loaded Movies and preloaders

Milosav,

I think you might've misunderstood my earlier question about putting flash onto cds or using it in Director..I'm very familiar with those two methods...what I was referring to was LoadMovie in those mediums...since bandwith isn't a problem, you probably wouldn't need separate swfs. So, I'm wondering how you would do what we've been doing..having a main flash movie and only using 1 frame...having a stop action...can you load things into movie clips that are stored in the flash library? This way everything would be included in the one flash movie since file size isn't a prob and you could do alot of different things in one frame of the movie without using a bunch of scenes (I'm used to using flash 'scenes' and I'd like to find an alternate to this..loadmovie has helped!)...

As for publishing to exe or swf that topic I'm very familiar with :mrpimp:

Any ideas...? :smoov:

Hi again,
foochuck:
As far as I know loadMovie() is the only method to import a
movie onto the timeline. Though you can use runtime sharing of
Symbols to pull symbols into your movie from a central library.
You cannot assign actionscript that affects runtime shared Symbols
making them less versatile. So other than having all your content
in the Library then using attachMovie to attach it to the timeline
I am no wiser than you. I can see what you are looking at and it
sounds very appealing!!!

foochuck and aaron: there are a lot of typing errors in the last script I posted (I will try and be more carefull)!!

I have tested the script since my last post and there is a problem with this approach ... your progress bar does not appear until 20% into the load. That was with the preloader bar either loaded into
a MC instance or into a level.

Aaron and I have been looking into this problem and one solution
is. To make a base Movie that consists of less than 1KB.
All it has is a preloader script that firsts loads the preloader
into level 4 then charts the load of your real main movie into a
movie clip instance on the base Movie timeline.

Aaron you can check this at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/aaron

I have tested this at a connection speed of only 14400bps
and the loader appears and begins it's stuff within 4 seconds!!!!
I think that you may not get it much faster than this.

It also means that you can use this preloader whenever you need
it with the same _level4.LoadBarFill._xscale= type calls.

The .fla files are available at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/aaronA.zip

foochuck this work that aaron has done answers some of your
questions. And it shows the benifits of having a Control Movie
if you want to call it that with your preloader code centralized.

Aaron let me know what you think.

Milosav

Back again,

Wrong URL on the .zip file

This is right:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/aaron/aaron.zip

Sorry.

Milosav

Milosav, I;ve been following/reading your replies to these fellows, but I felt like I was jumping into the middle of a conversation. So I figure it may be better if I post my question anew.

SITUATION:
I have a main.swf which contains 4 buttons, each to load an external movie. Each external movie has the same dimension as main.swf, which look like a rectangle with contents inside. Let's call the external files: a.swf, b.swf, c.swf and d.swf. Now, I want to completely cover main.swf (_level0) with the newly loaded external .swf, which I load into level 1.

Each external movie is so big that I need a preloader that comes up while a.swf is being loaded into _level1. So I created preloader.swf and put it into _level2. At the beginning of my main.swf I had a frame action to load preloader.swf and store it in _level2. I make sure preloader.swf had an empty keyframe at frame 1 and stop(); script.

PROBLEMS:
Problem 1
I clicked button 1 and my playhead goes to a framelabel which contains frame actions:
loadMovieNum ("a.swf", 1);
_level2.gotoandPlay(2);

My preloader works for awhile and then froze, while a.swf is loaded into level 1 and froze halfway too. I know this because a.swf has a sound object that supposed to play after around 3 seconds.

Problem 2
I got rid off the preloader and wanted to see wheter a.swf has been loaded properly. It turned out that the sound object in a.swf doesn't work and I can not interact with most part of a.swf. a.swf has a scroller function and rollover functions. None of them work.

Could you help me on this matter Milosav?

Thank heaps,
Phoenix2779

Man Milosav, you are an expert! I haven't looked over the fla's cuz the school doesn't have flash. I'm sure that it will work beautifully. Thanks for all your help!

Aaron

Have you seen how many people have viewed this thread??

milosav, did you forget about me? :(

Hi tgfx,

No haven't forgotten you ... just trying to cover everyone.

The load count numbers and stopping the movie returning to
do a load even though the .swfs may be loaded.

I was hoping to post back on that latter today and have a
new example and .zip on my web space. Will post back later
with that.

Milosav

Hi Phoenix2779,

Jump right in the more heads put together the better.

It is really difficult to tell what is wrong with a
preloader as most Movies are put together in a unique
way.

