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30-519: Originating with FutureWave Software , then transferred to Macromedia , and then coming under the control of Adobe , SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function. They may also occur in programs, commonly browser games , using ActionScript . Programmers can generate SWF files from within several Adobe products, including Flash , Flash Builder (an IDE ), Adobe Animate (a rename of Adobe Flash since 2016), and After Effects , as well as through MXMLC,

60-483: A SWF plugin installed, with around 90% having the latest version of the Flash Player. Due to the increasing popularity of HTML5 for games and animations, as well as the numerous security holes that had plagued Adobe's SWF player, Adobe declared its Flash player EOL on December 31, 2020. On January 12, 2021, it pushed an update to its Flash player that blocked all Flash content from running. Adobe makes available

90-678: A command-line application compiler which forms part of the freely-available Flex SDK . Although Adobe Illustrator can generate SWF format files through its "export" function, it cannot open or edit them. Other than using Adobe products, one can build SWFs with open-source Motion-Twin ActionScript 2 Compiler (MTASC) , the open-source Ming library and the free-software suite SWFTools . Various other third-party programs can also produce files in this format, such as Multimedia Fusion 2 , Captivate and SWiSH Max . The term "SWF" has originated as an abbreviation for ShockWave Flash . This usage

120-448: A license or royalty from developers or publishers. In September 2012, Flash Player 11.4 was released allowing games to target "constrained profiles" which included older graphics chips, that did not support all the features of Stage3D. In April 2013, Flash Player 11.7 was released, which supported 16-bit texture maps for Stage3D content, which allowed reduced memory usage and improved memory management. In July 2013, Flash Player 11.8

150-546: A number of less well-endowed projects, including MIT's Scratch , which could not find the manpower to rapidly recode their applications. Stage3D consists of the following components: Stage3D is supported by the following components: Adobe Graphics Assembly Language (AGAL) is an assembly language for writing GPU shaders . AGAL was invented by Adobe to provide a unified shader language for all platforms. AGAL programs are written by hand with low-level opcodes and registers . AGAL programs are compiled into bytecode which

180-531: A partial specification of SWF, most recently updated in January 2013 to reflect changes in SWF version 19. SWF versions have been decoupled from Flash player versions after Flash 10. Afterwards the version number of the SWF progressed rapidly; SWF version 19 corresponds to the new features added in Flash Player 11.6. Flash Player 14 uses SWF version 25. In 2008, the specifications document was criticized by Rob Savoye ,

210-468: A spurt of 3D engines like Papervision3D , Away3D , Sandy 3D, and Alternativa 3D targeting 3D SWF. Although some of these projects started around 2005, until Flash Player 10 however they had no support of GPU acceleration, and even in that version of the Flash Player, shaders could be used for same materials, but vertex information still had to be processed on the CPU (using BSP trees etc.) After version 11 of

240-432: Is fairly similar to QuickTime atoms, with a tag, length and payload – an organization that makes it very easy for (older) players to skip contents they don't support. Originally limited to presenting vector-based objects and images in a simple sequential manner, the format in its later versions allows audio (since Flash 3) and video (since Flash 6). Adobe introduced a new, low-level 3D API in version 11 of

270-685: Is similar in purpose and design to WebGL . Stage3D was introduced in Adobe Flash Player 11.0 and AIR 3.0 in order to facilitate GPU -acceleration of 3D content in Flash applications In Flash Player 10 and earlier, 3D Flash applications had to render 3D graphics completely on the CPU . Flash Player 10 supported a limited form of GPU acceleration support for materials, in an API called Pixel Bender . GPU Shaders in Stage3D are expressed in

300-504: Is then embedded into Flash SWF movies . This AGAL bytecode is automatically compiled into OpenGL GLSL Shaders and DirectX HLSL Shaders by Adobe Flash Player , depending on the platform. With AGAL, developers can write shaders that transform 3D models on the GPU ( vertex shader ), and shaders that render complex dynamic lighting effects on the GPU ( pixel shader ). AGAL also allows high-quality texture rendering with mip-mapping . AGAL

