dynamic slide show with white boxes showing up

[davoflav]

I have been trying to build this application for a number of weeks now and have run into something that simply stumps me.

I have a photo gallery that loads photos, an mp3 and (eventually) a txt file that will have captions, photo credits and transition times.

Now when the first two pics load and transition, they have these weird white boxes covering the photos. When the transition between the photos is done, the white box goes away.

i have no idea where these shapes are coming from. The mp3 is not set to stream, I can interchange the photos and the problem persists, I have tried changing the depths.

THEY ARE GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE and are slowly driving me mad.

please help.

[retrotron]

Oh, heh heh, ignore the PM I just sent you, looks like you already posted.

[retrotron]

Oddly enough, I can't seem to download the .zip, it just opens up a browser page full of encryption . . . is that a problem on my end? hmmm could you email the .zip to me?

[davoflav]

I think I need a lesson in event handlers.

can someone please explain why this code doesn't cycle (like an onEnter event should)



onClipEvent (load) {
_global.trans = 1;
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
firstTransition = _root["pictrans"+trans];
secondTransition = _root["pictrans"+(trans+1)]-.2;
trace("firstTransition= "+firstTransition);
trace("secondTransition= "+secondTransition);
// Text Boxes
if (stopped != true) {
_root.myDurationText = mySound.duration/1000;
_root.myPositionText = mySound.position/1000;
}
// 1
if (mySound.position/1000>firstTransition && mySound.position/1000<=secondTransition) {
//_root.picMovieMC.gotoAndStop(frame);
trace(_root["pic"+trans]._alpha);
_root["pic"+(trans-1)]["caption"+(trans-1)].removeTextField();
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
if (_root["pic"+trans]._alpha<=100) {
_root["pic"+trans]._alpha += 5;
_root["pic"+(trans-1)]._alpha -= 5;
} else {
_root["pic"+trans]["caption"+trans]._visible = true;
_root["pic"+(trans-1)].removeMovieClip();
}
};
trace("successfully changed trans");
_global.trans++;
}
};
}

also, does anybody see white boxes over the first two images?

[retrotron]

Hey man,

Tell me what all the output is that shows up when I first run your movie.

[retrotron]

Never mind, I see it now. It's the traces you have, and it executes over and over. That means, to answer your last question, it is iterating.

I get this output:

making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
making picboxes
onload event for mc
firstTransition= 0
secondTransition= 9.8
on enter for mc
firstTransition= 0
secondTransition= 9.8
on enter for mc
firstTransition= 0
secondTransition= 9.8
on enter for mc
firstTransition= 0
secondTransition= 9.8
on enter for mc
firstTransition= 0
secondTransition= 9.8
on enter for mc
firstTransition= 0
secondTransition= 9.8
on enter for mc
firstTransition= 0
secondTransition= 9.8
etc...

Oh, if you use actionscript highlighting when you post code, your code is much easier to read.

[davoflav]

that is what is confusing me. The transition check will iterate but the alpha transitions don't.

Do you see white boxes on the first two images?
Is the image shown at 5% opacity with no transitioning?
Am I seeing what everyone else is seeing.

I have been working on both a PC and Mac. Weird stuff.

code:

---

onClipEvent (load) {

	//trans is a variable to keep track of what transition is next

	_global.trans = 1;

}

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {

	this.onEnterFrame = function() {

		//takes transition info from main timeline

		firstTransition = _root["pictrans"+trans];

		secondTransition = _root["pictrans"+(trans+1)]-.2;

		//trace("firstTransition= "+firstTransition);

		//trace("secondTransition= "+secondTransition);

		// Text Boxes show progress of Sound Object

		if (stopped != true) {

			_root.myDurationText = mySound.duration/1000;

			_root.myPositionText = mySound.position/1000;

			// checks to see if playhead of sound object is at the transition

			if (mySound.position/1000>firstTransition && mySound.position/1000<=secondTransition) {

				trace("HEY!  "+_root["pic"+trans]._alpha);

				_root["pic"+(trans-1)].caption.removeTextField();

				// makes images transition

				if (_root["pic"+trans]._alpha<=100) {

					_root["pic"+trans]._alpha += 5;

					_root["pic"+(trans-1)]._alpha -= 5;

				} else {

					//makes caption visible after new image is at 100%

					_root["pic"+trans].caption._visible = true;

					//remove image that has alpha of 0

					_root["pic"+(trans-1)].removeMovieClip();

				}

				trace("successfully changed trans");

				_global.trans++;

			}

		}

	};

}

---

[retrotron]

I don't see any images at all, maybe that's why I'm confused...