Can you .zip up your main Movie with the four buttons
and your preloader.swf and attach ttem to this thread?

I will have a look at them. If the .zip file is larger than
102Kb post back and I can give you my email.

p.s What version of flash do you use??

Milosav

Hi to those just viewing this thread,

There have been a number of examples put together
through this thread you can find them at the following
URL's. If you have any questions concerning them post
back. They all deal with loadin .swf's preloaders and
pre loader bars. Mutliptle .swf loading etc.

Example 1: load .swf's from basic frame action.
View it working at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/example1
Get the .zip file at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/exa...e_part_One.zip

Example 2: load .swf's from buttons and change MC Properties.
View it working at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/example2
Get the .zip file at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/exa...e_part_Two.zip

Example 3: load .swf from button with preloader and bar.
View it working at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/example3
Get the .zip file at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/exa...part_Three.zip

Example 5: load .swf's from buttons each with preloader and bar.
View it working at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/example5
Get the .zip file at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/exa..._part_Five.zip

Hope they help.

They all build on the previouse example so are easyier to
follow.

Milosav

Milosav,
It does work very well! Just a few things i dont understand.
The whole 'current stage' thing i dont get and do i just use the loader i was using because in the zip there was no loader?

Thanks a lot!
Aaron

Cheers for those links Milosav. I managed to fix my script bugs beforehand, but your links pretty much sum up the basic preloading and external swfs matter.

Would you be able to check my new post entitled "Music Loop won't play after LoadMovie?"

That will be great,
Phoenix2779

Hi tgfx,

Ok I worked on your files and have uploaded it to may
web space.

You can view it at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/tgfx
and get the .zip fla file (still B-I-G) at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/tgfx/neonB.zip

I have thought about what you are doing and this is
a method I use when dealing with a small data base of
.swf .jpg's.

Create a directory structure in your root directory
that suits the content types / groups. In your case the
content is a data base of images.

So in this example I have created the directories.
"artImages"
"funkyImages"
"commImages"

So in your nc-loader a _global variable is initiated.

_global.currentImageDirectoryPath="artImages/";

It is set to the path to your default set of images.

In the button events we now
1: check to see if the user is already viewing the
current image set related to this button.
2: If they are then nothing needs
to happen.
3: If the current images set is not the image set related
to this button then change the _global variable to the
directory related to this button.

on (release) {
//1:are they already looking at this image set.
if(currentImageDirectoryPath!="artImages/")
{ //3:no they want to see a different image set
//so change the _global variable
_global.currentImageDirectoryPath="artImages/";
//load a new image set.
gotoAndPlay("art");
}
//2: nothing happens
}

Your back button just goes back to the "Buttons" frame label.

Have a good look at it ... let me know what you think.

With this method you always can find out where your
user is by checking the _global variable. It also means
that you can easily expand your data base. Without messing
with your main data base engine.

Look through the movies and check how I have used the
currentImageDirectoryPath variable. I think you will see
what I am getting at.

If you like it we can make it tighter.

I have one suggestion. I think it may be a good idea to
allow the users access to the images that have already loaded.
It would be easy to do this by just inserting some script.
This way they could check out what has loaded then when they
came back more images would be loaded for their viewing.

Post Back

Milosav

justplainsoccer & Phoenix2779

Phoenix2779,
I do not know very much about audio and the problems that
you may encounter. I "think" that foochuck has dealt with
this more than me ... so foochuck ??

justplain soccer:
Just use the loader.swf you were using. I don't think
it has changed since the last time. (if I am wrong here
post back).

The preloader script with the if(currentStage==1) in it
works in two stages.

Stage 1: if(currentStage==1)
Checks if "loader.swf" is fully loaded. If it is we can then
use it to monitor the loading of the main Movie. So we set
the currentStage flag variable to currentStage=2;
and start loading the mainMovie "GeneticSite1.swf"

Stage 2:if(currentStage==2)
Checks the download "GeneticSite1.swf". If all of the main
"GeneticSite1.swf" is loaded ... close down the preloader.
start the movie.

Hope that helps explain it a bit more. Play with the script
and you will soon find out what this do ... it is a great way
to learn new stuff. It can be a lot of fun bending someone's
code ... As long as you keep a copy of the original.

