Apple has released the latest version of their operating system which is commonly referred to as Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6). What does this mean to users that want to see Shockwave-based content? What does this mean to those that author with Director MX 2004 or newer? What does this mean [...]
Google introduced a new way to create 3D content for the web. Looks interesting.
Most content on the web today is in 2D, but a lot of information is more fun and useful in 3D. Projects like Google Earth and SketchUp demonstrate our passion and commitment to enabling users to [...]
Ever since Firefox 3 came out there has been a problem on Macs where chunks/regions of the the displayed dcr file would would just “vanish” and show the background color of the html page you were viewing. [Note: With FF 3.0.1 I would rarely see this on a PC [...]
From Allen on various mailing lists:
Just an update, as I know many are interested. Early next week we plan to deliver a fix for the text line spacing (height) issue in Shockwave 11.5 to the Shockwave pre-release testers. Expect a Shockwave update following that session. Normally such cycles take [...]
When Director 11 was released last year it really didn’t seem to get mentioned anywhere. It wasn’t until a few months ago that it showed up on MacUpdate. Things are quite different this time.
Shockwave 11.5 has been in the top 5 of the MacUpdate Most Popular downloads since it [...]
A new version of Director was released today, along with a new version of Shockwave.
You can download Director, Shockwave, as well as many demos at this location (you’ll need to login with your Adobe ID).
Let the fun begin!
Update: Director 11.5 can also be found on Amazon.
Update [...]
The uDevGames contest recently announced the winners. The contest is “iDevGames’ unique grass-roots initiative to highlight our community to gamers, as well as a development platform capable of producing the most innovative cross-platform titles in the industry.”
Constellation (created with Director) won 2nd place in the Best Overall, Best [...]
For those that develop games and are going to the Games Developer Conference in San Francisco next week be sure to go to the Director-related session. It will be held on Wednesday March 25, 2009 from 10:30-11:30am. The session description says:
Allen Partridge, Adobe Systems, hosts professional 3D game developers [...]
This past week a FOSE 2009 took place. I’m not sure what FOSE stands for but the event was a technology tradeshow and conference for government IT. Someone from Adobe was speaking and said that there are about 200,000 Director developers.
Is that number larger than you thought? Smaller? Needless to [...]
Every now and then I have to create an installer for a project I did with Director. I mostly work online and my mind usually goes blank when I need to create one. I’m certainly used to seeing them every day as I install new software to try it out.
On [...]
As reported on Direct-L, there have been two sightings of Director 11.5 which is now available for pre-ordering.
On Directorforum you can see a link that shows a release date of March 22, 2009, and on Amazon it shows April 4, 2009.
Seems as if Director has nine lives. [...]
There was a discussion on Direct-L last week about books that are good when trying to learn Flash (and in particular AS3). Several nice ones were mentioned.
I picked up ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University the other day and am starting to work my way through it. I feel that [...]
People occasionally have questions when trying to find a ceiling or floor function in the Lingo library so I figured I’d post it here for future googlers.
Lingo didn’t include these two math functions, but you can write your own functions and keep them in your personal library of goodies.
on [...]I had this comment come in the other day but figured I’d make it a post since this is a big issue that has been popping up for years at my workplace.
Is there anybody who can tell me how to fix shockwave 11 it says it is installed, however it [...]
I’ve been rather silent on the web lately, but I’m back. Where have I been? Here is the quick story…just for fun 
In November the site got hacked a bit. That caused a bit of downtime. In mid-November my site went down for almost two weeks [...]
Sorry for the site being down for so long. Right when I left for Adobe MAX my host made some changes…and things got messed up. But we are both back. More news in the next few days, and I have to start digging around with my new host to see [...]
An updated version of Shockwave was posted last week, and a hotfix for Director will be posted early this week.
Release Notes for Shockwave 11.0.3.470.
Release Notes for Shockwave 11.0.3.470
Shockwave build number: 11.0.3.470
1) Kerning was not available in Director 11.
Kerning is implemented for the font types supported by Director 11.
2) There [...]
The sixth online meeting will take place this morning at 10am. More info can be found here.
I have to go vote (the American thing to do today), so I might be late depending on lines.
The Meeting URL:
[experts.na3.acrobat.com]
The meeting room will be open 1 hour before the [...]
A lot of Director developers do work for museums ranging from creating kiosks to designing programs that would allow you to control robots that dig around in a big pile of sand (a virtual Mars).
When I lived in Michigan I would occasionally help out at COSI Science Museum in Toledo. [...]
The 5th Director Live Online meeting will be taking place on Tuesday September 23, 2008 at 10am EST. If you have time, be sure to participate. I’ll be there for part of it… but have to attend some other meetings 
For more information (including the URL [...]
