Flash Professional 8

It’s hard to believe that Flash began life just ten years ago as FutureSplash, a simple cartoon-style vector drawing and animation program. Since those early days Macromedia has grafted on advanced multimedia and programming capabilities to turn Flash, and its all-pervasive player, into an all-encompassing web platform. Now to reinforce the program’s development credentials, Macromedia has phased out the old standard Flash and replaced it with a new version of the previously high-end, programmer-oriented Flash Professional.

After a decade of constant reinvention, today’s Flash Professional is largely unrecognizable but FutureSplash still lives on in the program’s bizarre approach to the fundamental task of drawing. Overlay two identically coloured objects, for example, and they merge together; overlay differently coloured objects and the top one eats a hole out of the one underneath! In skilled hands, the system can be surprisingly efficient, but for most users it’s an initial stumbling block and a constant irritation. Now at last the nightmare is over with the introduction of a new optional Object Drawing mode in which objects in Flash finally behave in the same way that they do in all other drawing applications.

In fact Flash 8 Professional’s vector drawing power has been enhanced all round to bring it more into line with the likes of Freehand and Illustrator. Using the Properties Panel, for example, you can now control end caps, mitres and joins. There’s also a Stroke Hinting option which ensures that nodes are anchored on full pixels ensuring razor-sharp horizontal and vertical lines. Gradient handling has also been seriously overhauled enabling up to 16 colours to be mixed with full control over overflow modes and focal points. Gradients can also now be applied to strokes as well as to fills.

Gradients are a crucial weapon in the Flash designer’s formatting toolkit, but they pale in comparison to Flash 8’s new support for blend modes. If you convert your objects to a movie clip or button (though not a graphic symbol for some reason) you can now apply one of 12 new blend modes - multiply, screen, lighten, darken, difference, invert, add, subtract, alpha, and erase – that control how the object’s colours interact with those below it. The compositional creativity this opens up is enormous, especially when combined with animations and run-time scripting.


Flash Professional 8 offers improved graphics handling.

And blend modes are only one of a whole new range of graphical effects that can now be applied to your movie clips and buttons. Using the new Filters tab on the Properties Panel you can add bevel, drop shadow, glow, blur, gradient glow, gradient blur, and adjust color effects – ideal for quickly creating Fireworks-style effects such as a bevelled button with rollover glow. The control offered over each effect is impressive and you can always fine-tune parameters as desired, and also animate them to produce effects such as a drop shadow moving in response to an apparent light source. Best of all, the effects processing is left to the Flash 8 Player so file size is hardly affected offering a major leap in end impact at little cost.

Gradients are a crucial weapon in the Flash designer’s formatting toolkit, but they pale in comparison to Flash 8’s new support for blend modes. If you convert your objects to a movie clip or button (though not a graphic symbol for some reason) you can now apply one of 12 new blend modes - multiply, screen, lighten, darken, difference, invert, add, subtract, alpha, and erase – that control how the object’s colours interact with those below it. The compositional creativity this opens up is enormous, especially when combined with animations and run-time scripting.


Flash Professional 8 offers improved graphics handling.
And blend modes are only one of a whole new range of graphical effects that can now be applied to your movie clips and buttons. Using the new Filters tab on the Properties Panel you can add bevel, drop shadow, glow, blur, gradient glow, gradient blur, and adjust color effects – ideal for quickly creating Fireworks-style effects such as a bevelled button with rollover glow. The control offered over each effect is impressive and you can always fine-tune parameters as desired, and also animate them to produce effects such as a drop shadow moving in response to an apparent light source. Best of all, the effects processing is left to the Flash 8 Player so file size is hardly affected offering a major leap in end impact at little cost.

Onscreen text quality has been significantly enhanced.

As well as improved graphics and text handling, Flash 8 Professional sees a major advance in terms of animation. As with its core drawing capabilities, Flash’s animation has been left largely unchanged since the old FutureSplash days relying on an awkward and underpowered system of keyframes and tweens. At first sight the new graph-based Custom Ease In / Ease Out dialog doesn’t look like it will change this situation much, offering little more than the ability to visually control the speed of tweens.

