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eddielomax
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Cross platform Alchemy

Nov 9, 2011 8:05 AM

Tags: #mobile #actionscript

Hello All,

 

  1. I would like to write an Alchemy-based app that will work reasonably well on as many AVM versions possible, including and most importantly on mobile. Is this possible and recommended?
  2. Generally speaking but in particular for mobile, is there any difference if the Alchemy-based app is written in Adobe Air or Adobe Flash application?
  3. What about the legal issues regarding commercial usage? This is a make or break for many developers considering using Alchemy.

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Eddie Lomax.

1236 Views   4 Replies   Latest reply: artguate, Dec 7, 2011 3:22 AM
 
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  • paleozogt
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    1. paleozogt,
    Nov 9, 2011 8:46 AM   in reply to eddielomax
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    1. Alchemy requires FP 10.0 and seems to generate AS3 that works on all subsequent FP versions.  I've gotten Alchemy code to work on both Android and iPhone.  While it works, it's not particularly fast.  fyi, generating the iPhone package takes quite a long time.
    2. I haven't seen any difference in Flash Alchemy vs Air Alchemy.  If Air is an option, you might want to consider AIR Native Extensions (ANEs).  You could, for example, have a Flash app that uses Alchemy and an Air app that uses ANEs.  The Air app would then be able to run the C code at full speed.
    3. Sorry, can't help you with this one.
     
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  • eddielomax
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    2. eddielomax,
    Nov 9, 2011 9:18 AM   in reply to paleozogt
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    Thank you for your response.

     

    1. Nice one!

    • Could you please elaborate on the process making Alchemy work with Android and iPhone? Have you used Flash Builder to package things up? Any detail about the process you took and the problems you encountered will be highly appreciated.
    • By 'not particularly fast' what do you mean? is the entire app becoming slower? 
    • Do you think that using the cell phone's GPU to speed things up is a viable option? (I'm mostly going to do CPU intensive opcodes)

     

    2. I want to be able to maximize code reuse but also preferably not use AIR on PC/MAC. If its better to write an Adobe AIR for a specific platform then this is something I'm willing to consider but I would prefer (like most) to use Flash. I'm not sure this is a wise decision for mobile given the recent news about future Adobe Flash support in mobile, so I'm also considering Flash for PC/MAC and AIR for mobile anyhow.

     

    3. np.

     
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  • paleozogt
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    3. paleozogt,
    Nov 9, 2011 10:06 AM   in reply to eddielomax
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    • It's pretty straightforward, really.  An Alchemy library is just a swc that you link into your app.  Then you just export your app as an Android/iPhone package from FB.  Since the iPhone packager is actually turning the AS3 code into C code, this can take a while.  (On iPhone your C library, compiled into AS3 by Alchemy, is being turned into ARM code!)
    • What I mean by "not particularly fast" is the Alchemy code.  The regular AS3 parts of the app work like you would expect.  Even on a desktop, Alchemy C code is substantially slower than native C code.  But desktops are so fast you tend not to notice-- but mobile devices are much slower, so its easier to notice the difference.
    • If you're using ANE, then you could definitely use the mobile's GPU.  Of course, you'll have to make sure your code will do its computations in the normal way for Alchemy.
    • I understand what you mean about Air on desktop-- people really expect to be able to run everything in the browser, which for your C library means Flash.  But given the performance considerations (and the state of Flash on mobile), AIR with ANE on mobile is the best way to go.
     
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  • artguate
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    4. artguate,
    Dec 7, 2011 3:22 AM   in reply to eddielomax
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    On issue 3. Alchemy was free to use legally commercialy or not.  However Adobe was open about it being experimental and does not guarantee anything including support on future versions of Flash.  Actually Alchemy as we currently have it, is currently not supported if targeting Flash Player 11.2.  It does work on Flash player 11.2, but you can't target 11.2

     

    However Alchemy 2 will be a paid product so you will have to read the license agreement there, but I would assume that you can legaly use it for commercial puposes if you purchase the license.

     
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