Learn Unity 3D & C# – From Basics to Advanced

Unity3D is a powerful suite of tools (Project IDE, Code IDE, run-time) for game development. Read my full articles of “Introduction to Unity3D” and “Tutorial Series: Unity3D & C#“.

There is incredible momentum in the Unity3D product and its community. Here is a look at key features of the latest release.

Top Unity3D 4.2 Features

My top 3 ‘Free Unity’ version features per category are here;

New platforms

• Windows Phone 8 (Yes!)
• Windows Store (Yes!)
• BlackBerry 10 (Yes!)

‘Free Unity’ Features (Formerly Pro Unity Features)

• Realtime shadows (one-directional light only; hard shadows only). (Yes!)
• Text-based serialization of materials, prefabs, scenes etc. for easier version control. (Yes!)
• NavMesh baking (OffMeshLinks still require Pro).

Graphics

• OpenGL for Android
• Shuriken Collision Event Callback Scripting
• (None)

Editor

• Preset Libraries: Create new libraries and save. (Yes!)
• Platform switching, player building and asset importing can now be cancelled.
• (None)

See Unity’s official 4.2 announcement here.

Want More Video Tutorials?

We are currently creating tons of new training content for Unity3D.

Learn Unity 3D & C# – From Basics to Advanced

Unity3D is a powerful suite of tools (Project IDE, Code IDE, run-time) for game development.

As always, RivelloMultimediaConsulting.com/unity/ will be the central location for deep articles and tutorials, Facebook.com/RivelloMultimediaConsulting (like us!) will engage the growing RMC+Unity community, and for the latest opinions and cool links follow me at Twitter.com/srivello.

There is incredible momentum in the Unity3D product and its community. Here is a look at key announcements.

Top Unity3D Announcements

• 1. November 2007 – The Unity3D.com Blog section launches (link)
• 2. January 2009 -Unity targets iOS/Android – Develop for iOS ($400 upgrade) and Android ($400 upgrade) (link) and in 2013 many app award winners prove to be created in Unity (link)
• 3. October 2009 – Pricing Update – Unity offers a free ‘Indie’ License to target desktop games (link)
• 4. 2012 – Unity adds support for Adobe’s Flash Player – Develop for the browser with the popular Flash plugin  (link) and support for  Nintendo WiiU & Xbox360  – Develop for consoles (link) and adds support for Sony Platforms – Develop for Sony’s PS3 (and now PS4, PS-Vita, and PlaystationMobile too) (link)
• 5. November 2012 – Unity 4.0 Launches – With many new features and a slick UI update (link)

Top Unity3D Announcements of 2013

• 6. 2013 - Unity targets Ouya – Develop for the new Android based Ouya console (link)
• 7. April 2013 - Unity removes support for Adobe’s Flash Player – Unity will no longer support to target to Flash Player (link)
• 8. May. 2013 – Pricing Update - Unity offers a free ‘Indie’ License to target iOS & Android games (link)
• 9. May. 2013 – Pricing Update - Unity offers a free ‘Pro’ License for 75$ per month (link)
• 10. Jul. 2013 – IDE Popularity – Unity’s IDE reaches 2 million users (link)
• 11. Jul. 2013 – IDE Version Update – Unity IDE 4.2 Released (RMC Link)
• 12. Aug. 2013 – Unity Blog Announces – Unity IDE 4.3 Will Feature Native 2D (link)
• 13. Aug. 2013 – Unite 2013 Conference Keynote – All The Highlights Are Here (link)

What Is Next?

• Site Features – I’m incredibly impressed with Unity3d.com’s training section. The scope of coverage is large and the price (free), quality, and consistency of the material is unparalleled from any game development platform I’ve seen. Obviously more content will be rolled out over time.
  
• Product Features – Unity is currently at a very stable and capable version 4.x. What new features could be announced next?
• Targets – Unity is agressive in its strategy to offer developers the most compelling platforms on which to publish content. While XBox One will likely be announced, others targets may surprise us.
• Pricing – Unity has shifted wildly (and favorably) in its pricing structure. While the current options seem pretty complete, history shows us that more changes are very likely.

Want More Video Tutorials?

We are currently creating tons of new training content for Unity3D.

I recently covered an Introduction To Adobe Game Developer Tools. With excitement and momentum (created primarily by Stage3D and its Starling Framework) we see proactive, positive marketing by Adobe for gaming and the Flash Platform. The community hopes this will help keep the Flash Platform in the minds of business leaders and developers as a viable technology for new projects.

Adobe recently announced the details for the annual Adobe Max conference. Thankfully, in 2013 we see a focus on gaming.