If you have a half hour (or so) to take part in a very detailed survey about Director to help develop the Director roadmap then this is your lucky day. From the survey page:
“This survey attempts to take a snapshot of the Director userbase and look ahead to what [...]
A new case study has been posted on Adobe.com that shows how some amazing 3D games are getting created by Mockworld. Very cool.
Be sure to check out the case study.
[...]From sources (Allen) on mailing lists it looks like a “hotfix” for Director 11 will be released in October. It will address the following issues:
I noticed a new build of Shockwave for Mac was released today. Wonder what is new?
Guess I’ll be playing with it tomorrow to see if anything broke
Update: Seems as if the Windows version has also been updated.
[...]For you Director users out there be sure to keep an hour free tomorrow for the 2nd online meeting related to the future of Director.
According to Macromartin, the organizer, the meeting will be held for 1 hour to discuss:
1. The current state of Director
2. The future of [...]
On Direct-L it was announced that an updated version of the PRegEx Xtra for Director 11 will be release in the next few weeks. Great news!
[...]PRegEx is a free, open source, Xtra that brings the power of Perl regular expressions and list handling to Lingo.
Do you happen to know of any Director bugs? Be sure to visit The Director Community Bugbase and report them if they aren’t already in the list. Even Adobe is keeping an eye on this list!
For many long-time Director Developers, the time between Director releases can be frustrating. Bugs [...]
Last year Michigan State U (where I got my PhD) started a Master’s program for Serious Game Design. I wish they’d had that back when I was there!
This fall they will be holding the Meaningful Play 2008 Conference.
Whether designed to entertain or for more “serious” purposes, games have [...]
I’ve been rather quiet lately. My spare hours have been working on recovering from an attack of spambots attacking this site, and others. My poor little Mac Mini hosts a dozen sites while holding a martini glass for any visitors that may drop by. I’ve ignored security for the past [...]
An updated version of Director 11 was released over the weekend for Mac users:
This is a Mac only update that addresses the following issues:
- Referencing a cast member fails when the Cast name has special characters like
!, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, ), _, +, |, },etc- Shockwave [...]
For the developers out there that like to get a slightly more descriptive error message in their Shockwave-based content you need to have a Shockwave.ini file placed in your shockwave folder. This prior post talked about where you should put it for Shockwave 10 on OSX.
With Shockwave 11 you [...]
Looks as if two new Director sites popped up recently. You can drop by CodeRecipe: A recipe for 3d game coders which seems to focus on using the Ageia PhysX engine to do 3d gaming in Director, and Adobe Director Online which [...]
Welcome to WordPress…yet again.I made quite a few behind the scene changes. Thanks to those that pointed out some things wrong on the site. I still have some changes to make, but I think I have things stabilized.
[...]Welcome to WordPress. I’m currently working on doing some updates to wordpress. Sorry for the downtime. Stuff should be updated soon…hopefully.
[...]Here are a few thoughts from week 1 of the brand new Director 11. Most thoughts are from mailing lists (so I guess I can’t really call them mine)…I’ve been so busy this and last week I haven’t had time to think, and I’ve barely had time to play with [...]
For those that are in to this sort of thing, drop by SocioTown. SocioTown is a 100% web-based 3D Social MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game). It’s playable in a browser with no downloadable client required. It utilizes Adobe’s Shockwave Player.
SocioTown is the biggest and most sophisticated browser-based 3D virtual world [...]
I dropped TUAW a line about Shockwave the day it came out. They picked up on the story and made a post about it.
Interesting comments rolling in.
[...]OK. Director 11 is here. I found my first bug in about five minutes of playing. Is this a quirk, bug, or “feature?” Guess that is up to interpretation. Anyway…I put a Flash Component Button on the stage. I gave the sprite a name in the Property Inspector window. In [...]
The links for Shockwave download are now live to Shockwave 11.0.0.0.
Is that enough zeros?
Note: If you are on MacIntel you may have to go to the alternates page due to the redirect issues that MacIntels have had to deal with for the past 2 years.
[...]Is now available for download. Let the fun begin.
Screenshot of my email message from Adobe talking about my trial download.
As a reader pointed out, the Shockwave 11 links are now up. Currently they don’t lead to anything though. Looks like something will be out in the wild later tonight. Guess I’ll be doing a lot of testing of online content in the next week.
Currently the link just leads [...]
So Director is supposed to be available for download tomorrow (or in the next few days). If Adobe is like Apple, they’ll release it on Tuesday. [Don’t get me started on the Adobe/Apple cage match that has been going on for a few years…ugh].
Guess we’ll have to wait and see. [...]
I had a few problems with the server this sits on during the past few days, so I’ve got to make a few changes to things. Unfortunately, I’m off in DC for a good chunk of this coming week.
This site should “mostly” function during the week, but a few things [...]
