AVE IMPERATOR Features

ave_site_banner

AVE IMPERATOR© 2003-2010 All rights reserved

Imperator FLA

IMPERATOR °FLA v2.0 vs. SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50628 (50408)

Version History

August 4th, 2005 - IMPERATOR °FLA v2.0 vs. SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50628

Test results Our pool of complex and ActionScript-heavy SWF files has grown to 4755 files and we have repeated the test with the newer SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50628. The results showed only minimal improvements. For 1973 files (more than 41%) the result was an unusable FLA document (Flash turns grey - see picture below). 1235 files (more than 44% of the remaining 2782 files) could not be compiled because of ActionScript errors:
132 times 1 to 5 error(s), 99 times 6 to 10 errors, 201 times 11 to 20 errors, 398 times 20 to 30 errors, 160 times 30 to 50 errors, 178 times 50 to 75 errors, and 67 times more than 75 errors.
1362 of the compilable FLA documents produced an SWF file that did not match the original (see list of errors in test below). The SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50628 was able to recover 185 clean FLA documents from our pool of 4755 SWF files. That is still less than 4%.

May 1st, 2005 - IMPERATOR °FLA v2.0 vs. SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50408

Intro Recovering FLA documents from SWF files is, in part, a complex task. Modifications at one point of the recovery phase can easily lead to errors elsewhere in the process. That is why we have a (growing) pool of currently 4603 complex and ActionScript-heavy SWF files, which we use to test IMPERATOR °FLA v2.0 whenever we modify the program code (needless to say that the modified program has to recover all 4603 FLA documents flawlessly before it is released). Listen to what Sothink writes about the SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50408: " The world's leading flash decompiling tool to ... especially convert your SWF to FLA. " That is a bold statement considering that, compared to other FLA writers, their FLA producing technology is relatively new on the market. Luckily, some of our customers have the fully registered version of SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50408 and so, together with them, we were able to put this "leading" tool to the test. Now you might say that this is unfair, because we were only using difficult SWF files to test the software. Well, there are definitely more than two programs capable of recovering small and non-complex files and if you call your program "world's leading", it better be able to recover (most of) the difficult files one of its obvious competitors is able to recover cleanly.

Test results We tried to recover all of the 4603 complex and ActionScript-heavy SWF files from our test-pool with the SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50408. An unbelievable 1981 times (that is about 43%) the resulting FLA document was unusable and looked like this:

FLA document created with SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50408
As for the remaining 2622 FLA documents, 1173 (that is about 45%) could not be compiled because of ActionScript errors:
97 times 1 to 5 error(s), 122 times 6 to 10 errors, 103 times 11 to 20 errors, 480 times 20 to 30 errors, 105 times 30 to 50 errors, 195 times 50 to 75 errors, and 71 times more than 75 errors.
These are just a few of the many different types of ActionScript errors which occurred:
Syntax error, There is no class or package with the name ... found in package ..., There is no method with the name ..., There is no property with the name ..., Statement must appear within on/onClipEvent handler, Operator "=" must be followed by an operand, ActionScript 2.0 class scripts may only define class or interface constructs, Unexpected "}" encountered, This statement is not permitted in a class definition, ")" or "," expected, Type mismatch in assignment statement: found Number where String is required, Expected a field name after "." operator, ")" expected "else" encountered without matching "if", ...
Almost every of the 1449 compilable FLA documents produced an SWF file that did not match the original:
ActionScripts were recovered incorrectly - the functionality and/or control flow of the result differed from the original, mostly flash videos and morph shapes were placed at the wrong position and some videos were not displayed at all, many vector graphics were missing regions and the program offers only one vector recovery mechanism, some more difficult (nested) mask structures could not be recovered correctly, graphics popped onto the screen for a frame where MovieClips were expected (clearly an id problem), ...


Conclusions The SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50408 was able to recover 131 clean FLA documents from our pool of 4603 complex and ActionScript-heavy SWF files. That is less than 3% - making the words "world's leading" not only questionable, but plain false and rather ridiculous. We do not rule out the possibility that at some point in the future, somebody might find another bug in IMPERATOR °FLA v2.0, however, what is clear is that IMPERATOR °FLA v2.0 is a better and much more reliable SWF to FLA converter than the SWF Decompiler MX 2005b Build 50408.