Adobe Intros Fusion-Supported Flash Player 10.2

By Kevin Parrish
published

Adobe released a new Flash Player that provides high-definition content while barely touching the CPU.

Wednesday Adobe announced the release of Flash Player 10.2 for Windows, Mac and Linux. The new edition includes Stage Video, a full hardware accelerated video-pipeline for bringing high-quality video across all browsers and platforms. The new release also brings to the table custom native mouse cursors, multiple monitor full-screen support, Internet Explorer 9 hardware accelerated rendering support, and enhanced sub-pixel rendering for superior text readability.

"Flash Player using Stage Video can effortlessly play beautiful 1080p HD video with just 1 to 15-percent CPU usage on a common Mac or Windows computer," said Adobe's Tom Nguyen in his blog (opens in new tab) Wednesday. "Working across platforms and browsers, it will enable the best video experience for the most people. Many millions of additional PCs, from netbooks to desktops, can now become slick HD home theaters on the web."

Nguyen added that Web surfers won't see the improvement immediately, as websites and content providers will first need to update their video players. Developers will also need to update their SWF player files to support the new feature, but changes to existing video libraries and infrastructures won't be necessary. Vimeo, Brightcove and YouTube have already started the process of enabling support for Stage Video, he said.

As for the other new features, multi-screen support gives users the ability to watch videos in (true) full-screen mode on one monitor while multitasking on the other. The custom native mouse cursors allow developers to create their own static or animated cursors. Sub-pixel text rendering enhancements mean clearer, cleaner fonts, especially those used in complex character-based languages.

In addition to Adobe's announcement, AMD said that Flash Player 10.2 is fully supported on PC platforms powered by AMD's Fusion "Brazos" Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). "AMD and Adobe worked together to enable AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing technology through Flash Player 10.2 to bring users an enriched, more vivid video experience," said John Taylor, director of Client Product and Software Marketing, AMD.

To download the new Adobe Flash Player (v10.2.152.26), head here (opens in new tab).

Kevin Parrish
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • freddyokyes
    total win for adobe IMO I say. although I will test my netbook to see how well it performs with 1080p movies.
    Reply
  • rootheday
    Adobe Flash 10.2 also adds support for hw accelerated media playback for Sandybridge (Intel HD Graphics 2000, 3000)
    Reply
  • frye
    My Q6700 (running at 3.5 GHz) is still using about 25-30% of my CPU when playing a youtube video.

    Adobe's site says: "You have version 10.2.154.12 installed"

    I have an ATI 5870. So what's up?
    Reply
  • freddyokyes
    oh wow imagine the performance now?! 0_-
    Reply
  • freddyokyes
    my i7 930 is running at 4.2ghz and I have a pair of gtx 460's 1gb in sli and it using about 2 to 3 percent of my cpu.
    Reply
  • digitalvampire
    @frye
    They are talking about AMD's newer CPUs, not their GPUs (ie, your 5870). Your confusion is understood since there is already Flash acceleration for Nvidia's GPUs (since 10.1) and now (assuming poster rootheday is correct) Intel GPUs.

    This is good news, however, flash is still ... just ... awful. I haven't checked yet, but is the 64-bit version included with this release, or does it still have to be downloaded from Adobe Labs?
    Reply
  • digitalvampire
    Ah, the 64-bit version isn't included ... still. Here is a link to Adobe Labs 64-bit version (Preview Release). This is the one I've been using for a while and seems to work fine (other than several audio problems). Installers for Windows & Mac, and for Linux, just drop libflashplayer.so into the directory '/usr/lib{64}/mozilla/plugins/' .
    Reply
  • frye
    @digitalvampire
    So are you saying there's still no support for discrete ATI/AMD GPUs? Or was that released back with 10.1 as well?
    Reply
  • slyphnier
    @frye have u turn on hardware acceleration on flash ? if u havent you should try it
    Reply
  • of the way
    "In addition to support from the AMD Fusion Family of APUs, AMD and Adobe have worked together to enable AMD Radeon™ discrete GPUs to support and accelerate Adobe Flash player 10.2." From Amd.
    Reply