timeline for major upgrades

[mmreed]

Bob:

Could you provide us with a general approximate timeline of when you plan to implement the major upgrades discussed in this forum? for example.. sprites and the other big perks?

It will help with planning on which projects to bump forward, and which ones to move back a little based on the shortcuts offered with these planned features... for example - it sprites are gonna be a long time off, I may look at doing one project in swish 2 since it will be released Friday... (no plug intended and KM kicks Swish's ass)

[Bob Hartzell]

I don't see the sprite functionality being available until at least end of Aug. Unless Johnie can figure out a way that doesn't require pulling apart a swf to make this work, it is a major piece of code.

[johnie]

Making the sprite wouldn't be that difucult but creating the GUI for that may be a problem- or may be it wouldnt.

Here is an example of a sprite made with Ming http://www.opaque.net/ming/examples/example.php?name=sprite and an explanation of what is going on http://www.opaque.net/ming/docs/swfsprite.php?mode= and http://www.opaque.net/ming/docs/swfsprite.php?mode= (red PHP, Green Python, Blue C++, Black C)the code that goes to Ming (Ming is a C library/php module that outputs SWF).

Ming Is Open Sourced LGPL'ed and supports Flash 5 Actions but I am not sure what Library you are using for KoolMoves- I asuume that you have created your own.

Importing the sprite would require ripping the SWF apart not creating it.

[johnie]

As far as the gui goes I would make it sort of like the button gui- Where you have the three frames and then return to the main timeline.

Sprites are't terribly that usefull without the Set Target action.

[Bob Hartzell]

I can see how it would be useful to play a swf within a swf with control over placement and scaling of the imported swf. I don't see a strong need to edit the imported swf.

[johnie]

I think there is some confusion here.

Sprites are nothing more than a Timeline on a Timeline. It would should be realitivly easy to add sprite ability. You would have to have some sort of creation/editing method unless you are only wanting to import SWFS as sprites (and that would be a lot of work)

The power of a sprite is that once it is created you can place it in various place of the and scale it etc. That red square example is 1 frame when parsed-
This is what the the file looks like:


Header- [I'm Ommiting this]
Frame 1-
Set Background color
Define Shape 3
Define Sprite
Place Object 2

I think that you can control Loaded movies with Set Target and Set Properties but haven't played with it much. Which should give people the what they are looking for in sprites.

The confusion comes in here- Swish 2 imports SWFS as Sprites instead of a regualr import. If you want to use Swish 2 to regularly import something you have to first import as a sprite and then ungroup the sprite.

Sprites are not the same thing as what they seam to be in Swish 2.

The result is that many who have seen Swish 2 mistakenly equate SWF import with sprites.

[fwhilton]

Bob,

I think this is a good idea on having a swf playing inside a swf. Having "left" and "top" setting so we can place the swf would be needed. We should be able to use the levels also.

Importing swf's and pulling them apart sounds like a kool idea, BUT alot of people's work would be compromised.

I for one, don't want people to download free projects (excluding the fun file) and still be able to create their own fun file from my swf.

I know there are programs that do this. But what about copyright security.

I think, just the import swf and play inside a swf should be done 1st, and worry about the "importing of swf" to pull apart later or even not at all.

Who, knows, maybe KM could set a standard or keeping peoples work safe.

well, for what it's worth.
That's my opinion

[johnie]

Bob,

This is a tutorial on how to use Load Movie into a Movie Clip http://www.virtual-fx.net/tutorials/html/loadmovie_5.html

If you attach the Load Movie action into a Sprite then that would give you what you are looking for.

I still want Set Target though :)

[johnie]

I thought about this...

It would be conterproductive and really confusing to make sprites the way that Flash And Swish 2 does. I agree with you Bob that finding a way to edit the sprite would be counter productive and waste a lot of time.

Right now you are loading all of the movies into a Level instead of a target. If you use load movie (Load Movie Uses GET URL) into a target (Sprite) then that should give the desired effect.

- Frank I understand your concerns.

[Bob Hartzell]

If you use load movie (Load Movie Uses GET URL) into a target (Sprite) then that should give the desired effect.
I like this very much! It is 2 - 3 orders of magnitude easier than the original proposal. It can be packaged into something quite simple ala preloader stuff or importing an image. Good work Johnie!

[mmreed]

My only need for sprites is to be able to take an AVI or MPEG, and use Wildform Flix to convert it to a SWF. Then take that SWF and use it within a koolmoves movie where I can place it anywhere I want and have it play while the koolmoves movie is playing.... basically a swf running inside a running swf. :)

[Bob Hartzell]

I am working on it.

[mmreed]

You know... with this kind of support and end user focus,... I think Bob could easily become the next Bill Gates of the multimedia world!

Keep up the great customer service Bob! I tell everyone I know about KM and how it beats those 'other' wannabees! :)

[fwhilton]

LOL LOL LOL :)

Like ol' billy gates huh??

you to funny... LOL :)

Koolmoves does have awesome support!!!

[Bob Hartzell]

Then take that SWF and use it within a koolmoves movie where I can place it anywhere I want and have it play while the koolmoves movie is playing.... basically a swf running inside a running swf. :)

I got it to work! I am very excited by this new powerful functionality. Thanks Mark for pushing for this. Thanks Johnie for pointing to a simple workable solution.

[chadmagic]

WOW!!!
2 movies playing one inside the other. Kind of like
Picture in Picture on the old Boob Tube.
I like that feature.

Chad

[johnie]

I'm glad its working. Can we please please please have Set target also in the next version.