Adobe Max 2013

Adobe MAX 2013 will be at the L.A. Convention Center & Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on May 4 – 8, 2013

(From Adobe Marketing:) Adobe MAX is all about creativity and expressiveness. If you create, you won’t want to miss MAX. Designers, developers, strategists, video professionals, photographers, and more all come to MAX to exchange ideas and inspiration. Together with industry pros and visionaries, you’ll learn about the latest technologies, techniques, and strategies for delivering your best creative work. Come to MAX and explore how creativity is changing the word and what part you have to play in that change. And every full conference MAX pass includes a one year membership to Adobe Creative Cloud*

Adobe Max 2013: Gaming Sessions

Here are the game-related sessions we can look forward-to;

Next Steps

• Read my recent Introduction: Adobe Game Developer Tools article
• See the full Adobe Max 2013 list of sessions
• We at RMC are excited to collaborate with you. We are experts in Flash Platform Gaming, and more. Not sure if HTML5, Unity, or Flash is right for your next project? Just ask!

Over the past year I’ve been learning more HTML5 frameworks. Frequent leaders of our site here may remember I’ve done some analysis on HTML5 Game Frameworks as well as HTML5 App Frameworks. A major significant lack in the HTML5 ‘solution’ is the limitations of JavaScript. I was delighted to come across the official Adobe Roadmap (See ‘Members Resources’ below) for the FlashPlatform. An exciting inclusion in the roadmap is what’s up for “ActionScript Next” (Codename) or as I choose to call it ActionScript 4.0.

UPDATE (June, 2012): Adobe announces the plan for concurrency in Flash Player and AIR – Workers.

UPDATE (January, 2013): ActionScript “Next” (aka 4.0 as I call it here) has been explicitly removed from the Adobe Roadmap.

UPDATE (August, 2013): The offerings in ActionScript are vast, but to see a more powerful language, I recommend to take a look at C# in my free, HD video training series on “Unity3D & C#“. Check it out!

ActionScript 4

The range of applications and content for ActionScript has shifted significantly in recent years, while the ActionScript 3 language remains virtually unchanged since its introduction in 2006. Adobe believes it is time to revise the language to carefully steer its further evolution towards greater expressiveness as well as productivity and performance gains.

From a language design standpoint, Adobe uses the following assumptions as a guide for next-generation ActionScript development:

• Increasing demand for long-term productivity benefits such as robustness, modularity, and maintainability to complement shorter-term productivity benefits characteristic of scripting languages, such as speed of development
• Demand for high performance increases
• Demand for hardware utilization increases

First, Adobe plans to make significant performance increases in the short term with a goal of continuing performance improvements over the long term. Performance is the primary goal when we approach how to evolve ActionScript. Second, Adobe aims to increase developer productivity by simplifying the language, improving tool support, and boosting bug prevention. Finally, having reduced unnecessary complexity, we will be in a position to innovate within the Flash runtimes much more quickly.

Features Currently In Discussion;

• Stringent static typing as default, with optional dynamic typing: Most stretches of most programs are expected to benefit from static typing. However, ActionScript 3 tends to lapse into dynamic typing all too easily in places where absolutely stringent static typing would be preferable. This will be corrected. Dynamic typing will still be available when needed, but it will no longer be the default for ActionScript, and it will need to be enabled explicitly.
• Type inference: Type declarations will only be necessary in certain strategic places. Everywhere else the compiler will automatically infer suitable type declarations and treat the whole program as statically typed, even though the programmer does not have to state any types. Thus the convenience of untyped programming can be approximated quite well, while providing the performance advantages of typed programming.
• Hardware-oriented numeric types: For example, int , uint , float , float4 , byte , short , long , etc. (the exact set of types is still under discussion). Currently in ActionScript 3 integer values can overflow into floating point values. This will be changed so that numeric operations will never change the underlying representation of the numeric. We foresee this addition greatly reducing implementation complexity and improving runtime performance.

These are just a couple of areas that we are focusing on. We will update this document as our thinking evolves and solidifies around how the language and virtual machine will change.

Compatibility

Its is stated that AS4 will not be completely compatible with AS3. So maybe there will be a compiler option and one must choose EITHER one or the other (similar to the mutual exclusive option between AS3 and AS2. Depending on the amount of changes in AS4 we may see a new virtual machine inside the player designed to run only the AS4. Currently there are two VM’s – one for AS3 and one for older ActionScript.

Wishlist

Many developers have been dreaming (ex. here & here) of features for ActionScript for ages. Some features I would love to see;

• Abstract Classes with Abstract Methods (ASL-18) – Well, do I have to have to say something about that wish? Basically abstract classes are such an essential thing, I am still wondering how Action Script made it to 3.0 without them. Just documenting which Methods must be overridden is not enough. And the known workarounds are really… well… hm… forget it – this is a compiler thing, which cannot be checked at runtime.
• Generics (FP-811) – The Vector class is a good start – but it’s not well supported in Flex 3 (keyword: data binding) and it’s not a generic concept. There should be something like Generics in Java that provide type checking at compile time, but can also be used for any custom class, just like in Java.
• Enums – While I have a (almost) perfect workaround for Enums in AS3, it would be great to see native language support.
• Singletons – I have a fantastic workaround for Singletons in AS3
• Improved ‘Event Listener’ syntax and performance. I like the features offered by the AS3-Signals project.
• Operator Overloading (ASL-10) – Still missing it in Java and this is, where Action Script could actually beat Java. I don’t want to have another equals method for comparing arbitrary classes for equality – I want to be able to simply override the == operator to be able to compare any two objects for equality. Or the + operator for concatenating two data structures. Just like in C++ or smalltalk.
• Method Overloading (ASL-9) – While ActionScript provides an easy way to simplify methods with long parameter lists using default values for parameters it’s not enough to justify not having method overloading. I do not want to have to write methods like doSomethingWithString(value:String), doSomethingWithInt(value:int), doSomethingWithObjectA(value:ObjectA),…

