Hacks #65-73

Flash's animation engine isn't the fastest one around because the Flash Player is optimized for a small download size, not for performance. Also, it is designed with web use in mind; therefore, it is optimized for small, low-bandwidth files rather than large, complex animation. In order to maintain its small footprint and ensure maximum compatibility, the Flash Player does not support hardware acceleration. Therefore, performance issues are often paramount for the Flash designer.

Three areas of possible optimization in Flash are as follows:

• Reduce download time by creating efficiencies in content filesizes or changing the way content is downloaded [Hack #73]

• Increase animation performance by optimizing graphics for fast redraw

• Increase computing performance by writing code that executes quickly

Each point is considered in greater detail next.