Adobe Introduces Flash Player 10 Beta - Cool Effects, Better Performance and Linux Support

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Adobe released a public beta version of Flash Player 10. It's available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux operating systems.

Flash Player 10 -- code-named "Astro" -- adds new filter and effects capabilities, 3D transformation and animation, new rich text layout functions and graphics card-based hardware acceleration.


The filters and effects, powered by Adobe's "Pixel Bender" toolkit, are similar to those incorporated in Adobe's After Effects CS3 software. They enable Flash developers to create pixel-shading-based effects that leverage the capabilities built into the graphics chips and cards in newer computers. Flash Player 10 beta also supports 3D effects natively, so you can position, rotate and animate 2D objects in a 3D environment.


Adobe has also developed new typographic controls in Flash Player 10 that enable users to anti-alias text, rotate and style text in ways they couldn't before. It supports ligatures, as well as vertical, bidirectional and right-to-left oriented text.


Adobe is also paving the way in this release for a better Flash-based video experience. Variable bitrate streaming now built into Adobe Flash Player 10 beta and planned for future releases of Flash Media Server will adjust video quality as bandwidth varies.

Once piece of welcome news is that Adobe is releasing the Flash Player 10 beta for all major platforms — Windows, Mac and Linux. Adobe has even upped the Linux ante with a new installer specially tailored for Ubuntu users. Barclay says that Adobe considers Linux a major platform and will continue to make all Flash releases simultaneous across platforms.


Key New Features

3D Effects - Easily transform and animate any display object through 3D space while retaining full interactivity. Fast, lightweight, and native 3D effects make motion that was previously reserved for expert users available to everyone. Complex effects are simple with APIs that extend what you already know.


Custom Filters and Effects - Create your own portable filters, blend modes, and fills using Adobe® Pixel Bender™, the same technology used for many After Effects CS3 filters. Shaders in Flash Player are about 1KB and can be scripted and animated at runtime.


Advanced Text Layout - A new, highly flexible text layout engine, co-existing with TextField, enables innovation in creating new text controls by providing low-level access to text offering right-to-left and vertical text layout, plus support for typographic elements like ligatures.


Enhanced Drawing API - Runtime drawing is easier and more powerful with re-styleable properties, 3D APIs, and a new way of drawing sophisticated shapes without having to code them line by line.


Visual Performance Improvements – Applications and videos will run smoother and faster with expanded use of hardware acceleration. By moving several visual processing tasks to the video card, the CPU is free to do more.
ligatures.

If you would like to try out this new beta of Flash Player, visit the Adobe Labs site to download a copy. To check out some of the new features in action have a look at Adobe’s demo apps.

More Info:

Adobe Flash Player 10

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