Fear of Silverlight?

Since the announcement of Microsoft Silverlight I continue to read posts of flashers (being subscribed to mxna feed) attacking silverlight in various manner.. (here some links to these posts)
I must admit I don’t know silverlight at all. I just watched some online demos and downloaded some examples.
For what I’ve seen I don’t like it too (but just for personal feeling), but I also have to consider it’s the first (and beta) version….
Otherwise I think the vector rendering engine is more powerful than the flash one.

But why people fear of it? Does it because it’s a Microsoft stuff? Or just because it’s a possible Flash competitor?
Usually when someone attacks something, this means that you fear or it. But I don’t agree, I hope MS will continue the development of silverlight because competition can only be a benefit in a global market.
Don’t you agree with this?

Flashlite and python games for my Nokia

Last week I bought my new mobile and I got a Nokia N73 phone.
After the first days playing with themes and ring tones, as usual with new toys :), I installed Flashlite 2.1! I must admit I never used and seen it before… so I decided to make a first quick experiment making a simple game.
Lucky that Adobe Device Central CS3 has just been released, so I could test the swf in different environments (even if I didnt understand how phones flashlite versions could be changed in the device central phone list..).

Anyway, finally I made this simple tetris remake with flashlite 2.1.
If you want to broke your phone you can try install it from here:
[attachments size=small docid=989 fields=none force_saveas=”1″ logged_users=”0″]

I also followed some tuts about creating .sis installer (for symbian phones) from here and also trying using other tolls such as SWF2GO but unfortunately I wan’t able to do that 🙁

Python… oh python 🙂
Then I discovered that there is a python version for series 60 (PyS60). I couldn’t believe to my eyes when I opened the Python shell from the phone menu! LOL

So, why not trying to make something also with python?
After installing tons and tons of software from Nokia, tutorials and example files I finally managed to start creating simple apps. Also this time I started with a simple game (my second fav arcade game): Asteroids.
This time I also managed to create the .sis file, even if not with the suggested process with py2sis, but using only Ensymble with this command:
ensymble_python2.5-0.22.py py2sis asteroidz.py asteroidz.sis --uid=0xA0002E1F --appname=asteroidz --caps="NONE" --lang=EN --shortcaption="asteroidz" --cert=mycert.cer --privkey=mykey.key --passphrase=password --verbose --version=1.0.1
You can download the .sis file and the source directly here (it requires python series 60 1.3.20 already installed):

[attachments docid=990 force_saveas=”1″ logged_users=”0″]

Anyway, please note that this is incomplete, it’s merely a test just for understand the python graphical api from Nokia.

I just discovered a new world 🙂

New Flash player 9,0,45 & Flex patch

If you’re a Flex 2 developer you should download the newly released Flash player 9.0.r45 debug version.

Once installed the new player remember to apply also this patch to Flex builder 2, otherwise it will throw you an error every time debugging an app (expecially if you’re using Firefox).
This patch also does the following:

“This patch allows the Flex SDK and Flex Builder to use SWFs and SWCs created by Flash CS3 Professional. After applying the patch you should be able to take classes and symbols compiled with Flash CS3 Professional and compile them into a Flex application. You should also be able to take classes and libraries compiled with Flex and use them in a Flash CS3 Professional project.

In addition, this patch allows the Flex debugger (fdb) to function correctly with Flash Player 9 (9.0.45.0) in the Mozilla browser.”

Actionscript Image filtering experiments

I never worked so much on image filters with Flash and ActionScript, but due to the current project we’re working on we (me and Gabriele) started enjoying the image filtering with Flash.
Ok, there’s still so much to learn, but it’s the beauty of discovering new worlds 🙂
Even if for some multiple-pass filters the player is quite slow and so we need to make a step by step filter (applying the filter line per line).

However, here some of our experiments

genereAvventura finally in english!

Finally the italian guys at genereavventura.com finished the game translation into english! (see my previous post for the game presentation).
And if you ever played at “Day of the Tentacle” or some of the other old fashioned adventure game you must try it!

It must be really a great effort, in fact it took 6 months!
Play the english game: http://www.genereavventura.com

This is their official communication:
genereAvventura: The terrific menace of the Invaders from Audiogalaxy is out!

Having spent more than 3 years dedicating our free time to make this game, we proudly present version 1.0, which you can play directly on our website www.genereAvventura.com , now in English too!

General description

The terrific menace of the Invaders from Audiogalaxy (TTM, to name it briefly) is a project which has the purpose of achieving a game in Flash, playable directly via the web, and absolutely free.
It is supposed to have, above all, a complexity and longevity like those relatively early Adventure games that named this genre.
The authors, who loved, and still love, this type of game, wanted to pay homage to those masterpieces, by creating an original and independent story.
Anyway – throughout the game – it refers several times to all those games that had inspired it.

After a first period break, due to some members’ personal problems and because of the complexity of creating such a game, our team came back into action, re-thinking the purposes and the specifications of the game; for example the first things we had to eliminate was the possibility of solving some parts of the game without noticing it; in genereAvventura everything had to have a cause and a consequence.

The story

Turin 2010.
How original: an alien spaceship is approaching Earth.
A beam fired from this interstellar craft hits the home of an unassuming boy, abducting him and his computer.
Onboard the spaceship he awakens trapped within a strange sealed transparent cell, destined to unravel the terrific menace before him.
To stop the invading aliens and their musical evil plan (to enslave all humanity of course) our young hero will have to undertake an adventure through time, visiting musical legends in Turin, London, and even the legendary Woodstock!

