Flash and common denominator

Steve Jobs published an open letter about Flash, that lists the 6 main reasons (another one being strategical) of lack of Flash on iPhone and iPad. Indeed it has been proven that solutions heading to the (low) common denominator aren’t compatible with the mac experience, as we can see on some iPhone application, and previously on mac (Eclipse, OpenOffice, games ported using Cider). The main interest of Apple’s solutions against Windows or Android resides in these few innovative applications. Some have still undestood this and make full use of OSX features : idSoftware, Blizzard, and recently Valve.

As a paradox, the same companies that claim about cross-platform development (and that took 10 years to migrate to Cocoa) forced Apple to cancell the Yellow Box (worked also on Windows), and to provide Carbon, some of a compromise. Advanced object concepts from AppKit and ObjC runtime aren’t likely to be easily unified with MFC programming and even Java.

1112 episode 2 submitted to AppStore

Episode 2 of famous adventure game 1112 by Agharta Studio has finally been submitted to AppStore validating, and should be available early may. The graphics engine, user interface, design and music have all been revamped, and 28 places will be provided, so it was worth the wait.
We can watch a first trailer, as well as a fan video that shows some in-game playing.

Update : the game is now listed at the AppStore (4,99$), and first reviews report a slightly longer gaming time, however with few explanations to the mysterious plot.

Akihabara : creating games using HTML5

Akihabara (see here) is the first comprehensive and optimized (2D) game creation framework based on HTML5 (uses Canvas for rendering) :

– allows multiple grouped objects moving simultaneously, helps with collisions, rendering and moving objects, provides monospaced pixel-fonts rendering too, handles keyboard, double buffering and eventually FSEs,
– provides a complete generic game cycle: intro, menus, crossfading between stages/lifes, gameover and ending
– provides lots lots of common routines during the game developing: from effects for screen titles to HUD handling to platform/SHMUP/RPG oriented routines, like jumping characters, Z-Indexed objects, bullets, sparks, staff rolls, bonus screens, dialogues etc.
– provides some Javascript-specific functions, such object copying, randomizing functions, string/array handlers and the akihabaraInit function, that automatically sets a comfortable preset of configurations: 25fps, double-sized display for non-mobile devices, dynamic frameskip
– provides simple developing tools. Actually there is only a cel-composer: it can compose an image stacking a set of frames for animating objects, applying a number of filters to each frame.
– provides some math stuff for moving objects in a direction or following a round path
– provides a touchpad for touch-based device (for now, Android and iDevices)

Demo games are provided.

Another area where Flash isn’t anymore required. However there is still to consider that Flash’s interest isn’t all about its plugin (Adobe indeed just started to migrate its solution to HTML5/WebKit foundations), and more about its components library, editor (Flash Studio), and bridge (BlazeDS).

The later is however less evolved than Cappuccino’s CP2JavaWS (this solution works at Objective-J level – higher level/more object than ActionScript -, and manages far more complex objets graphs – including nested heterogeneous collections, null values, generic types, references/cycles -, as well as Digest authentication, and finally Direct2CP mode).

Flash Player 10.1 RC2 : the last for PowerPC

The RC2 of Flash Player 10.1 is downloadable here. We have to uninstall Flash before, using the provided uninstaller. It will be the last version compatible with PowerPC.

Amiga emulator for iPhone

Manomio, the editor of the C64 emulator for iPhone, will release an Amiga 500 emulator in June, restricted to iPhone 3GS and iPad. We can watch a video of game IK+ (that runs perfectly smooth). The iPad version will provide better resolution. An Atari 2600 emulator is also planned.

Cobra Command/Sword of Fargoal free

The game Cobra Command (363 Mb) is still free for a few hours at the AppStore.
We can also get for free today Sword of Fargoal (52 Mb).

