3D, enhanced 2D and gaming takes center-stage in Flash Player 11 and AIR 3

Adobe announces the immediate availability of Adobe Flash Player 11 and Adobe AIR 3. This release pushes the boundaries of what’s possible on the web, and helps customers deliver innovative games, data-driven and rich media apps consistently across multiple devices and platforms including Android, iOS, BlackBerry Tablet, Smart TVs, Internet-connected Blu-Ray players and set-top boxes, Windows, Mac and Linux.

As the game console for the web, Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 allow game publishers to instantly deliver console-quality, immersive games; with new 3D and enhanced 2D support, game publishers and developers can more easily monetize their content by delivering engaging 3D games to desktops and TVs, as well as greatly improving 2D game performance. Dozens of new features in Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 allow developers to deliver a new class of gaming and rich media application experiences, as well as sophisticated, data-driven content with back-end systems integration across devices, including the iPhone and iPad via AIR. Media companies can take advantage of new features to seamlessly deliver protected feature-length, cinema-quality HD video through the web, in apps, and complete with surround sound for connected TVs.

Recently, there has been some stellar AIR apps in mobile app markets, including Machinarium , Caltrain Times, and the video streaming Pocket Penguins app for Android and iPhones. They’re going to be joined soon by Flash technology-based 3D games now in prerelease including Ultimate Race Championship and Zombie Tycoon.Check out the new Adobe gaming solutions site.

Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 offer dozens of new features including:

2D/3D Support

Full hardware-accelerated rendering for 2D and 3D graphics enable 1000x faster rendering performance over Flash Player 10 and AIR 2. Developers are able to animate millions of objects with smooth 60 frames-per-second rendering and deliver console-quality games on Mac OS, Windows and connected televisions. A pre-release brings these same accelerated 2D and 3D capabilities to mobile platforms including Android, Apple iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS. A production release for mobile platforms is expected in the near future. Examples of 3D games for Flash Player at Adobe Gaming Site.

Native Extensions

With support for thousands of highly-optimized, open-source libraries, developers are able to tap into unique software and hardware capabilities including access to data and files on the device, vibration control, magnetometers, light sensors, dual screens and more. Support for native extensions also allows developers to more deeply integrate business software into applications and access hardware APIs like Near Field Communications.

Captive Runtime

Developers can automatically package AIR 3 with their application to simplify the installation process on Android, Windows and Mac OS in addition to Apple iOS operating systems. Users no longer have to download and update the runtime separately. In addition, developers can manage version updates to their application independent of general AIR runtime updates by Adobe.

Content Protection

Premium video content delivered on mobile platforms can now be protected using Adobe Flash Access 3.

HD Video Quality Across Platforms

Full frame rate videos can now be displayed within Flash based applications on Apple iOS devices using H.264 hardware decoding. Rich applications on televisions are also able to deliver HD video with 7.1 channel surround sound.

Rental and Subscriptions Support

With support for Adobe Flash Access and Adobe Pass, content publishers can take advantage of rental and subscription options for more flexible business models and offer TV Everywhere content to over 80% of pay TV subscribers in the US.

Security and Compatibility

By leveraging cryptographically secure random number generation, more secure applications can be created. Additionally, native support for 64-bit operating systems and 64-bit web browsers on Linux, Mac OS and Windows ensures a smooth browsing experience across platforms.

Know more - What’s new in Flash Player 11.

Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 will be publicly available in early October. Flash Builder and Flex will offer support for the new features in an upcoming release before the end of the year. In the meantime, you can download the Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 betas on Labs, and start checking out some of the amazing content that’s already been built by developers!