Universal binaries
John Nack and Steve Kilisky layed out plans for universal binaries on the Mac. Any news concerning the Flash Player are absent there though, so let me talk a little about it.
The new iMacs ship with a native Intel version of the Flash Player 8 plugin and so will the MacBooks. These are currently not universal, meaning this binary runs on Intel only. We'll update this soon (I hope in a matter of weeks, although this depends on a number of factors) since you might have noticed that this version is not up to date revision wise. There were also a number of fixes since then you'll be able to enjoy, especially performance will be improved. You'll also see improved interoperatility with the native Intel version of FireFox, for the time being they had to add a workaround to make the plugin run. It's not yet clear how we will distribute it since eventually we want to ship one binary only. But stay tuned, we are currently working hard to get the last pieces of this puzzle together.
Another interesting question is if the current PowerPC Flash Player 8 plugin runs under Rosetta. It does pass our internal test suites, but performance wise it's lacking seriously and we have identified a couple of rendering bugs (especially with video), something which might be fixed with a software update of the Rosetta emulation engine by Apple.
As for Flash Player 8.5 alpha: While there is no univeral binary for this on labs.adobe.com so far, there is a version internally though which is maintained. I assume that most developers still own PowerPC machines, so the focus remains on the platforms on which users can give the most feedback when it comes to AS3.
Update: Yes, a fix for the blue text problem will be part of the update of the Intel version.
The new iMacs ship with a native Intel version of the Flash Player 8 plugin and so will the MacBooks. These are currently not universal, meaning this binary runs on Intel only. We'll update this soon (I hope in a matter of weeks, although this depends on a number of factors) since you might have noticed that this version is not up to date revision wise. There were also a number of fixes since then you'll be able to enjoy, especially performance will be improved. You'll also see improved interoperatility with the native Intel version of FireFox, for the time being they had to add a workaround to make the plugin run. It's not yet clear how we will distribute it since eventually we want to ship one binary only. But stay tuned, we are currently working hard to get the last pieces of this puzzle together.
Another interesting question is if the current PowerPC Flash Player 8 plugin runs under Rosetta. It does pass our internal test suites, but performance wise it's lacking seriously and we have identified a couple of rendering bugs (especially with video), something which might be fixed with a software update of the Rosetta emulation engine by Apple.
As for Flash Player 8.5 alpha: While there is no univeral binary for this on labs.adobe.com so far, there is a version internally though which is maintained. I assume that most developers still own PowerPC machines, so the focus remains on the platforms on which users can give the most feedback when it comes to AS3.
Update: Yes, a fix for the blue text problem will be part of the update of the Intel version.
posted by Tinic Uro at 10:19 AM
18 Comments:
On the topic of rendering glitches, I was at the Apple Store a couple of days ago and tested a project I'm working on with the new iMac. Tweening the _alpha property of a MovieClip with a bitmap didn't work. It rendered as either zero or full opacity -- that is, anything less than _alpha = 100 was not visible.
If the user forces Safari to launch in emulation, will the native Flash Player still work, or do the MacIntel's also ship with the PPC player? Thx much.
sorry for using your blog to ask you this OOT question (didn't find another way ;-( ):
I have a tricky problem,... or a suggestion for a future feature in flash player:
When you play a Flash movie at any FPS (frame per second) value - or "flash frequency", there is no synchronisation with the "screen frequency" of the hardware screen.
For example if my screen frequency is 70 Hz (= 70 Fps), and if my Flash movie is at 70 fps: the flash animation will be net, or "clean" at some times, but flickering and distorted at other times.
This can be experienced by making a simple colored disk moving on a white background (use fps greater than 30 fps): sometimes the disk flickers or seems cut in two parts.
This is a big problem when developping flash-based fast arcade game. In the long run, it kind of "hurts" the eyes..
So my question is: in "any external tool developped for this purpose", (or SWF2EXE app, hereafter named "external tool"), is there a way to synchronize a Flash display with the screen frequency?
This could be done if :
1- this external tool controls display through a Directx api for exemple and gets information about frequency, or when a image can be displayed
2- the external tool controls the flash movie (not only the main timeline, but the whole movie "clock") and "orders" the flash movie to display one frame, when appropriated..
3- the external tool release the display buffer
I guess point 2- is not possible with the current Flash player (because play() and stop() are not enough), unless a specific flash player is developped (this flash player would have a displayOneMoreFrame() method, otherwise the whole flash is "paused")..
is there a feasible way to handle this problem with the current flash player?
otherwise, any tip or suggestion?
thanks,
Olivier
Note that the native version of Flash Player 8 shipping on the new Mac Intel machines is a preview release of the player and not a final release. I know it's not exactly clear to end-users that this is the case, and we will be posting an FAQ (similar to the one covering Creative Pros) that is specific to Flash Player very shortly.
best,
Emmy Huang
Product Manager, Flash Player
So forgive me, the stupid guy, but I would imagine that I'm not alone...when I first got the Intel Imac that first week, I downloaded Firefox immediately. Because it runs in Rosetta, it apparently didn't find the flash player that was native to Intel. So, I downloaded the flash player on the macromedia site. It works in Firefox now. But, apparently I've corrupted or deleted the native intel version and now can't use Safari or Deer Park with any quality of browsing because I can't see the flash-enabled pages.
Any ideas? or links to reinstall the universal???
I just downloaded an installed flash player 8 on my macbook, and goofed up the intel native install. Now it doesnt run AT ALL (not just slowly, but not at all). Same as the guy above that posted a comment. Anything I can do about this? Where can I re-download, or re-enable the intel version? Did I overwrite it with the installer?
Eric Esser
The version that ships with the Intel Macs is lower than the currently shipping PPC version 8.0.22.0 that is available from our website -- which means you can run into the problem where you will overwrite the native Intel version if you say yes to the PPC install.
We will fix this with proper versioning when we update the preview release, and the update will be available from our support site.
For the short term...
- If you've already overwritten the native intel version with ppc, you can run Safari in rosetta.
- Or, I've seen other posts that say you can get the native version off of the install disc without a complete reinstall: http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=184&threadid=1106914&enterthread=y
Best,
Emmy
Product Manager, Flash Player
find the MacIntel Flash Player in the Public folder at:
http://idisk.mac.com/pjmotz/?view=web
Leave a note if you find this helpful.
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou Anonymous! I was NOT looking forward to having to dissect my Install Disk with Pacifist.
Can you please repost the macintel flash player? when i go to the linked idisk site, it asks for a name/password - thank you!
I think he meant http://idisk.mac.com/pjmotz/Public/?view=web
Still can't download it, but it's getting further at that URL... just says "Loading" in the iDisk panel.
please, can you upload somewhere that flash player for macintel?
thanks.
finder --> Go -->iDisk --> Other User's Public Folder -->pjmotz
Accordon to Apple's site this should give access to the MacIntel Flash plugin in my public folder.
http://idisk.mac.com/pjmotz-Public?
I am able to access your public folder, but do not see the MacIntel Flash Player ... can you still make it available?
I like articles like this. Thanks!
Well done. Keep up the great work. Best regards!
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