Projects/Flash Gamedev

Welcome to the Flash as a Gaming/Edu-Gaming Platform for the XO-1 project

Project Members

• Carlos Nazareno
• Mj Mendoza IV

XO-1 as a Target Platform for Flash Gamedev

• With regards to performance as a Flash dev platform, it is pretty similar to a desktop with an AMD K6-2 450MHz CPU, 256MB RAM + Win98.
• Again with performance, the XO-1 is more similar to a Flash Lite-enabled device than modern laptops
• Because of the limited CPU & memory, application development methods will be very similar to producing content for Flash Lite which runs on devices with limited CPU & Memory.

As long as developers optimize their apps, the XO-1 is a good environment for Flash as a dev environment because of Flash's small CPU & memory footprint.

During testing, Flash Lite 2.0 content (which is based on Flash 7) ran decently on the XO -- performance was very similar to 330MHz Nokia S60 phones with the Adobe Flash Lite 2.0 player.

Due to limited CPU specs, XO-1 units also resemble thin clients. As such, browser-based games may be ideal for development. Flash would offer excellent rich interactivity on browsers in this case.

• to do: evaluate Adobe AIR on XO-1

Gnash

• The default installed Gnash has no sound (because Flash uses MP3s for sound and the default shipped Gnash comes compiled with MP3 libraries because of FOSS licensing restrictions)
• The version of Gnash on 711 renders some AVM1 Actionscript 1.0/2.0 (Flash 8 & below) content wrong - will evaluate the version of Gnash that ships with 8.20. Testing 8.20 livecd ISO on a virtual machine showed that scripting is more accurate.
• Gnash does not emulate the AVM2 (Actionscript Virtual Machine 2) found in Flash 9 and above.

This makes it a little less ideal target platform for OSS Flash dev -- the only *decent* production-level tools for FOSS flash dev requires using Actionscript 3 and only outputs Flash 9 AVM2 content (Flashdevelop + Flex SDK + JDK).

• Doing further testing for compatibility of Flash Lite content. Flash Lite content uses AS 2.0 and is patterned after Flash 8 and below.

Official Adobe Flash Browser Plugin

• Users may want to install the Adobe Flash browser plugin instead of Gnash which is packaged by default.
• This allows SWFs authored in AS 3.0 to Flash 9/10 content to run.
• Since AS 3.0/AVM2 offers significantly better performance than AS 1.0 & 2.0 AMV1 content, Flash 9/10 AS 3.0 AVM2 output may be a better target for developers wanting to provide more compelling content.

Direct link to the latest version of Flash 9:

• http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/flash-plugin-9.0.124.0-release.i386.rpm

Direct link to the latest version of Flash 10.0 r12 beta:

• http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer10_install_linux_091508.i386.rpm

Adobe Flash on Opera

When we installed Opera 9.52 (desktop version runs w/o a hitch on the XO aside from needing to launch it from the terminal), it ran even better -- Flash performance in Opera is much better than in the XO's default Browser.

Opera therefore, is an ideal environment to do Flash content on for the XO-1. (or perhaps Firefox 3? Still need to test out FF3).

Direct links to the latest stable version of Opera (9.52)

• http://get.opera.com/pub/opera/linux/952/final/en/i386/static/opera-9.52-2091.gcc4-static-qt3.i386.rpm
• ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/linux/952/final/en/i386/static/opera-9.52-2091.gcc4-static-qt3.i386.rpm

OLPC Skin for Opera:

• http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=6116

Beause of a conflict with the Rainbow security and Sugarization, Opera 9.52 has to be run from the terminal. Open up the terminal then type 'opera'

What's needed:

• A new Sugarized Activity icon that does not conflict with the XO's Rainbow security
• An Activity icon to launch the browser with specific local html as the default content as a method for launching flash apps.

General Installation

Installing by .rpm file

Open your terminal activity on the Activity panel below your Sugar desktop or press Ctrl+0

Type the following commands:

su
wget <url of rpm file to be downloaded>
rpm -vi <rpm file>
exit

Relevant links

Adobe Flash player plugin on OLPC XO-1:

• http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Adobe_Flash

Gnash on the OLPC XO-1:

• http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Gnash

Slashdot Discussion - GDC: The OLPC Project And Games

• http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/08/0715248

Gamasutra - SJ Klein asks for serious OLPC gaming content

• http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13017