Monthly Archives: March 2012

Working with Macs and Android Tablets

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Macs don’t seem to like Android tablets. They don’t show up in finder (or really anywhere) when you plug them in via USB. The solution? Mac software to move files around, and Android software to manage files better. My suggestions:

http://www.android.com/filetransfer/ – The Android File Manager. For Macs only, of course.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.metago.astro&hl=en A file manager for Android, free and working well.

So for developers moving files like applications, these two programs together will get it done.

Liveblogging Making a Particle System in Flash

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9:16
Gonna see how fast I can make a particle system background for my website in Flash with the Starling framework. And go!

9:18
Downloaded, unzipped, and the project is started in Flash Develop! Go team! http://gamua.com/starling/download/

9:19
Downloading the PDF… in a zip file? http://www.bytearray.org/?p=3371

9:26
First compile attempt – swf version 10? I need to set that to 13 ahhhhh

9:27
Found a tutorial for FlashDevelop: http://www.mclelun.com/blog/2011/08/flashdevelop-stage3d-away3d/

9:28
Oh no it’s old! I have FlashDevelop 4.0 already! WILL MAKE DO.

9:30
My swf version is 14? I didn’t know it went that high already! SUCCESSES IMMINENT.

9:31
Error: unable to open libs/player/playerglobal.swc HOW TO FIX AUGH

9:33
Oh, that’s why. The swf version should be 13! Target 11.1 – got it, moving on to missing .png files now.

9:37
Moved the missing png to a new location and…. SUCCESS! COMPILE WORKED. Back to the PDF for info about particles.

9:37
Closing 15 tabs and three windows

9:39
Wait I need to buy particle designer? For Mac? Screw that! To the internets!

9:41
Ah! A Flash version exists, though a little fewer features but SCREW THAT TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE:
http://onebyonedesign.com/flash/particleeditor/

9:41
No randomize button? NOOOOOO

9:51
Okay, got a particle I’m happy with…? I made the background white and it washed it all out no matter what I tried, so here’s hoping it goes well.

9:56
Wait, the PDF has XML files…? HMMMM.

10:02
Compile Error Compile Error Compile Error Compile…. Error.

10:03
Compile NO ERRORS! Onto… this weird juggler concept.

10:08
It works! Except I need new particles. These ones are white on white backgrounds. Hmm.

10:09
Gonna try inverting the colors of the texture in photoshop.

10:11
Inverting the colors was unsuccessful. Guess I’ll edit the .pex file…

10:20
Nice! I have a very subtle blue smoke particle thing going. Now to make it track the mouse…

10:25
How does Starling interact with the mouse hmmmm

10:27
Ah, it uses a custom touch event. WELL WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT.

10:32
Hey, got the resize Event working too! Now… that’s it! I’m done! I just need to set it as the background for a webpage now…

10:45
Put it in the webpage, 100% height and 100% width… on top of everything.

10:47
Putting it behind everything doesn’t work! The wmode needs to be “direct” for Stage3D to work. But the wmode needs to be “transparent” for it to be affected by the z-index in css.

Lessons Learned:

Apparently – unless I’m missing some vital information or javascript magic – You cannot create a webpage background in Flash AND use Stage3D. It’s one or the other. But I learned loads in the last two hours! SUCCESS!

I was hoping to post a link to the work I completed… but oh well. I’ll have something new again soon.