Wishlist for Flash MX II

[LilleMartin]

Hey guys.
I couldn't find this posted yet, so I thought I'd like to get some opinions on what we all wish for in the next release of Flash.

Of the top of my head, one feature screams at me: Improved handling of text!

I've busted my knuckles over textissues in Flash more often than anything else. If it isn't blurry pixel fonts, it's special characters in dynamic textfields.

So... Any thoughts?

-M

[thoriphes]

PREDEFINED (whoops,..) 3D functions. i'm tired of having to use my own in every 3D project i make.

that's all i can think of right now.

[Raydred]

And make flash more stable.. i dont know how but ive managed to crash MX several times, as well as the whole MX suite.. =)

[Jubba]

yeah, Flash MX crashes a lot for me, and DWMX stops responding every now and then...

[eyeinfinitude]

That's weird, my flash never crashed on me before...

A feature that would be cool is to be able to incorporate .ra files since they're much smaller than mp3s and wavs.

Also being able to bring in more HTML would be nice too. A lot of people ask about being able to use iframes in flash, but it's all wishful thinking. :P

[ahmed]

i found this really nice list of 'flash mx2 most wanted features'..

http://www.philterdesign.com/blog/archives/000068.html

=)

[mdipi]

better trace bitmap feature, it always crashes my flash.

[Raydred]

We should come up with a huge (and reasonable) wish list, and submit them to Macromedia. =) maybe we can use Kirupa.com's clout to make it happen =)

http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/?6213=9

[ahmed]

a better actionscript editor.. it would be great if it was more like this tool (http://www.bomberstudios.com/sciteflash/) :)

[Jubba]

oh wow... i like that. :)

[ahmed]

haha yeah.. i actually do all my scripting on it and save it in as file, and then #include it in my swf.. :)

[grimdeath]

flash mx is fine as it is, now if they can incorporate better shape tween handling because those blasted shape hints dont cut it, and maybe a 3d engine and better playback and performance on macs since its so slow you cant have a decent website on both OS, i made this website http://www.expocaribbean.com on a mac and it runs fine on the mac but on the pc its too friggin fast and looks real stoopid, serves them right for not using a pc at work lol

[eyeinfinitude]

Yeah that's one thing I don't like about flash. It's extremely slow on macs and blazing fast on PC's. Don't get me wrong though, I like macs, but this slowness with flash drives me crazy somtimes.

[Mik3]

3d engine - blurred font thing - my images always look messed up and I can't get it so that they aren't smoothed when rendered.

[ahmed]

i really don't see why is everyone requesting a 3d-engine.. that's what Director's there for.. if flash had native support for 3d the player would be heavy to download and install.. just a thought :)

i agree on the mac thing though, swf's run ridiculously slow on them :(

[Voetsjoeba]

Greatest wish of 'em all: TEXT ! It's become impossible for me to use a pixel font now. It ALWAYS turn into blurry or the user doesn't have that dont or it doesn't matter what I do, it just doesn't work. Argh.

[Kitiara]

I agree on the shape tweening - no matter how careful I am with shape hints and all, 99.9% of the time it still goes wonky and twists itself into weird shapes.

[asphaltcowboy]

yeah, my main two are shape tweening and text. text: should have the non-anti-alias (is that just alias? :)) option so that photoshop pixel fonts actually work. less blurry non-pixel fonts as well (esp when using small sizes). and shape tweenin - ALWAYS comes out totally wrong.. and the shape hints are bloody useless

:)

[TheOrangeOne]

I totally agree about the text. It really P*sses me off when people dont use text correctly. Its either too blurry or just plain too small.

Another thing i think would be cool it a module that helps you build flash websites. Kinda like a drag and drop with a wizard. It could automatically create the action script, then all you would have to do is make slight adjustments to it, instead of writing an entire new code each time.

....But then again, that could be bad i suppose. People would have less motivation to learn Actionscript.

