[casual_games] About Flash Wrappers

Allen R Partridge allen.partridge at iup.edu
Fri Nov 3 08:24:45 EST 2006


Thanks Hal,

Performance is very much a concern, both from Flash and from any 
wrapper. As you might suspect, my curiousity isn't necessarily driven 
by plans to implement a game this way as much as it is a desire to be 
able to compare the major options objectively.

Personally I've been burned by Flash performance pretty regularly over 
the past decade, but I trust folks who've told me that things have 
improved significantly. (I also like the idea of Flash ubiquity for an 
online version - but honestly am beginning to consider a core Director 
game with a simplified Flash clone for our next title. It does't 
really mean that much more to build it on both engines - most of our 
next game is art and timing, not so much deep code as the past ones 
have been.

I hear lots of buzz on screenweaver, but all the links seem to be dead 
and I'm not sure I understand the current state of the project. Does 
anyone know if it's no longer under development, gone commercial?

Can anyone explain how Jugglor can claim performance enhancement - 
(faster playback) after wrapping? Is it true - (I imagine it depends 
on the test.)

On a sort of related note, I know that some of the big houses have 
developed internal engines. Anyone licensing those?

--Thanks again,

Al

On Thu, 02 Nov 2006 20:57:20 -0800
  Hal Barwood <hal at finitearts.com> wrote:
> Not sure if performance is a problem for your Flash games or not, 
>but be aware:  wrappers that use the OCX browser plug-in can run 
>really slowly:  in my experience, about 1/2 as fast as the standalone 
>player.  A 
> previous thread on this topic identified some wrappers that 
>incorporate the standalone player -- worth a careful look.
> 
> 
> Cameron Owen wrote:
>> You might also want to look into using browser based projectors. 
>>There 
>> are a few programs around that will package HTML content into an 
>> executable (mostly IE wrappers) and allow similar features (full 
>>screen, 
>> resolution, local file system access) with the added benifit of 
>>being 
>> able to use the browser itself for various types of HTML content 
>>that is 
>> generally quicker to produce than Flash content such as help files, 
>> support pages, order forms and so forth.
>> 
>> Screenweaver is also an open source projector tool with a lot of 
>> features but I found the work-flow of developing with it to be very 
>> unproductive and quicksome. It show a lot of promise with future 
>> development though.
>> 
>> For security, you might want to look into any possible Flash 9 
>>options. 
>> Flash 9 with action script 3.0 is compiled into a form of byte code 
>> which will provide added security as it will be a little more 
>>difficult 
>> to reverse-engineer. However, sooner or later someone will figure 
>>out 
>> how to reverse-engineer F9 byte code as well (probably sooner).
>> 
>> The best option would be to approach various portals or your 
>>publishers 
>> and see what they can offer in the form of DRM wrappers or consider 
>> hiring a C/C++ developer to write your own. I know a few flash 
>> developers do this as well as using a similar wrapper as a browser 
>> plug-in to protect their flash games being played online.
>> 
>> On 03/11/06, *Rajat Paharia* <rpaharia+lists at gmail.com 
>> <mailto:rpaharia+lists at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>>     Hi Allen -
>> 
>>     You may also want to look at:
>>     mProjector - http://www.screentime.com/software/mprojector/
>>     <http://www.screentime.com/software/mprojector/>
>>     SWF Studio - http://www.northcode.com/
>>     Screenweaver - http://screenweaver.com/about
>> 
>>     Flash Magazine has an older roundup of the various projector 
>>tools
>>     from last year: http://www.flashmagazine.com/1100.htm
>> 
>>     best, - rajat
>>     -- 
>>     Rajat Paharia
>>     rajat at bunchball.com <mailto:rajat at bunchball.com>
>>     http://www.bunchball.com
>>     Bunchball is hiring!
>> 
>> 
>>     On 11/2/06, *Allen R Partridge* < allen.partridge at iup.edu
>>     <mailto:allen.partridge at iup.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>>         I'm examining Flash Wrappers today (or arguably wrappers in 
>>general)
>>         and wondered if folks on the list have any thoughts about 
>>the
>>         commercially available options, their own options etc.
>> 
>>         I have looked at SWFKit, MDMZink, and Jugglor, and read over 
>>the
>>         past
>>         posts and a great article on the topic (leading to an in 
>>house
>>         build)
>>         from the folks at Oberon.
>> 
>>         Anybody see major options I'm missing? Anyone using or 
>>avoiding
>>         any of
>>         the above for any reason?
>> 
>>         I'm examining questions like ... ease of extensibility - can 
>>I
>>         use it
>>         to write files to local machines easily? Ease of resolution
>>         shifting,
>>         can I use it to detect, set and reset screen resolution 
>>eaisily?
>>         Ease
>>         of registry and system access. Customization and 
>>compression, can I
>>         put in just what I need easily in order to optimize file 
>>size on the
>>         deliverable? Security - does it enhance security - protect 
>>the files
>>         better?
>> 
>>         Finally I'm interested in opinions about the implications of 
>>Adobe
>>         Apollo for the wrapper phenomenon.
>> 
>>         Thanks in advance for your thoughts,
>> 
>>         Al
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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