FFR Suggestions

[Emithith]

Originally Posted by Velocity

You have to remember that when FFR was first created back in 2002, only AS1 existed. Flash 7 and AS2 were released in 2003. Back at that time, actionscript was still very basic and people made due with what they had.

The only real problem is that over the years, FFR was never changed internally to support the demand for more extensive features, and everything was built around it. The fact that Synth was even able to make a rhythm game back so long ago that played smoothly was a big undertaking.

Part of the reason flash lags is honestly flash itself. The graphics engine they use up until Flash 11 and it's Stage3D is complete crap.

If I were to spawn every arrow in a song, and have them move, the old Flash graphics engine would scan EVERY PIXEL to check if it moved which makes total sense, and update accordingly. The happens every frame of course. But, flash also checks every pixel even if it's not in the view port, so if I were to spawn all the arrows, the area that contains the arrows would be massive and would check every pixel in that area. Which is slooooooooooooooooooooooow

Also Actionscript 3.0 added limited support for hardware acceleration (DirectX, OpenGL).

What Synth did was actual smart, by only rendering notes that need to be visible, it prevents a massive amount of lag.

TL;DR: Flash Graphics were and still are garbage except Stage3D that was included in Flash 11. Also Synth is smart and did the best he could years ago.

And just to understand how garbage Actionscript 1/2 are compared to Actionscript 3:

var i = 0;
var extrememememememememememelyLongVarName = 0;

in AS1/2, exemem...VarName is referenced slower then i.
in AS3, both of these are the exact same speed and length doesn't matter.

Interesting. I've always liked learning the quirks of engines. Re-coding would be well worth the time and effort, but it's not even really important. I mean, if you are gonna even think about starting on it you're pretty much gonna have to drop all your current projects for it, because anything you start now will be probably way easier once you get it all finished and polished up.

The one thing that stands in the way is brainstorming the proper approach to this new "engine". I.e. What is wrong with the current way the game reads and sends arrows, and what can you do to destroy that problem.

Originally Posted by bmah

Alternatively, you can look at it as a high goal one can strive to accomplish. Up to you. *shrugs*

I personally view player goals as [Heavy] -> [Oni] -> St. Scarhand. I like that format, and anyone who wants to play SHand can go on SM, anyway.