(BTW, i havn't read the rest of this thread, so sorry if i've repeated anyone)

[PierceG]

Some kind of bitmap editing function within flash. Wouldn't have to be too complicated. Just simple colour manipulation, cropping, etc.

[Kitiara]

I wouldn't mind a couple (not all mind, just a couple) of my favourite Photoshop filters that I could apply to my vector work. :beam:

[PierceG]

Even if flash interfaced with photoshop, if you had it. That would be kind of cool. A common file feature or whatever, with dynamic changing of each.

[Kitiara]

Yeah... Just afew of the rendering filters would be so helpful. :) Or the layer options, like Multiply and Screen, those would be great. :P

[TheOrangeOne]

Flash Filters! thats a cool idea. You could add a load of distortion filters, like when you motiontween an object, distort it as if it were moving underwater! Or add lens effects, or mirror options. That would be cool. Maybe They could add effects like in various gif animaters (like a light shining through text or dissolving effects etc...)

I could go on about this for hours.........

[Voetsjoeba]

Some predefined code like for background music control, transitions, ...

[PierceG]

And, the next version of Flash should just do everything for you..... You don't even have to use your keyboard of mouse, you just speak into the mic and tell it what you want and it just does it.
And have one of those helpful paperclip guys.....

[Kitiara]

No! No paperclips! :P

[TheOrangeOne]

some sort of mind control probe. You just imagine the site and *WHOOMPH* its there.

[chris9902]

better Pixal surport

and the ablity to have a transparent background;)

[eyeinfinitude]

It's possible to have transparent backgrounds, but only on PC based internet explorer. I don't think it works on Mac internet explorer.

[Kitiara]

Yes, you can get a transparent movie in IE. :)

[chris9902]

yeah i no

but i would be nice if it worked on ALL cpu's

[.soulty]

Originally posted by Kitiara
I agree on the shape tweening - no matter how careful I am with shape hints and all, 99.9% of the time it still goes wonky and twists itself into weird shapes.

Yeah i agree, though found that you need to place the tweens clockwise based on your shape, and you have to set the start and finish shape tweens individually, so you need to set "a" start position then go to the new shape and set the "a" end position before you start on the "b" shape tween.

:::: wishlist:::

Totally agree with a new type system. Also like the idea of filters with flash, (vector filters like illustrator has).

:: thats all for now.

[LilleMartin]

Okay... Since everybody agrees with me on the textissue, I'm going to elaborate a bit on it.

1. Aliasing of small font-sizes!

2. Snap textfields to integer X and Y (So as not to blur them).

3. A new and improved scrollbar that: Does'nt take foreeeever to skin.
Actually updates itself when text is loaded into it's textfield without having to be tricked to do so.

4. Better support for special characters in dynamic textfields. I went through hell the first time I wanted to dynamically load text in norwegian because Macromedia has elaborated so little on this issue.

Furthermore I'd like to see native importing from Photoshop layers, Better handlig of Illustrator transparancies, and of course I expect the upgrade to be free for anyone who bought Flash MX. :P

-M

[chris9902]

A men!

some really good ideas there

i don't no how to make custom scrollers (well i do:) ) but if i didn't i would agree with you on the skining thing

it take SO long to do then you want to change it and.....AHHHHHHHHH!!!!:angry:

:crazy:

[senocular]

Flash filters would be more along the lines of FreeHand. Flash isnt exactly meant to be a vector tool in terms of making images as it is a medium for providing fast online content. Its hard to cram features into it without Flash becoming bloated. Sure, many of them could be nice, but they could be harmful overall as well making flash bloaty and slow.

As for 3D, thats in Director/shockwave's hands now.

Text kind of follows suit with the bloat. You just need to know what you're doing. The problems lie in the way Flash handles text - that being a resourceful and 'light' manner, attempting to reduce filesize where possible etc. If you know how Flash deals with that, you're fine with text in Flash.

Same applies with preloaders. Its jsut a matter of knowing how its handled. So many people have so many problems with it

... that being said, though, theres an obvious breakdown somewhere, either in Flash's explanation of how it does/handles things or the techniques involved in implementing them. Certainly there is room for improvement.

