Skip to main content
November 11, 2011
Question

Dear Adobe, Stage3D is worthless

  • November 11, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 1423 views

I'm making this post to vent a lot of frustration and disappointment, so I'm going to start by acknowledging the fact that there are a lot of engineers and programmers at adobe who work really hard to make good products, and I appreciate your efforts because it helps me make a good living.

That said, I've spent a lot of money on your company and I feel I have a right to my frustrations.  The truth is, Stage3D is completely unusable due to compatibility issues.  I'm a casual game developer, and a majority of the people who play my games will never be able to run stage3D on their computers.  I can't even begin to say how disappointed I am about this.  This was supposed to be a huge milestone; now we can actually make games with modern graphics and release them to a wide audience.  But with how it is now, I might as well wait another 4 - 5 years until the hardware has caught up with the incredibly high standards you set.

If you need real, solid evidence of this, take a look at the reviews on this game on Newgrounds http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/reviews/583485/1, one of the first games I've seen released that has tried to use Stage3D. It was made by a well known flash author, Josiah (JAZZA) Brooks.  A majority of the reviews complain of crippling lag because the game was meant to be run on the graphics card, but is instead running in software mode (which might as well not even exist, since it doesn't come close to the same speed)...

I honestly don't understand what you guys were thinking.  If you really want to target the flash users who make casual games, the best thing you can do is keep the compatibility you've always had.  If that means a few less features or options with the 3D, then so be it, because as it is right now, a game dev (or anyone who cares about a wide audience, really) might as well ignore it until the hardware catches up.

I don't know who to talk to or where to go with this, so I'm posting it here.  Adobe, PLEASE make Stage3D more accessible.  If Unity can do it as well as they have, then I believe you can too.  There aren't any excuses why flash shouldn't have widely accessible 3D.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    pwillener
    Legend
    November 12, 2011

    The issues you mention can often be overcome by updating the device drivers of the users graphics cards.  If users are too lazy to do that, then there is nothing anyone can do about it...

    November 12, 2011

    I specifically tried to update my driver and there wasn't anything newer than 2006, which is after I bought the computer, strangely enough...

    The point is, a majority of the graphics cards in laptops, even newer laptops, aren't supported at all, and Mac support is very limited as they black listed every operating system below... 10.5 I believe.

    I dunno, I don't think I'm making a big deal out of nothing, it seems incredibly limited in scope.

    pwillener
    Legend
    November 12, 2011

    Particlasm wrote:

    I specifically tried to update my driver and there wasn't anything newer than 2006, which is after I bought the computer, strangely enough...

    That is very strange; the main graphic card manufacturers Intel, ATI, and Nvidia all release new device drivers every few months, except for discontinued products.  I don't think Adobe should develop software for discontinued products or outdated drivers.