Milosav

Milosav,

Perhaps I should start a new thread on this question but I was hoping you'd be able to look at/answer it :D

My question is - I'm interested in learning more of what you can do with controlling buttons/movie clips all from one script. It has given me alot of ideas with things I've already done and it seems to be a way of saving alot of time. I'm wondering if a script that controls the buttons in a frame action can be global..? Perhaps work throughout the whole movie and not have to be loaded in each frame that the buttons are in. Also wondering how you can do animations through a script and if this saves time, loads the movie faster and/or is a recommended way to animations.

Until I had read this post from you I didn't know you could control buttons without attaching an action to them like you've done in your previous examples. I'd like to see what else can be done to buttons and movie clips..perhaps if you are too busy you can point me to another source that might have some examples of this scripting and such...

Thanks again :smoov:

Phoenix2779,

I looked over your post about audio and it looks like you've already been given the answer to your problem. If not let me know and I'll look over your movie to see if I can help in any way.

:smoov:

Milosav,

I'm also interested in learning how a nice flash website can be built using only 1 scene. I've heard scenes aren't really that reliable to use. I'd like to see how this could be done.

I use scenes alot because I bring my flash movies into director and I can't use loadmovie in director (as far as I know) so since file size isn't a problem (final media is either cd-rom or intranet) I can have all of the flash presentation within 1 movie. I'm wondering how I could go about not using scenes...maybe I should be starting a new thread for this. Sorry.

Any help would be appreciated.

:mrpimp:

foochuck,

no sweat, gparis has helped me with his/her simple suggestion. All I had to do was add 'this' into my bgm2=newSound(this).
Thanks anyway for noticing my remarks.


Milosav,
keep up the good work, you're helping many people including those who are not actively engaging in the board, like me.

Cheers,
P2779

Hi foochuck,

Maybe you should start a new thread on some of these
questions there are lot things that I and maybe others
logged onto this thread do not know about.

But try here first!!

_global functions .....

Here I declare a _global variable called updateMyCounter

_global.updateMyCounter=function(){
counter++;
}

I can now call this from anywhere with updateMyCounter();
So you can call a _global function from within a button
event like. This works for me so far...

button1.onRelease=function(){
updateMyCounter();
}

I think if you know enough actionscript you should use it to
do your own animation and tweening "if you can". The final
.swf file can be much much smaller. And if you use Flash MX
setInterval to do your animation timing you are free of the
Movie frame rate as you can use updateAfterEvent(); to
refresh the visuals making for much smoother animation. Of
course if you are not sure what you are doing you may create
bad slow script.

You sre already starting to not use scenes by breaking your
movies into seperate .swf's ... if that's what you mean.
I think it is a good way to deliver multi-media without
the user having to wait forever to download. I never use
Scenes,in most of my movies 1 try and keep to 1 Frame,
2 Frames if I have to, and 3 Frames only if I can find no
other solution. I control many smaller MC's with actionscript.
But this is not all my movies and there are lots of times
that I use flash to do tweens and other things because they
ARE good at what they do.

Milosav

Milosav,

Okay I have a new loadmovie question for you. What if I have a mainmovie.swf and I have 4 different movies I'd like to automatically load into it..but heres the catch..each sub-movie (1.swf, 2.swf, etc...) would load randomly each time the page is displayed. Only one sub-movie would load each time..for example say each one was a news article or a different product...and I want flash to randomly load 1 out of the 4 sub-movies..how could I got about doing this? Of course I'd also like to have a preloader for each sub-movie as well...

In case you're wondering I got the idea to do this from macromedia.com's homepage..it looks like they do something like this in the main flash interface that loads...they have buttons down the left side of the page and it looks like they load a random movie each time you visit/refresh the page.

Any ideas??? :confused:

Hi foochuck,

Ok loading a random .swf out of 4 posssible .swf's

Your .swf's are named with an index number.

Movie1.swf
Movie2.swf
Movie3.swf
Movie4.swf

Then first you generate your random number.

RandomMovieNumber=Math.round(Math.random()*3+1);

Then you would just call loadMovie() like:

loadMovie("Movie"+RandomMovieNumber+".swf","mc_hol der");


I would most probably put it all in a function like:

function loadRandomMovie()
{ //generate your random number
RandomMovieNumber=Math.round(Math.random()*3+1);
//load your movie using the random number
loadMovie("Movie"+RandomMovieNumber+".swf","mc_hol der");
//if our loader bar is loaded into a level (level4)
//make it visible and set it up.
_level4._visible=true;
_level4.theBar._xscale=0;

