Sam HaXe-Open - The friendly asset

"I used to be a spy, until…

Why exactly Sam HaXe? Where does that name come from? If you're familiar with Burn Notice the name Sam Axe might ring a bell. Burn Notice is a series about spies - and what do flash developers and spies have in common? They need assets. Assets are very important.

Tools of the trade

What is Sam HaXe-Open good for?

Basically Sam HaXe-Open is a flash resource assembly tool similar to swfmill. Currently you can import the following types of assets:

  • Image files
    • Every type supported by ImageMagick
      See the complete list here.
      ... or ...
      Every type supported by DevIL
      See the complete list here.
  • Sound files
    • MP3s
    • WAVs
  • TrueType fonts
    • TTFs
  • SWF files
    • As an animation
    • As an external library
  • Binary files
    • Arbitrary content with optional zlib compression

Note

Effective 2010.03.30., the open source version of SamHaxe is named SamHaxe-Open, while SamHaxe enters closed source state for private use. Updates and new features of SamHaxe would eventually get merged back to SamHaxe-Open. Documentation and source will be updated in the next release to reflect this change.

Documentation

Sam HaXe-Open has a detailed documentation here.

Support the project

Help the long-term survival and improvement of the project by:

  • Subscribing as a user on Ohloh and spreading the word
  • Reporting bugs or requirements on trac or mailing list, so that we know what needs instant or long-term attention (see Contacts below)
  • Donating an amount (donors will be listed and also receive a unique build of SamHaXe with the intentionally introduced bugs removed :P)
  • Donors: Viktor Hesselbom (two big pizzas for us), Keith Ashford (a sixpack of beer for the team)

Source

You can check out a read only copy of Sam HaXe-Open's source code from the following SVN repository: http://mindless-labs.com/svn/samhaxe/trunk

Windows binaries

You can download the precompiled win32 binaries from the following link: http://mindless-labs.com/samhaxe/downloads/
All windows binaries are compiled with MinGW.

You have two options here:

  • Use the installer executable created with NSIS.
    This is the preferred solution because no additional configuration is necessary however these versions support only DevIL based image import.
  • Use the ZIP compressed archive.
    You have to alter samhaxe.conf.xml according to documentation. You might also take a look at the Installation / Compilation section of documentation especially the windows related sections to make sure every DLL is accessible by Sam HaXe-Open. Of course ImageMagick (or DevIL) and FreeType have to be installed on your system.

Contact

Do you have any questions?

Feel free to contact us!

Credits

Special thanks to Niel Drummond for his invaluable contribution to OSX support.