As promised late last month, Adobe has released updated versions of their Flash Player and AIR products to the Android Market. In our earlier article we outlined some of the new features that the updates would bring including, Stage 3D, an architecture that enables hardware-accelerated rendering at 1000x the speed of Flash Player 10, theatre-quality HD video, native 64-bit optimizations, and HD video conferencing. Unfortunately, the latest blog post from Adobe indicates that 2D and 3D graphics rendering through Stage 3D will only be available on Windows, Mac OS X and connected TVs. Apparently, a "production release" of Flash Player 11 with support for Stage 3D will be available for Android, Apple iOS and BlackBerry in an "upcoming release". Nevertheless, the updated releases bring a number of major improvements that will "allow developers to deliver a new class of gaming and premium video experiences, as well as sophisticated, data-driven apps with back-end systems integration across devices and platforms".
A complete list of these updates, as well as system requirements and bugs can be found at the Adobe website.
In addition, it looks like there will be a number of exciting games which will be available in the market, as well as over 10,000 AIR apps.
Here's a video of what the updated versions of Flash Player and Air bring to the Android platform:
[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkoBcA_hDf4
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And here's a demo of Stage 3D:
[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYgOxzQ6bNU
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Check out the official blog post from Adobe:
Adobe MAX is here, and we’ve got a lot of news to share. Today we’re releasing Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 — you can download the release starting at 9:00 PM Pacific today. As we announced previously, there are lots of new features in Flash Player 11 and AIR 3, and one of the newest features that’s getting a lot of buzz is hardware accelerated 2D and 3D graphics rendering through Stage 3D, which will be available on Mac OS, Windows and connected televisions. It redefines what’s possible across the web. With up to 1,000 times faster rendering performance over Flash Player 10 and AIR 2, developers can animate millions of objects with smooth 60 frames per second rendering and deliver cinematic, console-quality games both in browsers and in apps. And a production release with support for Stage 3D for mobile platforms including Android, Apple iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS is expected in an upcoming release. For more information about Stage 3D and to see some sample apps, check out the Stage 3D games on the Adobe Developer Center.
Additionally, we’re excited that “Proscenium,” a 3D framework technology preview, is available on Adobe Labs.Proscenium will allow developers using Flash Builder to rapidly prototype experiences focused on simple content interaction and display, whether for simple games, visualization, or high-quality rendering of small object collections. Check it out and let us know what you think.
We previously announced the availability of the Starling 2D framework for stunning hardware accelerated, fluid 2D graphics, and you can check out a new game developed using the Starling framework, Whack! from BxyB. There’s also new information for available for developing using 3D frameworks like Alternativa3D, Away3D,Flare3D, Mixamo, and Minko.
And lastly, we want to extend a welcome to our newest developers and colleagues from Nitobi, makers ofPhoneGap, which will soon become part of the Adobe family. With all of our announcements today, we believe developers will benefit from a workflow that allows them to choose the right tool for the right job, and we’ll continue to keep driving innovation in Flash so you can push the edge of the envelope for immersive experiences online.
We’ve already seen some early previews of games and apps that will be available in market soon, and there are now over 10,000 AIR apps in mobile markets.
We can’t wait to see what you’ll create. And there’s more news to come tomorrow, so stay tuned. You can watch the second day MAX keynote streamed live at 10am PDT, and be sure to check out the Flash Platform Blog for the latest updates.
Tom Nguyen
Sr. Product Manager, Flash Player & AIR / @tomng
[EMBED_APP]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.air[/EMBED_APP]
Source: Adobe Blog