ActionScript 4.0 Code Samples (A Proposal)

AbstractClassDemo

package
{
	//class must be subclassed before instantiation
	abstract public class AbstractClassDemo
	{
		public function AbstractClassDemo()
		{
		}
	}
}

AbstractMethodDemo

package
{
	public class AbstractMethodDemo
	{
		public function AbstractMethodDemo()
		{
		}

		//Method must be overridden before usage
		abstract public function sampleMethod () : void
		{
		}
	}
}

DestructorDemo

package
{
	public class DestructorDemo
	{
		//constructor
		public function DestructorDemo()
		{
		}
		//destructor, called upon instance deletion
		public function ~DestructorDemo()
		{
		}
	}
}

Enums

package
{
	public enum EnumSample
	{
		ENUM_SAMPLE_A;
		ENUM_SAMPLE_B;
	}
}

package
{
	public class EnumDemo
	{
		public function EnumDemo()
		{
			trace (ENUM_SAMPLE_A); //[EnumSample ENUM_SAMPLE_A]
			trace (ENUM_SAMPLE_B); //[EnumSample ENUM_SAMPLE_B]
			trace (ENUM_SAMPLE_A is EnumSample); //true
                        trace (ENUM_SAMPLE_A is EnumSample); //true
                        trace (ENUM_SAMPLE_A == ENUM_SAMPLE_B); //false
		}
	}
}

GenericsDemo

package
{
	public class GenericsDemo <AGE_TYPE, NAME_TYPE>
	{
		private var _age  : AGE_TYPE;
		private var _name : NAME_TYPE;

		public function GenericsDemo(AGE_TYPE : aAge, NAME_TYPE, aName)
		{
			_age 	= aAge;
			_name 	= aName;

			//Later, in use, declare types at runtime for the generic
			//var genericsDemo : GenericsDemo<Float,String> = new GenericsDemo<Float,String> (10.0, "Flash");
		}
	}
}

MethodOverloadingDemo

package
{
	public class MethodOverloadingDemo
	{
		public function MethodOverloadingDemo()
		{

			//The implementation of this AS3 Syntax
			//	can now be overloaded in AS34
			_sampleMethod();
			_sampleMethod(10.0);
			_sampleMethod("10.0");
		}

		/**
		 *
		 * @return void
		 *
		 */
		override public function _sampleMethod () : void
		{
			trace ("Parameters - None");
		}

		/**
		 *
		 * @return void
		 *
		 */
		override public function _sampleMethod (aValue_float : Float) : void
		{
			trace ("Parameters - Float: " + aValue_float);
		}

		/**
		 *
		 * @return void
		 *
		 */
		override public function _sampleMethod (aValue_str : String) : void
		{
			trace ("Parameters - string: " + aValue_string);
		}

	}
}

NumericTypesDemo

package
{
	public class NumericTypesDemo
	{
		public function NumericTypesDemo()
		{
			//specificity helps ram usage
			var sample_int 		: int 	= 10;
			var sample_uint 	: uint 	= 10;
			var sample_float 	: Float = 10.0;
			var sample_float4 	: Float4= 10.0;
			var sample_byte 	: Byte 	= 1;
			var sample_short 	: Short = 10;
			var sample_long		: Long 	= 10;
		}
	}
}

OperatorOverloadingDemo

<pre>package
{
	public class OperatorOverloadingDemo
	{
		public function OperatorOverloadingDemo()
		{
			//The implementation of this valid AS3 Syntax
			//	can now be overloaded in AS34
			this +  10.0;
			this -  10.0;
			this * 	10.0;
			this /  10.0;
			this == 10.0;
			this += 10.0;
			this -= 10.0;
			this *= 10.0;
			this /= 10.0;

			//Etc...

