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Welcome to the latest AIR Runtime and SDK version 24 updated beta! We've been hard at work adding new features to AIR and we're looking forward to receiving feedback from our development community.
This beta release includes new features as well as enhancements and bug fixes related to security, stability, performance, and device compatibility for AIR Runtime and SDK 24. For full details, please see our release notes
Spherical videos support is added to both Flash Player and AIR from version 24 onward. Spherical videos have a specific meta-data attached to them, which can now be retrieved using the new property provided by the feature. This feature supports equirectangular projection type of videos conforming to https://github.com/google/spatial-media/blob/master/docs/spherical-video-rfc.md.
This feature is supported on Desktop and Android devices.
API introduced
The Object parameter of the onMetaData event provides video metadata information. The feature adds new properties to the parameter. The added property is an array of string type in XML format. Refer code below.
function
ns_onMetaData(info:
Object
😞
void
{
trace
(
"The matrix of Movie Header Box:"
+info.sphericalVideoInfo[
0
]);
// info.sphericalVideoInfo provides the related meta-data
}
Sample Spherical Video Player
A sample project for Spherical video player can be downloaded from this link in order to understand the use of the metadata to render the spherical video. The sample code makes use of an instance of the context3D, where VideoTexture is used to render video for better performance.
See the following chart for ActionScript classes in the project.
This class provides basic controls for the Spherical video functionality.
This class creates the context3D instance to render spherical video using VideoTexture
These classes are used for generating vertices and indices corresponding to the projection type used.
Instanced drawing feature which was available for AIR Mobile is now available in AIR Desktop. This feature helps developers to use a model of graphical object and render it multiple times in a single frame. This reduces draw calls and hence rendering and overall performance is smoother.
Similar to AIR Mobile, to use this feature on Desktop ,developers can use the createVertexBufferForIntance() and drawTriangleInstanced() APIs.
Context3D::createVertexBufferForInstances( numElements:int, data32PerElement:int, instancesPerElement:int, bufferUsage:String = "staticDraw", ):VertexBuffer3D;
Use the VertexBuffer3D object to upload a set of instance data to the rendering context. The vertex buffer contains the data needed to render each instance in the scene geometry. Vertex Buffers with instance data provide attributes that are common to all the vertices of an instance and serve as the input to the vertex shader program.
Context3D::drawTrianglesInstanced( indexBuffer:IndexBuffer3D, numInstances, firstIndex:int=0, numTriangles:int=-1 ):void;
AGAL version 3 with “iid” register can be downloaded from:
AGALv3 is available at : https://github.com/adobe-flash/graphicscorelib/tree/master/src/com/adobe/utils/v3
Assumptions and Dependencies
1) This feature is supported only on devices that support Standard Extended Profile
2) This feature is only available in AIR Mobile and Desktop.
We have added tvOS (v9.2 or later) as a new platform in AIR Beta Channel beginning with AIR SDK 24. With the following modifications, most of the existing content in your AIR application should work seamlessly on tvOS (Apple TV 4th generation and later):
<iPhone>
<InfoAdditions><![CDATA[
<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>
<array>
<string>
3
</string>
</array>
]]></InfoAdditions>
</iPhone>
Following warnings appear if there is a mismatch between the provisioning profile and the UIDeviceFamily value:
Warning: Provisioning profile specified for tvOS, ignoring iOS UIDeviceFamily value(s).
Warning: Provisioning profile specified for iOS, ignoring tvOS UIDeviceFamily value(s).
keycode | keyname | |
---|---|---|
Menu | 0x01000012 | KEYNAME_MENU="Menu" |
Play/Pause | 0x01000020 | KEYNAME_PLAYPAUSE="PlayPause" |
Follow the steps below to create Assets.car using Xcode for generating application icons, launch images, and TopShelf Images for your Apple TV application.
Step 1. On your Mac, open Xcode and choose File > New > Project > tvOS Application > Single View Application. Provide a name to the app and click create. In the general tab of your project, select Deployment Target as 9.2.