WebGL unsupported on Radeon 9000 Pro

With latest WebKit nightlty (and enabled WebGL option through write com.apple.Safari WebKitWebGLEnabled -bool YES command), scenes are still blank on a G4 MDD with Radeon 9000 Pro. In fact WebGL requires a graphics card that supports OpenGL ES2, and then OpenGL 2.0. Under Leopard, this compatibility matrix states that the Radeon 9000 Pro is restricted to OpenGL 1.3. The MDD G4 can receive a Radeon 9600 Pro Mac et PC Edition card as an option (was priced 200$… however it isn’t available yet), that supports OpenGL 2.0.
We can get the list of new APIs added by OpenGL versions here.

Update : WebKit’s WebGL used to work on Leopard for compatible graphics card, however it now only  works on Snow Leopard. Users still under 10.5 can use Chromium instead, however it doesn’t run on PowerPC (only on Intel mac).

NI Paranormal Spectrums

NI presents Paranormal Spectrums, a Kore soundpack that includes 100 patchs (530 Mb, the patchs use both samples and synthesis) : focused on dark and tension-filled sound aesthetics, for the instant creation of horror-genre style atmospheres for movies and video games. Audio demos are available, as well as a production video. An Intel mac is required (the library is compatible with Kore 2.1.1 or Kontakt 4). It is priced 69 euros.

WebKit : Web Inspector enhancements

Through a recent WebKit nightly build, the Web Inspector provides many new features :

– styles inspection, contextual DOM editing (and display per chunks for nodes that contain many children),
– informations about HTTP redirect,
– global enabling/disabling of breakpoints, contextual popup (hover) for evaluating elements,
– new keyboard shortcuts,
– timeline that displays the duration of operations (loading, script execution, rendering), sorted/nested against event causation, and with syncrhonous operations being displayed as solid parts,
– audit page (reports unused resources, and provides hints about caching, etc.),
– dedicated page for the console.

Intel AVX expected late 2010

Intel confirmed that its Sandy Bridge platform will be launched next fall : it will finally bring the AVX vector engine, similar to G4’s Altivec (that was launched in 1999…)

New MacBook Pro : HD video/best battery

The new MacBook Pro bring new CoreI5 and Core i7 mobiles processors (15,4′ and 17′ models only) : contrary to the similarly named iMac (desktop) processors, those are dual core (not quad), however they also feature Turbo Boost, Hyperthreading, and an on-chip memory controller, wich leads to up to 50% performance increase (notably in video encoding and 3D rendering).

Moreover all models (including 13,3′) unveil the best battery life ever (more than doubled) : 10 hours on the 13,3 model (only includes a classic Core2 Duo, and an integrated Nvidia GeForce 320M chipset), and 8-9 hours on 15,4′ and 17′ models (common use – when based on the Intel HD chipset).

Finally all models will benefit from a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter (option), and even the GeForce 320M chispet found on the 13,3′ model (derived from the GT216 and featuring 48 shader cores – and using 256 Mb of shared memory – over 4Gb or RAM) will also manage HD video decoding (and also CUDA, OpenCL and DirectCompute). Despite this chispet being half powerful than the dedicated GeForce GT 330M card (256 or 512 Mb of VRAM) found on the 15′ and 17′ models, il will be able to run older games in high quality, and most recent ones in low quality. It offers up to 80% more fps than the previous Nvidia 9400M chipset.

The switch between Intel HD chipset and GeForce GT 330M card on the 15′ and 17′ models is managed automatically (feature developped by Apple – isn”t the rumored Nvidia’s Optimus technology).

A HD resolution option (1680×1050 instead of 1440×900) is available for the 15′ model (+100$), as well as an anti-glare screen (+150$ – is also HD). The anti-glare option is also available for the 17′ model (+50$).

Lexicon : PCM Native Reverb Plug-in demo

Lexicon provides a demo version (works for 7 days once activated) of PCM Native Reverb Plug-ins Bundle. An iLok key is required (demo license to install). The plugins also work on PowerPC (however a 1,8 Ghz G5 is stated).