Where I Think Director is Going
This is a tough thought to ponder. Since I may or may not know about what the engineers are thinking about for the next release, I would prefer to not think about the very next release. Instead, I will think about the far future — Director 13 or 14.
Mind you, this is purely speculation. A lot is based on what I would LIKE to see in Director, but I’ll try to think more about what I hear other people want. I’m just one voice.
I see video becoming more important. DVD content, whether on DVDs or embedded in the cast, will become a standard part of multimedia. Think of how video graphics have replaced still graphics on TV. This week I noticed that election TV coverage had a lot of video embedded into what used to be still images in graphs and charts.
I see the 3D engine getting at least one major update in the next few versions. I’ll bet they drop “Software Rendering” in favor of using more advanced DirectX and OpenGL stuff. All new machines come with some sort of 3D card anyway.
I’ll bet that old Film Loops and LDMs (Linked Director Movies) grow to be more like Movie Clips in Flash. There are just so many people asking for that.
I see a lot of middleware coming for Director. There will one day be a market for cast libraries and behavior libraries that will allow you to do various things. I see some isometric graphics middleware already.
I see the penetration numbers for Shockwave improving slightly, like around 70%, and not going higher. I also see us realizing that that is as high as it will go — the remaining 30% of machines just don’t need it. There are still a lot of business people that just access the net to get text information.
I see the number of Director developers growing versus the number of Flash developers. But not because more people will be using Director, but less will be using Flash. Flash will continue to grow more “business enterprise”-like and artists and creative types will use it less and less. SWF will still be the format for the creative people, but they will be using 3rd party tools like Toon Boom Studio.
I see the Shockwave and Flash plug-ins for Internet Explorer becoming “special” things that Microsoft allows to run, while other ActiveX controls are disabled by default due to security problems. They will also “bless” other popular ActiveX controls that are run by responsible companies. But they cannot continue to group these with the rest of the ActiveX controls.
That’s all I can think of for now. All in all, I see lots of tiny steps moving forward and no real revolutions. And I consider that good news.
5 Responses to “Where I Think Director is Going”
I think the Film Loop/LDM -> MovieClip thing would be a very welcome for many users with Flash experience, and I do tend to agree with you regarding Flash developers. The SWF format is fine - but the direction that the current toolsets (Flash/Flex) have been moving (more business/enterprise oriented) is probably starting to frustrate many designers, artists and creative-types.
One thing I’d love to see happen would be Macromedia opening up the Director file format a little. Allow other developers/companies create content that utilizes the Shockwave runtime. I’d also wonder if there is any thought regarding the possibility of reviving/modifying the ‘Save As Java…’ option? Being able to export MIDP 2.x games from Director would really open up the quality and quantity of games developed for the J2ME platform. Perhaps Director could become THE tool to develop web/mobile based games.
Anyway, just dreaming a little.
I’m very worried for the future of Director/Shockwave online. Flash can now more than capably handle any content that Director can do, apart from fast-rendering 3D. And even 3D is under threat from new advances in VRML, and especially when the next release of Windows, Longhorn, is launched with its new rendering system, codenamed Avalon.
The next release of Flash is much more creatively oriented, so Macromedia are still trying to cover all their bases. The Flash Player has 90% penetration because it’s light and easy to install, unlike the unwieldy, baulky Shockwave Player.
As far as Director is concerned, what with its archaic BASIC-like precedural programming style, I only see its future lying in kiosk, DVD/video and off-line development. The competition is too strong elsewhere for it to compete on-line.
About a week back on one of the Director based mailing lists there was some discussion of creating Linux projectors. Do you think this is a legitimate direction to consider? Also, what about the SNEAK PEAK new capabilities of the FLASH 8 player and Authoring Environment, someone mentioned it looked to have Imaging Lingo capabilities and HUGE performance increases. I for one feel any enhancements to Flash, only enhance the assets we can bring into Director, but my question is, do you think there will ever be a time when the Flash Asset Xtra is not allowed to be upgraded in Director, thus cutting us off from the benefits of a current Flash version?
A Linux player is not a trivial thing. It would mean a whole new engine would have to be built. It would be hard to justify the huge expense of doing this.
But as for the Flash player, I’m sure that the latest Flash player will ALWAYS be included with Director. Why not? It wouldn’t make any sense to do otherwise.
I’ve got this site bookmarked now - thanks!
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