Click here to launch the experiment.

I figured out how to implement double buffering in Flash this morning, and this is the result: 500 particles, with transparency and a blur filter.

If this seems to run slow, click on the headline to this article to open the Flash movie in a page where it isn’t competing for resources with the other experiments.

Click here to launch the experiment.

This is 100 particles following a simple curve formula. Anything repeated 100 times is going to be kind of interesting.

Clicky

Here it is. My first real experiment in Flash 9.

Click to play.

Because, first and foremost, Flash is a trip toy.

Code for this experiment here:

package {
 import flash.display.*;
 import flash.events.Event;
 import flash.geom.*;
 import flash.filters.BlurFilter;
 public class BitmapRotate2 extends Sprite {
 private var _graphic:PolyStar;
 private var _graphic2:PolyStar;
 private var _bitmap:BitmapData;
 private var _image:Bitmap;
 private var _m:Matrix;
 private var _blurFilter:BlurFilter;
 private var xSpeed:Number = .9;
 private var ySpeed:Number = 1.1;
 public function BitmapRotate2() {
 _graphic = new PolyStar(0,0,7,false,50,30,0,0xff0000,100,0x0000ff,100);
 _m = _graphic.transform.matrix;
 _blurFilter = new BlurFilter();
 addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,registerStage);
 }
 public function registerStage(event:Event) {
 if(stage) {
 removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,registerStage);
 _graphic.x = 0
 _graphic.y = 0;
 _bitmap = new BitmapData(stage.stageWidth,stage.stageHeight,true,0xff000000);
 _image = new Bitmap(_bitmap);
 _m = _graphic.transform.matrix;
 _graphic2 = new PolyStar(stage.stageWidth/2,stage.stageHeight/2,9,true,stage.stageWidth/2-20,stage.stageWidth/6,0,0xff0000,100,0xff0000,0);
 addChild(_image);
 addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,onEnterFrame);
 }
 }
 private function onEnterFrame(event:Event) {
 _graphic.rotation+=5;
 _graphic.x = mouseX;
 _graphic.y = mouseY;
 _m = _graphic.transform.matrix;
 _bitmap.draw(_graphic,_graphic.transform.matrix);
 _bitmap.draw(_graphic2,_graphic2.transform.matrix);
 _bitmap.applyFilter(_bitmap,_bitmap.rect,new Point(),_blurFilter);
 }
 }
 }

The “PolyStar” class is here:

package {
 import flash.display.Shape
 public class PolyStar extends Shape{
 public function PolyStar($x:Number,$y:Number,$points:Number,$vertical:Boolean,$outerRad:Number,$innerRad:Number,$lineW:Number,$lineC:Number,$lineA:Number,$bgC,$bgA:Number) {
 var points:Number = $points*2;
 var angleDelta:Number = (Math.PI*2 / points);
 var angle:Number = 0;
 var anglex:Number = 0;
 var angley:Number = 0;
 graphics.lineStyle($lineW,$lineC,$lineA);
 if(typeof($bgC)=="number") {
 graphics.beginFill($bgC,$bgA);
 } else {
 graphics.beginGradientFill($bgC.type,$bgC.colors,$bgC.alphas,$bgC.ratios,$bgC.matrix);
 }
 if($vertical != true) {
 graphics.moveTo($outerRad,0);
 } else {
 graphics.moveTo(//change orientation of polygon
 Math.cos(angle + (angleDelta/2)) * $outerRad,
 Math.sin(angle + (angleDelta/2)) * $outerRad
 );
 }
 for(var i=0;i<points;i++) br=""> angle += angleDelta;
 var temp:Number = (i%2) ? $outerRad: $innerRad;
 if($vertical != true) {
 anglex = Math.cos(angle) * temp;
 angley = Math.sin(angle) * temp;
 } else {//change orientation of polygon
 anglex = Math.cos(angle + (angleDelta/2)) * temp;
 angley = Math.sin(angle + (angleDelta/2)) * temp;
 }
 graphics.lineTo(anglex,angley);
 }
 x = $x;
 y = $y;
 }
 }
 }

Enjoy!