Step 2. Click Assets.xcassets in the left column and drag your images to different sections App Icon - Large, App Icon - Small, Top Shelf Image, and Launch Image.For icon sizes and specifications, follow Apple's guidelines for tvOS icons and images.
Step 3. Run this native app on your tvOS device (tvOS 9.2+) and check if your icons and images appear correctly.
Go to the .app file created in your file system where you created the project — right click on .app file and show package contents.
Copy the Assets.car file from the package. You can package the app with the extracted Assets.car as shown in the following ADT command.
<path to adt> -
package
-target ipa-app-store -provisioning-profile <.mobileprovision> -keystore <.p12> -storetype pkcs12 -storepass <password> <.ipa> <.xml> <.swf> Assets.car
Add the tags mentioned below in the application descriptor file before packaging for your images:
<key>UILaunchImages</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>UILaunchImageSize</key>
<string>{
1920
,
1080
}</string>
<key>UILaunchImageName</key>
<string>LaunchImage</string>
<key>UILaunchImageMinimumOSVersion</key>
<string>
9.0
</string>
<key>UILaunchImageOrientation</key>
<string>Landscape</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>TVTopShelfImage</key>
<dict>
<key>TVTopShelfPrimaryImage</key>
<string>Top Shelf Image</string>
</dict>
<key>CFBundleIcons</key>
<dict>
<key>CFBundlePrimaryIcon</key>
<string>App Icon - Small</string>
</dict>
The maximum size for a tvOS app bundle is 200 MB.
Accessing File system, except Cache Directory, throws error 3001: File or directory access denied. The applications on tvOS have write access only in the cache Directory. This is purge-able by the operating system when space is low.
Creating a cursor-like implementation in your app on tvOS can lead to app rejection by Apple, as it does not comply with the Human Interface Guidelines for Apple TV.
Apple TV applications are 64-bit only.
The AIR property SoundMixer.audioPlaybackMode defaults to VOICE on Apple TV. Changing its value to MEDIA does not have any effect.
Apple TV does not support Clipboard.
Starting AIR 24, AIR Developers can read the velocity property for Swipe events on Android and iOS to estimate strength of the swipe. This value will be in pixels per second.
Beginning with AIR 24, Android SDK (API Level 24) has been upgraded in the AIR Runtime.
Important: If you upload an app on Google Play using AIR SDK 24 and default targetSdkVersion value as 24 in the application descriptor, Google Play does not allow uploading the next version of your app with AIR SDK 23 or earlier (see the error message below). Using targetSdkVersion value as 21 allows you to switch between AIR SDK 24 and AIR SDK 23 for your app updates.
Error thrown by Google Play on uploading the next version of your app with AIR SDK 23 or earlier:
Here is the list of version numbers of the tools upgraded in AIR 24.
Tool | Version |
---|---|
SDK Tool | 25.1.7 |
SDK Platform | 24 |
Platform Tool | 24.0.2 |
Android Support Repository | 36 |
Android Google Repository | 32 |
Android Build Tool | 24.0.1 |
Beginning with Android 6.0 (API level 23), the users now need to grant permissions to apps while it is running, not when they install the application. To handle the permissions requests and status, we have introduced Permissions API for Android and iOS. The developers can request permissions for classes like Camera, Microphone, Geolocation, CameraRoll, CameraUI, File, and FileReference. The applications must be packaged with AIRSDK 24 or greater and must have SWF version 35 or later. Apps built using these APIs throw a dialog only on Android 6.0 and later. For Android 5.0 or earlier, you can continue to mention permissions in the application descriptor file.
