Adobe has released Adobe AIR 3.2 with Stage3D hardware
accelerated rendering for iOS and Android platforms and
Flash Player 11.2, which brings premium features for
gaming.
Adobe AIR 3.2 brings the most advanced Flash technology
to iPhone/iPad (iOS) and Android phones and tablets. AIR
3.2 introduces Stage3D graphics technology for iOS and
Android, enabling great visuals with 1000x faster native
GPU rendering performance in mobile devices.
With the new software, developers can use the same code
and Stage3D APIs as they can use to build desktop browser
games with Flash Player. It natively supports mobile
capabilities like multitouch, camera/mic, accelerometers
and NFC payments to iOS Game Center with extensions.
Flash Player 11 introduced Stage3D on the desktop, and it
already brings cinematic 2D and 3D graphics to users
whether they're using Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer,
or Safari.
Flash Player 11.2 adds new core features
for gaming, including mouse lock, relative coordinates,
and right and middle - click support. Combined with
Stage3D, developers will have the chance to build greater
games in the browser, whether a first-person shooter or a
real-time strategy game using infinite map scrolling. It
also extends hardware driver support back to 2008,
enabling full hardware acceleration on more computers
than ever.
Flash Player 11.2 also adds automatic background updates
for Windows, along with a new multithreaded video
decoding architecture for smooth playback of full HD
video.
In addition to new core features in Flash Player 11.2,
Adobe announced a new tier of Flash Player premium
features for gaming. These premium features will allow
developers to deliver console quality games. These also
allow Adobe to open up Flash Player to a supported third
party ecosystem of gaming middleware, bringing together
specialized game development tools with the reach of
Flash Player.
Domain memory helps advanced compilers such as the
upcoming new Adobe "Alchemy" compiler enable
high-performance, sandboxed execution of cross-compiled
C/C++ code in Flash Player. ActionScript developers can
take advantage of hundreds of existing optimized C/C++
code libraries in their games. C/C++ game developers can
bring their entire native game or game engine to the
Flash Platform. Starting today, developers
can apply to join the new Alchemy
prerelease program.
Using premium features - Stage3D hardware acceleration in
combination with domain memory - allows console-quality
game engines to run across browsers with high performance
in Flash Player. The premium features also allow
developers to take advantage of specialized game tools to
build their games for Flash Player. For example, the
collaboration with Unity Technologies that Adobe
announced today means that Unity customers will be able
to license premium features to publish web-based 3D games
with the reach and power of Flash Player and Stage3D.