The loading movie thing was the cause of some problems, there apparently is a way to do just as there is in Macromedia but I haven't had a chance to work it out yet. There is a sample from the 3dfa folks. I'm sure it will be included in the final release.
But how should we do a loading movie then?
I've tried nearly everything to build in a loading movie.
I also put some music inside the main movie to blow up the file size.
But nothing worked. The whole movie is loading first before my loading movie appears.
There is a way I just didn't understand the explaination of how to do it, and Have too busy to play with it. Rest assured it can be done. You'll see even in Flash MX there is no prebuilt loading movie option. You have to code it yourself in Flash MX.
Rob said there would be an example of how forth coming be patient and remember this is a beta release.
I don't work for or am paid by 3dfa and anything I say is my opinion onely.
Make a loading movie. Save it as a swf. Put a loadmovie script in the loading movie. I don't know how to make percentagecounters and stuff this way, but you can at least have a loading movie.
Flash MX users often stream their movies and make scripts that loops the loading movie, but now 3DFA exports compressed swf files, and they cannot stream...
I have no idea if it will work. I tried a startup script to check that out - I don't really use it, but wanted to try it once on at least this subject. Didn't work - I tried to load off my main PC from my laptop (using MSN dial-up and an Apache-based setup on my main PC) and although the movie loaded it the sound I put in was mixed up (and NOT the way a DJ would) and worse, it waited like anything else and gave me nothing worth Jack Squat! I have no idea what else to try, but will provide the code portion of the test below, maybe somebody will have better luck. Otherwise, send it to support@3dfa.com as it could also be a bug. (And remember this goes in the startup script!
Anyway, here's what I did:
1: Insert image into moivie
2: Insert Loading text into movie
3: Insert a "Scene 2"
4: Set image to appear - and sound to play - in new scene.
5: Make the following startup script (I'm reminding you again):
Code:
while (getBytesLoaded() < getBytesTotal()) { //should check dataload
root.gotoAndPlay ("Scene 1") //loops first scene while loading (not!)
}
root.gotoAndPlay("Scene 2") //just as bad
And one more thing I forgot earlier: I even unchecked the compress swf thing!
I tried both bytes loaded and frames loaded and it did not know Jack about how to handle it. I'll go ahead and try to post a sample and see if anyone can also figure out why it only flashes the picture on export (I'll have to change the picture though along with it's descriptor per web safety protocols, but otherwise there should be no problem...) It should come as soon as I can get something done in that one. Basic thing about it is the image is tiled to fill the whole movie, a sound is added, and a text element is used to show what is happening (that is, it's loading... NOT! Or at least it should be...) I had a scene 1, scene 2, and scene 3 in the movie. I set scene 1 to show the loading text, and scene 2 as intermediate. Scene 3, therefore, is supposed to hide the wait message, play the sound file and show the tiled image (a la the Windows Desktop on tiled wallpaper mode, duh!) I used the following script but if you choose do recreate it youself in the meantime based solely on my description, change the scene data to the names of the scenes in your own and please use three scenes AND do this in 3DFA 4 beta 3, which I used to do this to begin with:
Code:
if (getFramesLoaded() == getFramesTotal()) {
gotoAndPlay ("Scene 2")
}
Alternatively, try this technique:
Code:
if (getBytesLoaded() == getBytesTotal()) {
gotoAndPlay ("Scene 2")
}
Make a Scene 2 and Scene 3 as well. You should have a Scene 1 already unless you're trying to upgrade a v3.7x to v4 first.
In Scene 1, set an event to show the loading text (create some in elements if needed) and wait until that event has occurred by assurring its hourglass is pushed in. Then put a goto and set it to Scene 1 to create a loading loop. Leave Scene 2 alone and switch to Scene 3. Slap a hide event to this scene so that the loading text gets the boot from the screen, then call in the picture you imported. (You can load a BMP, GIF or JPEG to create this element if you need one front and center on the double.) Finally, import a sound clip (either WAV or MP3) and toss a play sound event for it onto Scene 3 so that you can hear it at the tail end. Save the movie, export to a SWF - and watch out as there's a bug I know of that requires you to tack ".swf" (without the double quotes of course) onto the export filename in the Export As dialog when you do this - and upload to a local web storage or hosting provider. Now access the URL to test and see what happens.
That's the entire procedure I followed, and all I got was the sound - and on dial-up through my laptop, all I got was the picture and text flashing momentarily and only the sound after. (D'OH!!!) Maybe you can learn from anything I did wrong, and perhaps blanius has a better idea (I've seen his earlier attempt and wonder if I can see what he did again - I'll be away from my main machine for a while late May and will have only dial-up then until returning from that to go back to the grind for summer - and another kooky schedule. I'll just have see if I can make time for assistance then. I'm still new to providing my two bits even though I've been using 3DFA for about as long as blanius. (Strange, eh? Guess I know my way around what I use of it now.)
WHOA, MAN - FORGOT SOMETHING IMPORTANT!
When you're doing what I did earlier, it's important to uncheck the compress SWF export box as blanius already said and see if that brings you to anything. Since Flash 5 is a no compression SWF format you may want to try targeting that as well. (It supports loading movies, as we know from 3DFA version 3.7x.)
AND ONE MORE THING:
As for the trace command, insert it from the commands submenu of the script editor's Syntax menu.
I managed to get the attempt I took for a loading sequence into a zip file this morning using a tool I found online. Nothing fancy, but at least I got it done. It uses a different picture than I originally used that I got from an AIDS awareness project. (It's the project's emblem - er, that means the logo - if you're wondering... and it's in conjunction with MTV if you need an explanation for that part of it.) If you run into problems compiling it and it does not work anywhere but the darn editor, don't worry - I had that happen too, even with a different image and all, and had tiled it then! (Actually, it worked when the image was not tiled as I did here, but I'm still uploading it to see if anyone can get a loading sequence out of it.) You will need v4 beta 3 to use this, and as far as I know it played only the sound after full load. I have cable access to the web, so it opens too fast for me, but then again my PC is the server! (LOL) I'll link you to the final attempt and maybe we can find out if it works for someone. I'll try on my laptop after I'm done for my daily education routine, or at least on another machine elsewhere - which is likely to be the last time for a few weeks I'll have to do any of the above, so I'll be on vacation a week before I start class again. Anyway, here is the link:
Actually, I don't know for sure if I was able to get the file uploaded correctly as I thought the forum server was acting up and stopped the load, so here is a link to my copy of the packaged loading movie attempt, just in case you have trouble with the other one. (Sorry, guys...)
If you haven't yet done what I did earlier as described, I found a problem with tiling images both horizontally and vertically. I had 5 horizontal tiles and 3 vertical ones on an image and it did not export correctly in v4 beta 3. That was probably not a problem before in previous versions (when we had that "earth and moon in space" sample)...
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I have good news! Rob said he will be putting the loading movies 