Adobe"s long running Flash Player, used in so many web applications and games, is getting a new version next month. Adobe"s web site has announced that Flash Player 11, along with Adobe AIR 3, will launch in early October. The company has some big claims for these new versions, saying that it will use a new hardware accelerated graphics architecture called Stage 3D (also known by its code name Molehill). Adobe says that it will enable Flash-based games to have performance that will be 1,000 times faster than games running under Flash 10. Games that use Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 are expected to launch later this year and early 2012. You can check out a demo of one of those games in the video below.
In addition to hardware graphics acceleration support, Adobe claims Stage 3D will also have faster software rendering features that will provide better performance for games even on a 10 year old PC running on Windows XP. Flash Player 11 will also have full 64-bit web browser support for Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems. As far as AIR 3, Adobe claims it will let developers create programs that can be installed with seamless one-click programs with Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac operating system.
Adobe is trying to make its new Flash Player more attractive to developers. This new version comes as Microsoft has announced that the upcoming Internet Explorer 10 web browser would not use plug-in programs, including Flash. for the Windows 8 Metro version. Adobe quickly said that Flash will work with Windows 8 when Microsoft"s next operating system is released.