Any chance old Astra (animated) items can be reworked

[Alpaca With A Mustache]

I was thinking, now that we have animated items again in the form of Prisma, is there anything preventing gaia from going back and fixing up the old astra (former version of animated items) to work in the same way as Prisma does? It feels like such a waste for them not to be able to be used as intended if we now have an alternative method to make the items animated.

[Bonaduece]

Yes, unfortunately, there is something preventing them. What we've been told is that their replacement for flash is not capable of replicating flash to make the items work the same, even if they redrew everything.

[AlthIndor]

For converting Astra into Prisma, no. It's as Bonaduece said for that idea.

But I do remember reading somewhere that they were considering trying to get them running again using Ruffle.

[SmittenRainbowKitten]

I think they would have to re make all of them but I would still be down for that! I really loved some of them and they're not out in prisma.. yet

[Aerdian]

Astra could do a lot of translucent/glow and color-transform/warping stuff that either would make the file size unreasonably big or simply can not be replicated with Prisma. They did have a thread (closed now) that let people mention ones they liked so that artists could try prioritize what to try re-imagine. A lot of Astra were probably animated by creating a few images then warping them, but at least for Prisma it seems each frame has to be pixeled.

[Newzpop Reporta Tyro Bong]

Alpaca With A Mustache

I was thinking, now that we have animated items again in the form of Prisma, is there anything preventing gaia from going back and fixing up the old astra (former version of animated items) to work in the same way as Prisma does? It feels like such a waste for them not to be able to be used as intended if we now have an alternative method to make the items animated.

Prismas are a different animated item system than Astras. 3nodding If memory serves correctly, the astras were made in flash. Unfortunately I have no idea if converting old flash animations to .apngs would be even possible.

The good news is that Ruffle is a thing now. Why's that applicable here? Well... gaia_down

Lanzer

Do Astra items work with Ruffle?

The short answer is yes, some items work with Ruffle while many others which utilize complicated layering effects do not display correctly. We are working on re-enabling Astra item support. The feature had been disabled while other changes had removed its functionality and we needed to fix some coding to re-launch Astra item support.

For full context, please read Source: Ruffle Flash Emulator FAQ (2023)

I rarely go into spaces that were originally flash-only and actually look to see if I see any astra animations. surprised But I'm fairly sure I've seen some working within zOMG question

zOMG isn't Ruffle-supported at the moment; but if you want to check for yourself, you can always follow the instructions in the Play zOMG without a web browser or flash support sticky.

If you had any other specific questions regarding Astras vs Prismas, you could probably attend an ATS with your question. Here's a link to the Pre Event ATS thread if you want to ask your question before the next ATS: ATS 03/04/2025 - Pre Event Questions

Hope this helps! Take care emotion_hug