Macromedia Director

Macromedia Director (now called Adobe Director) is a media application created by Macromedia&mdash;now part of Adobe Systems. It allows users to build applications built on a movie metaphor, with the user as the "director" of the movie. Originally designed for creating animation sequences, the addition of a powerful scripting language called Lingo made it a popular choice for creating CD-ROMs and standalone kiosks. Adobe Director supports both 2D and 3D multimedia projects.

Features
Its scripting language motivated some to use this application. Many companies deliver demonstrations or use it as a user interface (UI) for content on CDs and DVDs. It can incorporate many different bitmap, audio and video file formats making it possible to integrate media. It also supports vector graphics and 3D interactivity (via Shockwave 3D). Since Version 8, Director also natively incorporates Flash animation files.

Director's functionality can be extended through plug-in applications named Xtras. These can be created by users or purchased from third party vendors. They are created using Macromedia's XDK (Xtra Development Kit), a C++ based software development kit.

One type of file created by Director can be viewed in a web browser using the Shockwave plugin. These files have a .DCR extension.

Director can also create stand-alone executable applications from a project, called projectors, which can be compiled for Macintosh or Windows operating systems.

History
Director started out as VideoWorks, an application created by predecessor company MacroMind for the original Apple Macintosh. Its name was changed to "Director" in 1989 with the addition of paint and limited scripting capabilities. The Lingo scripting language was introduced with version 2.0 in 1990. A Windows version became available with version 4.0.3 in August 1994.

Release history

 * 1985: MacroMind VideoWorks is released.
 * 1987: MacroMind VideoWorks II is released with color support.
 * 1988: MacroMind VideoWorks Professional is announced.
 * 1989: VideoWorks Professional is released as MacroMind Director 1.0.
 * 1990 Apr.: MacroMind Director 2.0 is released with Lingo support.
 * 1991: MacroMind Director 3 is released.
 * 1992: MacroMind Director 3.1 is released with QuickTime support.Made with Macromedia logo 1992.png
 * 1993 Feb.: rebranded as Macromedia Director with version 3.1.3.
 * 1994 Feb. 28: Macromedia Director 4 was announced and was released in March.
 * 1995 Apr. 24: Macromedia Director 4.0.4 was released for Pentium-based Windows computers.
 * 1996 Mar. 04: Macromedia Director 5 was announced and was released in April.
 * 1997 May 27: Macromedia Director 6 was released.Made with Macromedia logo 1997.svg
 * 1998 May 11: Macromedia Director 6.5 was released.
 * 1998 Nov. 16: Macromedia Director 7 was released.
 * 2000 Mar. 22: Macromedia Director 8 was released.
 * 2001 Apr. 24: Macromedia Director 8.5 was released with Shockwave 3D support.
 * 2002 Dec. 17: Macromedia Director MX was released.
 * 2004 Jan. 05: Macromedia Director MX 2004 was released.
 * 2008 Mar. 25: Adobe Director 11 was released.
 * 2009 Mar. 23: Adobe Director 11.5 was released.
 * 2013 Feb. 11: Adobe Director 12 was released.

Adobe Director 11
In 2005, Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems, which renamed the products to Adobe Director and Adobe Shockwave.

Adobe Director 11 was the first version to be released under the Adobe brand. It featured DirectX 9 and Unicode support and extended 3D capabilities based on the Ageia PhysX engine, as well as bitmap filters, enhanced video, audio and image file formats support, and Adobe Flash CS3 integration. Adobe Shockwave Player 11 was also announced.

Discontinuation
Adobe stopped selling Adobe Director 12 and Contribute 6.5 on February 1, 2017. Support for Shockwave Player on macOS ended on March 14, 2017. In February 2019, Adobe announced that all remaining support for Shockwave on Microsoft Windows would be officially discontinued, effective April 9, 2019.