The Adobe Flash community kicked off GDC with the Flash Gaming Summit (FGS), a day-long conference focused exclusively on Flash-based games. At FGS, Adobe made available Molehill 3D GPU-accelerated APIs.
At FGS (Flash Gaming Summit) this year, Adobe made the Molehill 3D GPU accelerated APIs available to developers through the Adobe AIR and Flash Player Incubator program. First demonstrated at Adobe MAX last October, “Molehill” is the code name for a new set of low-level, GPU-accelerated 3D APIs that will make it possible to deliver sophisticated 3D experiences across almost every computer and device connected to the Internet.
Today, Adobe Flash Player 10.2, renders thousands of non z-buffered triangles at approximately 30 Hz. With the new 3D APIs, developers can expect hundreds of thousands of z-buffered triangles to be rendered at HD resolution in full screen at around 60 Hz.
The Flash Platform can deliver rich interactivity, rapid innovation, and consistency across browsers and devices, says a representative. Game developers have also been using Flash Platform technologies to target smartphones, tablets, and other devices.
With AIR, a superset of Flash Player, developers can bring their games as standalone apps to iOS, Android and soon BlackBerry Tablet OS.