FW 2.4 status

So where’s FW 2.4? There have been couple of last minute fixes and API changes which make the API even easier to use. Because of the API changes, new cases popped up which might have crashed the app and as these cases are found out, “cleaner” ways to handle them are being implemented (AS3 errors or warnings at least).

The new API, in its latest incarnation, got rid of canFinish(), added internal microphone recording (just by setting audio recording flag to AUDIO_MICROPHONE – no other code needed) and other changes. Its shaping up to be possible to pretty much use FW only like this:

myEncoder.start(fps, audio_recording_mode);

myEncoder.capture();

myEncoder.finish();

(Plus, react to status events). So the API is finally getting closer to where it should be.

This  will definitely be the biggest FW API update yet and because of the number of changes, it might spawn more new bugs than usual – so more testing is needed before releasing it.

Timestamp fix

The most important fix which was added at the last minute, and delayed the release the most: audio / video timestamp fix.

Until now, FlashyWrappers used simple counters as base for pts (timestamps) of audio / video tracks. This could cause issues with audio / video syncing on all platforms, especially in case where your app fps would drop under the target video fps. One drop just for a moment and the audio / video synchronization was damaged.

To fix that(and other things), FlashyWrappers 2.4 introduces two modes: “realtime”, optimized for realtime capturing and “non-realtime”, which in many ways works like 2.3. This was already mentioned, but newly also the way timestamps are calculated depend on setting(or not setting) the appropriate mode.

Realtime mode

  • Timestamps for audio / video tracks are calculated based on system time. Doesn’t suffer from sync issues when framerate drops, but “captures” all the lags you experience when capturing live – its live capture, after all!
  • Frames are dropped in case too many frames are being sent to the video encoder (game fps = 60 but video fps = 20, FW will drop frames to compensate)

Non-realtime mode

  • Timestamps for audio / video tracks are based on internal counters (like in FW 2.3) – ideal for post processing where you are rendering something at 5fps or in the background but need smooth 20fps video out of it.
  • No frames are dropped, it doesn’t care about fps and just sends every frame into the encoder.

New example & automatic tests in 2.4

FW 2.4 libraries are almost ready, but one more important thing will happen before it can be released. We’re working on a brand new “example”, which replaces all of the “old” examples. This example will include automatic tests, which will greatly enhance the stability of the platform going forward. Simply put, it will go through all the basic settings (audio on, audio off, record webcam, record realtime, non-realtime, Stage3D, MovieClip, fullscreen…you get the idea) and record a short test video. It will then log all the results, allowing to see if anything unexpected happened.

This way, it won’t be possible to “forget” testing a case, and ensures all the cases which worked in the previous release will work in the new release. In case some new issue appears, it will be added as a new test case in case it’s considered a good idea.

Having a single example of course also simplifies the testing and building on our end. The API is getting so simple(at least to the end user) that one example inside the manual should be enough to get you started.

There’s still loads of work remaining everywhere, but 2.4 will push FW one step further towards the goal of simple, reliable yet powerful video recording SDK for AIR(and possibly other platforms as well in the future).

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