Getting started with Stage3D and FDT

Just getting back into Stage3D after being caught up in a client project for the last month. Now there is quite a buzz about the new Starling 2D framework which leverages Stage3D so I thought I would take a look (will add the Starling setup later)

I find getting the development environment set up is a little tricky, so this guide is a future reference for me. Hope it helps anyone else who finds it.

I am using FDT 4.5

1. Download the latest Flex SDK  http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Flex+SDK
   At the time of writing, the latest was 4.5.1
2. This SDK does not contain the required “playerglobal.swc” required to develop for Flash Player 11. So, next thing we need to do is update that. Download from here http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html
3. Use this to replace the existing playerglobal.swc which is located in the SDK at ‘\frameworks\libs\player\10.2′
   Be sure to rename the new swc to “playerglobal.swc”. The  download in (3) is named “playerglobal11_0.swc” at the time of writing – this must be changed.
4. Ok that’s it for the SDK. Back into FDT and create a new AS3 project. Choose “include HTML wrapper” to speed things along.
5. On the SDK configuration screen, you may need to add the new SDK you have just created. Choose 10.2 as the player version (it will actually publish to version 11 thanks to the new playerglobal.swc added in 3)
6. Finish creating the project and go to “run configurations”. Open up the tab (“compiler options”) and add the line
   “-swf-version=13″. See screenshot below



7. Apply settings these settings and then we’re on the final step
8. Edit the HTML file which will be used to embed the Flash. In the embed code, make sure the wmode parameter is set to “direct” if this parameter does not exist, create it.params.wmode = “direct”; in SWFObject style embedding
   <param name=”wmode” value=”direct” /> in standard Object style embedding

That should do it for the basic setup of FDT and Stage3D development.