[retrotron]

Okay, explain your .fla to me, I'll the buttons and stuff, what they're supposed to do, etc. (I'm finally getting some time to sit down and take a close look at it)

[davoflav]

the included file (twelve_6) has comment tags for virtually EVERY line. (like I said, this is driving me nuts)

the one caveat is that you need to wait for the Duration text box to display a number before you press the "test" button when you play the swf. The sound is not set to stream and needs to load first.


Problems Outstanding:

1. Sometimes the sound object loads sometimes it doesnt (ie. Sometimes a number WON'T show up in the duration box.)

2. White boxes appear in front of the first two images

3. Images aren't transitioning. That code doesn't want to repeat. The images are displayed at 5% opacity and then stop.

Thanks again!

[retrotron]

Thanks for the comments, that helps a ton.

[retrotron]

What's going on with this line?

code:

---

secondTransition = _root["pictrans"+(trans+1)]-.2;

---

what does the dash, dot, and two do?

[davoflav]

it sets a space of 2/10ths of a second (from the end of the first transition to the beginning of the second) for the playhead to fall into (in case there is some skipping when I set it to streaming)
to instigate the alpha transition between the two.

[davoflav]

ie. it parses the _root["pictrans"+(trans+1)] as a numeric and then subtracts the .2

[retrotron]

Yeah, just saw that. I was thinking _root["pictrans"...] was a movieclip or something, so I didn't understand why you were subtracting a number from it. I think I need some caffeine.

[davoflav]

are you seeing this abdormalities?

[retrotron]

No, it seems to be working fine for me, except for the alpha thing, it stays at 5%. Here's the code that changes the alpha:

code:

---

if (_root["pic"+trans]._alpha <= 100) {

					_root["pic"+trans]._alpha += 5;

					_root["pic"+(trans-1)]._alpha -= 5;

				} else {

					//makes caption visible after new image is at 100%

					_root["pic"+trans].caption._visible = true;

					//remove image that has alpha of 0

					_root["pic"+(trans-1)].removeMovieClip();

				}

---

But if you watch the tracing closely, you'll see that this line gets evaluated as true only once:

code:

---

if (((mySound.position/1000) > firstTransition) && ((mySound.position/1000) <= secondTransition)) { . . . }

---

Since the first if-statement is inside (a child) this latter one (the parent), the parent only gets executed once, so the alpha values only change once. You of course want the child if statement to execute over and over again. So the trick is to either get the parent if statement to evaluate to true more often than once every transition, or put the child if statement outside the parent, as its own function, so it can execute on its own. I'm looking at your picMovieMC now to see if I can determine why the child if statement I mentioned only evaluates to true once.

Here's the traces I'm using, it shows the numbers better:

code:

---

trace(mySound.position/1000 + " > " + firstTransition + " && " + mySound.position/1000 + " <= " + secondTransition);

			if (((mySound.position/1000) > firstTransition) && ((mySound.position/1000) <= secondTransition)) {

				trace("HEY!  "+ trans);

				_root["pic"+(trans-1)].caption.removeTextField();

				// makes images transition

				trace("alpha: " + _root["pic"+trans]._alpha);

				if (_root["pic"+trans]._alpha <= 100) {

					_root["pic"+trans]._alpha += 5;

					_root["pic"+(trans-1)]._alpha -= 5;

				} else {

					//makes caption visible after new image is at 100%

					_root["pic"+trans].caption._visible = true;

					//remove image that has alpha of 0

					_root["pic"+(trans-1)].removeMovieClip();

				}

				trace("successfully changed trans");

				//look for next transition

				_global.trans++;

}

---

[retrotron]

My brain is really not working today, it's driving me crazy. Where does _root.i get defined?

[davoflav]

it is the variable in a 'for' statement on the first frame of the main timeline actionscript

[retrotron]

Ah, I see. All variables declared inside the parentheses of a for loop -- e.g.

code:

---

for ( . . . variables here . . . ) {

  . . . but not here . . .

} // end for loop

---

-- are defined by default as local variables. That means they only exist inside the for loop. Since you're trying to access it outside the loop, it has no value. You can see this if you trace the "i" in your picMovieMC, you'll get "undefined". Try setting a global variable called "count" or something so that the variable will be accessible from any timeline. Of course, if you do that, be sure to use

code:

---

count++;

---

to increment the variable.