http://4as.pl Blog dedicated to ActionScript, Flash and programming. en-gb http://4as.pl/post86 Here we are, Flash is officially dead. But what if you don't care what Adobe wants and you're okay with still using Flash Player? Well, you still can, you just need two things: an internet browser that still supports Flash, and an older version of the Flash Player itself. If you're on Windows you c... http://4as.pl/post83 Nowadays shaders have become an inharent part of the 3D graphics, it is basically impossible to display a picture without creating a single shading program. Which is why, this time around we will take a quick look on how to work with shaders by adding a simple lighting to our virtual world. In Flash... http://4as.pl/post82 Continuing from where we left off this time around I want to write a bit about rotations. Anyone who started working with Flash's Stage3D without previous experience in 3D will sooner or later run into unforeseen results with appendRotation() function. To make things even less inviting for newcomers... http://4as.pl/post81 Anyone who already spent some quality time in ActionScript is no doubt fully aware what MovieClips do or how they work, however Flash also allows for creation of something very similar, the symbols called "Graphics". At first they might seem like a simplified versions of MovieClips, which is of cour... http://4as.pl/post80 Today something different/fun - fireworks! It seems that is quite a popular script to have around. #flash#./BLOG/Fireworks.swf:550:400:#ffffff#end# My generator can be downloaded from here: foras.zip. The proper class is at "foras.tools.ForFireworksGenerator". The package also contains some other... http://4as.pl/post78 There is no sugarcoating over it, whatever is put on the Internet can be copied and redistributed without author's permission and Flash is not an exception. Luckily, as opposed to music or pictures, with a bit of ActionScript we can restrict access to our Flash file to only specific sites. The task... http://4as.pl/post77 For a while now I've been working on a little flash game and time has finally come to release it. After 8 months of work I present you: Derpy's Story.... http://4as.pl/post76 In ActionScript2 and 3 you can always check if an object belongs to a certain class - in AS2 the keyword for this is instanceof while in AS3 its is and both of them do a pretty fine job, however they also return 'true' when checking a base class against a subclasses. In other words MovieClip check a... http://4as.pl/post75 Some time ago I have described how to use Interfaces to create a system of popups - here to be exact. I have mentioned then that similar system could be crafted with the use of subclasses, but in case of Flash this might bring unexpected hurdles to overcome. To understand what those hurdles are exac... http://4as.pl/post73 ActionScript3 is without a doubt more advanced language than ActionScript2 and each day more and more programmers move to work with it, however this doesn't mean ActionScript2 should stop existing - I mean, there must be a reason why Adobe haven't kill it yet. Here are 5 reasons why ActionScript2 ca... http://4as.pl/post72 Continuing the topic on interfaces from the previous post, I’ve mentioned that their usefulness is sometimes irreplaceable and one good example of this is when trying to establish a communication channel with loaded SWF file, most frequently seen in preloaders. Lets start with a basic preloader:... http://4as.pl/post71 In programming, by ‘Interface’ we understand an abstract definition of methods that by themselves don’t do anything, except for forcing a certain syntax in a class that implements them. In other words we define a function and its arguments in one place and then implement its mechanics in anoth... http://4as.pl/post70 Anyone who regularly browses the Internet is surly aware of so called "cookies", or at least heard about them. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on the user's computer, such as passwords or site's settings (look and behavior). Flash isn't an exception here and does support a similar fun... http://4as.pl/post69 In previous post I've described some very basic debugging methods for already released products - while we are on topic of debugging, lets have a look at some popular and easy methods for fixing errors in local environment. Of course everything comes down to what we want to do with our application, ... http://4as.pl/post68 Debugging is a popular term used to describe a process of removing errors (or any kind of unwanted behavior) from a source code. Developing in Flash Professional or FlashDevelop we already have an access to pretty good debugging tool, which no doubt helped all of us fix at least few problems. Unfort... http://4as.pl/post67 Today I only have some updates regarding the blog: First of all, the hosting company has been upgrading their servers make this blog almost completely inaccessible throughout the whole passing week, but it should be alright now. As for why I don't have any updates this time around, it is because... http://4as.pl/post66 So we already have isometric view and path finding topic behind us, now it is time for the third and final part: field of view. Basically it usually comes down to checking whether there is a direct connection between two points (for example a player character and an enemy), without anything blocking... http://4as.pl/post65 In the