Flash Player 11.2 beta breaks Unity Content

I just installed the official beta version of Flash and the content I exported from Unity for Flash in a Flash is now broken. That's on Mac Os, Safari and 11.2 beta.

 

Yes currently Adobe is going to stop supporting Alchemy for alittle while, till Alchemy 2 comes out, Unity has yet to respond to our inquirers as to whether or not they will have a compatible solution for flash 11.2 specifically. So as it stands, as far as the unity community knows, our flash games will not work when 11.2 is released, so theres no reason to post our flash games on kongregate or newgrounds, additionally 3.5 web player does not yet exist for public release, so pretty much in about a month unity 3.5 games will simply not work at all, which is why everyone is scrambling to downgrade to 3.4 , unity failed to tell us that our flash games would not work when 11.2 is out, that is very important to know.

 

it might be possible to start a petition to get some answers from unity, if we all sign, we can find out whats really going on for flash 11.2 and unity flash games.

 

Adobe is breaking everyone's Stage3D Alchemy; I suspect they're the only ones who have any answers as to when they'll have Alchemy 2 ready. Hopefully it will be before 11.2 goes public, otherwise everyone should probably be petitioning Adobe for their release schedules.

 

I hate to break it to you, but Unity 3.5 beta... is a beta. It's never a good plan to develop for release purposes using a beta if you have rushed deadlines.

 

I think it could be out of their hands, if Adobe drop Alchemy for 11.2 then no Unity to flash export as the Unity C/C++ engine will not run.

Even if it is changed then Unity will have to rework their engine to work with the update.

 

I sense a great disturbance in the force.

 

yes because we just need to know if Alchemy2 will be released in flash 11.2, so that theres no SKIP between being able to show our games off. Or else there will always be this 1 version that people will be stuck on and cant play our games.

 

Tbh, I would find it strange that Adobe would break backwards compatibility in 11.2. However, because it is Adobe and they have made some questionable decisions in the past, I would like to know if Unity is talking to Adobe about this issue.

 

wouldnt we all

 

I have two projects right now which would be deeply affected (at least in schedule) by this. I was told by Unity email support that it should be considered safe to use Flash exporter for projects due in ~2 months just this week. (Meaning 3.5 and Flash export module would be released in that timeframe)
Heading a small studio with my partner the total lack of information on Alchemy Opcode use from Adobe and Unity is really starting to worry me.

 

Well will be interesting to see who wins the flash contest now (and no one else will able to run it).

 

Last I heard there were already some Alchemy 2 opcodes in Flash 11.2, but don't quote me on that, but I would guess we'd really need the official tools out before anyone can really use them.

 

apparently 11.2 beta 4 just came out, still doesnt have any alchemy but that they are working on a solution for it..... that tells me nothing lol, it doesnt tell me if it will make 11.2 official or not, with alchemy or alchemy 2. im glad they are working on it, but im sure they were working gpu accel for years, i need to know if its days, months, or years =P

 

no dice with RC1.. :/

 

@Zerot There are some strange things going on at Adobe. One of them is plugging the op-code used by Unity, Alchemy and Haxe to tap into fast memory access, etc... There are a _lot_ of prominent devs very, very upset about the move. Adobe claims these were private APIs and deprecating them doesn't mean breaking backward compatibility. Alchemy 2 is going to be a commercial product. No news on release, cost or timeline for integration into the Flash runtime.

Adobe is monetizing Flash to justify its investments and I guess this is one of the revenue streams. Charging Unity3D, Unreal, you and me for deploying "high performance" code on their runtime. Woot!

At this stage, I am more excited about the upcoming release of Scaleform for Unity3D and the export to Native Client on Chrome. I hope we get a WebGL option, one of these days

 

Well that sucks....good think I have version 3.4 or I'd be in deep dog S***...

 

So Adobe are expecting clients (Unity, HaXe, Unreal ect) to buy an Alchemy 2 license to get their code to work with flash player 11.2+

Which just means will Unity buy the license to Unlock access to Flash. So no free Flash for Unity Devs.

 

Yes but the last thing they said was, they will not be supporting Alchemy "PERIOD" in 11.2 , which will break backwards compatibility, HOWEVER, in beta 4 they announced they are working on a solution for us. BUT they did not say whether or not they will release 11.2 before getting a solution, so in other words, 11.3 might work for us, but 11.2 might not, so there would be this 1 version of flash that just simply doesnt work for unity exported flash games. Thus why we are desperately trying to get answers from Unity so we know if FLash Companys should invest in Unity Development immediately, and start investing millions of dollars into the product, or ... do we just wait while the dollars trickle away.

And Alchemy will still work for flash 10.0 but they are forcing all flash 11 apps not to work with alchemy, they litterally stripped it out of the flash player. This is the first time theyve broken backwards compatibility on such a huge level. but their excuse is that Alchemy was just a beta test project, and that the commercial project is where they would like to start from scratch on... however stripping alchemy 1 from "flash 11" use (but not flash 10 or 9) , just to start from scratch is bad for us , and unreal engine since they also used alchemy to export to flash 11.

That is the state we are in now, waiting for the official words or nods, or hints, or anything from Unity.

 

@Arowx: Not sure what is the deal between Unity3D and Adobe. But Alchemy 2.0 will be a commercial product for sure and export to Flash from Unity3D is going to be an extra license, like Android or iOs.

From FAQ:
"What happens when the final release is available?
The Flash export option will become an add-on in the same way as the iOS and Android plugins are add-ons to the editor. You will require a purchased serial number at this time."

@tripknotix:
I agree 100%, It was a very bad decision from Adobe. Frankly, I am not sure Unity can do much right now. Feels like Adobe is too busy alienating all the people that supported Flash over the past decade.

