Adobe AIR Development

[Innovatology]

Today Adobe have made the AIR 3.2 Release Candidate available, which includes Stage3D on IOS and Android mobile but not on PlayBook. While Adobe takes care of the IOS and Android versions, the PlayBook version is done by RIM. According to this thread, it is uncertain whether RIM will update it on PlayBook at all. Personally I think this is a missed opportunity - the PlayBook version version of AIR is (or at least, was) superior to both  the IOS and the Android versions.

If you'd like to let RIM know that you need AIR 3.2 on PlayBook, chime in here and reply to this message,  retweet this or send a tweet to @BlackBerryDev with #Stage3D hashtag. Or better still, do all three. Don't let the PlayBook get left behind!

Stage3D is a feature in AIR that makes hardware-accelerated 3D and 2D graphics available on desktop and now mobile devices. It allows us to write cross-platform high performance games, visualizations, multimedia apps, visual effects and innovative, tactile user interfaces. Frameworks such as Away3D (for 3D) and Starling (for 2D, used in Angry Birds) make it easy to use.

We already have 1 app under development and 2 others lined up that make use of Stage3D. It would be a shame if we could release those for other platforms but not for PlayBook.

We need AIR 3.2 and Stage3D!

For more info:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplatformruntimes/air3-2/

http://www.bytearray.org/?p=3970

Some demo videos: 

[Acenet]

Good summup. But I cant' believe AIR 3.2 will not be ported on PlayBook !!

I don't particularly need *for now* Stage3D on the PlayBook,

but what I need for sure is the latest AIR version on the PlayBook!

I think that like me, a lot of us are here because of AIR support on the PlayBook. If today RIM decides to not go on with AIR, I will respect this decision, and won't thank them enough for having provided such a great tablet and such a great ActionScript SDK to us, but I will focus my activity where AIR is updated.

(...now that's unlikely, but there may be a technical reason why AIR 3.2 can't work on PlayBook.... ?)

[delcasda]

AIR 3.1 was released by Adobe November 11th of 2011 (11-11-11) and playbook updated to AIR 3.1 with version v1.0.8.4985 on Nov. 28th. So only 17 days later. Sure this update is not going to be as "easy" but why would you think they will not do it?

[georg22]

I agree with OP.

Developer are NOW making Apps with Stage3D for Android and IOS. These Apps will run crossplatform - but NEVER NEVER NEVER on a Blackberry Playbook or BB10 Device. WOW.

And what about Apache Flex? Future versions of Flex may make uso of AIR 3.2 and higher. Then Flex-apps will run on IOS/Android but not on the PLaybook/BB10.  

RIM, do you really think thats a great Idea?

I am investing a lot of time in AIR and QNX-AIR, hoping to make use of it in future BB10 Devices. Will BB really continue the AIR-Platform, even QNX-AIR in future? I am not sure now. Its a bad sign.

[MSohm]

Thanks for all the feedback regarding AIR 3.2 and Stage3D.  I'll be sure to pass all of it along to the project management team.

Note that we haven't officially said we'd never release AIR 3.2.

[greg209]

Personnally I believe that Stage3D and support for Air above the current 3.1 is essential for the Playbook to maintain a significant presence in the tablet market.

Obviously native apps are the best way to take full advantage of the device's capabilities but it makes perfect sense for developers to take advantage of cross-platform development which AIR provides, to be able to target iOS, Android and Playbook with very little or no reworking.

Without continued support for AIr going forwards, RIM may see a departure of the very developers it encouraged to build the tablets app base in the first place.

On a more technical note, the potential performance gains (if comparable to other mobile platforms) that Stage3D will give to the Playbook would be amazing to work with, not only for 3D but equally as importantly for 2D experiences. There are a whole range of frameworks (3D and 2D) already available for Stage3D which I'm extremely eager to try on the Playbook.

I really hope that RIM will not leave AIR behind in it's roadmap however the situation has been made extremely unclear recently, as RIM and Adobe have in various posts at somepoint, identified that Stage3D will come to the Playbook. Equally, and more worryingly, there have been opposing views to this, especially recently.

What are we to believe? Clarification would be nice. An Air 3.2 beta program would be even better  

Cheers

Greg209

[Innovatology]

Plus, the Unreal Engine 3, Unity and Minko gaming engines target Stage3D, or are in the process of adding support:

[georg22]

There are some great frameworks available for example away3d, witch i wanted to use.

And its not only gaming. RIM, think about 3d data visualisation, panorama-views (my business), 3d in medicin and education.  So many cool possibilities. Sure, a native solution might be faster than air, but its not crossplatform. RIM should bring forward crossplatform-solutions like AIR. Even Windows 8 might get AIR...

 Interesting infos here: http://www.tricedesigns.com/tag/stage3d/

[richard7854]

Stage3D is just critical feature, no here discussion why it should be supported

[zezke]

I'm very interested in experimenting with Stage3D myself, but only on the PlayBook, not the desktop.