JD on EP

ok

A nice way to sunset Director and Authorware (if they are indeed to be terminated) is to have them output SWF files whenever possible.

JD, ya gotta be kidding. The Director team has already released an update to Shockwave recently and Adobe did announce that development is proceeding on Director 11.

http://www.directoratnight.com/
http://www.directoratnight.com/2006/09/27/survey-on-gaming-in-director-11/
And here is our old friend, Higgy talking about Director 11:
http://digitalproducer.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=53027

[jd sez: Sorry, you're right... I searched the Adobe.com site itself, and the informal guidance you received is not in the product team's FAQ.]

No fresh word on Director or Authorware yet, but I don't expect much further evolution in either myself...

While apparently there's still some Director-faith why won't Adobe "end of life" the Authorware product?? I know there's no nifty migration path to another toolset to smooth any backlash but the current negligence is, at the very least, irresponsible. For crying out loud there's still an Authorware 8 beta program from the Macromedia days that has never "officially" ended. (I was just reading through this weeks posts on it's mailing list before leaving the office tonight).

Honestly, it's shameful. Please, at the very least stop selling Authorware.

Cheers,
A.

[jd sez: I already lobby to similar purpose. I would have liked some clear guidance when the acquistion closed, myself.]

Oh yeah, from the Adobe site:

http://www.adobe.com/products/director/special/crossproduct/faq.html

Macromedia® Director®, the leading multimedia development tool, and Adobe Shockwave Player, the leading web content player, are uniquely suited to creating online or downloadable games, training and educational content, and desktop-based applications.

When is the next version of Director software expected to be released?
Adobe has not published an official time frame for the next release of Director and generally does not disclose details of new releases more than 30 days before a product is expected to ship. However, our current planning assumption is that the next major release of Director will be in the second half of 2007.

You only have to look at this site to see that no other Adobe app can deliver what Shockwave 3D does, rich online 3D ( and not fake, simple ( 500 face ) 3D models ).

http://www.shockwave3d.com

Enough said?

The Director is alive and well.

Adobe has invested in a large engineering team which is working towards the next release of Director 11. As one of the respondents mentioned, the team has releases a VISTA version of the player, as well as significantly improved the download experience. The pre-release community is well aware of the features of the next release.

There will be a lot more information on Director 11 as we start the home stretch to the release in H2 07.

We are also getting ready to start the discussions on the Director 3 year roadmap.

SO the news of Director's death is highly premature and highly ill-informed.

As Tridib, the Director of Products at Adobe mentioned, Director-Shockwave combo is alive and kicking. The version 11 is due in 2H07 and I manage the release program of Director and Shockwave. Check this URL: http://www.adobe.com/products/director/special/crossproduct/faq.html. Stay tuned for more updates.

Thanks,
K Venkatesh
Senior Program Manager, Director-Shockwave.
Adobe

Thanks for the updates guys! Always great to hear that things are moving forward.

I wonder how many Director programmers will wait for version 11, the clients ask for more before a year.
As a programmer I had to answer we have to immigrate to other program. my office start check Expression, if the next generation will not carry a huge improvement, I guess me and my friends will start working with Expression.

Tridib said: "SO the news of Director's death is highly premature and highly ill-informed."

Here's what I actually said: "No fresh word on Director or Authorware yet, but I don't expect much further evolution in either myself."

And the actual Director Product FAQ says... nothing.

I don't know why that "crossproduct special" FAQ (which was published two years ago and is hardly "fresh") is in such a strange location. If you'd like to do a "3-year roadmap", then please do go ahead and do so.

jd/adobe

""....I don't know why that "crossproduct special" FAQ (which was published two years ago and is hardly "fresh")..... ""

I don't think the page is 2 years old yet...

Announced in January 2006, the MacBook Pro was the first portable Mac to use Intel Processors.

Apple moving to Intel is now just a little over 1 year... The FAQ page adds that Director 11 will be for both PPC & Intel Macs ... So while the page may not have been 'just updated' .. I don't think its 2 years old!

Tridib Roy Chowdhury:
The pre-release community is well aware of the features of the next release.

This should be the Director 11 'pre-release community':
http://nuttybar.drama.uga.edu/pipermail/dir3d-l/
There you can find the most talented director shockwave developers.
And they're not aware of anything.
Frankly, I think you are bluffing.