		}

		/**
		 * Add
		 *
		 * @return Float
		 *
		 */
		override public function operator== (aValue_float : Float) : Float
		{
			//	Mimic default implementation
			if (super.operator==(aValue_float) ) {
				return true;
			} else {
				return false;
			}
		}

		/**
		 * Add
		 *
		 * @return Float
		 *
		 */
		override public function operator+ (aValue_float : Float) : Float
		{
			//	Mimic default implementation
			this = super.operator+(aValue_float);
			return this.toFloat();
		}

		/**
		 * Etc...
		 *
		 *
		 */

	}
}

SingletonDemo

package
{
	public class SingletonDemo
	{
		//private constructor mean 'Singleton'
		private function SingletonDemo()
		{
		}
	}
}

StaticTypingDemo

package
{
	public class StaticTypingDemo
	{
		public function StaticTypingDemo()
		{
			//compiler determines type by default
			var sample1 = 10;
			trace ("sample1: " + sample1); 	//10
			trace (sample1 is uint); //true

			var sample2 = -10;
			trace ("sample2: " + sample2); 	//-10
			trace (sample2 is int); //true

			var sample3 = 10.0;
			trace ("sample3: " + sample3); 	//10.0
			trace (sample3 is Float); 		//true

			//dynamic type in strategic places
			var sample4 : int = 10.0 as int;
			trace ("sample4: " + sample4); 	//10
			trace (sample4 is int); 		//true

		}
	}
}

Next Steps

• What would you like to see in AS4? Comment below!
• Download the Official Adobe Roadmap for Flash / ActionScript 4.0 (See ‘Member Resources’ below)

Member Resources

Unity3D & C# Training

The offerings in ActionScript are vast, but to see a more powerful language, I recommend to take a look at C#.

Some powerful C# features we love are;

• Struct
• Partial Classes
• True Singleton (private constructor)
• Ref/Out
• Full Generics (AS3 has only Vector)
• Delegates/Actions/Predicates/Lamda
• Threads
• Extension Methods,
• Operator Overloading,

All of these features and more, plus Unity3D & C# best practices are included in my free, HD video training series on “Unity3D & C#“. Check it out!

On a recent project, we had a performance problem. The AIR project’s requirements include the heavy adding/removing of UI elements and over time we could easily see the performance slowed. We knew there was a something wrong. It was a memory leak. A memory leak starts when an object is stored in memory but cannot be accessed by the running code. When the undesired object cannot be freed from memory, and is not usable, it is a leak. Over time the application may leak (or re-leak the same issue) more and more. Eventually the application may show signs of the leak or even become unusable.

User Experience Symptoms Of  A Memory Leak

• During regular use the application becomes more and more sluggish/slow. If there is nothing ‘new happening’ onscreen and no heavy ‘rendering’ it is more obvious to notice the Framerate-per-second (FPS) lower. You can use a small debug window (such as Hi-Res-Stats formerly MrDoobs Stats) to show the current FPS and estimated ram usage to help you notice this. If you see the FPS run at 30 for example during the first minute of use and 20 after 5 minutes, there may be a memory leak.
• The application quits suddenly. This could be for many reasons, but it may be that the application runs out of memory.
• Flash throws the memory-specific error ‘flash.errors.MemoryError’

Profiling To Find Evidence Of A Memory Leak

• Run your application with the Flash Builder Profiler. Run -> Profile As… -> etc…
• Watch the ‘Memory Usage’ Panel
• Look at the curves of Peak Memory (Red) and Current Memory (Blue). The analysis is totally application dependent. In your particular application, if you expect memory not to grow, but you see it grow, that is a problem. If you expect the memory to drop (UI removed from stage, arrays and vectors emptied, etc…) and you don’t see it drop, that is a problem. Herein lies the art of memory profiling. Consider to add a button to ‘Reset Application’, then click it and see that indeed the Current Memory drops to zero (0).
• Watch the ‘Live Objects’ panel. Compare the 1. ‘Cumulative Instances’ and 2. ‘Instances’. For each object. #1 shows the total objects every created since the application started and #2 shows only those currently in memory. If these numbers are the same, and should not be, that is a problem. Perhaps you feel you have deleted a sprite from the stage or deleted another object from memory yet it still exists.

Tools And Tips For Finding And Fixing Memory Leaks (Must Read!)

• Memory Tracker – http://divillysausages.com/blog/tracking_memory_leaks_in_as3.
• Solving Memory Leaks (FANTASTIC!) - http://www.tikalk.com/flex/solving-memory-leaks-using-flash-builder-4-profiler

Example 1: Without Memory Leak

package
{
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;

	//USE A LOW FRAMERATE, SO WE CAN STUDY CLOSELY
	[SWF(frameRate="1")]
	public class MemoryLeakDemo extends Sprite
	{

		private var listOfDots_vector:Vector.<CustomDot>;
		public function MemoryLeakDemo()
		{
			//REPEAT SOME CODE EVERY SECOND
			addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _onEnterFrame);

			//CREATE A LIST
			listOfDots_vector = new Vector.<CustomDot>();
		}

		protected function _onEnterFrame(event:Event):void
		{
			//EVERY FRAME WE...

			//1. CREATE A NEW 'DOT' (A Red Circle Sprite)
			//MEMORY NOTE: 	'var' is a temporary variable.
			//So CustomDot has 0 (permanent) references
			var customDot : CustomDot = new CustomDot();

			//2. ADD TO THE STAGE
			//MEMORY NOTE: 	So CustomDot has 1 (permanent) reference; 'this'
			addChild(customDot);

			//3. REMOVE TO THE STAGE
			//MEMORY NOTE: 	So CustomDot has 0 reference
			removeChild(customDot);

			//So...
			//THERE IS NO LEAK
			//The GC will *mark* the 'customDot' as having 0 references and
			//The GC will *sweep* it away from memory.

