Long gone are the days when Adobe Systems could take its Flash Player's position on the Web for granted.
But Adobe, to counter a strong combination of opposition and alternatives to the browser plug-in, plans to ship Flash Player 11 in two weeks. The debut at its Max developer conference early next month is geared to send a message to programmers: Flash is still relevant, and Adobe is still investing in it.
Flash 11's highlight, an interface called Molehill for hardware-accelerated 3D and 2D graphics, won't change the minds of those who would like to see Flash fade from the Web, nor will it reverse Apple and Microsoft's Flash opposition. But it is a powerful new feature for games, and games are one of the Flash strongholds Adobe is seeking to defend.
"WIth direct access to the GPU [graphics processing unit], you'll see a thousand times faster rendering over prior versions of Flash," said Danny Winokur, Adobe's platform general manager. With the ability to animate millions of objects at a screen refresh rate of 50 frames per second, people can expect "console-quality games" such as those on an Xbox or PS3, but in a Web browser.
At the same time, Adobe has another strategy for maintaining the programming appeal of Flash's cross-platform nature. In cases where Flash apps can't run because the plug-in is banned or simply not installed, the new version 3 of Adobe's AIR software lets Flash apps be packaged as standalone apps.
In other words, for situations when developers can't count on Flash being installed, Adobe lets them build it directly into the app.
Also new is 64-bit support, which helps Flash stay compatible with browsers moving toward more modern processors.
Detractors might disagree, but Adobe's moves are real. Flash has plenty of experienced programmers, and the plug-in is installed on 98 percent of desktop browsers. It's clear that Flash is not the only way to write apps--heck, even Adobe is embracing the competition--but it's equally clear Flash still has a place for many.
Embracing Web standards, too
As Web standards have blossomed, Adobe has refined its Flash sales pitch to three main areas: games, advanced online video, and "data-driven" apps that provide a pleasant face to information stored in databases elsewhere on the Internet.
"There's been a lot of debate over the past year or two about Flash and HTML and what are the right platforms. We've tried, while being at the center of that debate, to stay grounded," Winokur said. "It's become clear our customers think there are important advantages in those three areas now for using Flash. We've continued to invest in those areas while taking a leadership role in driving HTML5 forward. It has the potential to be a fantastic platform."
The big question for Adobe is whether it'll be able to capitalize on the new Web standards era in time. New challengers are arriving--perhaps most notably Microsoft, whose Windows 8 Metro interface can run Web apps, and whose developer tools are highly regarded. For the long period when Flash and Web standards coexist, Adobe will have to balance the two.
Take WebGL as an example. It's a hardware-accelerated 3D interface for browsers, available now but still very new in the scheme of things. Microsoft doesn't support WebGL, but other browser makers do. Programmers will have to decide whether to use it or Flash's Molehill (officially called Stage 3D), and Adobe stands to lose developers to competitors if it doesn't embrace what they want.
Adobe won some notable endorsements for Flash 11 from gaming high-profile companies Zynga and EA, though you shouldn't expect either to concentrate solely on Flash. "The ubiquity of Flash helps EA to bring our chart-topping games to a broader variety of platforms and connect with consumers across a wide range of devices," said EA Interactive Chief Technology Officer Mark Vange in a statement.
Stage 3D is a low-level interface, but programmers also can use higher-level tools such as that Alternativa3D, Mixamo, and Away3D handle a lot of programming difficulties. Adobe's own option, Proscenium, is "coming soon," and it just announced a 2D animation toolkit called Starling; both are open-source software projects.
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