Flash 8 File Format
Looking into some Flash 8 examples has revelead some new tags for the new file format. The change from Flash 6 to Flash 7 only added two new tags, SCRIPTLIMITS and SETTABINDEX, the last tag having a value of 66. Decompiling Tinic Uro's text example reveals tags 69, 75, 73, 74. Tags 75 and 73 carry the bulk of the data - it's reasonable to assume these contain the font outlines for the new FlashType font rendering. This isometric grid image by Guy Watson also has the same tags, with 69 present near the beginning of the file and 73,74 and 75 clustered around the text field.
What this boils down to is that older flash files won't be able to fully take advantage of the new font rendering capabilities - they'll need to be republished in Flash 8 to generate the new tags. Tag 69 is mysterious - maybe something to do with the security model or directive about how the movie should be played. In addition, there may be new tags in the gaps (67,68,70,71 and 72).
Posted by Alexander at August 22, 2005 04:03 PM
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Comments
You are correct, tag 69 is mostly security related (but not only!) and defines the type of sandbox you want a particular SWF to be in. Detailed papers on this subject are in preparation.
Posted by: Tinic Uro at August 24, 2005 10:15 PM
Hello , nice to meet you!
I'm from Taiwan. My name is Shen. I'm researching on Flash File Format. I found the Flash8's swf file format is different from Flash Mx 2004.
Flash Mx 2004:
46 57 53 07 1e 00 00 00 60 00 3e 80 00 3e 80 00 0c 02 00 43 02 ff ff ff 40 00 40 00 00 00
Flash 8:
46 57 53 08 24 00 00 00 60 00 3e 80 00 3e 80 00 0c 02 00 44 11 00 00 00 00 43 02 ff ff ff 40 00 40 00 00 00
Flash8 added the "Tag type = 69" , It's corresponding to "44 11 00 00 00 00". As your surmise , it's may be security model. But I still have to wait for official SWF file format specification release. ^_^
Posted by: Shen at October 5, 2005 04:15 PM
Hi Shen, nice to meet you too. I don't know any more about this yet - I'm looking forward to seeing what those other tags are when the spec is released.
Posted by: Alexander McCabe at October 6, 2005 02:42 AM
^_^ me too.
I found a purpose of the "Tag type = 69". When I added matadata in Flash 8 , it will change "44 11 00 00 00 00" to "44 11 10 00 00 00". So I think that may be not for security model.
Posted by: Shen at October 6, 2005 03:54 PM
Hi Alexander.
Could you introduce yourself more?
Let me understand you more.
thanks a lot. ^_^
Posted by: Shen at October 6, 2005 04:03 PM
Usually I try to keep my blog on-topic and keep a lot of personal stuff off - I hate reading about people's cats and hobbies on blogs. However, I think I need to add an 'About Me' section to give some idea where I've been and where I'm going. I'll say it's 'due to public demand'. :)
Posted by: Alexander McCabe at October 9, 2005 09:21 PM
Is it possible to open a Flash8 File into FlashMX. I was working on a project during my 30 day trial period with Flash8, and saved the file as a FlashMX, but now that my trial is over, I can't get the file to open on my old MX. Could some one please help.
Posted by: Xavier at November 4, 2005 10:10 PM
Hi Xavier,
That is a hazard with using the trial version. I'm not using Flash 8 myself yet so I can't make the conversion for you, but I'm sure someone on this mailing list will help you,
Posted by: Alexander McCabe at November 4, 2005 10:16 PM
hi,
is there a tag 83 too?
Posted by: Anonymous at January 12, 2006 10:47 AM
I don't know, still not seen anything from Adobe about publishing the specification. Check out Kinetic Fusion though,
http://www.kinesissoftware.com/index.php
They claim to support all Flash 8 tags for a roundtrip swf2xml2swf application.
Posted by: Alexander McCabe at January 12, 2006 10:51 AM
when will they release the flash v8 format,does anyone know?
Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2006 05:25 AM
can tag 26 (placeobject2) be of possibly 20,000 bytes?
Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2006 07:19 AM
Placeobject2 can have actionscript associated with it so can be large. Don't know when to expect the format 8 specs.
Posted by: Alexander McCabe at January 17, 2006 11:07 AM
i need information on tags 83,75,74 and 73.
is either of these tags used to define a font?
Posted by: Anonymous at January 31, 2006 07:03 AM
