Adobe Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 Will Enable 3D Gaming

Accelerated 2D/3D graphics, cinema-quality HD video with 7.1 sound, and 64-bit support on Windows/Linux/MacOS are the big developments for consumers, with the Adobe Flash Player 11 and Adobe AIR 3, both of which were announced today. Both were in beta stage in mid-July, and the final versions will be publicly downloadable from Adobe's website in early October.

Adobe says both, Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 will offer dozens of new features. They will be available across a number of TVs and other devices, besides the current platforms - Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, Blackberry Tablet OS and Apple iOS (via AIR). To build desktop, Web and mobile apps for these software platforms, there will be a release before the end of the year, of Adobe's open source framework - Flash Builder and Flex.
To elaborate on a few more of the new features:
- Content Protection of premium video content is possible using Adobe Flash Access 3.
- Captive Runtime, for AIR 3 to be packaged with a developer's application, cutting out the need to download AIR separately on the user's OS.
- AIR Native Extensions will allow developers to integrate Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) applications more deeply with the platform's unique software and hardware capabilities.
Danny Winokur, VP and general manager of Platform, Adobe said, "With this milestone release Adobe pushes the envelope of what is possible on the Web with a typical PC and opens up a new world of immersive, high-performance gaming experiences."
Adobe touts accelerated 3D graphics with 60 fps rendering even on mobiles, and console-quality games on computers. But while the Adobe Flash Player today is ubiquitous save for Apple's iOS, the prospect of such browser plugins being discarded even on the PC is on the horizon. For consumers, the most exciting part about this could be getting 64-bit browser plugin support finally on the PC, which just might re-vitalize Flash.