Difference between revisions of "Flash"

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(Implementations)
(Comparisons)
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;Flash Player
 
;Flash Player
 
:The proprietary reference implementation, which Adobe stopped directly supporting at the end of 2020. The web version relies on [[wikipedia:NPAPI|NPAPI/PPAPI]], an obsolete browser plugin system that for many years only stuck around specifically because of Flash Player; as Adobe was phasing out the plugin, so too was the plugin system gradually being dropped by all the major browser vendors. The discontinued desktop player version is still available for download from the debug downloads section of Adobe's website, and Harman International is also [https://airsdk.harman.com/flashplayer maintaining an extended support version specifically for enterprise users].
 
:The proprietary reference implementation, which Adobe stopped directly supporting at the end of 2020. The web version relies on [[wikipedia:NPAPI|NPAPI/PPAPI]], an obsolete browser plugin system that for many years only stuck around specifically because of Flash Player; as Adobe was phasing out the plugin, so too was the plugin system gradually being dropped by all the major browser vendors. The discontinued desktop player version is still available for download from the debug downloads section of Adobe's website, and Harman International is also [https://airsdk.harman.com/flashplayer maintaining an extended support version specifically for enterprise users].
:;CheerpX for Flash
 
::A proprietary software package designed to make the Harman version of Flash Player usable in modern web browsers by running it inside CheerpX, a payware x86 emulator in WebAssembly. No-one on this wiki has had the chance to properly evaluate it, but we'd expect reference-level accuracy at the cost of woeful performance. That being said, CheerpX apparently has an alternate mode of operation that offloads most of the emulation and processing work to a server app, at which point the in-browser part is effectively just a streaming client.
 
  
 
;Lightspark
 
;Lightspark
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;''Common aspects''
 
;''Common aspects''
 
:''Pretty much all of the implementations listed here are specifically designed to be used as [[wikipedia:Polyfill (programming)|polyfills]] by webmasters who want to keep their Flash-based sites going despite the forced obsolescence of Adobe's in-browser Flash plugin. They are therefore really not intended for personal use, although it's usually not impossible.''
 
:''Pretty much all of the implementations listed here are specifically designed to be used as [[wikipedia:Polyfill (programming)|polyfills]] by webmasters who want to keep their Flash-based sites going despite the forced obsolescence of Adobe's in-browser Flash plugin. They are therefore really not intended for personal use, although it's usually not impossible.''
 +
 +
;CheerpX for Flash
 +
:A proprietary software package designed to make the Harman version of Flash Player usable in modern web browsers by running it inside CheerpX, a payware x86 emulator in WebAssembly. No-one on this wiki has had the chance to properly evaluate it, but we'd expect reference-level accuracy at the cost of woeful performance. That being said, CheerpX apparently has an alternate mode of operation that offloads most of the emulation and processing work to a server app, at which point the in-browser part is effectively just a streaming client.
  
 
;Ruffle
 
;Ruffle

Revision as of 06:47, 16 September 2022

Adobe Flash
Developer Adobe
Release date 1996
Discontinued 2020
Emulated

Flash (previously FutureSplash Animator, before that SmartSketch) is a software platform created by FutureWave Software, and currently owned by Adobe (previously Macromedia). Originally a drawing program for PenPoint OS, later ported to Windows and Macintosh when pen computing failed to take off, frame-by-frame animation features were added to it in a new program called FutureSplash Animator. The company was acquired by Macromedia in December 1996, rebranding FutureSplash Animator to Flash, an amalgamation of "Future" and "Splash". In turn, Macromedia was acquired by Adobe on December 3, 2005. Their operations, networks, and customer care organizations were merged shortly after.

Used by an overwhelming majority of websites in the early 2000s to the mid-2010s, Flash has been the go-to platform for multimedia and animation, being utilised for streaming video providers such as YouTube, children's websites due to its rich content, and has spawned a subculture of animators as exemplified by the likes of Newgrounds. A number of popular animated series were also animated using Flash, most notably My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Phineas and Ferb and Happy Tree Friends to name a few.

Flash's popularity declined in the late 2010s due to the rise of alternative (and open) web standards such as HTML5 and mobile device manufacturers dropping support for the platform, a prominent example being Apple who publicly stated that iOS will never support Flash. Google followed suit when it dropped support for the platform in subsequent Android releases, and it didn't help that a series of security issues, coupled with Flash itself being a closed standard, has led Adobe to wind down on Flash and retire it in 2020.

