Starling 2.8 – yes, really! 😊

Daniel

I just sent out the following update via email – and I'm sure you're all fine with me simply pasting the same text here. 😅

Happy New Year, everyone — I hope 2026 is treating you well so far! 🍀

You probably didn't expect to hear from me again after such a long time — but here we are! 🎉

I've just released Starling 2.8. While the framework has been mostly in maintenance mode lately, a lot has still happened behind the scenes: great community contributions (vector drawing!), small enhancements here and there, and of course continued compatibility with recent AIR releases from Harman.

To set expectations clearly: Starling is not aiming for big, disruptive feature releases going forward. However, I do intend to keep it in good shape — maintaining compatibility with new AIR versions, fixing issues, and bundling meaningful improvements when they make sense. In other words: it’s not abandoned, and it’s still cared for.

I've written a short blog post that walks through the highlights of the release and explains what’s new:

👉 https://gamua.com/blog/2026/01/starling-28/

Thanks to everyone who's still using Starling, contributing to it, or simply keeping an eye on the project. It really means a lot to me! 🌟

All the best,
Daniel Sperl

Thanks a lot for still paying a visit to the Starling forum every once in a while! I'm really happy that I've finally found the time to put this release together. Really, all the hard work was done by you guys – for me, it was just writing a few texts and getting old build-tools to run again. 😆

Cheers!

Bink

Daniel I hope 2026 is treating you well so far! 🍀

Daniel I've just released Starling 2.8.

It's going to be pretty hard to top this awesome news, and we're still only in the first week of January!

ll24llll

Daniel You probably didn't expect to hear from me again after such a long time — but here we are!

Daniel!

I started developing a game with Starling last year, and I’ll admit there were times it felt lonely, even discouraging, wondering whether I should have, honestly! Reading your post was unexpectedly moving, like a warm hand on my back at exactly the right moment. Um... it's more than I can easily put into words so... thank you! Thank you to you and to everyone in the community for keeping it alive in a meaningful way. Deeply appreciated.

Fancy2209

I just really gotta say thank you for making starling.
Its still the best framework I've used hands down, it just takes the best parts of the flash API and makes them even nicer.
I'm a fairly recent AS3 dev but I just couldn't not be so happy about it existing.

Fancy2209

By the way, I think the new canvas changes mean you should change the section 3.10.1 of the manual

785597448

Hello Starling author, I am a beginner in Starling and I would like to ask you a few questions. Firstly, I noticed that Canvas only has a method for filling colors and not drawing strokes? Secondly, I need to use a custom text box to display the built-in fps, but it seems there is no way to obtain the built-in fps? Thank you

Fancy2209

785597448 about the canvas class yes, no line styles yet, meaning no strokes
LineStyles are complex and I didn't know how to implement them currently.

785597448

Fancy2209 I currently use the Flash drawing API directly to draw and convert it into textures If Canvas supports drawing strokes, that would be great

matpg

Still using Starling, have it in a game project I've been working on the past 5 years.

Shaun_Max

@Daniel — since you’re currently working on Starling again, would it be possible for you to take another look at Starling’s TextField class and let me know whether it’s technically feasible to add the missing APIs (getLineText, getLineOffset, getLineMetrics, getTextFormat) when compared to Flash’s TextField?

We had a brief private discussion about this a couple of months ago. I’m not asking for a feature to be added — I’d just like to understand whether this is something that could realistically be supported, or if it’s a limitation by design so I can stop pursuing it and plan accordingly.

Thanks!

General

That's great news! Thank you so much! Currently working to make a strategy game using Starling and AIR

785597448

General Why not use OpenFL directly

chachawu

I'm really looking forward to it, thank you.

Daniel

Thanks for all the nice words, guys! 🤗

@Shaun_Max Actually, most of that should be feasible. As you know, Starling's TextField uses (a) flash.text.TextField to render it's text as a texture; in that case, all that information you're asking for is available. Or (b) it uses a bitmap font to lay out the characters itself. In that case, it would simply have to store more information about how it assembles those letters. (Sorry for the late reply - I hope that helps!)

inverse

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