//start your preloader
preloaderInterval=setInterval(loadCheck,100);
}

//your function that does the load checking and scales
//your progress bar
function loadCheck(){
dataLoaded=mc_holder.getBytesLoaded();
dataTotal=mc_holder.getBytesTotal();

if(dataLoaded>=dataTotal && dataTotal>0)
{ //your movie is loaded
//if your loader bar is on _level4
_level4._visible=false;
//maybe you play your loaded .swf
mc_holder.gotoAndPlay(2);
//stop your preloader checking
clearInterval(preloaderInterval);
}
//if not loaded yet then scale your loader bar
//if it is loaded into level 4 like some of our
//other examples
_level4.theBar._xscale=(dataLoaded/dataTotal)*100;
}

So when you wanted to load your random movie just

loadRandomMovie();



Hope that helps...

I have a question for you.

When publishing projector files that are to be played in
the flash Player. Have you found there is any need for any
loadChecking or loader bar ???? What if you were loading a
multi MB .jpg file with say
loadMovie("images/image1.jpg","mc_holder1");
Is there a large lag before the image will appear ??????

Milosav

Darn Milosav I can't answer your question. I'm going to try out the script you sent me..I'll let you know my results. It looks like it will work....Thanks again and sorry I can't help this time.

Hi milosav,

Wow, thanks for looking into that again, your solution was very elegant! The only thing I didn't understand was how you increased the "loadcount" text with each image load. Is it just as simple as using "count++"?

About your question, yeah I was thinking that too. Your current script is perfect except for the fact that if the user leaves the art images (to say, go look at commercial), then comes back, the images will have to preload again. Maybe we could get around that by loading different containers for every image? Let me know what you think about this.

The last thing is the back button on an image after it has been clicked on. As it is (after your brilliant modifications :)), it goes back to the "Buttons" framelabel, but ideally I'd like it to fade out the image, since it fades in at the start. As I'm sure you already saw, there's some code in there already that's supposed to do this, but it doesn't work. I really have no idea how to make it work either. What do you think?

Code:

---

if (art == "sheart"){
while (_root.neon.container1._alpha > 0) {
_root.neon.container1._alpha -= 5;
}
_parent.gotoAndStop("Buttons");

---

I think that about covers it. Thanks again for looking into this milo!

Hi tgfx,

Glad you think that it is heading in the right direction.

Yes you are correct count++ increments the count variable,
and on Frame 54 this variable is used to set your text
counter with the line: loadcount.text=count;

Yes as you have only one set of containers each new set must
be loaded into the same containers.

Yes you could have a set of containers for each image set and
there would be no need for any re-loading.

And I am sorry I cut your fade out ... I must have forgotten.

I will work on this and get back to you ... I don't think
that any of the above will be a problem.

Milosav

Milosav!
Hey again. Been working on the site on and off and ive run into a problem. I've got my nav bar.swf loaded into a movie clip and im trying to unload a movie and load a different one into the clip with a clikc of a button but it doesnt seem to be working. Any idea?
http://aaronfrancis.home.mindspring.com/problem.zip

Thanks!
Aaron

Hi Aaron,

I have attached a slightly different navbar.swf.

You just had the wrong target path to your MC's.

Also you will see that all the button calls are on
Frame 1 of navbar.swf.

You were using to different button events at the same time.

A: home.onRelease=function(){)
and
B: on(press){ }

They both achieve the same thing but you only need to use
one of them. I prefer to use A: because it keeps all the
actionscript in one place ... easier to see. But a lot of
people prefer style B:. And of course there are sometimes
where one is better to use than the other.

Anyway I only made changes to navbar as everything else
works OK.

You will see though when you test it out that when you load
something it stays visible. If you want I can make up a
simple script that will take care of this for you.

Let me know if you want ....

Milosav

where is the attachment?

Thanks
Aaron

Hi Aaron,


Hmmmmm..

I am losing it.......

Here it is

Milosav

Milosav,
I would like to see the code to get it to hide like you said.
Thanks!
Aaron

Hi Aaron,

Here is the next version of things.

You will see that GeneticSite1.fla now has an empty_MC
instance for all your content. This way once it is loaded
the user will not have to download it again into new containers.

Everything is named with a numeric index. Including your
external .swf files. This the best way to handle external .swf's
if you are controlling their loading etc.

In this example they are called:
container0 //this container holds your home content
container1 //this container holds your funny content
container2 //this holds your links content
container3 //this holds your picture content
container4 //this holds your music content

You external .swf files are renamed to:
content0.swf //your home swf
content1.swf //your funny swf
content2.swf //your links swf
content3.swf //your pictures swf
content4.swf //your music swf

You will see that all your buttons now call the same
showNewContent() checks to see if the requested content
is loaded if it is then it makes it visible
if its not then it loads it.


