Archive notice: This article was originally published on May 15, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The beta version of Flash Player 10, code-named “Astro,” expands the capabilities of the world’s most widely used runtime environment with support for custom filters and effects, native 3D transformation and animation, rich text layouts, and GPU hardware acceleration. Flash Player 10 Beta thus enables cinematic presentation of content across different browsers and operating systems.
“For more than ten years, Flash Player has repeatedly redefined the boundaries of creative, rich, and interactive web experiences. Adobe has developed numerous new technologies in the past that have changed the market in lasting ways, and we believe this beta version of Flash Player 10 will raise the bar again,” said David Wadhwani, General Manager and Vice President of Adobe’s Platform Business Unit. “Together with our community, we are working on new creative features that expand the scope for interactive developers and web designers and revolutionize the experience for end users.”
Custom filters and effects
With the new version, users can for the first time extend native Adobe Flash Player effects with custom filters and effects and combine the two. These custom filters and effects can be created with the Adobe Pixel Bender Toolkit, which is also available as a free download in Adobe Labs. Adobe Pixel Bender technology is also used for many filters and effects in Adobe After Effects CS3, the standard solution for motion graphics and visual effects in film and television. Developers creating applications for display in the Flash Player 10 Beta can use Adobe Pixel Bender to create their own filters and masking and fill effects. To do so, they write small pixel-shading functions that can be parameterized to develop or modify animated effects in rich-media content applied at runtime.
Better performance
“One of the biggest benefits of the new Flash Player 10 Beta features is that they do not compromise speed,” said Grant Skinner, CEO and Chief Architect of gskinner.com. “With Flash Player 10 Beta, developers can render SWF content using the graphics processor’s memory bandwidth and processing power. That frees the main processor for rendering 3D content and demanding effects or running complex business logic. No other browser runtime offers this capability.”
Based on Adobe’s more than 25 years of experience with text, the new highly flexible text engine gives developers and web designers creative control over device-font attributes such as anti-aliasing, rotation, and styles, as well as support for ligatures. Additional text-layout options—including vertical, justified, and right-to-left—support the creation of multilingual rich internet applications (RIAs) and enable more interactive eBooks and online publications based on Adobe Flash Player technology.
Another new feature is variable video streaming based on the data-transfer rate between Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta and the planned future version of Adobe Flash Media Server. This automatically adapts video quality to available bandwidth to ensure uninterrupted playback without buffering, significantly improving the user experience. Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta also provides native support for 3D effects, making it easy to position, rotate, and animate 2D objects while retaining interactivity.
“The 3D effects and transformations made possible by Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta give developers an easy entry point into 3D,” said Ralph Hauwert, owner of UnitZeroOne and co-developer of Papervision 3D. “For interactive developers and designers experienced in creating 3D applications, the revised Drawing API and Pixel Bender language offer a chance to develop new graphic designs not yet seen on the web. They can, for example, create cinematic content with special effects that have previously been impossible on the internet.”
Universal reach across operating systems
Adobe Flash Player combines extensive creative capabilities, appealing presentation for users, and high-quality audio and video playback with universal reach across different operating systems. Flash Player content reaches more than 98 percent of internet-connected computers. The latest update to Flash Player 9, which enables HD-quality content using the H.264 codec, reached adoption of more than 62 percent within its first three months. More than 75 percent of web video-streaming providers use Flash technology.
The new features introduced with Flash Player 10 Beta will also be included in future versions of Adobe AIR and contribute to the Open Screen Project. This initiative aims to establish a uniform runtime environment for PCs, mobile devices, and other consumer electronic devices. More information about the Open Screen Project is available at http://www.openscreenproject.com.
Pricing and availability
The beta version of Adobe Flash Player 10 is available immediately as a free download at http://www.adobe.com/go/astro. Further information about the beta and demonstrations of the new effects and capabilities are available at http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer10_demos. Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta is available for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Mac OS X, and Linux. The Adobe Pixel Bender Exchange is available immediately to community members at http://www.adobe.com/go/pixelbender for developing custom effects for Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta.