Technical Part

TTM doesn’t rewrite history.
Visually, the game is similar to the strange and schizophrenic style of “Day of the Tentacle”, without overdoing distortions and perspective styles.
It has a vivid and saturated colouring, with different settings and styles.
The drawing style of the characters is variable, from light caricature to lacking in any anatomical sense.
It is supposed to be similar to some of the classics of this genre And to be easily recognizable.
Every personage has his or her own different character, sometimes hilarious, sometimes ironic.
People who have played “point and click” games will find the gaming methods and interfaces natural and usable.

It’s a charming experience!
Start surfing the website: you will discover this adventure, and will make you relive old pleasures.
Continue with the game: it will be familiar to those who played graphic adventures in the Nineties.
Come back to the site: there will be forums and exclusive downloads for you!

Come and try it! And let us know what you think about it!
www.genereAvventura.com

Flash CS3 announced (Euro prices too high?)

Finally Flash CS3 it’s here!
A lot of features have been included.. probably there are many reasons to upgrade, as they say:

Reasons to upgrade

– Adobe Photoshop® and Illustrator® import
– Animation conversion to ActionScript™
– Adobe interface
– ActionScript 3.0 development
– Advanced debugger
– Adobe Device Central CS3

– BUT –

I really cant understand why the US upgrade is $ 199 (this is what I currently read on the store), while in Euro it will be € 298 (which is $396).
So if I buy Flash CS3 upgrade in Euro, I will pay the double price than american people!
Bad, bad thing!!

FlashTracer 2 for Firefox 2.0.*

I dont know what happened to the link of my FlashTracer extensions on Mozilla extensions page.. it simply has been removed.
It’s a while I don’t visit the mozilla developers corner and so I dont know the reason.. probably I had to update the extension for the final release of Firefox2, and they removed the link from the database..

Anyway, now the developer area is inaccessible until they release the new addons site. For this reason, for who want to download again the flashtracer extension can use this link:

http://www.sephiroth.it/firefox/flashtracer

I’ve also added my site as updateURL for this extension, so I dont have to care anymore about mozilla  changes on their site…
The extension itself has no new features, just some little changes and an help panel too. I’ve added the possibility of open the flashtracer in a floating window, as someone requested.

P.S. Remember that you can find all the Adobe Flash debug player versions here:  http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html

UPDATE: A new flash tracer called fbtracer has been released. This new extension is integrated into Firebug. Read more here

Flex 2.0.1 SDK Hotfix 1 (bug fix)

Adobe just released an update for Flex 2.0.1 SDK, download it from http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=kb401224

Flex 2.0.1 SDK hotfix 1 (build 159086) is a collection of bug fixes that have been completed since the Flex 2.0.1 release on January 5, 2007. This hotfix release is being made available to Flex customers who are experiencing any of the issues described in this document and require the provided bug fixes. Installation of this hotfix release is not recommended for customers who are not experiencing one of the described issues.

Cell Renderers
192854 itemEditors on DataGrid don’t correctly commit data when dragEnable=true
192558 Combo renderer in a DataGrid causes problems on the DataGrid scroll
DataGrid
193316 DataGrid with headerRenderer and selectedIndices becomes uneditable
194284 DataGrid incorrectly focuses hScrollbar
194311 After clearing data from DataGrid, RTE occurs
183325 When set verticalScrollPolicy=”off” in datagrid, can’t move up/down to show more rows
192117 DataGrid whose width depends on the size change of Browser gets RTE
196149 DataGrid with lockedColumnCount incorrectly displays using vScrollbar
193106 Horizontal scrolling DataGrid cannot display the updated width
194972 DataGridColumn visibility=false doesn’t work (when set in mxml)
192466 The width of the last 2 columns is displayed narrower after horizontal scrolling
193641 If you resize the player window with a DataGrid with width=100%, the DataGrid’s last column continues to grow rather than showing more columns
192695 After horizontal scrolling, changing the width of DG updates the width of incorrect column
192694 Changing the width of DataGrid that is disappeared gets error (RTE)
192728 Using an itemRenderer as an editor may not update the dataProvider
195589 DataGrid with horizontalScrollPolicy cell and width behavior changed
193319 Change event doesn’t occur when moving the line using Enter and Tab key on DataGrid
195389 Tab key is functional even if scrollbar is focused
Debugging (Macintosh only)
193086 Once RTE is thrown and debug session is selected to be terminated, closing browser window does not let FB release debug session
Other
193354 CollectionChangeEventKind in CollectEvent.COLLECTION_CHANGE incorrect
192765 If you use MenuBar.dataDescriptor.setEnabled(…) on a top level item of a MenuBar, the item is not changed
126610 Binding to a static variable gives warning Unable to detect changes to ‘var’ and does not show changes
193102 Parent window becomes available after close grandchild Popup
194872 Update PhotoViewer sample README.html file with the additional compiler arguments needed to compile
Tree
192365 Selecting a node then collapsing its grandparent doesn’t move selection up to the grandparent
192347 RTE when tweening occurred while opening nodes in Tree (in Flex Explorer sample)

BTW, it seems they haven’t fixed the Nullpointer exception caused by invalid xmllists..