Unity has done a lot to promote Stage3D, with the Flash in Flash contest, and Adobe is essentially shutting that door too, if they release a broken player into the wild.

 

Why would Adobe shoot itself in the foot with version 11.2 when Stage3D + Alchemy is the most exciting feature it has had in a long time!

I can understand why this is so annoying but it looks like Adobe are trying the classic sales strategy of giving someone a Free sample then taking it away from them unless they pay money.

All we can do is see what happens, personally I would love to be able to get my games out on Flash portals as flash games.

 

I wouldn't mind some (semi)official reply, as this seems like a pretty big deal for Unity... If the engine stops working in 11.2, I can't see the sales of the plugin exactly soaring...

 

What's with the FUD here about Adobe dropping Alchemy backwards compatibility? Do you have some sources to back that up?

The only official info I could find is very clear that Flash will continue to provide backwards compatibility for the current version of Alchemy:
http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2011/09/updates-from-the-lab.html

What they did in 11.2 is making Flash content that is targeted at the newest version of the AVM2 runtime to use the new and still private Alchemy version. Flash content targeted at older runtimes runs fine with the old Alchemy runtime in the 11.2 Flash player. In the future, this is how developers will be able to choose between the two different Alchemy versions.

Also, I don't see them charging for using Alchemy, just like they don't charge for using the Flash Player. Flash is also a commercial product be the player is free and can be used without Flash. I imagine something similar for Alchemy, either being integrated into the Flash IDE or as a stand alone commercial product. But that doesn't mean that the Alchemy runtime in the Flash Player will require a license.

 

Adrian, they are going to charge for use of Alchemy, their official word is that they are making it a commercial product where they can focus on enhancing the quality of it, However they are stopping Flash 11+apps from being able to use the old Alchemy 1, but allowing backwards compatibility for Flash 10 for it to continue.

Flash 11 apps however will be using the new Alchemy ... "in the future". not "in flash 11.2", so while they may have this secret alchemy 2 in 11.2, they are not actually stating that they will be giving a compiler for it at the release of 11.2, that is the point of this debate.

We may wind up with unity flash games in the wild, that wont actually work for a period of time that could be 1 month or 10 months, and if you look at how long it took for adobe to start with a "public beta" of molehill, before they actually had a public release of a compatible flash player, it could be a whole year that we don't have access to our unity-flash games.

and the only thing we need to hear from Unity is that they are trying to convince adobe, or that they are working with adobe, or that they are awaiting word, or anything at all.

 

@adrian no FUD, here.

There's a link confirming: http://ncannasse.fr/blog/adobe_make_some_alchemy

Adobe confirmed Alchemy 2.0 will require a paid license to compile to the new opcodes.

 

"Stripped it out" is not quite the right phrasing... it's still there, they just disable it if your program has access to the Stage3D API.

It seems Flash 11.2 might come out in the summer. I have this vague suspicion they'll be requiring something akin to signing your swfs before allowing people access to Alchemy with Stage3D going forward.

 

So, flash 11.2 RC is out. Older exported version of angry bots (http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/angry-bots/) dies with "Fatal error: null" for me, and a new one with "Your version of the adobe flash player is unable to run this content" that links to http://unity3d.com/flashpublishing/incompatible which is a 404 page.
Is there any way to contact Unity directly and get some answers concerning flash export in 11.2? I'm working on a project targeting Flash, and I currently have no idea if I should go on investing in the project at all.

 

Hm.. I hope unity guys will buy new Alchemy from Adobe and flash-export-feature will not die

 

I truly hope so too, but for that to happen Adobe has to actually publish that new Alchemy.. C'mon Adobe, we're waiting..

It wouldn't be all that bad if timing and communication would be better on Adobes side. I truly hope for some NDAs to expire soon, so that someone could shed some light on this unholy mess..

 

Hm... Epics showed their flash demo here
And? It works exactly with flash player 11.2 and new Alchemy!
It means that Adobe gives Alchemy.

What is with Unity3d, unity-guys?

 

It's reassuring though that at least somebody already has access to Alchemy 2, and that it's already present in Flash Player 11.2.
At least it exists to be licensed.

 

yeah thats what im thinking, is that the technology does exist, and that they are just waiting for adobe to setup their licensing server, apparently in the comments on it, they have a tag that includes their license inside of the swf, which means each swf must have a license owner, which furthermore tells me that its possible that maybe there will be a general unity license that unity will pay for upfront, as well as unreal, or possibly that we will each individually have to purchase a license, which means it wont be available for free ever on any platform. I am hoping adobe is in fact offering the bulk license approach, and unity is willing to pay for it. All of this cover up from Unity could be due to them not wanting to tell us we wont be getting a way to export to flash for free, as well as Android and iOS basic no longer being free next month as a way to justify exporting to flash not being free. I've already looked into unreal engines ability to export to android and ios for free, i tend to wonder if they are ponying up the capital to offer a bulk license for unreal for free.

Its quite political indeed, i see no info from Unity about flash 11.2, but i see info from Unreal on flash 11.2.

 

It's not as onerous as I'd been expecting. Thanks guys! The Unity Flash exporter has been coming along great so far, and now we have enough confidence that we'll be able to license all the pieces when the time comes.

 

Oh that is not good..... 9% revenue share. Arrrghhh.

 

The first $50,000 does not have the 9%. The doomsday scenario I was imagining had Adobe dragging their feet for months/years on end and not enabling Alchemy for Stage3D at all for anybody except Unreal.

 

I've just upgraded the internet explore flash plugin to 11.2 and my app is working, should i expect it will be broken?

I'm delivering the final version right now!!!!

Cheers.