330-413: Is used extensively in Flash game engines such as Away3D and Flare3D for various effects. AGAL is commonly used to provide dynamic lighting , high dynamic ranging (HDR), alpha masking , multipass rendering, displacement mapping , and environment mapping . Flare3D extends AGAL with a proprietary Shader language called FLSL (FLare3D Shader Language), that makes writing Shader programs easier. HLAG

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360-486: The Adobe Graphics Assembly Language (AGAL). Stage3D objects depart from the traditional SWF rendering model in that they cannot be added to SWF's display lists ; instead they must be instantiated via ActionScript . Because Stage3D is a low-level library that may be tedious to use directly, it has seen some higher-level 3D and 2D libraries built on top of it in order to benefit from

390-671: The Nintendo Wii and the Sony PS3 consoles can run SWF files through their Internet browsers. Scaleform GFx is a commercial alternative SWF player that features full hardware acceleration using the GPU and has high conformance up to Flash 8 and AS2. Scaleform GFx is licensed as a game middleware solution and used by many PC and console 3D games for user interfaces, HUDs , mini games , and video playback. The newer 3D features of SWF have been seen as an alternative to WebGL , with

420-1162: The x86 architecture and ARM architecture ( ChromeOS only). GNU has started developing a free software SWF player called Gnash under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Despite being a declared high-priority GNU project, funding for Gnash was fairly limited. Another player is the LGPL -licensed Swfdec . Lightspark is a continuation of Gnash supporting more recent SWF versions. Adobe has incorporated SWF playback and authoring in other product and technologies of theirs, including in Adobe Shockwave , which renders more complex documents. SWF can also be embedded in PDF files; these are viewable with Adobe Reader 9 or later. InDesign CS6 can also produce some limited forms of SWF animations directly. Sony PlayStation Portable consoles can play limited SWF files in Sony's web browser, beginning with firmware version 2.71. Both

450-414: The Flash Player added the new Stage3D low-level API, some but not all of these projects migrated to the new API. One that did migrate was Away3D, version 4. Based on an independent study conducted by Millward Brown and published by Adobe, in 2010, over 99% of desktop web browsers in the "mature markets" (defined as United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand) had

480-506: The Flash Player. Initially codenamed Molehill, the official name given to this API was ultimately Stage3D . It was intended to be an equivalent of OpenGL or Direct3D . In Stage3D shaders are expressed in a low-level language called Adobe Graphics Assembly Language (AGAL). Adobe makes available plugins , such as Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Integrated Runtime , to play SWF files in web browsers on many desktop operating systems, including Microsoft Windows , Mac OS X , and Linux on

510-607: The SWF and FLV formats. Implementing software which creates SWF files has always been permitted, on the condition that the resulting files render "error free in the latest publicly available version of Adobe Flash Player." Other formats related to SWF authoring in the Adobe tool chain remain without a public specification. One example is FLA, which is the editable version of SWF used by Adobe's Flash, but not by other Adobe tools that can also output SWF, albeit with fewer features. FutureWave Software FutureWave Software, Inc.

540-893: The SWF format specifications, as part of the Open Screen Project . However, Rob Savoye , a member of the Gnash development team, has pointed to some parts of the Flash format which remain closed. On July 1, 2008, Adobe released code to Google and Yahoo, which allowed their search engines to crawl and index SWF files. The main graphical primitive in SWF is the path, which is a chain of segments of primitive types, ranging from lines to splines or bezier curves . Additional primitives like rectangles, ellipses, and even text can be built from these. The graphical elements in SWF are thus fairly similar to SVG and MPEG-4 BIFS . SWF also uses display lists and allows naming and reusing previously defined components. The binary stream format SWF uses

570-805: The company had added a second programmer Robert Tatsumi, artist Adam Grofcsik, and PR specialist Ralph Mittman. In December 1996, FutureWave was acquired by Macromedia, who renamed the animation editor Macromedia Flash . This United States software corporation or company article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Stage3D Stage3D ( codenamed Molehill ) is an Adobe Flash Player API for rendering interactive 3D graphics with GPU -acceleration, within Flash games and applications. Flash Player or AIR applications written in ActionScript 3 may use Stage3D to render 3D graphics, and such applications run natively on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Apple iOS and Google Android . Stage3D

