using adobe gaming tools for education
DESCRIPTION
For Flash Camp Hawaii 2013...TRANSCRIPT
USING ADOBE GAMING TOOLS FOR EDUCATION
Joseph Labrecque
2013 Flash Camp Hawaii
JOSEPH LABRECQUE
Senior Interactive Software Engineer | Adjunct FacultyUniversity of Denver
Proprietor | OwnerFractured Vision Media, LLC
Adobe Community ProfessionalAdobe Education LeaderAdobe Certified ExpertAdobe Certified EducatorFormer Adobe Influencer
Author Lynda.com | Peachpit Press | Adobe Press | Packt Publishing | O’Reilly Media | video2brain
ArtistAn Early Morning Letter, Displaced | Shivervein
HERE’S THE PLAN
• Talk about Stage3D – some history
• Introduce some Stage3D frameworks
• Basic Starling project setup
• Feathers setup and theming… screens, components, and layouts
• Adobe Scout overview
• Educational examples
STAGE3D: GPU ACCELERATED FLASHFlash Player 11.x & Adobe AIR 3.x
SOME HISTORY
• Adobe shows off Molehill at MAX 2010
• Lots of excitement around 3D in Flash!
• MAX 2011 - Stage3D made available with Flash Player 11 and AIR 3.
• Mobile support for Flash Player was coming soon.
• November 2011. Fffuuuu…
RECENT HISTORY
• 11.1/3.1 – bugfixes and stuff…
• 11.2/3.2 – Stage3D on mobile AIR
• 11.3/3.3 – Texture Streaming
• 11.4/3.4 – Concurrency & Telemetry
• 11.5/3.5 – Shared ByteArray
• 11.6/3.6 – readGraphicsData()
• 11.7/3.7 – GameInput APIs
FLASH PLAYER 11.0 AND AIR 3.0
PRONGHORN!
• Flash Player and AIR “NEXT”
• ActionScript 4!
• Flash Builder 5!
• Betas available around MAX 2013!!!
• Early 2013 Roadmap - Fffuuuu…
SHAME ON ADOBE:(
11.8/3.8 - RECENT ADDITIONS
• BASELINE_EXTENDED : 4096×4096 texture support
• Rectangle Textures in BASELINE and BASELINE_EXTENDED
plus…• Recursive stop on MovieClip
• StageVideo on AIR desktop
• GameInput APIs
AUGUST ROADMAP UPDATES
Flash Player and AIR "Irving" and "Jones"
Adobe is planning its next two releases for late 2013 and early 2014. These releases continue to focus on premium video, gaming, security, and stability.• ActionScript concurrency for mobile (beta)
• iOS 7 support (depends upon Apple schedule)
• Support for Mavericks
• Support for Windows 8.1
• XXHDPI icon support for AIR Android
FUTURE EXPLORATIONS
• Mobile Workers – Threading on mobile
• “Molehill 2” – Stage3D Improvements
• Integrated 2D/3D physics
also…• Improved iOS compile time
• Reduced iOS file sizes
• Android Key Lime Pie and iOS7 support
ADOBE GAMING SDKStarling, Feathers, and more…
GAMING SDK?
The Adobe Gaming SDK provides an essential collection of frameworks, code samples, and learning resources that work together to help developers create and deliver ActionScript games across multiple devices.
GAMING SDK 1.2
• AIR SDK 3.8
• Starling
• Feathers
• Away3D & Away Builder
• DragonBones
• FlashCC [CrossBridge]
• GamePad Support, Native Extensions, & ATF Tools
FLASH IS FOCUSED ON GAMINGBut what about apps?
ADOBE ROADMAP FOR THE FLASH RUNTIMES
Adobe believes that the Flash runtimes are particularly and uniquely suited for two primary use cases: creating and deploying rich, expressive games with console-quality graphics and deploying premium video.
This focus does not mean that existing content will no longer run, or that Flash cannot be used for content other than gaming and premium video. However, it does mean that when prioritizing work, gaming and premium video use cases will take priority.
BUILDING AN APP WITH STAGE3DWith the Gaming SDK? Yes.
WHAT DO WE NEED?
STARLING
• Sets up the GPU stuff for us.
• Build a Starling instance.
• Load in Feathers!
FEATHERS
• Implement a theme.
• Apply a ScreenNavigator
• Decide upon a Layout or two.
• Build out the content.
STARLING2D Stage3D Framework
STARLING SETUP
• Import the Starling classes.
• Declare a new Starling instance.
• Optionally set Starling to handle lost context and multitouch.
• Instantiate a new Starling instance, passing in both a main class and the stage to bind it to.
• Start up the instance.
import starling.core.Starling;
private var starling:Starling;
Starling.handleLostContext = true;
Starling.multitouchEnabled = false;
starling = new Starling(Main, stage);
starling.start();
MAIN STARLING CLASS
• Import the Starling Sprite class.
