added hardware acceleration out of full-screen mode in Flash Player 10 (triggered by setting the WMODE embed parameter to “gpu” or “direct”). They further improved hardware acceleration in Flash Player 10.1, and also made it the default playback mode (unless overridden by another WMODE). And, with Flash Player 10.2, Adobe introduced the Stage Video feature (available via ActionScript, and ensured by setting the WMODE embed parameter to “direct”), which further improves the quality of the video you can deliver, and the graphics and animation that you can support at the same time.
See you next week in Toronto. Until then, share and enjoy!
-r
The State of Flash & Devices
April 19, 2011 in Technology
My latest post in the ‘State of the Flash‘ series is up on Almer/Blank Labs.
Entitled, ‘The State of Flash & Devices‘, I try to shatter some of the more popular bits of misinformation currently out there, and decipher exactly what people mean when they say “Flash runs on mobile”.
For those who want more information on this topic and will be in Los Angeles on May 11th, check out the free event that Almer/Blank is hosting, “The Truth about Flash and Devices”.
Share and enjoy!
-r
State of Flash Platform Design Workflows
February 3, 2011 in Technology
My third installment in my series on the “State of the Flash” is posted on A/B Labs. Entitled “Flash Platform Design Workflows“, my conclusion is:
So, as we stand here in 2011, I can say with great confidence that it has never been easier or faster to implement designs in Flash, nor has it been possible to do so with higher accuracy, than it is today; similarly, there is no other programming environment (with which you can make applications for desktop, web or mobile devices) that has a better workflow for integrating designs and content. In short, the Flash design workflow has never been stronger, and far exceeds that available with any other alternative technologies.
Share and enjoy!
-r
Overcoming Flash Platform Confusion
January 15, 2011 in Technology
My second post in the ‘State of the Flash’ series is up at Almer/Blank Labs. It’s not short, but if you’ve got a few and you’re interested, you can check out Overcoming Flash Platform Confusion.
When I last gave my ‘The State of the Flash’ talk in 2006, I included a section entitled a “What is Flash?”. Even when giving this talk to users of Flash, I found it surprising how core users of this technology were unable to answer this deceptively-simple question. It’s one thing when a potential client doesn’t understand what Flash actually is — it’s entirely another when your Flash guy doesn’t really understand what Flash actually is. And for years, this was, by and large, the case.