In fact by graphing the degree of motion over time you can visually and intuitively control advanced animation effects, say producing a realistically bouncing ball coming to rest. Previously this would have involved multiple keyframes and tweens and would have been a nightmare to edit; now it can all be handled intuitively with a single tween. Even better, you can independently control the tweening of position, rotation, scale, color, and filter parameters. And the icing on the cake is the ability to preview the effect of changes live onscreen.


Posted on 10:59 PM / 8 komentar / Read More

MapInfo Professional Version 8.5

MapInfo Professional version 8.5 is the latest version of MapInfo’s desktop GIS software. The goals of the latest release of MapInfo Professional are to:
  • Simplify high quality location enablement
  • Provide greater analytical capability
  • Simplify and speed up analysis
This review discusses the new features and enhancements of the latest version of MapInfo Professional. MapInfo continues to enhance the functionality of the software based on user suggestions. MapInfo Professional maintains the Windows XP certification for its desktop GIS software along with support for Citrix and Microsoft Terminal environments.




Web Services Enhancements
The latest version of MapInfo Professional provides the ability to connect to servers running MapInfo’s MapMarker and Envinsa software products as well as MapInfo’s Envinsa On-Line Services (EOLS). EOLS provide users with access to functionality without the need for additional software and/or data in-house. The Web services can be accessed via the Internet on a subscription basis, which expands the value of MapInfo Professional with minimal internal resources and without the need for additional capital investment.

MapMarker is a geocoding product that assigns coordinates to an address based on how well that address matches entries in MapMarker’s internal address dictionary. MapMarker v11 or higher is required to use the MapMarker connectivity option. Geocoding functionality can be accessed through the Table menu by choosing the Geocode Using Server option. First, the user will be asked to specify the geocoding server and the geocoding server preferences – Input, Output, Table Options, Common Options and Advanced Output. Users can then geocode a table of addresses interactively or automatically, as if the geocoding engine was installed on their local computer.

The Envinsa server product provides a wider range of Web services than MapMarker server. Envinsa can be purchased as a product or can be accessed as an online subscription service. Table 1 shows the Web services that MapInfo Professional v8.5 can access through MapMarker and Envinsa. Additional Web services will be provided in future releases of MapInfo.

 
Envinsa servers and EOLS require more security than MapMarker servers so users will need a username and password to access Envinsa services. Users can connect to EOLS through an option in the MapInfoHelp menu. Users can register for a free 90-day EOLS trial account that is good for 1,000 free credits to test out the Web services. To create geographic data in the US or Canada, one credit can be used to geocode one address and one drivetime polygon can be created for one hundred credits.

Figure 1 shows the Find Address dialog box for the MapInfo Envinsa or MapMarker Geocoding Web Service. Users can enter the address information to locate an address. The Web service can also switch between addresses in multiple countries. The user types the address into the fields and the results will be shown in the list-box. The user can then select the correct address in the results list box and press the Add to Map button to add a point symbol to the map.

 
The Envinsa or EOLS Drivetime Web Service uses the latest road networks and search algorithms to create polygons based on driving distance or time from a specified location. The routing server for the Drivetime Web Service will need to be configured in the Web Services category of the Options > Preferences menu. To create drivetime polygons, select Driving Regions from the Objects menu. Figure 2 shows the options within the Create Driving Regions dialog box. Drivetime polygons will be created on the Envinsa server based on the options selected, and a TAB file of the drivetime polygon will be added to the MapInfo workspace and can be saved permanently to the local computer.


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Posted on 10:34 PM / 3 komentar / Read More

Total Video Converter 3.70

Total Video Converter is a piece of extremely powerful and full-featured converter software that supports almost all video and audio formats. The software is designed to convert video for your mobile video player as 3gp, mp4, PSP, PS3, iPod, iPhone etc and also VCD or DVD player, XBOX360.

