Tutorial details: Flash 8 (Maelstrom) Tutorial
Difficulty Level: Intermediate
Requirements: Flash MX 2004
Assumed Knowledge: None
File(s) to Download: Links are within this tutorial
Online Example: Links are within this tutorial
Flash 8 Maelstrom Tutorial
Those of you with an ear to the ground will know that the Flash 8 Beta player (code-name: Maelstrom) has been kicking around for a couple of weeks now.
[At the time of writing…] the Flash 8 IDE isn't out, and there is no set release date for it yet, but that shouldn't stop you from tinkering around with
some of the new Flash 8 features, because you are able to publish Flash 8 files using the Flash 7 IDE! (or the open-source MTASC compiler)
On The 8Ball
First things first, this tutorial wouldn't be here so soon without info I've gathered from the Flash community (osflash, protozoo valyard), in particular those
who've decompiled the Flash 8 player to find out more about it's inner workings. :)
I've mixed a couple of my own flas with enough info to get you started publishing your own Maelstrom examples, and put it all in one place, to save you having to scour the web,
and piece disparate bits of information together.
As you can appreciate, with a new player and no documentation to hand, some is guesswork,
and some of the features in the beta player may not appear in the final release.
Okay, let's get up and running. To make this tutorial as accessible as possible we're going to use the Flash 7 IDE to publish our files,
and I've not used any classes, so as not to exclude anyone unfamiliar with AS2. So, for now all code will go directly on the main timeline -
which makes me feel kinda dirty, but hey ;)
Publishing Flash 8 via Flash 7
To view Flash 8 content you will need the Flash 8 beta player (here on in referred to as Maelstrom).
Note: this will replace your current player, and as it's in beta testing phase it may possibly contain backward-compatibility bugs.
If you want to revert to Flash 7 at any point in the future, you can first use the Macromedia uninstaller and then reinstall the Flash 7 player
in the normal way.
There are other options such as player-switchers too, but I won't go in to detail here.
I've also got the standalone player which allows you to be able to double-click swfs and have them play in Maelstrom too.
If you don't get the standalone player you will have to publish your swfs, and then drag them in to a browser window in order to view the new features.
All the URLs you should need are on the next page...
|
