Stephen Calender Programming Blog


Flash Particle System


May 01

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0, Optimization.




A particle system is the quintessential video game effect used for clouds, fog, mist, smoke, rain, snow, fire, explosions, dust, debris, sparks, magic, spray, splatter, and other phenomenon. They have been around since the early 1980s, William T. Reeves is the inventor, but its most notable debut to the public was when the group that eventually became Pixar (employed by Lucasfilm Ltd. at the time) used a particle system in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) for the ‘genesis effect’. It is mystifying that such a classic creative tool is missing from Flash.

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Better Random Number Generation: Mersenne Twister 19937


Mar 28

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0.

Math.random() is the bane of many Flash game developers, and in this article I am going to help you work around it (free code).
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Flash Render Profiling


Feb 23

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0.

Flash Render Profiling Demo

Use this tool and purge your projects of lethargic art assets!

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A Programmer’s Postmortem: Lincoln Era White House


Feb 17

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0, Opinion.

White House Project

Featured in:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pop City Blog
PittsBlog
Tech Burgher Blog
and on AM 1360 WMNY The American Entrepreneur 2/28/09 “Ron Morris talks with Todd Waits”

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Top Ten ActionScript Performance Tips


Jan 28

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0.

These are tips I have personally used and have indisputable results. Of all the things you can do to improve performance these are the most effective and efficient changes that you can make. more…

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Benchmarking: Results


Dec 21

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0 Benchmarks.

Sweet Sweet Benchmarking

A speed comparison across all trials. If you would like to view the full results they are available in cvs, htm, and xls formats.

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Benchmarking: Graphics


Dec 21

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0 Benchmarks.

These trials are concerned with rendering speed as well as common manipulations and methods of art assets. more…

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Benchmarking: Data Structure Speed


Dec 21

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0 Benchmarks.

Data structure trials focus on comparing speeds of variables, object types, classes, and the speed at which you can access and modify your data. more…

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Benchmarking: Operation Speed


Dec 21

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0 Benchmarks.

The fundamental speed hierarchy, bit shifting < addition < multiplication < division, is true for all languages. However, it is still important to know the speed difference between operations. Furthermore, the basic operations have many different flavors in which they can be written. All of these trials compare basic operation speed, alternative syntax, and mathematical substitutions. more…

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Benchmarking: Methodology


Dec 21

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0 Benchmarks.

I know most of the die-hard critics our there are going to want to see my code, and that is perfectly acceptable. As I have already stated myself, many of the people trying to figure out this black box do a poor job. Just do not expect all of my code to be made public, if you want to grab the source it is available here. more…

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