http://4as.pl Blog dedicated to ActionScript, Flash and programming. en-gb http://4as.pl/post63 "Preloading" is simple idea that dates back to the beginnings of the Internet - perhaps even further than that. It is a process of moving all of the applications data or multimedia into a computer's memory, so it can be accessed smoothly without breaks for additional reading. Same goes for Flash, wi... http://4as.pl/post62 As soon as ActionScript3 saw the light of the day Adobe instantly pointed out that the virtual machine behind it is completely different than the one used in AS2, which in turn means there is no direct way of communicating between those two languages. Right now someone might think that if that is th... http://4as.pl/post61 Without a doubt most of us heard that Flash might be slow at times and even thought with each version it gets faster and faster, there are still games out there that might bring even most powerful PC to its knees. Surprisingly enough it might not necessarily be the programmers fault, but actually th... http://4as.pl/post60 Happy New Year 2012! Often on the Internet I see people asking how to make a seek bar in a Flash animation (similar to how other video players do it, such as the one used on YouTube) however in the end not many people go through with it - why is that? The answer lays in how Flash handles MovieClips... http://4as.pl/post59 In today's post I will write a little about singletons, which are objects that exist in only one instance - what are they, how to make them in Flash and what are they useful for. Singleton is a design pattern and like many of those it might appear to overcomplicate things that can be done it much ... http://4as.pl/post58 In the previous part of this article I wrote about extending an ActionScript3 Documentation example of 3D graphics to make it work with multiple objects in such way that every object could still be transformed separately. The example also has a bit about the matrix used for camera movement ("view"),... http://4as.pl/post57 Two weeks ago I've wrote about support in Flash Professional for Flash Player 11 while mentioning about using the example of 3D rendering from the documentation ( http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/display3D/Context3D.html#includeExamplesSummary). However using ... http://4as.pl/post56 Recently Adobe released a new version of Flash Player, this time with a number 11 that features 3D acceleration (which I will write something about soon hopefully), support for bigger bitmaps, JSON etc. However those of you who wish to check out those new functions in Flash Professional are up for a... http://4as.pl/post55 In previous parts of this guide dedicated to creating a very bare-bone 3D engine I've mentioned how to display the illusion of perspective and how to control camera movements. This time we will handle rotation. It will be the final chapter of this guide since any further immersion in the topic will ... http://4as.pl/post54 Programmers that decide to switch to AS3 from AS2 will find sooner or later that the latest ActionScript iteration lacks duplicateMovieClip() function equivalent. It might seem odd, since it is hard to imagine Adobe having problems with implementation of such function. My guess is they are trying to... http://4as.pl/post53 In the previous part of this guide I've described how to create a basic 3D engine capable of creating a three-dimensional cube, however only in a static image which admittedly wasn't very impressive. That is why this time around we will expend it by adding camera movement. Lets start by creating ... http://4as.pl/post51 While programming interfaces (or similar stuff) in Flash I started asking myself "wouldn't it be cool if Flash had allowed custom objects of my own class on the Stage"? While the truth is it's entirely possibility even since AS2! But the problem is that you won't hear about it anywhere and Flash doe... http://4as.pl/post50 If anyone ever wanted to create their own 3D engine in Flash (and not only) not sure of what to expect, surely they met them self with a lot of mathematics and advanced programming routines during the search for information. It might be a little disheartening, but the truth is you don't need all tha... http://4as.pl/post49 I once was asked is there a way to access variables that were set on _root or _global. The problem comes from how strict the ActionScript3 is - in AS2 you would just write _global.myVar = 5 and then access it from anywhere, but AS3 just doesn't tolerate dynamic variables (and also there is no _globa... http://4as.pl/post1 Welcome to my little blog. It will be mostly dedicated to ActionScript (Flash's scripting language), but from time to time also few other random topics that I am interested in. I will try to divide post into "basic", "advanced" and "expert" entry knowledge requirements. In case of questions anyon...