One thing about Director is that the help files are often missing things. One key thing is time (I heard it keeps on ticking). Think about all these different things (roughly grouped) - feel free to start typing in the message window.
the ticks
_movie.ticks()
the milliseconds
_system.milliseconds
the date
the long date
[...]
The official press release is out.
For immediate release
Major Product Upgrade Advances Multimedia Authoring Environment
SAN JOSE, Calif. Feb. 19, 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe Director 11 software, a major upgrade to the companys powerful multimedia authoring tool for building interactive applications and rich content. The [...]
From the wealth of online posts, looks as if Director 11 will be here tomorrow…and it might look like this (thanks Wolfgang).
Image links to CDW product page.
Adobe next month will release Director 11, an update to its graphics assembly, that [...]
Way back at Adobe Max 2007 in Chicago (I can’t wait for 2008 in SanFran!) I went to the Director sessions. They were giving out pens to promote the next version of Director (which will officially be announced at the GDC this week according to online sources). I’d promised to [...]
According to the most recent Director Podcast Adobe will be announcing the new Director at the Games Developer Conference next week.
Another user on the Adobe Director forums pointed to an image from the Adobe server (how on Earth do people find such things?).
ExploreLearning won a Codie each of the past two years. This year we are finalists for a Codie in two different categories: Best Mathematics Instructional Solution and Best Science Instructional Solution for the ExploreLearning Gizmos.
Gizmos are made with Director (and have been since 1995).
Will I get my hands [...]
Interested in doing some 3D game development? If so, please drop a line to webmediajobs at gmail . com. Job description as follows:
I have an browser based multiplayer game under development. I’m currently exploring other options in the way of developers.
I want just one person fulltime for several months - [...]
After more than a year, the Director Podcast has returned from the “virtual” dead. Drop over to the Magicgate Director Podcast site to listen to the podcast.
Looks like Director will be at the Games Developer Conference (as they were last year), and possibly making an announcement of the new [...]
From a comment posted to this blog yesterday and some discussion on Direct-L it seems as if an email went out to some people saying that Director would be available on March 3rd. That does seem to fit in with the February announcement date. Guess we’ll have to wait a [...]
The new year has arrived. I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to do much of anything lately other than watch Apple stock plummet. Hopefully I’ll have a bit more free time during this year to get posts up here, and to watch the stock go up. I even [...]
Today Apple released Security Update 2007-009 for OSX 10.4 and 10.5. It includes both the Shockwave for Director and Flash Player Plug-ins.
The upside of this is that Apple thinks it is good to include Shockwave with a system update. Shockwave has been preinstalled on Macs for a LONG time [...]
With the upcoming release of Director 11 (still scheduled for last half of 2007…which is soon!) Adobe seems to have added a Director Evangelist to the team. From postings on the Adobe forums it looks as though Allen Partridge is now that person. He has been active on many [...]
For those that might be interested in watching the session, you can drop by and watch the entire sneak peek. It is a large FLV, so not sure how long I’ll get to keep it at that location. There is no audio at the start, and you have to [...]
The DevLearn 2007 Developers Conference started up today in conjunction with the Adobe Learning Summit. Dr. Ellen Wagner will be presenting several sessions at the conference. Two involve migrating from Authorware to other Adobe eLearning products. Dr. Wagner got a chance to speak during the BOF Director session at [...]
The video from the Director 11 Sneak Peek session has made it out on to the web! I’d heard that our company got mentioned in the session, and lo and behold, it was really in there. We (aka ExploreLearning) were the middle item listed under educational content publishers. A [...]
Sorry for not getting anything up more quickly. Work continues to suck away my fun time…
A nice summary of the Sneak Peek session was written up. I didn’t make it there, but did make it to the BOF session. I’ll post a bit more about that this weekend. I [...]
I’ll be heading off to Chicago tomorrow morning to attend MAX. I’ll be at the BOF session for Director and lots of other sessions during the week (ok..just three days). The conference sold out, so I expect this to be a great time.
Flickr already has lots of photos going up [...]
Apple teased me to tears in their most recent iPod lineup changes. I wanted the super sweet touch screen with a 160GB HD inside. That would be the funkiest backup hard drive with a big display, web browsing, video playing, music playing, show off at a geeky happy hour device [...]
We (by that I mean ExploreLearning…my home away from home) are currently trying to hire a Director person (who is good with Flash), and a Flash developer or two. The full time staff jobs are in Charlottesville, VA. If you’re not interested in this opportunity but know of an excellent [...]
There is an updated version of the Shockwave plug-in for Windows up on the Adobe site. Not sure what has changed.
Update: Seems as if the plugin no longer does a redirect to shockwave.com after installation is complete.
[...]Seems as if Director 11 will be attending MAX 2007! Time to look in to getting reservations and such. Chicago in the fall…with Director 11. I can’t wait.