... the obvious improvements are the bug fixes. Other than that Im content.

also see
http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/flashcoders-wiki/index.php?Flash%20Wishlist

[Niann]

I don't know if adding .ra would be a good idea... At least not if I need real player to play it. I don't like Real Player and do not have it installed on my system. I would almost say that .ogg support would be a better idea, but what do I know. =0)

Cheers!
-Niann

[grimdeath]

I guess you dont know what a component is. Anyways no matter i never use em i like to know how things work, its what diferentiates a real webdeveloper from your average joe trying to make websites and selling them for very ridiculous prices and busting the market. So thats not a good idea if you ask me but you can never compare a person who actaully knows what hes doing to a peson whos just using predefined stuff, JMHO.



Originally posted by TheOrangeOne
I totally agree about the text. It really P*sses me off when people dont use text correctly. Its either too blurry or just plain too small.

Another thing i think would be cool it a module that helps you build flash websites. Kinda like a drag and drop with a wizard. It could automatically create the action script, then all you would have to do is make slight adjustments to it, instead of writing an entire new code each time.

....But then again, that could be bad i suppose. People would have less motivation to learn Actionscript.

(BTW, i havn't read the rest of this thread, so sorry if i've repeated anyone)

[LilleMartin]

I'm not sure I totally agree with you there Senocular. I know there are ways around the Text-issues in flash, but I feel that some of the problems could be avoided with some simple features that needn't bloat the program at all. Like a "snap to integer X Y" function which would rid us of spending so much time trying to place the textfields correct when nested through several MC's.

I do agree that a lot of problems would be solved with better documentation. I spent a lot of time solving my "special characters"-problem although when I look at it now it really wasn't that complicated. If the documentation had been more accessible or even a feature built into the dynamic textfield dialogue to use codepage for UTF-8 text that would havbe saved me a lot of time...

-M

[LilleMartin]

And GrimDeath:

Components are friggin marvelous. :) It's great to be able to save my frequently used work as files that are available from the components panel. I love them.

-M

[senocular]

like "snap to pixel"?
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/tipsubmission/tip_detail.cfm?tipid=172

[grimdeath]

Componenets are evil they boost up your file size and bust your preloaders as well as permit the user not to learn more and make them rely on componentsto do the job when they could jsut spend a little time and actually learn how to do it themselves, i just dont like em im not saying that you shouldnt like em ;)

[LilleMartin]

Senocular: Yup... Only reliable. :P

-M

[Voetsjoeba]

Yes, you can get a transparent movie in IE. :)

How ?

[λ]

Voetsjoeba: here (http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx/transparency.htm)

[Illuminae]

you all make very good suggestions, and i'd like to see some of them in the next flash. but this is my MAIN complaint right here:

Flash has terrible options for standalone players and .exe's. I think they really need to work on that area. right now as it is, you are pretty much forced into using a 3rd party software to do a lot of things that should be possible through flash IMHO. i am working with Northcode's SWF Studio, which is a wonderful little program, but it really burns my buns that I had to buy it in the first place to do something I was shocked Flash didn't do.
see an old thread here for a complete list of my complaints and some info about 3rd party options (http://www.kirupaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20152)
if you see that, you will know that i spent a LOT of time on these issues, time that could have been better spent if a. there was better documentation on this stuff and b. Flash handled standalones a little better.

if you don't feel like reading that whole big thing, then lemme make a small list of the features i think would be most reasonable, and also vital.

