Using static variables and functions is slow. That was the conclusion of the previous article on statics, but the subject is actually more nuanced than that. Today we’ll explore static more in-depth and find out just why it is so slow.
Posts Tagged performance
Simple 2D With Stage3D
Jan 23
Along with Flash Player 11′s new Stage3D class have come hardware-accelerated 2D rendering engines. Impressive results have already been demonstrated by advanced engines like Starling and ND2D. Today’s article shows a simple Stage3D-based sprite class to help learn more about how these engines are implemented and provides a simplified alternative to the more complex 2D engines that still delivers hardware-accelerated performance.
Serialize Anything: Part 2
Jan 16
One of the new features in Flash Player 11 is a native JSON encoder/decoder class. In the Serialize Anything article, I neglected to add JSON as an option for serializing and deserializing arbitrary objects. In today’s followup we’ll take a look at the performance of the native JSON class and compare it to ByteArray.readObject/writeObject and XML.
Static vs. Non-Static
Jan 11
Tip #8 in my Top 10 Performance Tips For 2012 was to reduce static accesses of variables, functions, etc. in favor of non-static variables and, especially, local variables. I neglected to reference one of my articles and it was pointed out to me that I hadn’t actually written such an article! So today I’ll elaborate on my tip and show why you should prefer non-static and local variables so you can find out just why it deserves its place as a top tip.
It’s a new year and it’s time to make some New Years resolutions for Flash performance. Today’s article is a collection of what i consider 10 top tips for improving the performance of your Flash apps. Read on for the list!
Introduction to AGAL: Part 1
Dec 12
Flash 11′s new Stage3D class introduces a whole new kind of bytecode to Flash: AGAL. Today I’m beginning a series of articles to talk about what AGAL is in the first place, how you can generate its bytecode and, more generally, how these wacky shaders work. Read on for the first article in the series and learn the basics of AGAL.
AS3 vs. AS3
Nov 28
One frequent request I get on my AS3 vs. JavaScript series is to test AS3 in more environments. Today I’m doing just that and testing its performance in browsers (plugin and ActiveX control) and standalone/projector mode across Mac OS and Windows operating systems. Does it make any difference? Read on to find out!
It’s been about 8 months since my last test of AS3 versus JavaScript and there have been several major releases of both browsers and the Flash Player. Today, we pit every major browser against each other and Flash Player itself to get an updated picture of which provides the fastest scripting environment on the web.
Flash Player 11′s new Stage3D hardware-accelerated graphics API not only allows you to write shaders (custom code to position vertices and color pixels), it downright requires you to do so. To get the lowest level access (and therefore most power) out of your shaders, you write them in an assembly language called AGAL. Read on for a test app that compares the speed of these shader instructions, the fundamental building blocks of all Stage3D apps.
2D Array Alternatives
Nov 3
Thanks to Tronster for today’s guest article! If you’re interested in writing a guest article, e-mail Jackson about your idea.
Natively, Flash does not offer a two-dimensional array type. But, Flash’s one-dimensional Array and various other container types (i.e., Object, Dictionary, and Vector) allow for user-created 2D array solutions. Today’s article explores the performance of various ways to make a 2D array.