Implementations

Name Platform(s) Latest version FLOSS Active Recommended
Desktop / Plugin [N 1]
Flash Player Windows Linux macOS Web 32.0.0.465 ~ [N 2]
Ruffle Windows Linux macOS Nightly builds ~ (WIP)
Lightspark Windows Linux Web 0.8.6.1 ~ (WIP)
GNU Gnash Windows Linux 0.8.10
GameSWF Windows macOS Linux 2009-08-08
swfdec Linux Web 0.8.4
HTML5 / WebAssembly
WAFlash N/A Web
Ruffle Web demo ~ (WIP)
AwayFL git
Web demo
~ (WIP)
swf2js Download (Free Version only)
Demo sites:
Free Version
Production Version
~ ~
CheerpX for Flash Version 34
Open Flash / Doμ Player git
Shumway git
  1. Plugin versions of these players require a browser that supports NPAPI/PPAPI.
  2. Adobe versions discontinued. Harman versions currently maintained for enterprise customers only.

Comparisons

Desktop

Flash Player
The proprietary reference implementation, which Adobe stopped directly supporting at the end of 2020. The web version relies on NPAPI/PPAPI, an obsolete browser plugin system that for many years only stuck around specifically because of Flash Player; as Adobe was phasing out the plugin, so too was the plugin system gradually being dropped by all the major browser vendors. The discontinued desktop player version is still available for download from the debug downloads section of Adobe's website, and Harman International is also maintaining an extended support version specifically for enterprise users.
Lightspark
A C++ implementation that's designed specifically to provide drop-in FLOSS replacements for both the desktop and NPAPI versions of Flash Player. It claims to have 83% of the APIs covered, as of August 2022. Lightspark historically focused on more recent versions of the Flash spec that weren't supported by Gnash, hence why Lightspark could (and still can) use Gnash as an automatic fallback if both are installed simultaneously.
GNU Gnash
A desktop-only C++ implementation that went inactive in 2017, with the most recent stable release dating back to 2012. Probably not much reason to use it over newer versions of Lightspark, which seem to have mostly (if not entirely) superseded Gnash.
GameSWF
An extremely old C++ implementation, definitely one of the first serious efforts to reverse-engineer Flash Player into an open-source package. Inactive since 2009, though it did lay the foundations for Gnash.
swfdec
Another very early effort to replicate Flash Player's NPAPI plugin in open-source. Actually pretty advanced for 2008-09, but it hasn't been active since.

HTML5

Common aspects
Pretty much all of the implementations listed here are specifically designed to be used as polyfills by webmasters who want to keep their Flash-based sites going despite the forced obsolescence of Adobe's in-browser Flash plugin. They are therefore really not intended for personal use, although it's usually not impossible.
CheerpX for Flash
A proprietary software package designed to make the Harman version of Flash Player usable in modern web browsers by running it inside CheerpX, a payware x86 emulator in WebAssembly. No-one on this wiki has had the chance to properly evaluate it, but we'd expect reference-level accuracy at the cost of woeful performance. That being said, CheerpX apparently has an alternate mode of operation that offloads most of the emulation and processing work to a server app, at which point the in-browser part is effectively just a streaming client.
Ruffle
A Rust implementation that mainly targets HTML5, but is also available as a desktop player. Notably used by a bunch of veteran Flash content sites including Newgrounds, Homestar Runner and CoolMathGames, and also by the Internet Archive's Flash library. It's progressed to the point where it can run many early Flash games, including the original Flash version of Alien Hominid. Unlike the other HTML5 options, Ruffle can actually be installed as a browser addon, with the caveat that a website's hosted copy will usually override the addon even if the site is running an older build.
AwayFL
An HTML5 implementation developed by the Away Foundation. Sometimes works better than Ruffle, depending on the specific Flash file you're trying to run.
WAFlash
An inactive, closed-source C++-to-HTML5 implementation that technically hasn't been made available to outside users, although there are a few sites where you can use it. It was considered the most accurate of the unofficial Flash players as of late 2021, although Ruffle and AwayFL have since caught up significantly.
swf2js
An open-core HTML5 implementation that uses a dynamic recompiler. The source-available "Free" version supports limited features, such as AS1, AS2 and ZLIB compression, whereas the payware "Production" version is better suited to newer Flash files using such features as AS3 and LZMA compression. Built on more traditional JavaScript code, so it pretty much always performs worse than the WebAssembly-based options, sometimes noticeably so.
Shumway
A relatively very early HTML5 implementation. Developed rather actively under Mozilla sponsorship between 2012 and 2016, but ultimately abandoned before it could reach a usable beta state.

See also

  • Flashpoint - preservation effort for games designed in commercial web frameworks (not just Flash).

Resources