1. allow flash to open a file with it's default program
2. allow flash to send variables from a form into a formatted email in their default email program
3. allow users to click on a mailto: link to open default email program
4. change the title bar in the exe to say something other then "Macromedia FlashPlayer"
5. make a noresize feature, where, if a user resizes or fullscreens the exe, the content will stay true to its size and just sit in the middle.

then there are others that would be fun, like~
1. allow flashers to make custom icons for the exe
2. autocreate an "autorun.ini" file for cds (although that's easy to do by hand, it would be nice)
3. allow an exe to act as a browser and be able to open web docs

[pinx]

Originally posted by mdipi.com
better trace bitmap feature, it always crashes my flash.

definately

[Illuminae]

oh yeah. and it should also do my dishes. heh

[grimdeath]

Golgi you can make your own icon for a cdrom ive done it myself you just need a ico file which you could do in photoshop with little plugin called icon factory, the mailto thinkgy i dont understand because i always get it working once you click the link it opens the default email app so i dont understand this one, the autorun is very simple to create on your own so thats no hassle.

Other than that yeah the other things you said are valid what i would really like is better pc & mac integration it a pain exporting a hqx file from a pc and gettin it to work on a mac without copying all the files directly to your macs hd :-\

[Illuminae]

Originally posted by grimdeath
Golgi you can make your own icon for a cdrom ive done it myself you just need a ico file which you could do in photoshop with little plugin called icon factory, the mailto thinkgy i dont understand because i always get it working once you click the link it opens the default email app so i dont understand this one,

well, i can create icons in a few icon programs i have, that's not the problem. but how would you get it to be the icon for the program? like, i can do it with SWF studio. but is there a way to do it regular? basically, if you have your custom icon, i want it to display in the program title bar, the taskbar, and the windows bar down below, as well as the program itself. (instead of the macromedia "S")

also, i think the mailto works on some puters and not others. it was a while ago when i had this problem, so don't quote me on this, but i'm pretty sure there's a Windblows thing or something, that doesn't work reliably.
:beam:

[Keith130]

It needs to have vertical dynamic text boxes! I wanted that for a counter a while back but it doesnt work so baisicly the same as the first post, better dynamic text handling! Is anyone gonna give this to macromedia or are we all just gripring about the problems in it?


Originally posted by redGolgi
3. allow users to click on a mailto: link to open default email program
I was quite shocked to find that it didnt support this link when I made my school site! It was very annoying

I was wondering what they were gonna call the next editions of all their software 'cos I thought that MX had a sort of Crem de le Crem sort of sound to it. The same with stuff like Windows XP etc.... So does anyone have an idea?

[LilleMartin]

I'm not getting this either... The mail thing does work. You just enter the mailto:youremail@yourdomain.com and when the user clicks it it opens the default mail prog...

What are you trying to do?

-M

[Illuminae]

mailto: works in a regular flash site, or anything that's veiwed in a browser, like a swf opened with your browser, or embedded in html, but it doesn't work from a standalone exe. like, if you publish it as windows standalone (exe) it doesn't work. so i'm talkin strictly in a standalone. although, like i said, i think it might work sometimes for some people. it's wishy-washy. some kind of OS conflict.

[LilleMartin]

Ahaaa... Can't remember if I've tried it in a standalone. Hehe... I really didn't understand what you guys were going on about there for a minute...

-M

[Mik3]

But even though, you know that if they do make this true they are going to smack it on a CD and call it "DevFlash Fixes" or something and charge 300$ for it. :( that's what' they've been doing lately it seems.

[grimdeath]

Golgi it does work on a stand alone player, i made a multimedia cdrom and i tested it i windows 98, win2k, winxp, Mac OS 9.2 and Mac OS X and it works fine from the standalone player so i really dont know why youre having problems with this

[mlk]

Golgi - As For the icon you have to get a .exe (dunno for macs) builder/ressource explorer which enable you to check all the ressources of .exe file and change some of them -> you can change icons, cursors of flash mx and strings from the menus..

Im not sure wether or not they are legal, since you change some of the original stuff...

what i would change with new flash MX:
- handling of all type of JPG encodings...
- better handling of loading (chose when sound loads etc...)
- enable right clickin links (ie Save As/copy link target)
- better code scrambling to protect against reverse engineering, even though i know software exists for that...
- improved transparency options, ie a skinnable standalone player/ with any shape

...much more....