Though perhaps not a total video solution, Total Video Converter does support a wealth of audio and video formats, including 3GP, PSP, AVI, MOV, and SWF. On top of that, it can rip DVDs and cut movies into smaller, more manageable fragments. In our testing, we appreciated the program's conversion speed and quality. Total Video Converter is well-suited for batch conversion. We found the interface straightforward, with one minor exception: the cumbersome Select Format dialog. Unfortunately, none of these features come for free: in addition to the 15-day restriction, the trial version stamps movies with a registration reminder. The $45.95 registration fee may make your jaw drop, too. Though it's not exactly a bargain, Total Video Converter is much more complete and competent than most of its competitors. If price is no object, it's definitely worth a look.



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Posted on 1:50 AM / 3 komentar / Read More

Prince of Persia : The Two Thrones

To appease the lowbrow demands of 100 million casual gamers unwilling to spend cash for Ubisoft's brilliant Sands of Time game, the company took Warrior Within into the more digestible realm of "action" and away from the realm of "thinking-man's platformer."

Swords and shadows! Dirt and "bitches!" Warrior was to be Ubi's sinister, consumer friendly modification of the fundamental Sands mechanics that were ever so thrilling and critically acclaimed. But despite best efforts and a healthy dose of hard rocking, Warrior Within cheesily fell short of the amazingly high bar its predecessor set. In trying to appeal to more folks by lining the game with more stuff, much of the original magic was lost. Indeed, an excess of scantily clad women, shadowy beasts and heavy riffs made Warrior Within ordinary, for when all is dark and grimy, even the dark and grimy become bright. A good rule of thumb is to understand when one more stroke is too many and when an excess of magic is drab.

Sadly, it seemed back then that a title of Sands of Time's caliber would just not come, given the new path laid down by Warrior Within for the Prince series. Boy does it ever feel good to be wrong! I'm dazzled. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is Sands of Time reborn.

Music, art, acting, acrobatics...story! Each universally applauded part of Ubisoft's first marvelous foray into the Sands of Time trilogy has been recreated here with care and cunning, save for the scarred and craggy, battle-hardened face of our champion. And yet, while this third game offers so much indisputable greatness, it still grips tight to the failing philosophies of Warrior Within in just enough key areas. Two Thrones also suffers slightly from an imposing holiday deadline and the preposterously lofty expectations fans of Sands carry with them at all times.

Narrated now by the somber and knowing Empress of Time in a way that neatly ties the end of Two Thrones to the beginning of Sands, this Prince's journey begins much like Warrior Within or Shadow and Flame, in sea and turmoil. Approaching his home port of Babylon with Empress Kaileena under arm and the Dahaka defeated, the Prince looks forward to rest and comfort, though the smoking ruin of his city will give him none. With his land besieged, his vessel burned, his woman bound, and his house in ruin, the Prince sets out to free his love, reveal his enemy, punish his rivals, and put his home to rights. But even champions are subject to the whims of fate. Along the way the Prince will encounter old friends, older relations and new foes. His story will unwind backward and at once spring forward into a climatic choice between light and dark -- the Two Thrones, one of self-serving indulgence and personal achievement, and the other of unbridled heroism despite consequence.

Reforming the Prince into his original shape was a bloody good idea! Genteel as he is, Yuri Lowenthal's Prince of Persia in The Sands of Time is far preferable to Warrior Within's Wolverine Clone #818. The gruff, self-serving madman who sought to stop the Empress's Sands at any cost was not the young royal plagued by distrust and delusions of glory we all loved. #818 was simply out of place in such a fairytale. Being back in Yuri's shoes just feels right.

Ubisoft also expertly balances Yuri's third Prince between two lines of starkly contrasting motivation, or the two thrones. Throughout the course of this adventure, the Prince must decide what's truly important. He must confront his Dark self as it struggles to gain a foothold on his conscious and he must also fess up to past crimes and move past them regardless of hardship, while listening to awesome music.

By linearly forcing the game on a railroad ride to an inevitable conclusion, and not focusing on the paradoxical "Superman can now fly around the Earth backward real fast" time traveling mechanic to undo old problems and create new ones, Ubi has done away with backtracking and also recaptured the sense of urgency and achievement that were so prevalent in Sands.

 

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Posted on 1:19 AM / 22 komentar / Read More
 
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