FFilmation 1.3.3 released ( Fri 13 Mar 2009 )

This is also a performance and bugfixing release. I think I have already spent enough time trying to optimize things. It’s time to move on into new features. Of course I’ll be fixing bugs along the way, but in terms of performance this is as good as it gets.

What’s new ?

  • Tested with Flash CS4.
  • Scenes use less memory. But remember, hidden scenes still consume memory. If you want to free all resources allocated by scenes that will no longer be used, use the fEngine.destroy() method. Also, clear references from your code into any usused FFilmation element to allow it to be effectively garbage-collected.
  • I have tried to optimize the render process as much as possible, reducing the amount of layers, blendmodes and transformation matrixes. Given the amount of hours invested the result is quite dissappointing: In my tests I see an improvement of nothing to 10%, but I’m unsure about the real impact in other people’s applications.
  • The container property for fRenderableElements is no longer a generic MovieClip. Instead, a new fElementContainer class is used. Properties are the same.
  • Lots of collision tweaks. I hope it works better for everybody now.
  • Hidden elements are properly handled, you don’t collide against them, they don’t project shadows and they bullets don’t impact on them.
  • Fixed lots of bugs related to showing/hiding and removing characters
  • Optimized the Fence material ( does anyone but me use it ? )
  • You can soften shadows using the fEngine.softShadows property
  • More robust projection and lighting system, also a first step towards having irregular wall shapes.
  • Bumpmap performance has been dramatically improved. Still not for the average machine, but getting there.
  • Added an “invisible” material that can be used to have invisible planes that are still solid in terms of collision and bullet impacts. Simply use src=”invisible” in you plane definition.
  • Added the fEngine.RENDER_FINETUNE_1 and fEngine.RENDER_FINETUNE_2 constants. Use these constants to fine Tune projections until you see no seams between textures. Unfortunately as these seams are a result of pixel-rounding imperfections of the flash render engine, it will depend on your’s scene’s plane sizes and can’t be solved generically. So it will be a matter of trying different values until it looks good for you.

The classes are available from the Downloads section, as usual. The API docs have been updated as well.

Enjoy !

11 Responses to “FFilmation 1.3.3 released”

  1. sweet! way to kick out the releases! “Tested with Flash CS4″ Does this mean that the namespacing with the Vector class is resolved? Can’t wait to merge source files :)

    Mike said this on March 13th, 2009 at 8:53 pm

  2. Thank you very much for your engine, it’s quite useful for me to learn more about the 2.5D flash world!!!

    Sam said this on March 24th, 2009 at 10:22 am

  3. I have just try the new classes, and found that I can’t compile it by CS3 anymore……..but it can work normally in CS4. Is it since 1.3.3 we must use CS4 for it??

    Sam said this on March 24th, 2009 at 11:30 am

  4. No, It should work in CS3.

    Can you elaborate a bit on the error you are getting ?

    admin said this on March 24th, 2009 at 11:35 am

  5. I just unzip the classes files and replace it in classpath folder
    then use CS3 to compile you examples 1-4 …….the result swf just got the menu flashing…….the sences bar can’t load normally…..

    but if I replace back 1.3.2 classes again….all become fine.

    otherwise, you 1.3.3 classes and compile with CS4..also ok

    Sam said this on March 24th, 2009 at 11:49 am

  6. And one more question, I am really interesting on “also a first step towards having irregular wall shapes.” which classes or info I should read in the API doc to learn more about this new things?

    thanks a lot!!!!

    Sam said this on March 24th, 2009 at 11:51 am

  7. As for the error, apart from the flashing items you should get some sort of compiler error in the output window. I need that.

    The irregular wall shapes is just an idea, not a reality as for now.

    admin said this on March 24th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

  8. oh, sorry…..so stupid that I forgot to look at the error window.

    place: objectPool.as, line 145,146
    error 1061: System.gc()

    Sam said this on March 24th, 2009 at 1:45 pm

  9. Hi,

    this line is an attempt of manually calling the garbage collector, which should work on its own anyway. I have no problem compiling in my CS3, but if it gives you problems simply comment it out: it has nothing to do with the engine itself.

    admin said this on March 25th, 2009 at 11:37 am

  10. I had tons of collision issues and occlusion issues in a previous version. Did you include a list of the tweaks applied to the collision system? Also, have any edits been made to the editor or an ETA on it’s src release.
    Keep up the good work.

    Nick said this on April 1st, 2009 at 6:29 pm

  11. I don’t have a list of the collision issues: one user sent me a game he was working on and used his collision bugs to find out problems within the collision system. After I was finished the game worked way better and my examples were still working, so I assumed it was an overall improvement.

    As for the editor, I want to upgrade it to the latest engine version before I share the sources, which are quite crappy I must admit :(

    admin said this on April 1st, 2009 at 6:47 pm

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