pc/mac cd-rom.......

[cameronbrewer]

hi,

am just about to embark on the wonderful journey of producing a cd rom for both platforms....joy!

Have been reading a few threads, but most of them are quite indepth....so whats the deal with making the disc dual platform so you can just stick it in and it runs...or does the user have to click a button to designate their platform....im working on a pc and really just want to know about any probs that people have had to give me hand....i have two weeks to complete the whole thing and apparently theres quite alot of content, so any help would be appreciated.

...oh, am also going to use video on it, so do i need to include a quicktime/media player on the cd or will it run as a stand alone in flash without anything else....

Ta.

Cam.

[johnie]

The QT will Play in QT unless you convert it to SWF with SWideo, Vid2Flash, or Flix. If you include the QT Player you need to check with Apple on how to distribute it.

For Standalone Players you will need to make 2 files. One for the MAC and One for the PC. The MAC Standalone must be opened on a MAC and have resources allocated to it- so in other words if you are making a standalone at one time or another you will need a MAC. Also you will need to write applescripts for the MAC to luanch your QT.

Finally, I know that Toast will make Hybird CD's but I am not sure about a PC program that will. Somebody posted a program a while back...

I know for a fact that Toast works but you need a MAC to use Toast.

[3xlt]

I tried and I gave up on the idea. I just only made the PC version.
The reason is this.
1)Only real basic action script and functions are compatible with both platforms. If you you create a complex .fla such as jumping between scenes or complex action script, once you publish it into MAC version it will not work right. My .fla ran perfectly in PC but only basic fuctions (such as go to frame number, or lebel) would work in MAC.
2) If you have a load/unload movie funtion, you will need to make .swf files in two seperate versions with different names or different folders. Mac's and PC's .swf are different.
*There are no program that converts PC .swf that was created in Flash 5 into Mac .swf yet.

Now if you want to make .swfs for each platform, you gonna need to create them from its own platform. That would mean double the work!

3) Even if you have gone thorugh all the works, the problem will still lies in burning the CD. Like Johnnie said, it has to be from a hybrid toaster. Even that I'm not sure it's gonna work correctly cuz I haven't gone up to that point yet.
I just gave up after I found out that in order to make dual platform, I will have to do the WHOLE thing over in MAC from scratch!
I just gonna send my CD in PC version.
If any of you guys know a better solution, feel free to post it

[cameronbrewer]

cheers for your posts guys, but unfortunately giving up isnt an option....will do a bit more research before i begin...anyone else got anything to add?

Cam.

[3xlt]

Why don't you make something small and try it first?
Small but include the functions I stated that wouldn't work on MAC.
However if you havn't start your project then it's a good idea to design the .fla so that it would work on both platform. Keep it simple and stay away from load/unload .swf
In my case I had to give up. Simply because my project was already completed BEFORE I tried converting it into MAC.
There's no way that I can make another project over in MAC. And I also don't have that much access to MAC.

[cameronbrewer]

think that i will try a little experiment to see whether its gonna work or not...in your experience does the load/unload command not work too well on macs? I heard that jumping between scenes was also a nightmare?? Any other actionscript areas to stay away from??

Ta.

Cam.

[3xlt]

The load/unload fuction works fine, the problem is that the .swf that you load/unload must be made for each platform seperately. You also cannot convert Flash5 .swf from PC to MAC like we used to do with Flash4. Therefore, the .swf must be made from its own platform.
My CD is for my porfoilio, and my stuffs were made in PC Flash. I can not simply do them all over.

[coopster]

I just completed a project...I don't have video in mine, but I needed to create a version for both Mac and PC.

I used CDEveryWhere to make it possible. When you publish your .fla to a Mac projector, it saves it as an ".hqx" file. That file has to be decompressed before you burn it onto a CD or use in a Mac. Yes you could send it to your buddy with a Mac and they could decompress it for you, but that is messy.

Here is the thread with all the info needed.

http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...readid=121421]

Sorry I am not up on the video part of the question, but hope this helps in some way.

Coopster

[cameronbrewer]

lovely, will give it a whirl....but, a little question, when the hqx file or whatever is produced, it is zipped...are you saying that you just have to unzip the file and then wack that file into the mac side of cd everywhere....i guess this is answered on your thread, so i'll stop being lazy and read it....thanks alot for your posts....on both my questions!!

Ta.

Cam.

[coopster]

CDEveryWhere takes care of decompressing the .hqx file. It's SLICK! And yes. All the info is in the thread within my comments. I just received a suggestion to create a tutorial for this... as soon as I complete a few projects, I will seriously consider doing just that.

Coopster