My Experience with Flash

General Discussions
#1

I recently dived into flash after a Sun Forums incident and tried it out. I did like the GUI and the easy to use implementation of objects. The actionscript code was easy to understand and it was pretty easy to deploy a new game I made called Sky Falcon of WWII hosted on my YellzBellz site.

In conclusion though, I definitely favor Java and of course the applets. I found Flash to be somewhat a beginner setup and it being originally made just for animation made me understand that. Its more of a general tool that can be used to quickly make simple games as where Java can be used to make some really complex and intricate games that can be deployed in different enviroments or as stand alone games.

I think I will be sticking with Java and again would like to thank this community for all the help and support where the dudes at Sun.Java forums are a bit High on themselves, lol.

#2

Don’t discount Flash until you look at what it’s really capable of.
Just remember, that runs pretty much everywhere, flawlessly, and painlessly.

Cas :slight_smile:

#3

Yea and while you are at it look at Unity3D having shader and post processing effects built in and also just simply playable in a browser with no permission for using graphics card from user.

#4

Maybe that is the way to go, build browser plugins for LWJGL so the hardware access doesn’t require a prompt, while keep the rest of the Java permissions in tact (but with a better damn dialog of course).

#5

Building a browser plugin for LWJGL would indeed be a really Neat Thing.

Comparing Java to Unity3D isn’t really fair - you still have to install a plugin first and it still asks you if you want to do so with a scary dialog. The same goes for a LWJGL applet, although if you use the LWJGL as an “extension” users will only have to do it once, ever.

Cas :slight_smile:

#6

already looking into getting LWJGL working as an extension, if it works well we should have that up soon. Not sure if the lwjgl server will be too happy about everybody leeching the jars from it. Since extension stuff must use the same url.

also the extension stuff is only java 1.6.0_18+, awesome jre release but will take a few months to become widespread.

#7

LWGL plug-in would be fantastic. I think that would make for some truly awesome Java applets, plus a plug-in could be used in JNLP for desktop games. ;D ;D ;D ;D

#8

The LWJGL server uses hardly any bandwidth.

Cas :slight_smile:

#9

[quote]Don’t discount Flash until you look at what it’s really capable of.
[/quote]
Their games are amazing. Although I consider them more of the exception than the rule. Few Flash developers show that kind of polish with their products.

#10

guess you could say the same about java developers.

#11

You don’t really NEED to polish flash games… When companies look for what to sponsor, their top priority most certainly is not polish.

Make fun games, people, not pretty games.

#12

[quote]Make fun games, people, not pretty games.
[/quote]
In my mind… polished = fun. I don’t mean super graphics or perfect engines. What I mean is a game that is overall shiny: smooth play, few to no bugs, and fun. I’ve played several Flash games that are just a pain to control, or are entirely buggy.

#13

http://www.flashgamelicense.com/report_recent_gamesales.php

#14

Have you used Flash, though? You really need to work to finagle any sort of niceness our of it. Flash Actionscript is not a programmer’s language, it’s an artist’s language.

#15

You only have to figure it out once though, then you’ve got an “engine”. Which is what the Rock Solid guys have done.

Cas :slight_smile:

#16

dangit princec, you just stole 30 minutes of time witht that link lol!!

#17

Have you used ActionScript 3? It has classes, interfaces, packages/namespaces, static typing, properties, closures and an event listener concept all built in. I would say it’s far less of an “artist’s language” than something like JavaScript.

#18

For me, I think what can scare normal/average players is the fact that not all Java games load smoothly. Sometimes the JRE load just fast, sometimes the browser freezes for 5 to 10 secs or so. I mean, you NEVER see that kind of frustrating aspect with flash games. When a flash game takes time to load, you always see a nice progress bar, which displays smoothly. With Java, it often happens that you have that crappy Java logo by default at start - which I think you can’t be remove (but I might be wrong) - then the game load, and once loaded, the browser seems to freeze for a couple a secs then the game gives feedback. Even with JRE 6u18, you still see that kind of crappy user experience. I’m so pissed of that situation. Can we hope for better in Java 7?

#19

you can change it

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/misc/splashscreen.html

#20

Yes that helps but I think the game loading experience issue goes beyond that.