Short: Flash (SWF) format file player v. 1.1 Author: 72207.463@compuserve.com (Mike Steed) Uploader: 72207.463@compuserve.com (Mike Steed) Type: gfx/show Version: 1.1 Architecture: m68k-amigaos >= 3.0.0 Requires: 68020+ Introduction: ------------- FlashPlayer is a player for Macromedia's "flash" interactive animation format, also known as SWF. The flash format was originally invented as a very bandwidth-efficient means for delivering animation across the Internet. It has since grown into an interactive presentation format, complete with its own scripting language. Like all flash animation players for the Amiga, FlashPlayer is based on the open-source SWF library by Olivier Debon. FlashPlayer has made a number of improvements to the original SWF library, and has wrapped around it a full-featured GUI. However, despite the improvements, FlashPlayer still suffers many of the limitations of the SWF library, including limited or missing support for many of the newer additions to the flash format. The source code for both FlashPlayer and the modified SWF library are available in a separate archive, FlashPlayerSrc.lha. Features: --------- - Fairly complete support for Flash 1 through Flash 3 formats A few features are missing, but most of these older animations will play pretty much as intended. - Limited support for Flash 4 and up Does not support scripting, so while it will not malfunction when presented with a newer animation, it may not play it as intended. Newer animations may play just fine, however, if they don't use any of the unsupported features. - Uses render.library and guigfx.library (included) for best image quality Can play flash animations on any screen, from two color low-res OCS to 24-bit graphics cards. Supports OCS, ECS, AGA, CyberGraphics, and Picasso 96. Uses dithering for improved display quality on color-mapped screens. - Public and custom screen support Can open on the Workbench or on a web browser's screen, or can open its own screen, in any resolution or format. - Uses AHI for flexible audio output Plays sound on any hardware for which AHI has a driver. Supports 16-bit audio. - Uses openurl.library for browser support Allows any supported browser to visit web pages linked to by a flash animation. - Built-in decoding of MP3 sounds Contains an integrated version of the open-source MAD MP3 decoder; does not require mpega.library or other external decoder. - Support for alternate hardware platforms Because it does not depend on native Amiga hardware for graphics or sound, FlashPlayer should work with Amiga emulators and on future Amiga hardware. - Runs from Workbench or shell Can be run in any of the normal ways, including via the WB 3.5+ default icon system (default icon included), and as a MIME-driven player for a web browser (instructions included). If run on the Workbench screen, files can be played by dropping them on the FlashPlayer window. - Mouse, menu, and keyboard control of the flash animation Control the animation with the mouse, or use the keyboard and menus to stop, start, frame advance, and rewind the animation. Zoom in on the animation, and scroll around within the zoomed-in frame. - Configurable, for maximum flexibility Uses tooltypes or command-line arguments to set the screen type, the playback quality, the size and scale (enlarged or reduced) of the animation, enable or disable sound and url support, adjust the sound buffer size, and set the diagnostic output level. New for version 1.1: -------------------- - Can load and present compressed animations ('CWS' file type). - Implements much (but not all) of the "set target" and "goto label" functionality of the flash file format, which allows one button or portion of a flash animation to affect another. - Some errors in the SWF library's implementation of the various internal animation control actions like "play" and "advance to next frame" were corrected, to make the library work more like the official Macromedia player. - Supports looping (repeatedly playing) sounds, and using in- and out- points to play subsections of a sound. - New configuation settings allow the size of the FlashPlayer window to be precisely set, and allow the size of the sound buffers to be set. - Some changes to the GUI, to improve its usability. - Some bug fixes, to both the SWF library and the player. - The non-FPU version of the program has been discontinued- the SWF library makes too heavy a use of floating-point math to make it practical to use software floating-point emulation. Limitations: ------------ - Does not support many of the newer additions to the flash format Chief among these is the scripting language first added to Flash 4, and extended in newer flash versions. Some animations depend on scripting and will not run without it, while others use it only as an enhancement, and can still be viewed to some extent even without scripting support. - Missing support for some older features The SWF library does not fully implement all features of even the older flash formats. Some of these, such as uncompressed and MP3 sound playing, bitmap transparency, "set target" functionality, and looping sounds, have been added to FlashPlayer. Others, such as streaming sound, sound envelopes, morphing shapes, and masked rendering, are still absent. - Resource-intensive While the flash files themselves are small, decoding and presenting them requires lots of memory and lots of processor cycles. A fairly high-end system is required to play any but the smallest and simplest animations, and even a 68060 is unable to play most animations at their intended speed. - Limited browser integration The flash format was really intended to be played from within a browser, using an integrated plugin. Lacking this ability, FlashPlayer can only act as an assistant to a browser, rather than as an integrated part of it. This makes viewing flash animations on the web much harder than it ought to be. Requirements: ------------- FlashPlayer runs under AmigaOS 3.0 and above. It requires guigfx.library and render.library, both included. It makes use of, but does not require, AHI and openurl.library. FlashPlayer requires a 68020 or better processor, with an FPU. FlashPlayer is not available for the PowerPC, as I don't have a PPC system to develop it on; however it runs under emulation on AmigaOS 4, and has been ported to MorphOS. Author: ------- Mike Steed 72207.463@compuserve.com SWF library written by Olivier Debon; modified by Mike Steed .