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HTML5 still doesn't replicate what mattered about Flash

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Re: HTML5 still doesn't replicate what mattered about Flash

#51

Post by larsiusprime »

acid__ wrote: post #46

Anyone have a good explanation for why someone hasn’t built a true replacement? e.g. a good, widely used flash-like tool that compiled down to a HTML5 bundle of assets?

There's been lots! I've funded and contributed to many of them!

The most famous is probably OpenFL, which uses the Haxe programming language. It does exactly that. You can even use Adobe Animate to author content for it.

The main missing pieces, however, are:

1) The abstraction inevitably leaks. HTML5 is just a fundamentally fiddly bundle of tech and there's always this or that little thing that can shake loose.

2) The tech burden is fundamentally higher with an open source project no matter how you try. With Flash you never needed to even touch a command line or download anything other than the Flash authoring tool.

3) The community is smaller. Fewer tutorials, fewer people able and willing to help you out. It's respectable, but back in the day Flash's community was MASSIVE. You'd post on the forum and get a detailed technical reply in MINUTES.

4) Resources are thinner. Without Macromedia or Adobe's pockets individual developers just have to bear the burden of dev/maintenance themselves.

5) Flash portals are dead. Now everything's about app stores for software and baked-out video for animation.

It's still a great project and I use it myself, but IMHO it's going to take someone to dump a bunch of money and time on top of these ongoing projects to recreate all the magic Flash had. There's only so much a small community of open source coders can be expected to pull off.

Re: HTML5 still doesn't replicate what mattered about Flash

#52

Post by rishav_sharan »

acid__ wrote: post #46

Anyone have a good explanation for why someone hasn’t built a true replacement? e.g. a good, widely used flash-like tool that compiled down to a HTML5 bundle of assets?

Openfl. All flash APIs are supported and it compiles to js

Re: HTML5 still doesn't replicate what mattered about Flash

#53

Post by larsiusprime »

Vorh wrote: post #48
acid__ wrote: post #46

Anyone have a good explanation for why someone hasn’t built a true replacement? e.g. a good, widely used flash-like tool that compiled down to a HTML5 bundle of assets?

I haven't worked with Unity, but doesn't it compile to web?

Unity WebGL export is a big rusty bucket. It works but it's a) incredibly heavy, and b) the abstraction leaks and is buggy.

Re: HTML5 still doesn't replicate what mattered about Flash

#54

Post by rishav_sharan »

rickyc091 wrote: post #34

The closest thing I ever found to Flash was https://scratch.mit.edu . You can draw vector graphics and attach code onto the individual sprites. It has the concepts of scenes as well, but no where near the power of what Flash had to offer.

For the player, https://www.openfl.org/download/ is the best replacement

Re: HTML5 still doesn't replicate what mattered about Flash

#55

Post by leowoo91 »

ogre_codes wrote: post #12

The author is right. But Jobs was also right, Flash was fundamentally to resource intensive for mobile and arguably still is. Without mobile, Flash was doomed. Flash also has a bunch of other issues in terms of security and performance on PCs which were never really addressed.

What he means by beginner friendly? Using the editor? If so, openfl can still import swf files to the project afaik.

Re: HTML5 still doesn't replicate what mattered about Flash

#56

Post by [deleted] »

kennu wrote: post #45
amelius wrote: post #8

> For 95% of applications you can just distribute a single SWF file You can do the same with HTML5+CSS+JavaScript, all in a single file. You can even include images, audio and video e.g. with data urls.

But when you share some HTML in practice, e.g. send a HTML game exported from Godot to a friend, they will need to unzip it and install a local web server to actually play it with appropriate permissions. Whereas .swf files could be opened directly in the browser without any preparation steps. It was also possible to read metadata from .swf files (background color, canvas size, etc), which made it very simple to auto…

[deleted]

Re: HTML5 still doesn't replicate what mattered about Flash

#58

Post by tyingq »

ogre_codes wrote: post #12

The author is right. But Jobs was also right, Flash was fundamentally to resource intensive for mobile and arguably still is. Without mobile, Flash was doomed. Flash also has a bunch of other issues in terms of security and performance on PCs which were never really addressed.

Jobs didn't like Flash because it was a potential escape from the walled garden. I have my issues with Flash, but Jobs' reasoning was purely business model.

Re: HTML5 still doesn't replicate what mattered about Flash

#59

Post by bawolff »

larsiusprime wrote: post #51
acid__ wrote: post #46

Anyone have a good explanation for why someone hasn’t built a true replacement? e.g. a good, widely used flash-like tool that compiled down to a HTML5 bundle of assets?

There's been lots! I've funded and contributed to many of them! The most famous is probably OpenFL, which uses the Haxe programming language. It does exactly that. You can even use Adobe Animate to author content for it. The main missing pieces, however, are: 1) The abstraction inevitably leaks. HTML5 is just a fundamentally fiddly bundle of tech and there's always this or that little thing that can shake loose. 2) T…

> The tech burden is fundamentally higher with an open source project no matter how you try. With Flash you never needed to even touch a command line or download anything other than the Flash authoring tool.

What does open source even remotely have to do with that?

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