AIR 15 Beta - New Improved compiler engine for iOS is now Default.

pahup2002

Dear Developers,

As you're aware, we've made the new packaging engine as the 'default' packaging mode in AIR 15 which is aimed to improve your development efficiency and runtime performance. However, to improve it further and make it more stable, we're looking for your help.

If you're seeing any issues (related to packaging, runtime or performance) specific to new engine, we request you to report them to us by creating a bug on bugbase.adobe.com and share the bug number in reply to this post. While reporting the bug, please provide as many details as possible. If creating a smaller reproducible case is not possible then please share your email id on the bug, we will contact you.

We assure you that we will look into the case, try to reproduce them at our end and will have them investigated, at the earliest.

-Thanks
Pahup
Adobe AIR Team

Framais

That's fantastic news Pahup, thanks for letting us know!
I personally haven't tried AIR 15 Beta yet. I know for sure that the new iOS compilation engine didn't work with AIR 14 and my particular combination of hardware and software (Windows XP + FlashDevelop), but I will give AIR 15 beta a try and post any bug I might run into in the Adobe bug base.
Thanks again.

eRistocracy

Many thanks for reaching out to the community @Pahup. I am sure we will be able to help you improve AIR, because everyone here loves it a lot!

santanu4ver

I hope there would be option to choose between *new* and legacy engine (?)

Alesys

I was just trying to test it on IntelliJ and it is not recognizing it. Does it require a different configuration or setup than previous SDKs?

Oldes

@Santanu - from release notes:

Starting AIR 15, new improved IPA packaging engine is now the default packaging mode when packaging for AOT targets ipa-app-store, ipa-test, ipa-ad-hoc and ipa-debug. If you encounter any packaging or runtime issues, please report at http://bugbase.adobe.com. To use older packaging mode, use "-useLegacyAOT yes" in the ADT command, before the signing options. To learn more about the feature, please follow http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/ios-packaging-compiled-mode.html

joshtynjala

I was just trying to test it on IntelliJ and it is not recognizing it. Does it require a different configuration or setup than previous SDKs?

No. You still pass the same -useLegacyAOT command line argument to ADT.

Alesys

No, I mean... when I select AIR 15 as SDK all the libraries are empty:

Air14: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gvcu56s2lq1of8l/Screenshot%202014-08-19%2015.00.13.png

Air15: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3t58c8wbxy0k27f/Screenshot%202014-08-19%2015.00.24.png

joshtynjala

I just gave it a try, and I was able to add AIR 15 to IntelliJ IDEA. I'd try redownloading the SDK. Make sure that you're downloading the right version. There's one with the ASC 2.0 compiler and there's the alternate version that's meant to be merged with the Flex SDK. Maybe you accidentally grabbed the wrong one! 🙂

Sergey

New AOT is great. But I can still find critical bugs:
https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3819517
IPA is smaller with new AOT witch is great.

santanu4ver

@Sergey, how you are facing performance improvement/decrement (beside bugs), with new AOT? Many one faced performance issue with this engine which should be main critical point I think.

Zwick

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/release-note/fp_15_air_15_release_notes.html

I see this line interesting:
Fixed Issues
iOS Fast Packager - Performance of apps degrades when packaged with fast packager. (3695884)

Jeff

@Zwick, true but in the same release notes one of the known issues is:

iOS Fast Packager - FPS reduces for Feathers Components Explorer app on iPad when packaged with fast packager. (3776055)

So it isn't clear they have solved all degradations with the fast packager.

Framais

@Puhap
I have just switched to AIR SDK 15 release version (v. 15.0.0.249), but when I try and package for iOS (ad-hoc) I get the following error message:

I am using Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 and FlashDevelop 4.6.4.

Does the new iOS compiler only run on 64bit systems?
And if not, any idea what the problem could be?

Robominister

The old ahead of time compiler was built with java, the new one was built with c++ I believe, so there is a possibility it has system requirements.

Framais

@robominister
Thanks for your reply, I think that if that's the case, Adobe should state it explicitly, I'm checking system requirements for AIR 15 and Windows XP is included:

http://www.adobe.com/in/products/air/tech-specs.html

Robominister

@Francesco,
Sure (and I was only speculating). Though, it's not clear to me, if those specs are just for the Air run-time? (Ie not for the compiler or any other executables included in the Air sdk).

I can believe that XP support might slip through the gap on the new compiler, if XP had to be supported in its own right. 32 bit systems in general would surprise me. As I say, I'm just speculating.

Framais

@Robominister
I think you are right in saying that the specs of the iOS compiler might differ from those of the AIR runtime. If that is the case Adobe should definitely specify the difference, especially if the new iOS compiler is off limits for all 32 bit systems.

@Puhap
It would be great to have a confirmation on this.

Framais

UPDATE:
In case someone else bumps in the same problem, I have found that this bug has been encountered by other users and has already been reported in the Adobe AIR forums:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1494853

Also I added a bug report (# 3821809) for it:

https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3821809

Vontre

This is an absolute nightmare. My project instantly crashes on device when using the new compiler, I can't figure out how to compile it using the legacy compiler without upgrading to FB 4.7, which itself comes with a set of nightmarish and nonsensical issues. Is it possible to compile a 4.6 mobile project using the adt command line? Because I can't figure that out either. o_O