Tales of an Actionscript fetishist

User Events With Actionscript 3

2006-12-03T23:19:00.000-06:00

I came across this problem the other day. I was looking all over for a simple article explaining how to create your own events with the new event system in AS3. I found a few interesting links, such as Darron Schall's blog post, but nothing completely definitive. Along with that article and some digging in the AS3 documentation I managed, amazingly, to successfully create my own custom

Using The Flex 2 SDK with Flash Develop

2006-08-10T00:06:00.000-05:00

I saw Keith Peter's blog post about using FlashDevelop and the Flex 2 SDK. However, there is one problem; insects really bother me. Especially ants. So here's a way to use the Flex 2 SDK without those pesky ants getting in the way.First you need to download all the files needed.The new ASCompletion DLLThe Flex2 SDKFlash 9 Intrinsic Class FilesFlash Build PluginDownload and unzip the new

Head First Design Patterns

2006-08-04T08:41:00.000-05:00

Link:Head First Design PatternsI always found patterns rather gimicky. I've tried to understand them with little success. I tried to read the infamous gang of four book (here) and ended up confused and bored. I've read and read the pattern section in Essential AS2.0 but can't stop but get the feeling of "why isn't he actually saying anything?".At the bookstore the other day I was browsing the

PHPVars -- Handy LoadVars Accessory

2006-07-31T01:46:00.000-05:00

Documentation:PHPVarsDocs.htmlDownload:PHPVars.asI had to load itemized PHP data in a project I was working on and couldn't find any good solutions to easily load many items with PHP at once. Check the doc's usage to see what I mean by itemized data.

Flash 9 Pro Public Alpha!

2006-06-28T06:26:00.000-05:00

Download!This popped up first on digg of all places!Get it while it's hot!

Arrays Faster Than Objects?

2006-06-27T05:14:00.000-05:00

I was talking with my friend Jarrad tonight and he pointed out that simply switching out an object for an array yeilded speed improvements. This got me thinking, is it true?In my test it showed that objects are faster, but only slightly.The test involves both an object and an array filled with seven values/properties all containing the same ammount of data. It then runs a ten-thousand iteration

SmurfLib Update-- Templates

2006-06-11T20:59:00.000-05:00

Download:SmurfLib.zipI added two template classes to com.object.utils: StaticTemplate and Template.JavaDocs:StaticTemplate.htmlTemplate.htmlStaticTemplate is unique because it transpose all the values changed within a template instance onto all templated objects. For example:import com.object.utils.StaticTemplate;var obj1:Object = {};var obj2:Object = {};var sTemplate:StaticTemplate = new

PreRender -- Polished, ready for consumption.

2006-06-03T07:57:00.000-05:00

Download:PreRenderExample.zipView SWF:PreRender.htmlView JavaDocs:PreRenderDocs.htmlFinished this up and added a few handy little features. Don't know if it'll be much use to anyone but hey, play with it a bit and show me your results. Comments and/or suggestions on how to improve the class would be appreciated.

A little fun with BitmapData.draw()

2006-05-31T07:44:00.000-05:00

I got this idea the other day and decided to try it out.What if I could prerender, of sorts, a complex vector animation as a series of bitmaps?After a bit of testing I got it to work.Warning: May freeze your browser for a few seconds while it renders the frames.PreRender.htmlIt's quite slow to do the inital rendering but it does as advertised.

SmurfLib Class Library

2006-05-28T18:10:00.000-05:00

Download:SmurfLib.zipAll my classes are compiled. The structure looks like below.SmurfLib+com|-+movieclip|-|--SmartClip.as||-+array|-|--ArrayUtils.as||-+utils|-|--Delegate.as|-|--Interval.as|-|--ColourSpace.as|-|--WatchManager.asOver the next few days I'll be making the docs up and adding a couple more classes. Stay tuned.

SmartBitmap -- Renamed, updated.

2006-05-28T16:24:00.000-05:00

I updated and renamed the SmartBitmap class to SmartClip.Documentation:SmartClip.as DocumentationDownload:SmartClip.asI added attachMovie and createEmptyMovieClip along with the _visible property (which should have been there in the first place).I'm working on transfering all my classes into one big package instead of a bunch of .as files that are loosely tied togeather.

SmartBitmap -- Caching when you only need it!

2006-05-24T08:21:00.000-05:00

Flash 8 introduced one of the greatest features ever, atleast in my opinion, the BitmapData object along with cacheAsBitmap. Using cacheAsBitmap can greatly increase your performance or it can make it much worse. When you use cacheAsBitmap Flash first, renders the vector, then it converts it into a bitmap. It only does this when you're changing a visual property of the movieclip. These

Grid Positioning-- out with the old, in with the new.