Have a look if you think this suits your project let me
know. Or any ????????????

Script to check if the .swf files are loaded should go into
this script ... so if you think it's OK ... I shall add that
in.

At the moment the script is really straight forward so
you should be able to get a picture of what is going on.

You can download the files from here:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/aaron/navigationA.zip

Milosav

Hi aaron,

I found an error .
This should be the actionscript of Frame 1
GeneticSite1.fla.

Just the file name needed to be changed to "content0.swf".

stop();
Cursor1._visible = false;
Cursor2._visible = false;
Cursor3._visible = false;
Cursor4._visible = false;
loadMovie("matrix.swf", "mc_hold1");
loadMovie("navbar.swf", "mc_hold2");
loadMovie("content0.swf", "container0");

Milosav

heya milosav,

did you come up with anything on the fadeout issue? that one's bugging me.

Hi tgfx,

Hey I was waiting to hear from you. I sent you a private
message. ?? Maybe it did not get to you.

Anyway I had asked you some questions before I was going to
move on. So I will just ask again here.

There are a lot of empty squares in the grid that holds
your thumb images .... will these be filled with more
images later??

At the moment you have a lot of hard coded names in your
script ie "sheart" "skull" etc. This will work for a small
database of images like it is now. But if you do make the
database larger it will become more and more difficult to deal
with. I suggest that if you are planning to expand
your image set that your code be tweaked to use a numeric
index system. This is not difficult to do and simplifies things
a lot. Let me know what you think about this???

I know I asked you this some time back but I do not
remember your answer ... what version of Flash do you
have??

Please get back to me on these ?? And I will continue on
with the file. The fadeout should not be a problem but
what version of flash you have makes a difference to how
it would be done best.

Awaiting your reply.

Milosav

hey milosav,

oh sorry about that, I didn't even think to check my private messages. but yeah, those squares will not all fill up, but some more might possibly in the future. also, for each other section - commercial, funky, etc - there are different thumbs, meaning different variables, and I agree that it gets hard to keep track of. especially considering that once clicked, the mask that fades the image in has to look through each variable to figure out which container to increase the _alpha on. it's kinda ugly.

anyway I'm using flash mx, and I'll be more observant of the private messages now!

thanks,

forrest

Hi Forrest,

Glad to hear that you have MX, it has a lot more to
offer than previous versions of Flash.

I will do some work on your project.

The way it works will be a lot tighter and easier
for you to improve on. Of course the design will remain
the same. Just the engine that runs it may be different.

Will post back soon with something for you to look
over.

Milosav

Milosav,

Sorry to jump back into my prior post on you, but I was wondering if you could post a sample of the random movie script you had posted for me. If not, not prob.

:smoov:

Milosav,
Random question..
Can you have different fps rates for swf's loaded into your main movie?

Thanks!
Aaron

this preloader thread will blow all other preloader threads.....:D
plenty of interesting stuff here:mrpimp:

Hi foochuck , Forrest, adnank21,

Foochuck,
I will put together a random movie loader sample
and post it back here soon.

Forrest/tgfx,
Have done a bit of work on your file.
I have also uploaded it to my web space ... the .zip
file includes the new .fla and also a .txt file with
some explanation of what is going on. I think you will
have a few questions ... The preloader bar could be
designed to suit your project ... maybe a neon style.
Also I think you will need a preloader for your main Movie as
it increases in size (ie. if you add lots more images to
your database).

You can view it at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/tgfx

and download the .zip at:
http://www.trump.net.au/~Milosav/tgfx/Neon_C.zip


adnank21,
Glad to hear you think the is some interesting stuff
in this thread. It is getting a bit big for those just
joining in. Feel free to join in ... the more brain
power the better !!!

Milosav

Hi foochuck,

Here is the .zip file for the random movie thing.

Look over it, I think you will see what is going on.

First the mainMovie loads in a random Movie. There is
also a button which calls the same function to load
other movies randomly.

I add in the preloader script. But did not add the
_level4. stuff if your progress bar is loaded into
a Level like we have been doing. I think you can most
probably add this in by looking over our other stuff.

If you have any questions post back.

Milosav

hey milosav,

I've looked at your file and have responded via email, so I guess I'm through with this thread. thanks for helping!!!

forrest