		}

	}
}

Example 2: With Memory Leak

package
{
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;

	//USE A LOW FRAMERATE, SO WE CAN STUDY CLOSELY
	[SWF(frameRate="1")]
	public class MemoryLeakDemo extends Sprite
	{

		private var listOfDots_vector:Vector.<CustomDot>;
		public function MemoryLeakDemo()
		{
			//REPEAT SOME CODE EVERY SECOND
			addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _onEnterFrame);

			//CREATE A LIST
			listOfDots_vector = new Vector.<CustomDot>();
		}

		protected function _onEnterFrame(event:Event):void
		{
			//EVERY FRAME WE...

			//1. CREATE A NEW 'DOT' (A Red Circle Sprite)
			//MEMORY NOTE: 	'var' is a temporary variable.
			//   So CustomDot has 0 (permanent) references
			var customDot : CustomDot = new CustomDot();

			//2. ADD TO THE STAGE
			//MEMORY NOTE: 	So CustomDot has 1 (permanent) reference; 'this'
			addChild(customDot);

			//2B. CREATE ANOTHER REFERENCE TO THE DOT
			listOfDots_vector.push(customDot);

			//3. REMOVE TO THE STAGE
			//MEMORY NOTE: 	So CustomDot has 0 reference
			removeChild(customDot);

			//So...
			//THERE *IS* A LEAK
			//While we are correctly calling removeChild
			//There is a reference left in '2B' above.

		}

	}
}

Next Steps

• Download the code and check it out! (See Member Resources)
• Comment below with your thoughts.
• NOTE: Flash Builder 4.7 (BETA2) has new Profiler called “Monocle“. It looks very exciting, yet this article focuses on the currently available (non-BETA) profiler.

Member Resources

THE CHOICES

Software development has gone mobile. We see a large audience using smartphones and tablets, and as developers/marketers/entrepreneurs we want in. When planning such a project there are myriad decisions.

CHOOSE – THE PLATFORM

The choice of target platform (e.g. iOS) and target device (e.g. iPad2) is a primary consideration. Apple’s iOS hits the majority of the market but with time others will mature and may offer more competition. Moreover to hit your market you may be best served to offer your software to more than one platform and more than one device-per-platform. Quite quickly a rather conservative project can target 5-10 unique pieces of hand-held hardware.

CHOOSE – THE DEVICE

Each device offers unique features. The market-penetration, platform, processor-speed, input-capabilities, screen-size, and other factors are all important. Two major form-factor camps are ‘phone’ size and ‘tablet’ size. There is some overlap between these categories such as the Samsung Galaxy 1000.

CHOOSE – THE MONETIZATON

There are many monetization schemes possible. Here are a few of the popular ones;

• Free – To gain experience and reputation.
• Freemium – Offer a free version and market within the experience for a pay-version with more features.
• Ads – Integrate video ads, animated ads, or still ads into the experience.
• Micro-transactions – Offer bite-sized purchase opportunities which enhance the experience.

CHOOSE – THE DEVELOPMENT PATH

When the platform(s) and device(s) have been chosen, the path to develop must be chosen. In general there are two strategies

a) Native App Development – This means you use the 1st-party language (and tools) offered by the platform creators. This means using XCode tool with Cocoa framework coded with the Objective-C language when developing for iOS. Native development generally offers the very best potential performance (i.e. for high-end gaming) and tightest integration to the devices (e.g. detect battery level, etc…) and OS/marketplaces (e.g. iOS in-app-purchase).

b) Non-Native App Development – Many 3rd parties offer code libraries and tools to ‘speed up development’. Some of these are in the native language and some are not. Some of these non-native solutions offer the ability to ‘code once (so to speak) and deploy to multiple platforms’.

c) Mobile Web Development – Instead of a standalone application, an experience can be made available via web-browser and development to fit the size of the target (mobile) device(s). With HTML5 much is possible, but in general this is used for less-expressive less-device-specific experiences. It can also be a very inexpensive way to ‘break into mobile’, as you can use assets/code from your existing website..

CROSS-PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT

While the ability to develop one project for multiple platforms offers many advantages in saved development time and ease in maintenance, it also offers many challenges. Designing a compelling application that takes advantage of the unique features of each device and looks polished on the dizzying array of screen sizes out there can be daunting. For Flash-To-Mobile there are many resources on Adobe’s Mobile Devnet to help you learn the basics.

BACKEND

It is possible for an application to be self contained, including all data/assets with the original install. This is common for games. However many projects require internet connectivity. The data/assets loaded can reside on existing servers outside of your control, or can reside on your own servers. Custom backend solutions using typical backend languages (c++, Java, PHP, Python, etc…) may also be required. All of this depends on your particular project. In general any of the development-paths can contact any of these backend solutions, but some may connect more easily than others.

