Welcome on the SSWF web page ()

Big news: MP3 is supported in version 1.7.2 (still only a beta, go to ftp://ftp.m2osw.com/sswf/beta to get it -- WARNING: only MS-Windows and Linux binaries include these changes). There is a first version which supports loading an MP3 which is kept compressed in your final Flash animation. It supports MPEG version 1.0 and 2.0 with Layer 3 and it can be mono or stereo, compressed with or without CRC checks and can be sampled at 11025, 22050 or 44100 Hz. Special thanks to Steve Crook who actually sent me a version of the libsswf_tag_sound.c++ file including changes to support MP3.

A few more words about 1.7.2. It works under 64 bits AMD. I suspect it will work on the 64 bits INTEL too. Also, for developers who need to check in the code, I broke down the libsswf_tags.c++ file in many files. One per tag and some others for specialized code such as the actions. The code is the same, just very much broken up. One person complained about a few compile problems with Visual C++. I fixed the Rectangle problem by renaming it SRectangle. There was also some static const which cl doesn't like, I replaced them with an enumeration.

Quick update for those who like to live on the edge. You can now download version 1.7.2 (that's still a beta version). It includes a few changes to the makefiles, two new options to the sswf tool and more. The configure script can now be run from another directory (i.e. mkdir sswf-obj; cd sswf-obj; <path to sswf-src>/configure; make all; su + password; make install). This is neat if you don't want to destroy your source directories. That's really cool, I think. Enjoy.

For 2005, my goal is to add a complete compiler for the action script. This is actually based on Java and should not be too complicated (I don't need to generate assembly code, just action script byte codes which is a lot easier! that's like writing a C compiler and stopping at the P-Code.)

IBM provided a little help for SSWF to be ported to Linux on Power. There should some time in 2005 be a version available which will be compatible on that version of Linux (a PPC system). I will see if I can even provide a compiled version of it. The only change in the port of version 1.6.3 was adding the math library for the swf_dump tool (-lm) in the Makefile.am. I will see later if that is enough for versions 1.7.x.

Mainly bug fixes for MS-Windows, there is version 1.7.1 of SSWF. If you have 1.7.0 and are running under Linux or iMac, there isn't really anything more for you in 1.7.1. If you have MS-Windows, this version includes the proper installer and the fix in regard to the iconv static linking. (The MinGW version is actually not changed either).

Ooops! There is a problem with the win32 version of 1.7.0 in regard to the iconv library. Now I have found the solution, the include I have to use it "iconv.h.static" whenever I want to create the static version of sswf. This is now done and it works. You will get the changes in 1.7.1. In the meantime, I put the working executable on SourceForge as:

sswf-1.7.0-bin-win32-i686-noiconv.exe.zip

That's it. I'm releasing version 1.7.0 as the current version. It includes a lot of changes (see the CHANGES.txt file or click on the CHANGES link on the right) and especially many standard installation packages for Linux, Mac OS/X and IRIX. And yes... it knows about the new Flash version 7 tags.

NOTICE: our FTP server has had some trouble around Nov. 1st, 2004 for about a week. These should now all have been fixed. If you tried to get the beta version or some older versions, you may want to give it a try again. Note that you can always get the files from SourceForge.net.

For those interested, I started to work on an RPM and a Mac OS/X version. These will soon be available. You can already download the existing beta, thought not yet official versions on the m2osw.com FTP web site.

Some news: version 1.7.0 is already available; this is only on the ftp://ftp.m2osw.com FTP site as a beta version. It includes all the new tags and actions defined in Flash version 7. It is untested so it may just not work at all. Let me know if you have problems and especially if you know how to fix them 9-). I will be testing in the next little bit and will update the documentations according to my discoveries. Also, one big fix already available in 1.7.0: the sound effects resampling was broken in many ways. This is now fixed and you should be able to successfully use many different types of WAVE files with SSWF.

After a bug report by Ivor, I fixed many problems available in version 1.6.3 (and of course 1.7.0) in regard to sound effects being resampled automatically by SSWF. There were many problems in that function!

Note: you can find the most recent page at http://sswf.m2osw.com. The page sswf.sourceforge.net is not updated as often.

