create cd

Can I create an interactive CD in Flash?

Yes, you can!

However, there are some things you absolutely need to keep in mind. These are little quirks and secrets that I went through hell with while on an actual client CD a while back, so I'm going to give you some free info... ;)

If running the presentation from CD-ROM, do NOT load external .SWF files into the main one by using loadMovie() or loadMovieNum(). Some CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives have a crappy or screwy buffer speed, and can cause major problems with choppy sound, frame loss, slow movies and freezing when loading a dynamic movie from the disc. Make sure ALL of your Flash movie is contained within the single .EXE file.

Loading external JPG files is okay, but can cause a minor pause if the CD-ROM drive has spun down, because the drive has to "spin back up" to effectively load the JPG from file to the movie.

MEMORY! Watch your memory usage! Intense Flash movies with a lot of bulky contents (movies, music, images) can cause a major memory overhaul and can crash a user's machine. Best thing to do would be to use the Task Manager or Memturbo to watch your memory usage. First, open the Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL on Win2k/XP) and figure out the current available memory. Then, with the task manager still open, execute your Flash movie and make sure to navigate through ALL of its contents (objects are loaded to memory when you enter the object's initial frame--they are NEVER unloaded from memory until you close the projector.) Before closing the movie, look at the Task Manager again and record your newly available memory.

Then, it's a simply math formula:

Original Available Memory - Newly Available Memory = Required available memory for your Flash movie

This is extremely important, because you do not want to send out CDs that crash the machines of users that only have 64 MB of RAM when your movie requires 100.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy...

Just when I thougth I had it figured out, i fall upon this post.

My client wants me to make an interactive CD-rom and I just suggested to make the thing in Flash MX (first time I'd be making a CD). I thought it would be very similar to making a website (which I've done before).

Now you're telling me DON'T USE LOADMOVIES !!!! I had planned to build my whole presentation on this method.

I've posted some questions on this subject. You can find them at http://www.flashkit.com/board/showth...hreadid=463163
Please, take a look at it and do do do react.

Dear Lightwave, any experience you'd want to share with me is very very welcome!!!

Thanks already
Dubya

Thats some great info! I noticed a bit of choppiness with my flash cd when I used an external swf. Now I'm taken your advice & includeing the sound into the EXE file.

However I need a little help, I have 3 scenes and I want the sound track to play through all 3 scenes. I want scene 3 to have the on/off button to control the entire sound track. How is this possible?

Thanks!

Liam,

You'll want to use a sound object and control the pause/stop/play using ActionScript. This tutorial should help you out:

http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/In..._-72/index.php

I'm sorry but I might be missing the point. Did you not say:

"If running the presentation from CD-ROM, do NOT load external .SWF files into the main one by using loadMovie() or loadMovieNum(). Some CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives have a crappy or screwy buffer speed, and can cause major problems with choppy sound, frame loss, slow movies and freezing when loading a dynamic movie from the disc. Make sure ALL of your Flash movie is contained within the single .EXE file."

Its 2:30 in the morning & I've been at this computer scince 1 this afternoon & I'm beat. That tutorial is showing me exactly what you recomended not to do....right? Am I missing something or should get some rest & try again tomorrow....LOL

Unless you meant do NOT load actual movies with images and animation but its OK for a movie clip with sound?

Please let me know! I need to get this over with.

Thanks so much, I'm going to bed. :zzz:

Okay, this tutorial sucks. I didn't go all the way through it. It's close to what you want, just without the external movies...(sorry about that...didn't mean to confuse you.)

Basically, you want to embed sounds into your movie, then treat them as objects. You can load them from within the movie using ActionScript (not as external files, though.)

You would embed an mp3 into your library. Then, you right-click on the mp3 member in the library, click Linkage, name the mp3, export for ActionScript, and now you can use AS to load the file. The mp3 embeds itself into the movie at frame 1, so it's actually loaded, just not playing. You use mysound.attachSound("myMP3"), then you can use mysound.start() to play and mysound.stop() to stop to mp3.

You can download an example here:

http://www.ln.tv/lashstuff/load sound from library.zip

Oh, and just so you know, when developing w/ Flash for a CD-ROM:

Loading an external swf with any sound in it is BAD.

Loading an external swf without any sound in it is OK.

Loading an external MP3 while playing an SWF is BAD.

Loading an internal MP3 while playing an external SWF is OK.

Loading an internal MP3 while playing an internal SWF is OK.

:)

Cool! Thanks so much. I'll give it a try....:cool:

Hello all,

While I agree that keeping the whole project in one .exe is best, I have made presentation CDs for clients which do load external swfs. I have found that having a preloader on each individual swf helps with the issue of choppy playback, it also ensures smoother action when I have larger files (those with audio especially).

When I create the individual swfs I keep them as small as possible and always have a preloader on each.

And since using MX I continue to work in the same way...

Just my thoughts on the subject.........

Cheers!

I am 90% done with a cd rom for a client, and have used loadmovie in absolutely all possible ways...
I am now wanting to add the audio tracks...I should have forseen this problem.

My main buttons are on the lowest level and all my movies load ontop of that one...Then obviously replace eachother when loaded.
So couldnt i just add the sound to the bottom movie, since that movie is never unloaded???

pisceanbabeT,

Yes, you can load the sound at the bottom movie. But, keep in mind that all of your sounds will load into memory when the EXE runs--so, if you have 100MB in audio that loads with the EXE, you're going to run into serious memory requirements.

Compressing your audio will help a lot, but sometimes it doesn't matter for those long presentations with some monotone guy talking about the end of the world (or whatever your projects may be...) ;)

You might want to try designforce's idea, and consider a preloader. I haven't tested it yet, but it seems like a good idea.

designforce, does that solve all of your load from CD problems, or does it work only with small files?