EXAMPLE…

Let’s assume you have a great new game and want to capture a ‘big audience’ with ‘modest investment’. If the application does not require deep-device-integration a recommended choice is to target both iOS (iPad1/iPad2, iPhone3G/iTouch3G, iPhone4G/iTouch4G) and Android (various devices). If your team has Flash expertise the Flash-To-Mobile publish path may be ideal.

FLASH-TO-MOBILE

With Flash CS6 and more-so Flash Builder 4.6, Flash/Flex developers can publish ONE codebase to MULTIPLE platforms. Using Adobe’s AIR 2.7 (latest public release) you can develop many platforms & Devices.

Compatible Target Platform/Devices: Web-Browser (Mac+Windows+Linux+Non-iOS Mobile Browsers), Desktop (Mac+Windows+Linux), iOS (Ipad1+Ipad2, iPhone+iTouch 3rd Generation, iPhone+iTouch 4rd Generation-Retina), Android (Myriad Devices), Blackberry Tablet OS (Blackberry Tablet).

Supported Flash-To-Mobile Device-Specific Features: Flash-To-Mobile does offer view-persistance, data-persistance, video playback, still-camera capture, still-camera-roll save/load, internet access, in-app web-browsing, accelerometer/gyroscope, Microphone, Geolocation, Multitouch, File-system access. Not all devices offer the same features. In the future ‘Native Extensions’ (see below) offer a solution.

Project Setup: A recommended options is one bulky Flex Library with (most) all code and assets, and then one Flex Project *PER PLATFORM*. You add/edit to the library and publish each of the projects as needed. You can test with an mobile-emulator (fastest) window that appears on your computer, or on the device via USB (best to test hardware features like accelerometer. The ‘flash’ code is converted to ‘native code’ (so to speak) before deployment.

Deployment: Upon completion the platform-specific file is uploaded to the platform-specific marketplace (e.g. iTunes’ App Store for iOS). A Flash-to-Mobile project sits along-side native applications. Ostensibly users have no idea the application was developed with non-native tools. The marketplaces do not delineate this or otherwise make that info available in any way to users. The end-user experience can be indistinguishable from a native app (project type and project polish depending).

NATIVE EXTENSIONS

In light of the ‘Device-Specific’ features listed above, Flash-to-mobile currently leaves us without everything we may want to do (e.g. iOS in-app-purchase). The yet unreleased (release date is ‘early October 2011′) Adobe AIR 3.0 will include ‘Native Extensions’. In short, this allows for *ANY* Flash-to-mobile project to access *ANY* feature on *ANY* supported device (Android / iOS / Blackberry Tablet). Developer will require knowledge of both AS3 (flash) as well as the Native language(s) on the target device(s) to add new features. Or your team can find free and premium extensions which the community could share. This is not just for mobile, this technology will also allow AIR on desktop computers and AIR on TV’s to integrate with those devices too.

LINKS

Native Mobile Development

• Google Android
• Apple iOS
• Blackberry Tablet OS

Marketplaces

• iOS App Store (iTunes)
• Google’s Android Marketplace
• Amazon’s Android Marketplace

Non-Native Mobile Development – Flash-To-Mobile

• Flash-To-Mobile (Using Flash and/or Flex) for iOS/Android/Blackberry Tablet OS… also Desktop/TV/Browser
• Success Bringing Flash Games to iOS
• AIR 2.6 (Available in Full Release) – Commonly in use today.
• AIR 3.0 (Available in Public Beta Now) – Offering Native Extensions and more.
• Example of Best-Seller Flash-To-Mobile Game for iOS
• Example of Best-Seller Flash-To-Mobile App for iOS
• Flash-To-Mobile for iOS – Using SWC files to build large Flash and AIR projects with multiple SWF files

Non-Native Mobile Development – Others

• Corona for iOS/Android
• Corona vs Adobe AIR (Great Article)
• RhoMobile for iOS/Android
• Appcelerator for iOS/Android
• Mosync for iOS/Android
• Phonegap for HTML5 Mobile-Browsers

THE FUTURE

Some of what is coming in the future is listed below.. This may or may not all be included in the very-next tools. Recently Adobe has announced What’s new in Flex 4.6 SDK and Flash Builder 4.6.

I. The Second Coming (Halleluiah) – Flash-To-Mobile Native Extensions

This future feature will ostensibly allow Flash-To-Mobile projects to access *ANY* feature on *ANY* targeted device (e.g. in-app-purchase on iOS).

• Adobe AIR 3.0 Native Extension – Explained!
• Adobe AIR 3.0 Native Extension – Demo Mapview on iOS
• Adobe AIR 3.0 Native Extension – Tutorial 1
• Adobe AIR 3.0 Native Extension – Tutorial 2

Updated Febrary 23, 2012: See Here…

II. The Second Coming (Halleluiah) – Stage3D

Stage3D (Formerly codenamed ‘Molehill’) is a set of API’s available in the future that will ostensibly allow Flash Browser projects (using Flash Player 11) and Flash-To-Mobile projects (using Adobe AIR 3.0) to show high-grade hardware rendered 3D. Finally, the Flash Platform can truly compete as a 3D gaming engine. The same API (despite the name) can also be used for radically improved 2D gaming performance too.

