Locked by Moderator, Not on subject anymore,AIR Roadmap Update

[chris.campbell]

Hello AIR developers,

With the news today regarding Flash Player, I'm sure many of you have questions regarding AIR and its future roadmap.  Let me start by saying that today's announcement was not about AIR, and instead focuses entirely on Flash Player and the browser plugin environment.  Adobe remains committed to AIR and we believe it continues to be a great desktop and mobile development platform.

Many of you have asked for a roadmap update.  We hope to have our official Flash Runtime roadmap updated soon, but until then I wanted to share some of the features we'd like to accomplish in our upcoming releases.  As always, this list may change as we receive feedback from the community.

• Support for 64-bit AIR – Windows Captive Only
• AIR SDK installer on Windows
• Desktop async texture upload
• DirectX11 support for AIR desktop
• Increase the GPU memory texture limit
• Improved monitor and resolution settings for AIR Desktop
• GPU render mode for AIR Desktop
• Support for the latest SDK on iOS 11 and Android O
• ASTC Support for mobile
• VR/AR support for AIR apps
• ANE support for Swift on iOS
• METAL bindings for Stage3D
• Motion detection for Android devices

We've also been following a feature request thread on the Starling forums.  We wanted to get your feedback on some of the items outlined by the community.  If you'd like to provide additional input, please take a minute and take this three question survey so we can better understand what folks would like to see in future releases.

Community AIR Feature Requests​ Survey

[Born2code]

Thanks so much Chris.

That is GREAT news, we believe this may also help AIR untangle itself from Flash which we think is just holding it back from really shining.

We have major investment in AIR and are delighted to see that Adobe continues its commitment to this awesome technology.

As far as Flash is concerned, in our view it's already dead, RIP flash!

Thanks as always and have a great week ahead,

Sean.

[rewb0rn]

Thanks Chris, this announcement probably explains the delay on the Air roadmap. Any chance to hear something about an HTML5 target for Air? With Flash fading out as the only current option to export for web, we will need a replacement for the technology stack or lose 20% of our userbase. Are you considering an HTML target it or is off the table?

Thanks

[Born2code]

rewb0rn, you should checkout this effort on ANE for HTML5, its very promising and has a lot of momentum behind it:

GitHub - tuarua/WebViewANE: WebView Adobe Air Native Extension for OSX 10.10+, Windows Desktop, iOS ...

Maybe Adobe can fork it and add it to the main build.

[rewb0rn]

I don't want to load HTML5 content into an Air app, I want our AS3 projects exported to HTML (i.e. a replacement for Flash)

[ShpigelMania]

Checkout FlexJS.

[Harbs.]

Here is a site with some great info on FlexJS. He also has an excellent extension to VS Code:

https://nextgenactionscript.com/

[kennylerma]

Thanks for the list Chris, but the lack of any mention towards an HTML output solution remains concerning to everyone. A statement needs to be made on this.  This is not just a Flash Player thing, but an ActionScript issue and it's future.  No response to a gaping hole seems irresponsible.

[FischMich]

Just one word: GREAT!

[KarlCfs]

We are very happy to see GPU render mode for Desktop as that will be a great alternative for our service. Native on iOS, Android and Desktop version on computers.

Thanks!

[KarlCfs]

Chris, are you working with Facebook to allow AIR games to be run on their new GameRoom service?

Facebook Gameroom - Games - Documentation - Facebook for Developers

[chris.campbell]

rewb0rn​ & kennyl88221170 - I understand the request for HTML5/Web Assembly output and I'll bring this back to the team.

KarlCfs - We have talked with Facebook about AIR, and they are very aware of the technology and it's importance to AS developers.  I'm assuming that they will support it in Gameroom if they support stand alone applications.  We have not had specific discussions around Gameroom and AIR, but I'll ask about this the next time I talk with them.

dfg0912 - Your AIR application created using the Flex framework should continue to work.  Do you specifically use the Flash Player plugin within a stagewebview or htmlloader control in your app?

[dfg0912]

chris.campbell​, thanks for the quick response. We don't use StageWebView or HTMLLoader at all. I assume you're asking if we load HTML that contains an <object> tag to embed a Flash movie in the HTML.

We do, however, in a number of places use a mx.controls.SWFLoader to load external SWF files from the network. I suspect that will still work. Am I correct?

[chris.campbell]

dfg0912  wrote

We do, however, in a number of places use a mx.controls.SWFLoader to load external SWF files from the network. I suspect that will still work. Am I correct?

I know of no changes planned for mx.controls.SWFLoader, but I'll double check and post back if that's incorrect

[Chris Velevitch]

I second the idea of generating web assembly output as it helps maintain our investment in our code bases.

[Harbs.]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Chris+Velevitch  wrote

I second the idea of generating web assembly output as it helps maintain our investment in our code bases.

Web Assembly output is a topic that has come up on the Flex Dev list a few times. Here's an interesting discussion on the topic:

Pony Mail!

[まあゆく]

chris.campbell​

If AIR is embedding the SWF into HTML, NPAPI is required, but will NPAPI continue?

Or is it not supported to embed the SWF in HTML? Or do you want AIR to include NPAPI as before AIR version 21?

[dfg0912]

I have an Apache Flex 4.13.0 app that is deployed as an AIR app. Will Adobe continue to support the Flash runtime for AIR apps?

[dawzrd]

Any change to the certification process? maybe an ACE for Air? please?

[W.P. Stuurman]

Thanks Chris, we also develop cross platform real time business apps (not games) in Apache Flex and running on AIR. This is still by far the most productive way to develop cross platform apps.

Would be nice to see some real progress on using native HTML browsers in AIR apps without having to resort to an ANE: and ANE means the app can't be distributed as an .air file and you lose the AIR in place update feature.

[eduardo12fox]

Do you really believe that the AIR will continue for a long time? An Adobe has already shown that it has no commitment to the developers that we use a technology from it. Turned out Flex did not continue Flash Builder and you believe the AIR will continue into the future? Soon, the end-of-the-air poster is out, and then one is the right one to learn other technology and our desperate customers.

[eduardo12fox]

I have multiple applications in Flex Web and now? I only have 2 years to learn something new, to migrate all the applications of my clients to another technology. This is a lawsuit against Adobe after all I spent time and money with my company investing in Adobe technology

[dews]

eduardo12fox​ wrote:

I have multiple applications in Flex Web and now? I only have 2 years to learn something new, to migrate all the applications of my clients to another technology. This is a lawsuit against Adobe after all I spent time and money with my company investing in Adobe technology

Dude, Starling/Feathers is amazing, Adobe have been pushing this for some time, so check it out.  Also, Apache Flex have been working on a port to HTML/JS for some time - depending on how complex your APP is, you may already be able to port it.

Adobe's commitment to AIR should be a huge sigh of relief for you..  We can all continue to work with AS3 and a single code base!

[ASWC]

I have developed and been using for the past year a converter that takes all my former (or current) web based flash projects (actionscript) and turn them into fully functional (Typescript) HTML5 project (ready to compile and run). I don't plan on sharing this app but if I get many request I might do so (PM me if interested). But the real reason I'm saying this is that anyone can reuse their actionscript based code by translating it to another language and I can give some pointers on how to do that as well.

[eduardo12fox]

I have Interest!! How can I get more information?