[...]Adobe has recently been doing a few things in preparation for the upcoming (2nd half 2007) release of Director. A number of people received an email message that contained a link to a survey where Adobe was curious how people were using Director.
In a recent eLearning Guild email [...]
A press release from MTV Networks’ Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group says they have committed $100 million to its online casual games business. From the press release:
Shockwave: Shockwave will become the games destination for families. Increased focus this fall on www.shockwave.com will be on the creation of innovative [...]
I noticed that The eLearning Guild will be running a two day long online forum on July 19 and 20. It is titled Strategies and Techniques for Building Immersive Learning Simulations (ILS). One of the sessions is titled Building Immersive Learning Simulations Using Flash and Director by Jennifer Jesse [...]
While on the topic of 3D (see previous post), a brand new Adobe Case Study got posted today.
It discuses Maid Marian Entertainment and how they use the 3D features of Director/Shockwave to create massive multiplayer online games (Sherwood Dungeon in particular). I know I loved Dungeons & Dragons [...]
Many moons ago I worked with CC Chamberlin. He knows Director! From the dirGames mailing list he posted this:
Howdy -
For a conference we were hosting in Albuquerque this week, I presented a session on Shockwave3D game development, and now that the conference is over, I wanted to share the related [...]
As was somewhat expected, Director is entirely missing from Adobe Max 2007. Always a dissapointment. Our company was hoping to use the “send 3 for the price of 2″ special, but it now looks like it will be a send no one, spend nothing conference.
In recent blog posts a [...]
Want to learn a bit more about Director? Adobe is offering an eSeminar this week (June 20) and next month (July 24). From the Adobe site:
Please join us for a live, interactive, one-hour online seminar to learn how Director MX 2004 from Adobe is being used to quickly create [...]
“Company” of course means the one I work with
For the second time in three years we (ExploreLearning) won the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers. The award was in the Science Instructional Websites (Grade 9-12) category.
I’m [...]
Charles Parcell (a long time Director user) has created a survey about your use of Director in an effort to help the folks at Adobe realize the their target market and Director developers target markets.
If you would please take a few minutes to fill out the survey with as much [...]
For those that missed it a beta of the Safari browser was released for Windows yesterday. The main reason for this (at least at this point) is so Windows users will be able to insure that apps they develop for the iPhone will function correctly (my opinion of course).
I [...]
I updated this site earlier today. I noticed my “about me” page is missing. Not sure what is up with that. I think the problem is my really old (by internet standards) theme. I may have to change themes…ugh..big decisions.
Update: Found an updated version of my theme (see link at [...]
The planning for Adobe Max 2007 continues, and you can now submit products for the Max Awards. Perhaps Chamber of Chat (a recent Adobe Site of the Day) or Habbo Hotel would stand a chance. Both great Massive Multi-player Role Playing Games. [Note: Briefly reading the awards [...]
Although Director 11 won’t be out until later this year, Adobe has shown the new icon on the Icon Color Wheel. Some people really liked the new icons, and others weren’t so happy. Luckily, there are many creative people out there, so new icon sets for Adobe CS3 apps [...]
I enjoyed my time at the conference two weeks ago in Boston. I managed to catch a Red Sox game while there, meet up with a few Director folks, and drink a bit of beer.
Most of the sessions I went to were associated with gaming in education. The phrase of [...]
A new version of the Shockwave plug-in (for Windows) was released earlier today (now up to version 10.2.0.021). If anyone knows what is updated, please leave a comment. As was announced at the eLearning conference, it is supposed to add support for Vista.
Download page for Shockwave Players
Is MacIntel next? [...]
For the second straight year ExploreLearning won the Codie for the Best Science Instruction Solution.
All the ‘Gizmos’ on our site are created with Adobe Director. Go Gizmos. Go Director.
[...]I talked about using Director in a session at the eLearning Guild 2007 Conference last week and it was announced (by Rick Jones from Adobe) that there will be an update for Vista later this month in the Shockwave Plug-in. Several sessions talked about using Director for Immersive Learning Simulations [...]
Every now and then (ok…twice in the past three years) I’ve had a bug that ONLY shows up in Shockwave and not in authoring or projector mode. These are the most frustrating, since it is a bit harder to debug things. One of the toughest parts is that when an [...]
This week the Game Developers Conference is going on in San Francisco. If you are there you should drop by booth number 857 WH to chat with some Director folks and talk about the product announcement. Hanford Lemoore will also be at the GDC, and will be [...]
Developers continue to wait for a MacIntel-compatible version of the Shockwave Plug-in and Director. Adobe has stated that they are working on this issue. The Intel-Macs were introduced more than a year ago (Jan 10, 2006) and I continue to look at stats to see what percentage of users are [...]
