I’ve seen a few posts here and there.
First of all, how can you be disappointed with something after less than a day using it? I know you haven’t scratched the surface yet. It looks like the same old Flash, but there is a lot under the hood that you can’t see. You need to dig around for a while.
OK, you are disappointed because you were really hoping for “feature X”, when feature X was never mentioned as part of Flash 8, and in some cases was specifically said that feature X was NOT going to be part of Flash 8.
OK, let’s talk specifics on that one. No V3 components. Same old ones you don’t like. I don’t like them either. I don’t use them. But a new set of components wasn’t in the cards this release. Oh well. Macromedia has been saying that for months. It’s like if your parents have been telling you all year, no pony for Christmas. Then you wake up on Christmas morning and rush out to the tree and are “disappointed” that there is no pony. A pony would have been nice, but let’s not ignore the mountain of other presents there. Besides, Im betting MM has plenty of surprises up their sleeves in the component / RIA department.
Finally, my advice. download and install the trial. It’s free. OK, you probably have already, hence the “disappointment”. Anyway, use it exclusively for 30 days, uninstall it and go back to Flash MX 2004. Then you will know the meaning of the word disappointment!
WORD UP!
preach, my brother 😉
Clap clap clap.
The most good sense words I read from months. I’m 100% agree with you.
Reek
Oh please!
Sounds like the same old song from another Beta Tester keen to earn his MM teeshirt before they become collectors items.
You guys really can see, hear or speak no evil when it comes to MM.
Wow.
please…
I got my tabbed ultra dockable panels back.
No more importing a 40k file for a drop shadow.
More workspace/usability enhancements than u could shake a criticizm stick at.
With the raw graphic code accessible imagery construction features, ui creation including components is about to really change. seriously.
As for components for RIA’s, they’ve already mentioned the FLEX team was doing it. It shouldnt be too hard to read between the lines there.
Keith – I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed with the new IDE, but so far I haven’t seen anything that’s going to help me in my day to day grind. I can see how the folks who make banner ads, games, video apps, graphics, etc could be excited because of the new features, but there’s really not much for me to get excited about for my day to day work.
But then, I haven’t been that excited about it for months. I read all the new features and bug fixes and realized that the new features were aimed at a different market and realized that the major improvements that I need weren’t made. So I wasn’t expecting to be blown away with features that I can actually use, and I’m not.
It took me four tries to download a good copy of the installer EXE, and I still can’t import MPG video. So I’m having to work for it..
Again, all along, this was being pushed as a designer oriented release. So as a heavy developer, no, I’m not jumping up and down about all the new developer features in this one either. But hey, we got so much in MX and MX 2004, I’ll settle for stability, speed and useability. 🙂
Also, people get into the “that’s a player feature, not an IDE feature” thing. I know the difference, but unless you go the MTASC route, or some other hack, you still need the new IDE to create swfs with the new player features. So I find it a bit harder to separate them.
OK guys? How was that? Do I get my t-shirt now???
But seriously Keith, even as a developer you should be excited about the new Flash. DId you take a look at BitmapData? You can take a movieclip and duplicate the render it tens of times on stage, then modify each instance scaling and color-wise, apply different filters, copy one bitmap on top of the other and blend and omg all sorts of crazy stuff. And it’s damn fast too! I modified an IK engine I had so that it has motion-blur and color blending and duplicating particles all over the screen… there’s 5 filters and 20 objects on screen and 200 particles and it runs at 24 fps… Forget processing man, this is the thing!
Don’t get me wrong. I’m in love with Flash 8! Take a look at the experiments I did throughout August. I can’t get enough of it.
Keith, I agree that Flash8 is really great. Especially for the kind of work you do, and I’ll be integrating the new features into our projects. I’m really excited that this release has embraced what makes Flash so unique: code + creative. I love that all the new filters and blend modes can be coded. That’s fantastic! And have peopele seen how easy it is to apply a blend mode to a mc at run time?
my first 8ball disappointment
http://www.flashkit.com/board/showthread.php?t=644953
Well, it is a file UPLOAD api. It does what it says. I agree it would be very useful to have access to the file path. Whatever your arguments are for putting it in there, trust me, they heard them. The decision was still to leave it out. But hey, you can upload and download! Cool.
Beware, I’m fifteen, I’m from a “strange foreign country” (Slovenia), it’s 1 hour before midnight, I just finished writing my homework, I have school tomorrow and I have a flu, so excuse my spelling 😀
I totally agree with Keith. To those who are dissapointed with Flash8. I appreciate the amount of work they have done since flash 7. Think of it. They added a whole new pixel system of managing graphics (bitmap, alpha masks, …). Did you look at the things they DID add in the release? Like better drawing api (with more control to the lines) or previously alpha masks everyone was complaining about and filters (no more prerendering :))
About the IDE? What do you expect? Shiny metal titles that flicker on hover? Or maybe even some random blinking and flashing simbol names in the library? I know I’m overreacting, but come on. I like the current IDE as is. There are surely some things someone likes and another dislikes. Even me, I noticed for example with having a relatively low resolution (1024×768), I have to have all the bottom panels/toolbars (Actionscript editor, Properties) closed if I want to view help properly . But I will get used to it, so should you.
On the other hand, if you want to stay with Flash 7, go on, nobody is forcing you to do it. You are just making your task harder.
Even the documentation is probably twice as large as it was before 😀 I can’t even imagine what I could code now. Too bad I can’t view the last few experiments involving a webcam on bit-101 🙁
Anyways, here’s my addition and also my first comment on this blog (hence the intro ego-sentance :P).
btw:
Keith, if you are not so busy, can you do more cool experiments, maybe some concepts that I could understand? (I’ll never forget that “random” entry, that (random+random)/2 would “alter” the randomness to one side. I would never thought of that 🙂 )
Also, you are like a flash hero to me. I learned a lot from your experiments, keep them up!!
Thanks 🙂
Amen, Keith! 🙂
cheers, martijn.