Web Design & Development Guide

Adobe Shockwave

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Adobe Shockwave (formerly Macromedia Shockwave) was Macromedia's first and most successful multimedia player prior to the introduction of Macromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash). In an attempt to raise its brand profile all Macromedia players prepended Shockwave to their names in the late 1990s. Although this campaign was very successful and helped establish Shockwave Flash as a dominant multimedia plugin, Shockwave and Flash became more difficult to maintain as two separate products. In 2005, Macromedia marketed three distinct browser player plugins under the brand names Macromedia Authorware, Macromedia Shockwave and Macromedia Flash.

Although Shockwave was designed for making a wide variety of online movies and animations, its actual use has become concentrated in the area of game development. Other features not replicated by Flash include a much faster rendering engine, including hardware-accelerated 3D, blend modes for layered display of graphic assets and support for various network protocols, including Internet Relay Chat. Furthermore Shockwave's functionality can be extended with so-called "Xtras".

Unlike Flash, the Shockwave browser plugin is not available for Linux or Solaris despite vocal lobbying efforts.[1] However, the Shockwave Player can be installed on Linux with Codeweavers' Crossover Office,[2] a program which allows some Windows-based applications to be installed and run on Linux. According to Adobe, Macromedia Shockwave Player is available on 52.3% of Internet-enabled PCs.[3] It uses .DCR files created using the authoring tool Macromedia Director.

External links

• Shockwave.com - large gaming site cofounded by Macromedia
• Adobe Official Homepage
• What's the difference between Shockwave and Flash? (dated 2004)
• How Stuff Works - The Difference Between Flash and Shockwave
• Shockwave3d.com - hundreds of examples of Shockwave's 3D capabilities

References

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Adobe Flex
Flash cartoons
Action Message Format
ActionScript
Adobe Shockwave
Animation portal
SWF