End of Flash Player

Revision as of 07:36, 26 February 2021 by Localguest (talk | contribs) (Is Paw'D affected in any way because Adobe ended support for Flash? If so, what are they?)
Jump to: navigation, search

Timeline

Adobe announced that it would no longer support Flash Player after December 31, 2020. This would later extend to most known browsers by January 12, 2021.

Windows also pushed for a security update that would remove Flash Player from Windows PCs if it was automatically installed through Windows Updates, but would not remove it if it was manually installed. However, users would continue to see an Adobe Flash Player End of Life prompt that would encourage them to uninstall the program.

What happened to Flash? Why was it removed?

To better understand why Flash was removed, please read the Newgrounds blog post from TomFulp.

Can Paw'D still be played? If so, how can I play it?

Given that Paw'D was created using Adobe Flash, it can no longer be played as a browser game. This means that if you hop over to the Play Now button on the official site, the Paw'D link from Newgrounds, or from icyworlds.net, the game will not load.

However, the game can still be played by downloading the client instead. The client version of the game runs on Adobe AIR, which is similar to Flash, except it is used for developing applications that can run SWF files. In short, Paw'D has not died out, you simply just need to download it now like any other game.

It is unclear whether or not Adobe AIR requires Flash Player to be installed on your system or not. If the client version of Paw'D does not work, and the Windows update automatically removed Flash Player from your system, then you may need to reinstall the last known version of Adobe Flash Player from a trusted source.

Is Paw'D affected in any way because Adobe ended support for Flash? If so, what are they?

  • You can no longer play Paw'D on any site that hosts the game.
  • Dual Screen support, Lights Out mode and Big Screen mode no longer function properly.
    • If you wanted to play two characters at once on multiple screens, you can no longer do so. The client only supports one instance of Paw'D running at a time.
    • Although Big Screen mode no longer exists, the client version of Paw'D already supports Full Screen mode. You can still resize the game by clicking on and dragging one of the borders of the screen.
  • If you had access to the map editor before, the map editor for Paw'D no longer works. Because it was hosted on a site, it needed Flash Player, which is now not supported by most browsers. The client version of Paw'D does not support the map editor either, so it is a lost cause for now. With the right tools and know how, you still could theoretically be able to grab the swf file for the map editor, and repackage it into Adobe AIR.
  • Right-clicking was available in the browser version of the game. But since you are forced to use the client version, you will have to Left Ctrl + Click instead.
  • Clicking B opened up the damage analysis tab, which allowed you to track your total DPS, as well as the total DPS of other allies. If you clicked the header, it would take you to a different section for it to track, such as damage received, healing done/received. The client version of the game is unable to change sections for some reason, which means you are stuck with tracking DPS.