NOTE: These API’s are low-level and challenging to understand. We expect 3rd parties will wrap this functionality with easy-to-use API’s for free/premium use.

• Stage3D – Explained!
• Stage3D – Demo!
• Stage3D – How-To! (For 3D Gaming)
• Stage3D – How-To! (For 2D Gaming)
• Unreal Releases ‘Citadel’ – The first interactive demo of UNREAL engine running in Flash Player.
• BlackSun Game for Stage3D

Update March 10, 2012: See Here…

III. The Second Coming (Halleluiah) – Air 3.2 = Stage3D for Mobile + Many Stage3D Frameworks

So with AIR 3.2  (See Adobe Press Release) we can use Stage3D for mobile. This means GPU-Accelerated graphics on iOS/Android. I think there is a marketable benefit on getting the Flash Player to compete against other 3D gaming solutions (such as Unity3D) and perhaps compete less with emerging 2D gaming solutions (such as HTML5 gaming) so I can sympathize with Adobe’s (better late than never) focus on 3D for Flash. This article “Why Starling (or any other 2D framework on top of Stage3D)?” explains some really good reasoning.

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Mind-blowing Demo’s of AIR 3.2 on mobile

• Five AIR 3.2 Stage3D Mobile Demos That Will Knock Your Socks Off 
• Spaced Away is the first game in the iOS app store to feature Stage3D by developers Falanxia.

Regardless of why, Stage3D is here, and Starling’s power lies in how it uses the Stage3D – first available in Flash 11 and AIR 3.0. Stage3D is designed for GPU accelerated 3D. While its possible to use the Stage3D API’s directly, it is very difficult. There are 3D frameworks for AS3 , but for many game developers we can exploit its power for 2D gaming. That’s why Starling focuses purely on 2D. So an API like Starling helps developers make great content – quickly.

AS3 frameworks use Stage3D for 3D gaming;

• Flare3D,
• Alternativa3D,
• Away3D,
• Minko

AS3 frameworks use Stage3D for 2D gaming;

• Starling
• ND2D
• M2D
• AtomEngine
• Citrus Engine (Recently Upgraded To Stage3D)

Key Articles I’ve written on the subject

• Intro To the Starling Framework (Read It!)
• Angry Birds Launches on Facebook with Starling

Stage3D Games

Spaced Away

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Falanxia brings its FWA Award –winning space physics puzzle game to both iPad and your web browser.

Play game Learn more

Angry Birds Facebook

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Join your friends on Facebook to take out Rovio’s famous pigs with enhanced special effects.

Play game Learn more

Waste Invaders

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Waste Creative’s tech demo lets you blast aliens at a silky smooth 60 fps, across browsers and iPad, with Stage3D.

Show demo Get the source

The Alternativa3D 3rd-party 3D engine for the Flash Platform recently announced it is going open source after 6 years of closed development. An example of this kick-ass engine is the recent release of LastStand Deadzone for Facebook.

The source code is published on the GitHub, and support can be found on the Knowledge Base and community discussion can be found on the forum.

No concrete reasons are given for the change to open source.

The Alternativa company hopes that the community will continue to use and extend the engine. It hopes this is only the beginning of a new life for the engine.

Going Open Source (Is Not Evil)

Going open source is interesting. Open source is the philosophy which promotes free distribution of a code-base and the community involvement to modify that code-base. Many AS3 projects start as open source and I think the general reception is ‘wow, thanks for starting this project, I may use it, and maybe I’ll even help extend it’. However the community response seems to be quite different if a close project exists for some time as a closed project and then goes open source. It feels to many like the project which was ‘created for my use for free’ now has been ‘abandoned’.

The community reaction to the Adobe Announcement that Flex went open source was strongly negative. Same when the popular Pushbutton Engine was recently rebranded as the community-based ‘Smash‘ game engine.

These fear based reactions are reasonable. The feeling is that what was once taken for granted as a concrete cared-for project now has a questionable future. However like most fear based reactions they are not beneficial reactions.  Project owners are free to chose if/when they release a project open source, and the community can care for a project or choose an alternative. The power is in the hands of the community.

Conversely, and open source project that becomes closed and introduces fees to the community (I have no examples of that) is indeed sad. But that is not the case here.

Stay Tuned

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What do YOU Think?

• Is going open source good or bad?
• Please comment below.

So…

On March 28th, 2012 Adobe Announced “Adobe Flash Player Premium Features for Gaming“. Adobe will have new pricing for those creating certain types of advanced content. Content that is much more performant and of much higher quality than what developers (and their end-audience) are used to seeing in the browser.

It is my estimation, that the amount of current projects that this pricing will affects is very small. The amount of developers now or in the future that this pricing will affect is very small. However overreaction and misunderstanding about Adobe, this announcement, and the last 6 months of related news does have a negative affect on public perception, business owners, and the technologies chosen for new projects.

