Flash newbie questions :)

[hama]

Hi All,

I am currently learning ActionScript. Needless to say I want to program some casual games in Flash :) Now I would like to know a few question cuz I am completely new to Flash and ActionScript:

- do you recommend Flex over Flash? I am a programmer and will be only doing programming so I guess Flex is better suit to me. But (sorry for total n00b question) will swf compiled in Flex work on most users' system without needing to download some Flex library or something?

- What ActionScript version do you recommend to use 1, 2 or 3.0? Needless to say I want the games to run by most user.

Thanks in advance :D

[jpoag]

http://www.adobe.com/products/player...netration.html

Flex 2 and ActionScript 3 require Flash Player 9 (no additional library downloads). You're looking at a 98% saturation of the flash player 9.

If you're coming from a programming background, as3 will make more sense to you. As1 was a list of actions you could attach to a keyframe. As2 allowed you to use more complex logic and scripting attached to frames and/or the document.

As3 is a more OO designed language with a faster virtual machine. Also, check out TweenLite, it's really fast.


Flex Game programming:
http://www.brighthub.com/internet/we...les/11010.aspx

Flash game programming:
http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/t...cript-3/ID-46/
(although I think the MVC is overkill for such a simple game)

[Cartman]

I also recommend you use Flash Develop for your editor. I'm loving using it. And it's free.

[hama]

Many thanks. I downloaded and tried Flash Develop. It seems it's what I really need. I have Flash CS4 for the artists already so with with Flash Develop, I do not need to buy Flex builder. BTW, does Flash Develop compatibles with CS4? I hope it does.

[Cartman]

BTW, does Flash Develop compatibles with CS4?

Yes. I have both and they work fine together.

I would also recommend a few books that I've found necessary:

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook - Joey Lott
Essential ActionScript 3.0 (Essential) - Colin Moock
Learning ActionScript 3 - Rich Shupe

I've read a few others, but they don't hold a candle to these three.

[Spore Man]

Backward compatibility is not relevant to the version of IDE you purchase. The great thing Macromedia (and Adobe) have done with Flash is make every new edition capable of publishing to all the legacy version. You can take Flash CS4 and publish in AS1.0 Flash 4 if you wanted to (we're talking Flash Player version from like year 2000! )

... And as for SWFs, you can get funny behaviour if you mix SWFs from different versions, but so long as a parent swf is loading a child that is same version or older, there's no issues. (ie: Flash 8 SWF attempting to load and play a Flash 9 SWF can sometimes not work, but the opposite should work fine. I've made Flash 9 AS3 wrappers that load Flash 8 AS2 children and they execute without a problem!)

The only thing they DON'T provide for is saving the source FLA in any version. A FLA file created in CS4 saves by default in "CS4" format, with the option to save 1 version back (ie: you can SAVE AS to "CS3" format, but no older than that).

For actual coding help in Flash I recommend the Games forum on www.FlashKit.com