600-519: The file format with one primary objective: to create small files for displaying entertaining animations. The idea involved a format which player software could run on any system and which would work with slower network connections. FutureWave released FutureSplash Animator in May 1996. In December 1996 Macromedia acquired FutureWave and FutureSplash Animator became Macromedia Flash 1.0. The original naming of SWF came out of Macromedia's desire to capitalize on

630-508: The higher performance that it provides. An incomplete list of libraries and game engines using it includes: Unreal Engine 3, Away3D 4, CopperCube , Flare3D , Starling , ND2D or Adobe Labs' Proscenium. Similarly, WebGL 3D applications may be built with three.js , a higher-level library similar to these. Away3D and Starling have been christened as official components of the Adobe Gaming SDK. In 2011, Flash Player 11

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660-532: The lead developer of the Gnash project, as missing "huge amounts" of information needed to completely implement SWF, omitting specifications for RTMP and Sorenson Spark . The RTMP specification was released publicly in June 2009. The Sorenson Spark codec is not Adobe's property. Until May 1, 2008, implementing software that plays SWF was disallowed by the specification's license. On that date, as part of its Open Screen Project, Adobe dropped all such restrictions on

690-441: The premium features of the Flash Player (stating with Flash Player version 11.2), and thus not available completely free of charge to developers, but based on a revenue sharing scheme. Various notable members of the Flash community objected to the change, referring to it as a "speed-tax". In January 2013, Adobe classified all premium features as general availability, and could be freely used by Flash applications, without requiring

720-470: The well-known Macromedia Shockwave brand; Macromedia Director produced Shockwave files for the end user, so the files created by their newer Flash product tried to capitalize on the already established brand. As Flash became more popular than Shockwave itself, this branding decision became more of a liability, so the format started to be referred to as simply SWF. Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005. On May 1, 2008, Adobe dropped its licensing restrictions on

750-554: Was a software development company based in San Diego, California . The company was co-founded by Charlie Jackson and Jonathan Gay on January 22, 1993. VP of Marketing was Linda Michelle Alsip, who also came from Silicon Beach Software , then Aldus Corporation . The company's first product was SmartSketch, a drawing program for the PenPoint OS and EO tablet computer . When pen computing did not take off, SmartSketch

780-432: Was changed to the backronym Small Web Format to eliminate confusion with a different technology, Shockwave , from which SWF derived. There is no official resolution to the initialism "SWF" by Adobe. Adobe declared its Flash player EOL on December 31, 2020. On January 12, 2021, it pushed an update to its Flash player that blocked all Flash content from running. The small company FutureWave Software originally defined

810-531: Was ported to the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh platforms. As the Internet became more popular, FutureWave realized the potential for a vector-based web animation tool that might challenge Macromedia Shockwave technology. In 1995, FutureWave modified SmartSketch by adding frame-by-frame animation features and re-released it as FutureSplash Animator on Macintosh and Windows. By that time,

840-424: Was released, and with it the first version of Stage3D, allowing for GPU-accelerated 3D rendering for Flash applications and games, on desktop platforms such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. In March 2012, Flash Player 11.2 was released, which enabled Stage3D/GPU support on Android and iOS platforms. Games utilizing Stage3D APIs would work with no changes on these mobile platforms. In June 2012, Flash Player 11.3

870-416: Was released, enabling progressive streaming of Stage3D texture maps, allowing for faster performance and startup times for games and applications utilizing Stage3D. In August 2012, Flash Player 11.4 was released, which raised the supported hardware-accelerated video cards count to 2006, and allowed alpha-channels for Stage3D compressed textures. In March 2012, Adobe announced that Stage3D will be part of

900-496: Was released, which increased the maximum texture map size to 4096 x 4096, in addition to supporting rectangular (non-square) texture maps for Stage3D content. This allowed for greater detail in texture maps, and larger texture atlases to be created enabling better performance. As of 2014, GPU acceleration was removed in Flash Player 11.8 onwards for Pixel Bender scripts. Pixel Bender was an older technology for writing high-performance CPU-based image processing filters. This disrupted

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