2006-05-22T05:10:00.000-05:00

When ever I've had to position items in a grid I've always gone about it the same way every time, by using a lot of vars. var xPos:Number, yPos:Number; var yStart:Number = 10; var xStart:Number = 10; var xMove:Number = 62.5; var yMove:Number = 70; var xMax:Number = Stage.width-xMove; var yMax:Number = Stage.height-yMove; for(var i:Number = 0; i < pictureArray.length; i++){ var pData:Object =

Custom Intervals -- Pause, Extend, Change

2006-05-20T02:52:00.000-05:00

SWF Example:Class Files:Interval.asSource FLA:IntervalExample.zipOn IRC tonight someone asked if it was possible to pause, or even extend an interval for a certian ammount of time. I wrote this class to allow you to do just that with an interval created via it. You can pause, unpause, change the interval (in real time with compensation), and extend the time of the current iteration of the

Updated WatchManager

2006-05-18T09:47:00.000-05:00

Updated Class: WatchManager.asBug Fixes:Arguments are now fixed and passed correctly.You can use $obj (parentObj.child1.child2....childN) for nested objects instead of $scope. However, this doesn't change the rules for $scope, it needs to be the scope of the top most object.SWF Example:Source: .FLA File

Watch Manager -- Beating The System

2006-05-12T13:51:00.000-05:00

Download:Required:MTASC Compliant Delegate ClassWatch Manager ClassExample FilesNote: You may have to change the class names and import data in order to make sure your classpath is correct.I've been writing this class on and off for fun (it really is a fetish) in the past week or so. It's not ment to replace events or even be used in an every day situtation if at all. I mainly wrote it to see

Basic ColourData Class --Updated--

2006-05-08T03:46:00.000-05:00

DownloadNote: Requires ColourSpace class.You may also need to change the import line and the class name dependant on where you put it in your classpath.I made this class so I'd have an easier time managing many 32bit and 16bit colour values at once. It works rather nicely so I decided to put it up here for anyone else in need it.Obligatory sample syntax:var myColour:ColourData = new ColourData(

Best Font For Programming

2006-05-08T03:28:00.000-05:00

The Proggy fonts have to be simply the best font for programming.I perfer the Proggy Clean with slashed zero and bold punctuation. Out of the many fonts I've tried in the past two years this one is the easiest on the eyes and the bold punctuation is a must.What it looks like in action (click for full size):

Object.watch, santa's little helper

2006-05-02T05:16:00.000-05:00

This handy little function allows you to watch when a certian property of any object changes and call a callback. There are a few catches however.The callback has to have access to the watched object (in the same scope).Only one callback can occur per property of an object (no multiple watches).The callback function is always called with three arguments: property, oldval, newval.The callback

Colour Space Conversion Class

2006-04-28T03:51:00.000-05:00

Download:HereNotes:The colour space conversion isn't 100% automated in this class. In order to convert from RGB to LAB you need to convert from RGB to XYZ then to LAB. Eventually I will create a wrapper class that will allow you to convert from anything to anything. Without messy calls like:var rgbColour:Object = {r:100, g:231, b:16}; //Super sweet colourvar labColour:Object =

Finding The Closest Value To X In An Array

2006-04-27T03:13:00.000-05:00

For a project I'm working on I needed to find the value in a lookup table that was closest to whatever value I put in. I wrote a simple little prototype that does the job nice and easy, it even returns both the closest value and the index of the element containing that value.Array.prototype.findNearest = function(compare:Number):Object{ var c:Object = {value:null, index:null}; var d:Number =

Stripping The Alpha Channel From An ARGB Value

2006-04-27T01:57:00.000-05:00

I ran into this problem when I was working on a project where I was holding one large set of ARGB data within flash. For those of you who don't know flash's non-base 10 number support is half-hearted at best. I kept wracking my mind on how to remove the alpha channel. I could break up the ARGB number into it's components: alpha, red, green, and blue. Once that's done simply take the red,

FlashDevelop Code Injection

2006-04-26T05:03:00.000-05:00

Download:SWF Mill Ready TemplatePlace in /../FlashDevelop/TemplatesCreate a new project using the "Mill Ready Project".Basic Directory Structureclasses---Contains all of the base classes. library ---For external library data (See note below!)swfmill---Contains the source to build the application.swf from in simple SWFML. ---Also contains the compiled classes.swf that is injected into

Using Delegate.create to maintain scope

2006-04-25T22:32:00.000-05:00

For those using mtasc:If you're using mtasc you're going to need to use this special mtasc friendly Delegate class. It's also a good alternative to the built in macromedia delegate class becuase it allows for arguments./** * Delegate class * - MTASC friendly * - allows additional parameters when creating the Delegate */ class Delegate { /** * Create a delegate function * @param