Skip to main content
chris.campbell
Community Manager
chris.campbellCommunity Manager
Community Manager
July 25, 2017
Question

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

  • July 25, 2017
  • 72 replies
  • 109896 views

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

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    72 replies

    Show previous replies
    mattr8755445
    mattr8755445
    Known Participant
    July 25, 2017

    Sad to see Flash go, but this was expected for a long time now.

    This is good news for my AIR games on Steam though! If AIR continues to get new features, I may end up using "Flash" for some time still.

    Thanks for finally getting this road map out! I feel very relieved after years of uncertainty.

    B
    Born2code
    Known Participant
    July 25, 2017

    I also want to add that Adobe really has a gold mine on its hands, AIR.

    It is still by far the best cross platform / GPU powered dev environment and I just wish Adobe would spend more money marketing AIR properly, as many devs are simply not aware that AIR is superior in many ways to HTML5, Unity and other cross OS runtimes today.

    So maybe now that's flash is out of the way, Adobe can really start marketing AIR for the awesome platform it is.

    Sean

      D
      dews
      Inspiring
      July 25, 2017

      AIR is of course amazing..  I know I'm speaking to the choir here but still it's a sigh of relief for us to know that AIR will continue to be supported in the truly amazing fashion that we've enjoyed over the past many months.

      It's a shame about Flash but the writing has been on the wall for some time, so it's no surprise but I hope that the AIR team can begin working on, and support the existing efforts behind porting existing Starling or Flex Web APPs to HTML5/JS.

      Support for wearables I'm super excited about.. I see that it's mentioned in the Community Features Survey​ so that's fantastic!

      I'd also like to see Flash Builder rekindled, it's still the best IDE in my opinion but at least we have alternatives..  still would be great to see.

      Go Adobe!!

        L
        ljb2411
        Participant
        July 26, 2017

        I second the idea of updating Flash Builder.

          santanuk76005047
          santanuk76005047
          Participant
          July 26, 2017

          I really love the idea of having more updates to Flash Builder and makes the eco-system more solid! But I also know this not going to happen, or sooner.

          E
          eduardo12fox
          Inspiring
          July 25, 2017

          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

          A
          ASWC
          Inspiring
          July 27, 2017

          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.

          A
          ASWC
          Inspiring
          August 2, 2017

          I actually code and publish some of my simpler AIR applications directly from Animate CC.  I've components I've built I can visually position.   I'm currently working to have those work as SVG's in the same fashion, so I can design in Animate, publish a SVG and have JavaScript do pretty much the same interactivity I was doing with AS3.  Again, this is for simple, very graphical, front end sales applications.


          I used to work that way too long ago but company requirements and platform publishing requirements made it not viable anymore. I had to move to a more development friendly environment which was Flash Builder at the time. The amount of time I save by working with a true IDE is simply enormous, Animate CC cannot offer that. I manage a code base of 10s of thousands a classes and Animate CC is just not made for that.

          W
          W.P. Stuurman
          Participant
          July 25, 2017

          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.

          E
          eduardo12fox
          Inspiring
          July 25, 2017

          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.

          D
          dawzrd
          Participating Frequently
          July 25, 2017

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

          D
          dfg0912
          Inspiring
          July 25, 2017

          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?

          K
          KarlCfs
          Inspiring
          July 25, 2017

          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
          Community Manager
          chris.campbellCommunity ManagerAuthor
          Community Manager
          July 25, 2017

          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?

            D
            dfg0912
            Inspiring
            July 25, 2017

            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?

            K
            KarlCfs
            Inspiring
            July 25, 2017

            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!

            F
            FischMich
            Participant
            July 25, 2017

            Just one word: GREAT!

            Show more replies
            Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
            Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices