Test by @Macarlo
Team OS/2 registered
Screenshots by Embellish registered

German developers InnoTek, IBM partner, just released Macromedia Flash Beta for OS/2 Warp. Flash is a browser plug-in for special sounds and movements. This beta (flashos2.exe, 673KB), time bombed at April 30, has been released for Netscape Communicator 4.61, the latest IBM browser for OS/2 (the latest NS release for Windows platform is the 4.72). In order to download it you must be fill a form on the InnoTek web site and the developers will send you the FTP address, valid for 120 minutes.

I tested this plug-in beta on my Warp 4 FP12 and at this time (March 20, 14:57 GMT) I encountered not any bug. I loaded just fine several complicated web sites using Flash, as Jethro and others. All of these sophisticated flashed pages was running fine loaded on my Warp 4 FP12 OS/2 Client, but unfortunately I can't publish its photos here, because all are warez and hackers' sites (if I publish the screenshots, people will see the Net addresses). I decided illustrated this review with screenshots of this Inno Tek beta plug-in running fine on another web site that uses flash since 1999, called "The World of Elton and Eliane". The owner of this site, Elton Hartman Marks, is a Brazilian OS/2 user that lives in USA, where works on the Net using Macromedia DreamWeaver on Windows NT environment. Here is another screenshot on this web site (the Macromedia Flash is running in the EXPLORE eggs into the white window and the Inno Tek plug-in see it perfectly, with all movements):

Photo above shows the Inno Tek Flash folders created on Warp desktop

STUTTGART, GERMANY, 20 MARCH 2000 - InnoTek Systemberatung announced today the release of the first beta version of its new Macromedia Flash plug-in for OS/2 Warp.

Flash is the standard for creating high-impact, vector-based web sites that deliver motion, sound, interactivity, and graphics.

Jointly developed by Macromedia and InnoTek and based on the very latest Flash technology, this brings the leading Internet multimedia technology by Macromedia to the OS/2 Warp platform. Operating as a plug-in inside Netscape Communicator for OS/2, it now makes it possible for every OS/2 desktop to view web sites based on the exciting Flash technology. After several months of development and passing the Macromedia Flash Compatibility Suite, the plug-in is now available for download.

Flash for OS/2 Warp utilizes OS/2 Warp's advanced DIVE and DART technologies and directly accesses your video and audio hardware to deliver outstanding performance.

Overview

The Macromedia Flash 4 plug-in for OS/2 Warp allows you to view Internet multimedia web sites based on the Flash 4 standard developed by Macromedia, Inc. All features of the original Macromedia Flash plug-in are now supported on OS/2 Warp.

Prerequisites

The plug-in has been tested on OS/2 Warp 4, OS/2 Warp Server for e-business and OS/2 Client for e-business. It will also work on OS/2 Warp 3 but this has not been tested. The minimum Fixpak is FP5 but that is also required for Y2K safety.

Netscape version 4.x is mandatory with version 4.61 being the only certified version. If the demand is high enough, we will also release a 4.04 and 2.02 certified compatible version.


Expiration

This is a time bombed beta version of the Flash plug-in. The current expiration date is:

Apr, 30th, 2000

Starting with this date, it will show an expiration alert on each invocation but will run normally. You should then visit the home page at www.innotek.de/flash and get an updated version. The release version will not have any restrictions. This is just there to make sure none is using beta versions once it has been released.


Known Issues

The following issues are known and will be addressed in a future release:

1. when the plug-in is called with LiveConnect interface and the <embed> tag that triggers the plug-in is dynamically created by JavaScript, Netscape 4.61 will crash in javai.dll. This is a problem in Netscape that has been fixed by IBM and will be included in the upcoming Netscape 4.61 service release.
2. the LiveConnect interface has not been fully implemented, some functions might be missing or working incorrectly. If you encounter any sites that use non working LiveConnect functions, please let us know.
3. entering special national characters like French accents or German umlauts is currently not supported. This is also true for DBCS character sets. Flash does not use the operating system fonts and its built in font table does not support all extended characters. For accents and umlauts, this will be fixed in a later release.
4. certain old or buggy audio drivers might have problems with the sound playback. We have tested with a variety of sound chips and also included workarounds for some audio problems we found. If you have an audio chip that is not working fine, please let us know.
5. certain graphic adapter drivers may cause problems that lead to a complete user interface lockup. This is more likely to happen in the Direct Framebuffer rendering mode but f.ex. old Matrox drivers show that behavior even in the GPI mode. As a rule of thumb, Scitech Display Doctor (available through IBM DDPak) can be considered the most compatible graphics driver.
6. there can be screen corruption in Direct Framebuffer mode when moving the mouse cursor inside the Flash movie while it is painting. This only happens with some display drivers and will be fixed with the next release.
7. the plug-in cannot coexist with the Macromedia Flash plug-in for Windows 3.1 which is supported by Netscape Communicator under OS/2. Make sure you uninstall the 16bit plug-in before you install the OS/2 native plug-in.
8. there are some sound problems on SMP systems. This is going to be fixed for the next release. Meanwhile, it is recommended to mark netscape.exe to only run on one processor.
9. for some Flash movies, sound problems have been observed where there is a short delay when repeating a sample. This is currently being investigated.

