rendermouse blog

Exporting AS2 classes for preload

I learned this week that you can choose to export your AS classes on a frame other than 1 by using the Actionscript Settings button in the Publish Settings.

That way, your preloader can work properly as your classes are preloaded along with your movieclips and sounds. Otherwise, your preloader won't run until your classes load up first. I had no idea you could do that with classes, I thought you could only do that with linked clips in your library.

Now that you CAN, consider if you SHOULD.

Well, it's no secret that everyone's buzzing about Flash 8 and the new features. Lots of new image filters in the mix. I am curious to see how these are put to use in real applications.

There are tons of uses for blur in Flash games, motion blur and z-depth blur being at the top of my list. But there are also cool things you could use it for in web design and page/content transitions.

Trouble is, there are also plenty of BAD uses for all of these new filters. I hope we don't degrade again to an age of navigation by obscurity, competing for the most heavily filtered but least usable layouts. I do confess that the blending mode chooser was always the LEAST used feature of my Photoshop tool palette.

Don't get me wrong. I am totally excited about Flash8, primarily about the speed improvements brought about by cacheAsBitmap. Games are a big market for Flash, and without the speed, you are severely limited in the type of game you can design. The clearer type antialiasing looks great, too.

Just remember that you must choose whether to use these newly found superpowers for good or for evil. :)

NASA World Wind

Everybody's been crazy for the new Google Earth, but NASA had already released their planet browser, World Wind.

It's more about seeing cool scientific features of the planet, and less about finding the closest video store. It does not have the cool 3D buidlings like Google Earth, but there's plenty of other cool stuff in World Wind to keep you fascinated.