[zippyzip]

Hi,

I hope I'm not off topic or misunderstood what you guys are talking about, I just "almost" finished my Steel Door Demo I've been working on for a few days now, I think the moving stars I have playing in the background may be what you are referring to.

Please take a look at it if you have a minute and if you have any suggestions (other than it takes too long to load - get DSL or Cable guys <grin>) I'd appreciate the feedback.

http://www.pageperf.com/door/index.html

Thanks!

Mike

[mmreed]

bob:

this is great! I am really looking forward to using KM as the sole tool for my development.

Any idea on the update release date?

I would like to beta it ASAP using some AVI>SWF embedded clip scenarios.

Bob - you really need to buy Microsoft... with support like this, you deserve the mansion in Redmond, WA...not Billy!

[midnight_writer_2000]

Originally posted by mmreed
You know... with this kind of support and end user focus,... I think Bob could easily become the next Bill Gates of the multimedia world!

Keep up the great customer service Bob! I tell everyone I know about KM and how it beats those 'other' wannabees! :)


Not only that, he is going to spoil our habits too. I am used to

1) Buy a software
2) find bugs
3) wait months for the patches, fixes and upgrades
4) old bugs fixed but new ones in with the upgrades
5) go to 3

On the other hand, here the bugs are being fixed on user demands right away.

Great job!

[johnie]

That is one nice looking site.

- What we are talking about is that right now as of KM 2.40 anytime you use load movie it loads it starting at the upper right hand corner. Allm of your SWFS need to be about the same size also. Doing it the way that we are talking about would allow you to place it anywhere and the SWFS could be different sizes. If Set Target (Tell Target) is added then you could control the SWF that you have loaded.

[zippyzip]

Hi,

Just a suggestion. The way I worked around this to make sure that the loaded swf file was in the position I wanted it to be in was to make the movie size the same throughout all my files, i.e. I designed the whole demo based on 1024x768 screens so that it could be scalable up to 1280x1024 without much loss of quality and get better quality if it is was viewed at smaller than 1024x768.

For example the original Stars animation was only around 640x480, so I make the movie background 1024x768 and positioned the movie content of the stars in the center of the 1024x768 stage and resized it to get the positioning I wanted and created a new swf file (4k) which was then loaded into a layer below the rest of the stuff you see. I agree it would be nice to have the xy offset on imported movies, would sure save an extra few steps.

Regards,

Mike

[johnie]

The main reason why I would see to want this is to import something created with a different tool into your movie. Lets say you have a 30 second video created with Flix, SWF Convert, or Vid2Flash and you want to place it in your movie. Since you don't have control over the placement then thios is why you'd want this. This would also be a good way to incorperate several SWF created with different tools into 1 movie. If we also get Set Target then we can control them also.

There is a tool out there (It was released July 10 and is still in beta) called Clipyard which is freeware. There is 1 known issue (and it is a rather large issue) with the tool and that issue is that text does not show corectly from imported SWFs. I am sure they will be fixing this as Goldwave created this tool so that MixFX and Flax could be composted into a larger SWFs.

[mmreed]

Originally posted by johnie
The main reason why I would see to want this is to import something created with a different tool into your movie. Lets say you have a 30 second video created with Flix, SWF Convert, or Vid2Flash and you want to place it in your movie. Since you don't have control over the placement then thios is why you'd want this. This would also be a good way to incorperate several SWF created with different tools into 1 movie. If we also get Set Target then we can control them also.

There is a tool out there (It was released July 10 and is still in beta) called Clipyard which is freeware. There is 1 known issue (and it is a rather large issue) with the tool and that issue is that text does not show corectly from imported SWFs. I am sure they will be fixing this as Goldwave created this tool so that MixFX and Flax could be composted into a larger SWFs.


Where can we find Clipyard? I did a search and came up with nothing ( but then again...I'm a wimp )

[johnie]

look in the reviews at http://www.koolmovers.com I played with it some more and, text if converted to shapes with points will export from it but not preview. Regular text will not export.

Some files with sound will crash it. It is however stable enough to composte almost all of my files.

This is a good program for composting but it is lacking in any internal tools- so in otherwords the tools controls are a little clucky and you aren't going to be creating any great works of art with it alone. But hey its free and for the most part does what it says it can do. In fact It shocked me by optimizing one of my own animations (the exported SWF was smaller than the 2 I composted).

The biggest problem with it is that there is not any frame control (actions). It creates timlines by creating a spriteas by chopping up the SWF binary like, Bob was looking into. That's a problem becuase Each sprite is running on in the timeline with no way to communicate between them.

This program does have some limitations...

1. It only handles smaller files (It was made to handle Flax and Mix-FX SWFs after all).
2. It suffers from a few bugs that allow people to create SWF's that could crash the Flash Player. Anytime you start trying to cut up Binary files and repasting back together there are astronomical chances that something could go wrong. Mostly these seem to corelate to having sound.
3. The Text Bug- Normal text is not displayed. Only Text that has been converted to Shapes work.
[Edited by johnie on 07-16-2001 at 04:36 PM]

[David Michie]

Originally posted by johnie
The confusion comes in here- Swish 2 imports SWFS as Sprites instead of a regualr import. If you want to use Swish 2 to regularly import something you have to first import as a sprite and then ungroup the sprite.

SWiSH 2.0 can import SWFs as a static object or as a Sprite.
It depends whether check the [x] Import as Sprite checkbox.

Sprites are not the same thing as what they seam to be in Swish 2.

Yes they are.

Cheers, David.

[Bob Hartzell]

Any idea on the update release date?
I would like to beta it ASAP using some AVI>SWF embedded clip scenarios.
I missed this posting until today. Mark, I will email you an .exe maybe tomorrow for you to play with.