Shockwave is a multimedia player originally unveiled at a trade show in 1995 by Macromedia. This newest movie player was designed to run movies created with Macromedia Director after being encoded by an application called Afterburner. In 1998 Macromedia released a product called Director 7 Shockwave internet Studio. Shockwave could be used to create stand alone movies and animations, computer games and internet movies and animations. Shockwave was the most successful multimedia player available until Macromedia introduced the Flash player which had a smaller file size than shockwave and was designed specifically for use on web sites. In 2000 they released Authorware so that by the year 2005, Macromedia was marketing three distinct multimedia browser plug-ins under the brand names Macromedia Shockwave, Macromedia Flash and Macromedia Authorware.

Shockwave was originally developed to create dynamic content for CD-ROMS and it is still used for this purpose. As all types of online movies and animated features became more popular on the Internet updated versions of Director have included more features that tailor Shockwave files for use on the Web.

Shockwave uses Director as it movie creator. Because of all of its features, it eventually became the product of choice for game developers and as a media to create more complex web applications that are beyond the capabilities of a browser. Shockwave has many features that are not available in other multi media players such as:

• A much faster rendering engine
• Hardware accelerated 3D
• Support for several network protocols such as internet relay chat
• Can be extended by many available extra add ins.

A Linux specific version of shockwave is not available but Linux users can:

• Use Crossover to run Shockwave files
• Use Wine to run a windows browser that can play shockwave movies
• Use the Rosetta emulator on the PowerPC to run shockwave.

Shockwave offers the following capabilities:

• Multi user chat that can be integrated into the movie
• XML parsing
• Ability to create more complex games, more elaborate interactivity and more detailed animation.
• HTML manipulation
• An extensive scripting language
• Remote file retrieval
• Program control for vector images
• Bit map manipulation using vector paths
• Ability to stream the movie files.

Shockwave has become ubiquitous and is distributed with all popular operating systems, browser install packages and already installed on most newly purchased computers. Shockwave movies have the .DCR file extension. Shockwave movie elements are stored in the cast (project library) and then added to the stage and afterward you complete the score (movie layout).

Shockwave is actually part of the webpage and does not require any player to be installed on the personal computer. It not only can play movies and animations but can recognize user input and then tell the browser how to handle that input. This ability is due to the fact that shockwave used vector-based graphic manipulation. That means that instead of saving the pictures as a series of pixels called a bit map, the picture is describes as a series of lines and shapes, each with individual coordinates to place it exactly on the screen. The records contain the mathematical values for each component. For example, a circle would be described by its diameter, fill color, line thickness, etc. with exact coordinates for its location and its relative location to other objects. This drastically reduces the size of the image files.

Using vectors also allows you to move bitmap images around by defining a path of movement. This reduces the number of frames that an animator must create. The program can also create TWEEN frames which basically calculate the difference between the images in different frames and record the mathematical representation of that information which also reduces the file size.

Shockwave streams its files over the internet which means you don’t have to wait for the entire file to download before the movie starts playing. The playing time is coordinated with the download time so the movie seems to play continuously.

If not installed automatically with the web browser, shockwave are available free from the Adobe website. Adobe purchased Macromedia in 2006. Normally if a website detects that you want to play a shockwave movie and don’t have the plug-in installed in your browser, it will prompt you to install it and provide a link to the download page.

Shockwave puts a movie studio on your desktop using the Director program for creating professional quality movies. While Director, like all Macromedia and Adobe products, has a bit of a learning curve, it is easy for people used to using any macromedia or adobe product to learn quickly.