The crossproduct FAQ that KV pointed out is related to the Director 11 release and was updated earlier this year. (I did not see a 2 year old FAQ at that URL).

What we need to communicate to all who have been following this post is this:
1) Adobe Director 11 will be released in H207, irrespective of the wishes of the some of the authors in this page.

2) Adobe continues to see serious growth in this ecosystem and will continue to support this platform.

3) The pre-release site members DID participate in the discussions on DIR 11, and will continue to play a huge part in the discussions on the 3 release roadmap that we plan to start soon.

We appreciate the Director community's patience with this platform over the years.

So hang on folks...this ride is for real.

The D11 user community is already participating in the D11 pre-release program.

The page at http://www.adobe.com/products/director/special/crossproduct/faq.html was indeed published in Dec 2006. Sam's observation in this matter is correct.

Silence on the part of the Director community on the D11 pre-release program does not mean that Director development is stopped. The undoubtedly talented and fantastic Director developers are participating in the pre-release program. They are silent because they are bound by NDA.

I have also made some posts earlier on Director lists like Hopper and on Adobe communities page.

Let us put the speculations and grapevine on D11 to rest. Expect the D11 in 2H07. You can contact me at venkatk@adobe.com.

K Venkatesh

This may be a little off topic, but I would love some hint as to whether we are likely to see a Flash 9 asset extra for D 10. I am assuming that D 11 (Director CS3?) will support AS3/VM2 content natively...?

Just a small, practical reminder: writing updates to guidance into your product FAQ may be more useful than tagteaming them into comments at various weblogs....

(Director customers have also been asking that the Shockwave version history document continue to be updated in a timely manner. We need to know what changed in the recent update which has already been pushed to the public.)

jd

I've always liked Director. IMO, it doesn't need an update, just the same potential to spread as Flash. (Friends know this is a favorite drum of mine that I like to beat :P)

The way it is now, Director is the best for Web games, period. But nobody has it, has heard of it, and many can't get it running because of the installer.

Well, the Flash installer works perfectly. My idea to solve all of this was to add the checkbox "Install Shockwave 3D support?" to the Flash installer, perhaps next to, or instead of, the Google Toolbar checkbox ;)

It would open up fantastic opportunities for skilled developer and spearhead Adobe Web 3D. Win-win. Please? :)

Let us all take a deep breath here... Good. Another one?... here you go.
The way I read jd's blog entry is that he personally have not foreseen any substantial evolution in Director. Adobe is a monster company, with dozens (hundreds?) of products, and it is virtually impossible for anyone to keep tabs on all development fronts. He did not write that "Director is dead", or something along these lines. He offered his honest opinion (which I share btw) that most of Adobe's resources are evidently directed to Flash-based tools. I would extend this to the Apollo (AIR) and Flex, which are obviously the cornerstones of content development in the future for Adobe.
But this does not mean that Director can not continue to be maintained, as there is a market for it, and specially very skilled professionals with lots of legacy content. Not to mention 3D.

We now all know that the Adobe Director team is working on D11, and has been doing so for some time. It will supposedly be available in the next 6 months timeframe. And if anything, this thread has served to bring some of this information to light, directly from the Director product team. This is good!

I remember getting into Director back in 95, and via MM's presence at Compuserve, which basically was jd. This lead to the first of our Xtras, and 10 years of involvement with this community. John really knows what he is talking about, and I know he is very found of Director and the community behind it. But like most users of the tool he was not aware of the new development happening behind the scenes.

Let us all re-read what he wrote, and calm down. The plans for D11 were really not out in the open for everyone to find easily, and those who could comment (or can comment) are still under NDA. It is nice that this thread has made everyone here aware of the new developments, imo.

Apologies for a small detour. Some of you have requested invitations for the D11 pre-release. I have accommodated a few such requests. I regret to inform that I cannot send in any more invitiations; pre-release team is full.

Thanks for your interest,
K Venkatesh

Adobe is killing Director for sure. No doubt about it, we developers are at mercy of god.

[jd sez: Members of the team have announced another version in the pipeline. But it isn't growing an ecology as fast as Flash.]