Before the community takes it out of context that “Adobe explains that in the near future, some developers will be required to pay Adobe on royalties from their projects” and overreacts about it — here is a clear programmer-friendly explanation shown below.

Who Pays?

Image URL: http://www.RivelloMultimediaConsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/adobe_flash_player_premium_v1.jpg

How Much?

Let’s assume a company (or individual) creates a royalty-applicable project (see above). Here are a few sample payment scenarios to Adobe. If my math is wrong, please send a comment below. Prices are USD$.

• 50,000 revenue (or less):  Payment to Adobe = 0
• 75,000 revenue:  Payment to Adobe = 2,250
• 100,000 revenue:  Payment to Adobe = 4,500
• 500,000 revenue:  Payment to Adobe = 40,500
• etc…

Community Reaction

Using Google, Twitter, and Facebook we see the reaction of the community over this announcement. The gross majority of media, bloggers, and developers are exaggerating the effect of this announcement. I appreciate the anger, but not the libel. Many err to say something like ‘all Flash developers will pay Adobe soon’, which is as we I’ve outlined here, not true.

The few balanced reactions to the announcement are here;

• Rob Rusher’s -  Adobe Flash Player licensing doesn’t apply to you!
• Lee Brimelow’s – Quick comments about Unity and premium features 
• Any more?

Full disclosure: Some of those listed are of course Adobe employees or have an otherwise vested interest in Adobe’s side.

Related Posts

• Setup Flash Builder For AIR 3.2 Stage3D for iOS/Android
• FlyerGame – One Game, Many Many Frameworks
• Angry Birds’ Screams on Facebook with Flash
• Considering Flash-To-Mobile Development

Stay Tuned

• Sign up for ‘Free Member’ level of this blog now. Its free!
• Like RMC on Facebook. We like likes!
• Follow @srivello on Twitter.

The Vocal Minority

Bad press will hurt Flash being chosen for new projects. That I agree with and that is sad. Blame the messenger sure, but also blame the sensationalism of the community.

Truly, relatively few developer’s projects are affected directly by this pricing. And the quality offered by ‘Flash Player Premium’ is different than what is currently considered ‘Flash’ and is so high-quality that there are no rival alternatives to in-browser technologies. Don’t agree..

• Please comment a  link to any ‘Flash Player Premium’ project (Using BOTH API’s mentioned, regardless of revenue) which is in-development or already launched?
• Please comment a link to any in-browser non-Flash project that rivals the quality of a ‘Flash Player Premium’ which is in-development or launched?

What do YOU Think?

• Is this good or bad? Remember taxes pave your roads. Ha.
• Please comment below.

Stage3D was introduced in Flash Player 11. It allows for GPU-Accelerated 2D and 3D performance in the Flash Player that is 1000x faster than before. It was not publicly available for AIR mobile projects until AIR 3.2.

There are lot of new significant features like mouseLock, middle click, right click, silent auto-update and Stage3D on mobile.

Super Easy Setup

1. Download the new SDK (“Step 2″)
2. Unzip the new SDK
3. Open Flash Builder. Open Preferences. Search for “Installed Flex SDKs”. Look at the URL for an existing SDK. See the image below.
4. Open Finder (or Windows Explorer) to that ‘sdks’ folder. Drag the new SDK next to the existing sdk(s).
5. Open the same Flash Builder Panel. preferences panel again. Choose ‘add’ and browse to the new SDK. Don’t set it as ‘default’. But for each new project you create, it will be a choice for you to use.

Next Steps

Checkout other related articles.

• Intro To The Starling Framework For AS3 with Stage3D
• Angry Birds’ Screams on Facebook with Flash with Stage3D
• What *IS* Wrong With AIR 3.0 Native Extensions!

Robotlegs (from Robotlegs.org) is  a great architectural framework for AS3. It works for both Flash and Flex projects. I have been a fan since the beginnings of the framework and I even created the official “Robotlegs Framework Diagram“.

One of the drawbacks of using an architectural framework is the time required to setup the project. To help new developers, veteran developers, and myself, I create and update several templates for Robotlegs (RL). Each is a complete publishable “Hello World” type project. When I start any new RL project I begin with one of these Robotlegs Templates (RLT).

It kicks ass, enjoy!

Screenshots

It is a simple app. (Note images may vary slightly depending on template)

Mix-ins

I combine RL with some other fantastic technologies in some templates.

• AS3-Signals – Events replacement
• BabelFX – Language localization
• Union Platform – Multiplayer

Next Steps

• RLT_Web_Flex – The original! (See ‘Member Resources’ below)
• RLT_Web_Flex_AS3Signals – My favorite! (See ‘Member Resources’ below)
• RLT_Web_Flex_AS3Signals_BabelFX – (See ‘Member Resources’ below)
• RLT_AIR_FlexMobile_AS3Signals_BabelFX – (See ‘Member Resources’ below)
• RLT_AIR_FlexMobile_AS3Signals_Multiplayer – (See ‘Member Resources’ below)

Member Resources