Adobe announced that the pre-release version of Adobe Flash Player 10 software is now available in beta on Adobe Labs.

Adobe Flash Player 10 beta, code named "Astro," builds on the capabilities of the company's application runtime with new support for custom filters and effects, native 3D transformation and animation, extensible rich text layout and GPU hardware acceleration.

For the first time, Adobe is enabling the creation of custom filters and effects that extend and can be combined with native effects in Adobe Flash Player. Custom filters and effects are created with the Adobe Pixel Bender toolkit, also available for no charge on Adobe Labs.

"One of the best things about the creative features now available in Adobe Flash Player 10 beta is that they won't slow down performance," said Grant Skinner, CEO and chief architect of gskinner.com. "With Flash Player 10 beta, developers can enable SWF content to render through the memory bandwidth and computational horsepower of the GPU hardware processor, freeing up the CPU to do more - such as render 3D content and intricate effects, and process complex business logic. No other browser runtime has these capabilities."

The new text engine in Adobe Flash Player 10 beta provides interactive designers and developers creative control over device font attributes, such as anti-alias, rotation, and style as well as support for ligatures. More text layout options, such as vertical, bi-directional and right-to-left, will support the creation of RIAs in more languages and can provide more interactive eBooks and online publications that rely on Adobe Flash Player technology. Additionally, new variable bitrate streaming for video between Adobe Flash Player 10 beta and intended future releases of Adobe Flash Media Server will automatically adjust video quality as bandwidth availability fluctuates to provide constant video playback without pausing to buffer. Adobe Flash Player 10 beta also introduces native support for 3D effects to easily position, rotate and animate 2D objects while retaining interactivity.

The pre-release version of Adobe Flash Player 10 beta is available immediately as a free download from Adobe Labs at www.adobe.com/go/astro.