New to SSWF? Ray Gardener is working on a tutorial just for you! You will be able to learn how to use SSWF following his example going from a very simple box to complex animations using action scripts. You will find his page here: SSWF Tutorial.

What will you get in V1.6.2? Many bug fixes as usual, but also additions such as full morph functionality, new samples (the sun flower, USA flag, morph) and direct control of the skew when positioning objects on the screen. And of course, the tutorial is included in the documentation package.

Voila. The changes to V1.6.x is mostly done. I'm still working on it, but version 1.6.1 is much less of a Beta than 1.6.0. It is available on SourceForge as usual and now it is also on the FTP site of Made to Order Software, Ltd. (you may also have a beta version available.)

Ooops! Looks like I forgot to mention V1.5.1 here... 8^) Anyway we now have V1.6.0-beta available. I only published the source code since it's really a beta version. The source is totally functional (coming from V1.5.1 with only a few minor bug fixes and one enhancement -- SSWF can load JPEG images) but the new structure may cause some problems since I didn't check everything yet. Only one makefile and that's only compatible with amake under Linux at this time. If you think you want the fixes and/or the enhancement, then take this version and copy the source files to your V1.5.1 tree so you can compile for sure under MS-Windows, MacOS/X or IRIX.

One important point about V1.6.0-beta: it is required to run the new SWF plugin in the LiVES project. That project lets you create movies which you can now publish on the web as Flash movies. There is a real need for enhancement in this area which I hope to do in the next month or two. More info soon I hope.

Finally, there is version V1.5.0. This is actually 1.4.4 which I renumbered 1.5.0 since it includes support for two new tags. (TagDefineSound and TagStartSound). I'm not sure if I properly documented the use of the sounds... so at this time you can use the following SSWF code to generate a sound effect in a flash movie:

sequence "main" {
	sound "snd" {
		"my sound.wav";
		format: "uncompressed";
	};
	sound info {
		id: snd;
		loop: 5;
	};
	show frame;
};

Only the "uncompressed format is currently understood. I hope to find some time to add ADPCM and MP3. On the other hand, you can include any sound effect (whatever speed, stero/mono, 8 or 16 bits). Thus you should have no problems including most of your sound effects. Important: the input sound must be in a WAV file (RIFF) and it can't be compressed.

The next version (V2.0.0) will include the new lexical I've been working on. It enables full multi-language support (as long as you have an iconv library installed). Also, I will move all the files around to have a directory of libraries, the sswf tool and other tools, docs, etc. each one in its own directory. It will look much cleaner.

I added a LIVE sample of Halk's temperature. It is complete with the SSWF code to generate the graph (but not all the scripts to make it all work, you've got to do some work too, right?).

Chris Dolan made a port for Mac OS/X! It is part of v1.4.3. So, Mac users, get ready to rock!!! There is a Fink version in progress, it will be very easy to install in your Mac OS/X environment.

I'm looking for someone who would like to help in writing a tutorial for the sswf tool and library. Anyone available? That's many hours of work... that I don't have.

I started on a test suite. This will (1) prevent problems such as the COUNT: label for the Show Frame which disappeared in one version and (2) ensure that everything works the way it is supposed to. I already used it to test the new fonts. It isn't yet included anywhere. It will certainly be a seperate package so only developers can download it (and these people who want even more samples! 8-).

To come (soon? hmmm... still thinking about it 8-) a large list of fonts in SSWF format to download and use in your SWF movies.

Where can I get SSWF?

Please, first make sure to read about the requirements below so you don't download something you wouldn't be able to use.

It is now possible to download the files from our FTP server at Made to Order Software, Ltd.

The following table gives you a direct acces to the current version of the SSWF modules. You can also go to ftp://ftp.m2osw.com/sswf to download older versions or the beta version.

IMPORTANT: the beta version will always include the proper binaries for Linux. However, the IRIX, Mac OS/X and Microsoft Windows binary modules may not always be up to date. This is because I don't always turn on these computers when I generate the beta version (because it takes forever).

I decided to put the CHANGES.html file in the web page so you could read the progress with more details right away. Just click on the link in this FAQ or in the list of links below Download to read it all.