Photo above shows Inno Tek Flash/2 being installed on @Macarlo's OS/2 Client

Installation

To install on a desktop machine, just execute flashos2.exe and go through the setup steps. Note that you have to make sure the correct Netscape installation is being used in case you have more than one on your system. If you want to install the plug-in to additional Netscape directories, you have to run the install once for each Netscape version.


Unattended installation

In order to install the Flash plug-in using an unattended installation, you have to write your own installation tool but this is very simple and straightforward.

• exit Netscape Navigator if a previous version of the plug-in has been installed
• remove x:\netscape\plug-ins\ShockwaveFlash.class if a previous version of the plug-in has been installed
• take npswf2.dll from a PC where you did the manual installation and copy it to x:\netscape\program\plug-ins
• adjust the Flash settings by creating the appropriate OS2.INI entries through a Rexx script. The following options are currently available:
  
  Application: "InnoTek_Flash"

  Key: "Blitter" type binary

  0 : GPI blitter (default)
  1 : DIVE blitter
  2 : DIVE Direct Frame Buffer blitter

  Key: "Workaround15Bit"

  0 : 16bit color modes are real 16bit color modes (default)
  1 : 16bit color modes are 15bit color modes

  Key: "HighQuality"

  0 : render in low quality (much faster)
  1 : render in high quality with anti aliasing (default)

Photo above shows the Inno Tek Flash/2 installation concluded on @Macarlo's Warp

Configuration

All configuration of the plug-in must be done using the settings button in the About plug-ins view (about:plug-ins). The settings will be stored in OS2.INI under the application name "InnoTek_Flash" in case you want to cleanup your OS2.INI after Flash uninstall. The following settings are currently available:

1. High quality rendering (default is on)
   
   If you select high quality rendering, the Flash engine will use a 4 times larger rendering backbuffer and utilize some advanced anti aliasing technologies giving you a much prettier and clearer picture. If your machine is powerful enough (needs up to 4 times the power), you should select this.
   
2. Blitter (default is GPI)
   
   This controls which method is used by the plug-in to blit the Flash movie to the screen. The GPI (Graphics Programming Interface) blitter is usually the slowest but most compatible option. It will employ the standard OS/2 graphics API (GpiDrawBits) to get the image data onto the screen. On some graphics drivers when using a 16bit color depth (65536 colors), you might experience color distortion.
   This is due to buggy graphics drivers that pretend 16bit color depth but in reality run a 15bit color depth on the card. If you notice such a distortion (colors shifted to blue or green), try turning this option on. Usually you will get a faster display when you use DIVE (Direct Interface Video Extensions). This will use the DIVE.DLL to get a more direct access to the video card. The best option is DIVE Direct Framebuffer as this will directly write to the graphics card VRAM. If this option works on your system, you should select it as the default blitter.
   
   CAUTION: Certain video drivers do not correctly handle DIVE or direct framebuffer access to may experience problems from wrong colors up to system traps. Close all important applications before trying this for the first time.

Support

The OS/2 version of the Flash 4 plug-in is not supported by Macromdia Inc. For support, send emails to flash@innotek.de (no response guaranteed) or rather use the helpdesk forum at www.os2.org. Make sure that you regularly check the Flash homepage at www.innotek.de/flash, read the FAQ and watch out for new releases.

Copyrights

(C) 2000 InnoTek(R) Systemberatung - www.innotek.de

Contains Macromedia(R) Flash(TM) Player technology by Macromedia, Inc., Copyright (C) 1995-2000 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. Macromedia, Flash and Macromedia Flash are trademarks or registered trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. in the United States and internationally.

Contains code from mpg123 Copyright (C) 1995-99 by Michael Hipp and others

Contains Independent JPEG Group's JPEG software Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, Thomas G. Lane.

Contains the zlib library Copyright (C) 1995-1996 Mark Adler Copyright (C) 1995-1996 Jean-loup Gailly

About InnoTek

InnoTek Systemberatung is a leading software consulting company based in Stuttgart, Germany, that specializes in application development for Java, OS/2 and embedded systems. InnoTek also offers unique application porting services based on the Odin technique which is being developed by InnoTek employees and a large Open Source community. If you need to support any Win32 applications on the OS/2 platform (whether available in source code or
not), please contact us at services@innotek.de for further information.

InnoTek offers a wide range of services and products to its customers. As an IBM business partner, our main focus is on services for IBM software solutions. We have a large number of satisfied customers worldwide, especially in the OS/2 market. Also, we're the ideal partner for your heterogeneous networking solutions.

CONTACT AUTHOR

InnoTek Systemberatung

flash@innotek.de
http://www.innotek.de/flash

@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited

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