Shockwaves

Shockwave version 11.0.3.472, releases today. It is a simple update that includes no changes in features or functionality. Some small elements of the plugin, which in no way affect the multimedia engine, installations, or other performance aspects, have been updated. We anticipate no change whatsoever in plugin performance. This version of the plugin was extensively tested to ensure reliability by the Adobe Director / Shockwave Quality Engineering team.

The next release of the plugin will include new features, and changes and is currently being thoroughly tested by an experienced group of more than 150 independent and third party developers along with the Adobe Director Quality Engineering team. Third party developers with business critical dependencies on Shockwave should contact Adobe Director Shockwave Technology Evangelist Allen Partridge, allenp at adobe dot com, in order to apply for enrollment in Shockwave pre-release testing.

Posted by Allen Partridge at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, I've been neglecting this post for ages. One of the most endearing and intelligent connections I've made via Adobe is to Chris Brannigan. Chris and Graham Duncan run Caspian Learning, a genuinely amazing company that can literally put out a 3D game in under 2 weeks. What's all the more stunning is that they've built a widget allowing kids to do the same - though perhaps not at the same quality levels, still absolutely astonishing work is coming from kids all over Europe using the tools Caspian has created.

Take a look at this You Tube Video to get a sense of the power behind this little engine. Caspian extended Director and Shockwave using a custom xtra, and integrated it with a proprietary authoring platform. The result is a core game engine that plays in Shockwave for various clients. It means that Caspian can create very sophisticated 3D simulations for training and development, eLearning and so on all with a minimum of time and energy upfront. While many simulation development companies are building worlds for 5-10 million, Caspian can deliver for a fraction of that.

Their efforts are noteworthy and really tremendous graphically as well. Consider for example this recent history title. The Rome Game provides learners with access to tremendous information about Rome, and presents it in a genuinely fun and engaging way.

In fact Rajnish and I encountered amazing projects like this all over the UK. The Serious Games Institute in Coventry is doing some very interesting work, while incubating a number of related small businesses. Various state agencies, private firms and businesses in London are all also engaged in the field. Mal Duffin, just offshore is delivering some spectacular titles via CanDo games for the Irish government, so the short answer to why we were there, is that eLearning and virtual worlds - like MMO's are really starting to become mainstream. And Shockwave is the obvious powerhouse choice to deliver them to the broadest possible audience.

Posted by Allen Partridge at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mockworld is at it again with the second installment of one of the greatest and most disturbing Shockwave titles ever to hit the masses. Candy Mountain Massacre for the uninitiated provides players an absolutely wickedly amusing opportunity to crush baby cupids, annihilate teddy bears and unleash your mighty havoc upon an unsuspecting world of cupcakes and candy.

http://www.adultswim.com/games/game/index.html?game=candymountain2

The title hits the pages of Adult Swim online, Cartoon Network's very popular adult alternative for toon fanatics. This always edgy content is a perfect atmosphere for Mockworlds fast paced, amusing and satisfying shooter. Guaranteed to elicit a giggle its definitely worth a play or two.

Congrats Mockworld on another great title!

Posted by Allen Partridge at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Shockwave Developer and Professor of Chemistry at Aristotle University of Thesaloniki, Dr.. Nickolas Charistos was award a 2008 Classic Award for his popular molecular visualization and simulation system created in Director.

http://www.molwave.com/software/3dmolsym/3dmolsym.htm

3DMolSym is an educational program designed to visualize the symmetry elements of molecules and to animate the corresponding symmetry operations in an interactive 3D environment. It is aimed to help chemistry students conceive the symmetry properties of the molecular structure. 3DMolSym includes a database with symmetry and geometry data of 48 organic and inorganic molecules, corresponding to all point groups of chemical interest.

Posted by Allen Partridge at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tabuleiro, long time Director & Shockwave Xtras developer and Distributor Announced today the release of OPENSMUS - an open source Shockwave Multiuser server based on the very popular Nebulae server. The server allows seamless integration with Director and Shockwave projects using the Multiuser Xtra to create networking projects. Announced as a gift to the community, the project stands to be enormously popular as it will both facilitate community development and will enable many companies creating MMO's and other Web 2.0 Social Networking projects to easily create customized server solutions.

Mauricio Piacentini of Tabuleiro made the annoucement today on Direct-L and other listserves. His announcement follows;

I am very pleased to announce the release of OpenSMUS. It is a fully
open-source multiuser server, compatible with the SMUS protocol.

http://opensmus.sf.net

Direct link to the project pages at SourceForge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/opensmus/

Source code is available, as well as compiled packages and full
documentation. The code was open sourced under a liberal MIT license, which
allows both open source and commercial development.

OpenSMUS is the successor to our Nebulae server, and the initial release is
based on the latest version of Nebulae, 2.0.1, incorporating almost 8 years
of development history. It is being offered as a gift to the Director and
Shockwave developer community, a thank-you for the almost 14 years of
support we have received from this group. But it is not only that: it is
also an experiment on using open source processes for collaborative
development in our community: Robert Wahlstedt has already joined the
project, and I am inviting other multiuser developers to join us as well. By
experimenting with this I hope we can produce even more shared code and
knowledge, and maybe find a way to make these efforts sustainable.

Of course, we will continue to support the hundreds of commercial customers
of Nebulae, which is still available for those that prefer a product with
commercial support. And now they have full access to the source code, which
is something most people wanted. In the future we will be also offering
commercial support to OpenSMUS, including custom coding and consulting, if
there is demand for it.

Happy new year, and I hope this one will bring more goodies to us!

Regards,
Mauricio Piacentini
Tabuleiro

During the past couple of months i have witnessed absolutely contagious enthusiasm about the progress on the Director Shockwave front. This sort of benevolence from longstanding community members has become a more and more regular event and I cannot begin to express how great these efforts are for Director and Shockwave.

The OPENSMUS project now joins Thomas Westin's FLIP project (creating an opensource common library of Lingo) in recent SourceForge projects focused on Director Shockwave Development.

Posted by Allen Partridge at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)