previous part I've talking a little about isometric view and how to achieve it a simplest way possible. This time around, just as promised, we will have a look at path finding in tile-based engine using one of the easiest methods available (but not the fastest). I am not really sure if the al... http://4as.pl/post64 In this three-part article I will try to explain some of basic problems one might stumble upon when working with tile-based engines. Since they are quite old one might think that the topic was already exhausted, however many people still have problems with it, often complicating trivial issues. One... http://4as.pl/post63 "Preloading" is simple idea that dates back to the beginnings of the Internet - perhaps even further than that. It is a process of moving all of the applications data or multimedia into a computer's memory, so it can be accessed smoothly without breaks for additional reading. Same goes for Flash, wi... http://4as.pl/post62 As soon as ActionScript3 saw the light of the day Adobe instantly pointed out that the virtual machine behind it is completely different than the one used in AS2, which in turn means there is no direct way of communicating between those two languages. Right now someone might think that if that is th... http://4as.pl/post61 Without a doubt most of us heard that Flash might be slow at times and even thought with each version it gets faster and faster, there are still games out there that might bring even most powerful PC to its knees. Surprisingly enough it might not necessarily be the programmers fault, but actually th... http://4as.pl/post60 Happy New Year 2012! Often on the Internet I see people asking how to make a seek bar in a Flash animation (similar to how other video players do it, such as the one used on YouTube) however in the end not many people go through with it - why is that? The answer lays in how Flash handles MovieClips... http://4as.pl/post59 In today's post I will write a little about singletons, which are objects that exist in only one instance - what are they, how to make them in Flash and what are they useful for. Singleton is a design pattern and like many of those it might appear to overcomplicate things that can be done it much ... http://4as.pl/post58 In the previous part of this article I wrote about extending an ActionScript3 Documentation example of 3D graphics to make it work with multiple objects in such way that every object could still be transformed separately. The example also has a bit about the matrix used for camera movement ("view"),... http://4as.pl/post57 Two weeks ago I've wrote about support in Flash Professional for Flash Player 11 while mentioning about using the example of 3D rendering from the documentation ( http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/display3D/Context3D.html#includeExamplesSummary). However using ... http://4as.pl/post56 Recently Adobe released a new version of Flash Player, this time with a number 11 that features 3D acceleration (which I will write something about soon hopefully), support for bigger bitmaps, JSON etc. However those of you who wish to check out those new functions in Flash Professional are up for a... http://4as.pl/post55 In previous parts of this guide dedicated to creating a very bare-bone 3D engine I've mentioned how to display the illusion of perspective and how to control camera movements. This time we will handle rotation. It will be the final chapter of this guide since any further immersion in the topic will ... http://4as.pl/post54 Programmers that decide to switch to AS3 from AS2 will find sooner or later that the latest ActionScript iteration lacks duplicateMovieClip() function equivalent. It might seem odd, since it is hard to imagine Adobe having problems with implementation of such function. My guess is they are trying to... http://4as.pl/post53 In the previous part of this guide I've described how to create a basic 3D engine capable of creating a three-dimensional cube, however only in a static image which admittedly wasn't very impressive. That is why this time around we will expend it by adding camera movement. Lets start by creating ... http://4as.pl/post51 While programming interfaces (or similar stuff) in Flash I started asking myself "wouldn't it be cool if Flash had allowed custom objects of my own class on the Stage"? While the truth is it's entirely possibility even since AS2! But the problem is that you won't hear about it anywhere and Flash doe... http://4as.pl/post50 If anyone ever wanted to create their own 3D engine in Flash (and not only) not sure of what to expect, surely they met them self with a lot of mathematics and advanced programming routines during the search for information. It might be a little disheartening, but the truth is you don't need all tha... http://4as.pl/post49 I once was asked is there a way to access variables that were set on _root or _global. The problem comes from how strict the ActionScript3 is - in AS2 you would just write _global.myVar = 5 and then access it from anywhere, but AS3 just doesn't tolerate dynamic variables (and also there is no _globa... http://4as.pl/post1 Welcome to my little blog. It will be mostly dedicated to ActionScript (Flash's scripting language), but from time to time also few other random topics that I am interested in. I will try to divide post into "basic", "advanced" and "expert" entry knowledge requirements. In case of questions anyon...