DropShadowFilter (flash.filters.DropShadowFilter)

Object
    |
    +-flash.filters.BitmapFilter
        |
        +-flash.filters.DropShadowFilter

public class DropShadowFilter
extends BitmapFilter

Comments

No screen name said on Sep 23, 2005 at 12:37 PM :

Please note:
It seems like the argument "hide object" is only used if "knockout" is set to false.
Regards, B.

BryanTheCrow said on Jan 7, 2006 at 9:13 PM :

Anyone have any luck figuring out a way to instantiate this object in an FLA that can be compiled for both flash 7 & 8? I'd like to use 1 swf & support both versions, but compiling for flash 8 renders all symbols in the library unusable for the version 7 player, and compling for 7 causes the line where this object is instantiated to crash...

Kevin Sweeney said on Feb 14, 2006 at 11:31 PM :

Bryan,

The BitmapFilter effects are available only for Flash 8, so you will have to export your SWF for versions 8 and above. Sorry.

On a seperate note, does anyone have any idea why a dynamically created movie clip that has a drop shadow filter attached via Actionscript doesn't overlap another dynamically created movie clip with another drop shadow filter applied in the same manner? Instead, they just seem to merge into one, singular drop shadow. Weird...

BryanTheCrow said on Apr 12, 2006 at 8:24 AM :

Yes, I know they're only available in 8. I was trying to find a hack that would allow me to compile one .swf that would apply the new filters for Flash 8 users, but not lock out Flash 7 users. The solution I came to was to compile 2 versions and build a JavaScript object that would detect the Flash version a user has, and load the correct .swf, or display a link to download Flash based on the version detected. It works pretty well.

Here's my Flash-Version detection & version compare JavaScript methods for anyone who might want to implement something similar:

// Returns true if the version meets the passed-in minimum version.
function flashVersionMeets(sMinVersion) {
var $min = sMinVersion.split('.'), $ver = getFlashVersion().split('.');
while ($min.length < 4) $min.push(0); while ($ver.length < 4) $ver.push(0);
for (var x = 0; x < 4; x++) {
if (Number($ver[x]) > Number($min[x])) return true;
if (Number($ver[x]) < Number($min[x])) return false;
}
return true;
};

// Returns the version of flash that the user has installed, or 0 if none.
function getFlashVersion() {
if(navigator.plugins && navigator.mimeTypes.length) {
var oFlash = navigator.plugins['Shockwave Flash'];
if (oFlash && oFlash.description) {
return oFlash.description.replace(/([a-z]|[A-Z]|\s)+/, '').replace(/(\s+r|\s+b[0-9]+)/, '.');
}
} else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
try {
return new ActiveXObject('ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash').GetVariable('$version').split(' ')[1].replace(/,/g, '.');
} catch (e) {}
}
return '0';
};

Just call flashVersionMeets("8") to see if the user has Flash 8 or higher, or flashVersionMeets("7") to see if they have 7 or higher. You can then generate your object / embed tags & add them wherever you want them to appear using regular old DOM scripting. You should already be scripting your object / embed tags in order to get around Microsoft's Patent Lawsuit loss (google it if you haven't heard about it yet)...