For iOS, the APIs listed below are optional if you do not want to handle permissions explicitly in ActionScript. On Android, If you do not want to handle permissions in your application, use targetSdkVersion less than 23 in your application descriptor file.
package
{
import
flash.display.Sprite;
import
flash.display.StageAlign;
import
flash.display.StageScaleMode;
import
flash.events.PermissionEvent;
import
flash.media.Camera;
import
flash.media.Video;
import
flash.permissions.PermissionStatus;
public
class
codeSnippet
extends
Sprite
{
private
var
video:Video;
private
var
cam:Camera;
public
function
codeSnippet()
{
super
();
stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
if
(Camera.isSupported)
{
cam = Camera.getCamera();
if
(Camera.permissionStatus != PermissionStatus.GRANTED)
{
cam.addEventListener(PermissionEvent.PERMISSION_STATUS,
function
(e:PermissionEvent):
void
{
if
(e.status == PermissionStatus.GRANTED)
{
connectCamera();
}
else
{
// permission denied
}
});
try
{
cam.requestPermission();
}
catch
(e:Error)
{
// another request is in progress
}
}
else
{
connectCamera();
}
}
}
private
function
connectCamera():
void
{
video =
new
Video(
640
,
480
);
video.attachCamera(cam);
addChild(video);
}
}
}
For training resource on Android permissions, see https://developer.android.com/training/permissions/index.html.
For information about iOS permissions, see Apple's documentation https://developer.apple.com/ios/human-interface-guidelines/interaction/requesting-permissi on/.
Beginning with AIR 24, we have introduced support for Custom fonts on StageText for iOS and Android. Earlier, StageText was created with specific system fonts. With the introduction of this feature, the AS developers now have more flexibility in using fonts apart from the ones present in system. The developers can use ttf and otf font files. The changes required to use custom fonts are listed below.
1. Changes required in the application descriptor xml.
Note: To access this functionality, the Namespace value in the app descriptor must be 24.0 or greater.
<application>
...
...
<embedFonts>
<font>
<fontName>FontID1</fontName>
<fontPath>path_to_custom_font_fileName1.ttf</fontPath>
</font>
<font>
<fontName>FontID2</fontName>
<fontPath>path_to_custom_font_fileName2.ttf</fontPath>
</font>
</embedFonts>
...
...
<application>
2. Changes required in the ActionScript code
The developers can provide any value under fontName tag, for example FontID1 here.
public
function
CustomFonts()
{
label
=
new
StageText();
label
.fontFamily =
"FontID1"
;
label
.textAlign =
"right"
;
label
.stage = stage;
label
.viewPort =
new
Rectangle(
20
,
20
,
90
,
90
);
}
Known Issues
Till AIR 23, the texture upload was synchronous. Therefore, the developers had to wait till the new texture was uploaded successfully.
With AIR 24, you can now upload textures asynchronously while the current texture is being rendered. This ensures a better UI performance for AIR applications and a smoother user experience.
On successful completion of asynchronous texture upload, a TEXTURE_READY event will be generated. Asynchronous upload of texture data for all the texture formats is done using the following two new APIs:
This feature supports Normal and Rectangular texture for miplevel 0 only.
Anti-Aliasing is useful in improving the perceived image quality in applications. Hardware base Multisampling Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) is now available for iOS using Contex3D.configureBackBuffer.This feature was previously available for Desktop and Flash Player. To enable MSAA, set the level from 0 to 2 using the configureBackBuffer. The following are the effect of levels of antialiasing values:
0=1 subsample, No antialiasing
1=2 subsamples, medium antialiasing
2=4 subsamples, high antialiasing.
If you provide higher level of antialiasing (more than 2), the level will be clipped to either the maximum level of anti-aliasing supported by GPU or the value of 2.
Note: This feature is currently not available on Android using configureBackbuffer.
API assumptions and dependencies
For system requirements of the current release of AIR in production, visithttp://www.adobe.com/products/air/systemreqs/
To get the latest Beta build of AIR Runtime and SDK visit Adobe labs
If you would like real-time notification for announcements related to the AIR Beta Channel please follow the Flash Runtime Announcements forums by choosing "Follow this forum" from the right-hand menu on the Forums page.