

This is what Flash can do in 2008 - est
http://blog.alternativaplatform.com/ru/files/2008/01/characterparallax.swf

======
bd
Here is a very similar effect in canvas:

[http://29a.ch/2010/3/24/normal-mapping-with-javascript-
and-c...](http://29a.ch/2010/3/24/normal-mapping-with-javascript-and-canvas-
tag)

~~~
winter_blue
It's so slow.. According to hackermom the 14Mhz Amiga could do this at 25 fps,
any idea why this is so slow on modern computers?

~~~
efsavage
Because it's running in canvas? In other words, it's running within
abstraction layer upon abstraction layer, with various other abstraction
layers involved to help make sense of the fact that there are too many
abstraction layers.

The amiga code was probably pretty close to talking to the graphics driver
directly. Canvas is cool, but in terms of performance it's never really going
to compete with native code, or even with flash for that matter since flash
can remove some complexity by only building for a single, predictable,
optimized environment.

~~~
othello
"Graphics driver" still sounds too complex. The code was probably poking bytes
to the memory segment mapped directly to the display - just like in DOS days,
where each byte of the 0xA000 segment represented a pixel when using a VGA
320x200 resolution, 256 colors palette.

------
teamonkey
A bit of context: this is a demo showing parallax mapping, which was a soon-
to-be-released feature of the Flash-based Alternativia engine at the time.
It's was never supposed to be a state-of-the-art demonstration of Flash.

[http://blog.alternativaplatform.com/en/2008/01/04/character-...](http://blog.alternativaplatform.com/en/2008/01/04/character-
parallax/)

------
pieter
Not respecting dvorak keyboard layout, even in 2008?

~~~
entitlement
Lack of universal acceptance was one of the cons you either accepted, or
naively overlooked, back when you decided dvorak was the way to go. It'd be
nice to see it work in more places, sure, but it just ain't... you're
conflating 'should' and 'could'.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
A snarky Apple fan could respond in the same way with regard to the absence of
Flash on the iPhone products.

~~~
logic
And additional mouse buttons.

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davidedicillo
And how would this improve the web experience? (considering you can do similar
stuff with canvas as well...)

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owengot
One word: Indeed.. <http://twitpic.com/1l9b7k>

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baskinghobo
I remember something exactly like this except it was an Asian lady and it
looked like a real photo. Also instead of looking away from the cursor her
eyes were following the cursor.

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lenni
This sure is impressing, but nobody said Flash doesn't have some good
features. The question is about whether anybody who wants to can implement a
player for this page.

~~~
est
[http://blog.alternativaplatform.com/ru/files/2008/04/bunker....](http://blog.alternativaplatform.com/ru/files/2008/04/bunker.swf)

and

[http://blog.alternativaplatform.com/ru/files/2009/02/hero.sw...](http://blog.alternativaplatform.com/ru/files/2009/02/hero.swf)
(press space to rotate)

~~~
drKarl
With HTML5

<http://www.benjoffe.com/code/demos/canvascape/textures>

~~~
jm4
Neat. This example is nowhere near as pretty as the Flash examples, but it's
interesting that my CPU is barely doing anything even when walking around. In
the Flash version my CPU is pegged just sitting there doing nothing.

~~~
est
I am pretty sure if HTML5 implement the same scene as bunker.swf it would hog
much much more CPU.

<http://www.ponticstar.com/projects/burning-words/>

Try set the font to 100, and see if it's still as smooth as you thought.

~~~
not_an_alien
Canvas is by all means a CPU hog and much slower than software-mode Flash.

<http://vimeo.com/10553088>

But hey, Flash is dying, etc

~~~
Shorel
Flash Games, demos, and webcomics are nice.

However:

No matter the codec or operating system, we should not NEED Flash to view
video on the Web.

~~~
est
i completely agree

however, suppose you are about to design a video site for the common public
back in 2005, what technology would you choose? quicktime? realplayer? windows
media player?

i dont think flash video is unneeded any soon, even if html5 has a 70%
adoption rate, people would still need flash for h.264 fallback

------
mhd
I am not an atomic playboy!

~~~
jleard
And that was 1993. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtCW-axRJV8#t=4m40s>

------
hackermom
It's just plain displacement mapping. It's a very simple (and old), but
versatile technique allowing a large amount of effects to be done. The first
time I saw this was in 93 or 94, rendered in real time in 256*256 in 25 fps,
on an Amiga running a 14mhz 68020 processor. THAT was impressive to me, but
seeing this 15 years later in 15-20 fps in Flash on a 2ghz machine just isn't.

~~~
dca
Exactly. And flash was introduced 14 years ago. It really has no excuse for
not having better performance at this point. I'm glad its dying.