• Have the main Starling class extend Starling Sprite.
• We are now ready for Feathers.
import starling.display.Sprite;
public class Main extends Sprite {}
FEATHERSUser Interface Components for Starling
FEATHERS SETUP
• Import a Feathers theme for use in the app.
• Wait for the Stage to become ready.
• Instantiate a new Feathers theme within the main Starling class once the Stage is ready.
• Feathers is now ready and skinned.
import feathers.themes.FeathersTheme;
this.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onStageReady);
new FeathersTheme();
FEATHERS SCREENS
• Similar to mobile Flex Views.
• Many individual Screens.
• Use with a ScreenNavigator.
• Optionally bind Screen controls to Feathers components like TabBar or ButtonGroup.
FEATHERS COMPONENTS
• Similar to Flex components.
• Buttons, Callouts, Headers, Lists, Loaders, Labels, Steppers, Panels, Pickers, Radios, Checkboxes, Containers, Sliders, TabBars, TextAreas, TextInputs, Toggles, and more…
• All GPU accelerated through Starling!
FEATHERS LAYOUTS
• Lots of similarities to Flex layouts.
• Horizontal
• Vertical
• Tiled (rows/columns)
• Anchored
• Lots of options for each!
ADOBE SCOUT CCNext-Generation Profiler
EH…
ADOBE SCOUT CC
• Advanced Telemetry
• Frame Timeline
• Session Info
• Trace Log
• ActionScript
• DisplayList
• Stage3D
MEMORY ALLOCATIONS
• Allocations• Top-Down
• Bottom-Up Functions
• Bottom-Up Objects
• Deallocations
• Filter Garbage Collected Objects
REAL-WORLD EDUCATION EXAMPLESPersonal Experience
VIDEO STREAMING
• Allows video upload, transcode, and management within a controlled environment.
• Dealing with video – retains the need for Flash Player in video editing and playback.
• Using RTMP and HLS for streaming to both Desktop and Mobile targets.
VIDEO TRANSCODING
• Transcode “brain” which monitors servers, gathers data, transcodes and manages video files across servers.
• Built with Adobe AIR as a headless app.
• HandBrake and MediaInfo via NativeProcess API.
• Installed as a Windows service.
INTEGRATED HARDWARE
• AIR works well with a variety of hardware including multiscreen projection systems.
• ANEs make extending AIR across platforms very possible.
• Native Process APIs allow us to work with and command other applications.
MOBILE APPLICATIONS
• Apple iOS, Google Android, Amazon Kindle, Blackberry TabletOS and BB10!
• Apache Flex still works quite well. In fact, Flex 4.10 and AIR 3.8 have HUGE performance boosts for mobile!
• Stage3D libraries like Starling and Feathers are there if desired.
• Workflow is brilliant!
GAMING!
• Game development is a great way to teach computer science and programming skills.
• A lot of the problems solved in gaming can be applied to other applications.
• “Gamification” – Check out LevelUp for Photoshop CC.
WHY LEARN/TEACH ACTIONSCRIPT?
• Are any faculty or students possibly motivated by money? Maybe.
• A recent study places ActionScript as the #1 language in mean household income.
http://bpodgursky.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/updates-to-language-vs-income-breakdown-post/
IMPACT ON COURSE CURRICULUMTimes have changed…
TEACHING FLASH
Courses taught:
• Animation/Interactive [Flash Professional]
• Programming [Flash Builder]
• Mobile [AIR for Android]
DVD and Online Training:
• Learn By Video [Peachpit]
• More incoming ;)
ANIMATION WITH ANIMATE
Animation/Interactive course to use Edge Animate:
• Easier to pick up
• Made for the native web
• Directed workflow
MOBILE AIR TO PHONEGAP
Mobile course to use PhoneGap and PhoneGap Build:
• Mobile AIR covered in another course
• Focus on web technologies
• Part of new mobile track
FLASH CONDENSATION
Two Flash courses merged into one Flash Platform overview course:
• Basics of motion
• Interactivity
• Gaming
• Programming
• Mobile
FLASH PROFESSIONAL CC
• Rebirth of the product [HELLCAT!!!]
• I’ve been working with it heavily.
• Adobe plans to target SWF, AIR, Canvas, and much more… natively.
• Flash is awesome again!
SECOND THOUGHTS… MAYBE.
• Flash Professional CC turns out to be really awesome – increased focus in web targets.
• The Flash Platform is expanding into all sorts of areas – mostly thanks to Stage3D and 3rd party frameworks and tools.
• PhoneGap is much more difficult to learn and use than mobile AIR.
• Animate is dependent upon knowing other tools to do anything advanced.
IN CLOSING…Flash (in various ways both old and new)
is still strong for education and for all!
