Loading Movie Prototypes

[JSDvs9172]

That would be tricky.

My examples work okay, but they seem to have the best benifets at 56K speeds.

[kenlynch]

Too many loadmovies in that last post Gopal!

I think I know what you mean though - it could work for simple loading animations but I'm not sure how you'd get the bytes loaded if you wanted a counter.

By the way, just letting you all know that none of the loading movies work for me, just white screen while it loads then straight into the anim.

I really need this sorting.

[Twisted Mind]

Originally posted by GopalR
Hi,

Just a thought. Has anyone tried creating the main movie as a seperate movie from the loadmovie, loading the loadmovie with the loading message first, showing the loading message, and THEN loading the main movie using the loadMovie() function?

Regards
Gopal

Yeah, that's what i wrote in the other loading movie thread. I'll make an example whan i get some free time. (like next week... )

[JSDvs9172]

It is actually speed dependent so at 56K it works and broadband, well, that's not so apparant. I did actually determine that to be true.

That's actually what happens to me. I test it on the server, it goes fast off the wait text. Test it on my laptop at 56K, it hangs around blank screen, waits with the wait text when it appears (no pun intended) and goes to the main animation only after loading is complete, which takes a couple of minutes. The wait text is actually loaded somewhere in between where the page comes up in the browser and when the movie starts, as the movie is loading. Therefore it works well as long as you're at 56K, otherwise it goes too fast.

You would need a lot more data to get it to work like that at T1 or DSL speeds, in case you were wondering.

A QUICK NEW THOUGHT TO ADD:

I also don't see how we could get it to work using loadmovie. You would need the external file to be the same size movie as the first as I've heard, you would forfiet counters (highly probable based on the odds), and it's not professional. The vocal alphabet movies (my latest models) load for 47 seconds (it takes 30 to show the text) on a cable connection (excluding my server), and that's according to carnwath. I've experienced an estimated similar load time on the wait text, albeit another minute's or half minute's estimated wait after that for the movie to switch to the animation itself.

[GopalR]

Hi,

Twisted Mind: I've just seen your post on the other thread where you also suggest the loadMovie() method. This begs the pun: "great (Twisted) minds think alike"

On a more serious note: Please note, I have not had time to test any of this, so what I'm saying here is based purely on theoretical considerations.

The only reason that the loadMovie() way is more satisfying to me is that it seems (theoretically) more precise. I am very new to Flash/3DFA, so some of this may be due to my ignorance. Does Flash/3DFA for instance, guarantee a specific order in which the elements load from a swf file? Is this the order in which they are listed in the elements list, the order in which they appear in scenes, the order in which they are used in scripts, or just some random order. Since Flash is a streaming format, I suspect its not the last one (random), but I'm still not sure if it is possible for the person making the movie to know exactly when each element is loading.

Now, in the situation where the loading movie and main movie are all part of one swf file, how would we know that the loading movie is being loaded before the other elements of the main movie? It may start playing first, because its played in the first scene, but by that time much of the rest of the movie may already have loaded.

If the loading movie and the main movie are in seperate swf files, however, there is no chance of this happening, since the loading movie (which loads first) will not even be aware of the main movie until it is instructed to load it explicitly using the loadMovie() function.

As far as the counters are concerned, is it not possible to achieve this by having the loading movie read variables that are set by the main movie as it loads? These values could be set based on the main movie's getBytesLoaded() and getBytesTotal() methods.

All of what I've said is based on my very limited understanding of Flash loading and may be dead wrong, but I thought I needed to explain my thinking, and any comments will, I am sure, help me improve my own understanding of these issues.

Regards
Gopal

[JSDvs9172]

I thought similarly already. But I've personally tested my examples and have not had too many problems. Excluding the new "_framesloaded" function test that I've posted for forum examination since I've been thrown aside by it personally in an initial version of it (it is now reworked and uses an "in main movie" loading text, and I should also exclude the second vocal alphabet one as I did not fully check it), I've had good results at 56K where the movie appears after a reasonable amount of time on the load text depending on the movie.

I just think loadmovie is not the right way to do it because that's not quite its use, as far as I can reason it.

A QUICK THOUGHT:

There is a getBytesLoaded and a getBytesTotal recognized by 3DFA, and I've used that in some of my examples. I did not use them for counter purposes, though - just to check if everything was loaded.

[kenlynch]

Try and try as I might, it seems impossible to do a loading movie. It seems to me that the SWF that's created by 3DFA is loading ALL the content first, so when it gets to my loading script it's already loaded and skips it. This really, really, really needs to be working in the final version.

[ForumNewbie]

Hi,

Having studied all the stuff that JSDvs9172 posted I think that it does stream some stuff, but not all. The examples do work, but the loading movie only appears very late in the loading process.

If we could work out what is and isn't streamed, maybe that would help?

eg. If it loads the main movie before it does anything else, then streams the child movies, you could put the loading movie in the main movie, and put the rest in child ones. Maybe this would make the loading part appear earlier in the loading process?

Just a thought !

Morgan.

[JSDvs9172]

Thanks "Morg."

I had a chance to look at a tutorial on FlashKit and have come up with a filler bar I want to try. It was originally a test of _framesloaded but 3DFA does not fully recognize it as I found out and it failed me a little. Someone may request that from support if they feel they want it, but meanwhile I'll stick with getBytesLoaded.

http://crhs.ods.org/jeffrey/VocalAlphabet3.html

p.s. I'll be away from my server for a week on vacation, but I'll try to check back from other computers if I have any available at the time. If not, I'll check back whenever my schedule allows.

EDIT:

This one is also based on Vocal Alphabet.

UPDATE May 24 2003 5:19am CST:

I had a problem with this one on export after I did a copy and paste of the elements to try leaving just the loading bar. Apparantly I also needed to reset the references in the movie source as a result. Thankfully, this is now fixed and so it now works like it's supposed to again.

[kenlynch]

The new movie loads 50% before I see the bar. Do you have the source available anywhere so I can take a look?

Ken

[JSDvs9172]

I won't be able to make the source available for a week, unfortunately, as I'm on vacation and am just checking the forum from the most readily available Internet connection I have at my disposal. I have been thinking, however, that maybe inputting the loader elements first will make a difference. I will tell you the most logical code for this, however:

//in the main movie
if (root.getBytesLoaded() != root.getBytesTotal() ) {
gotoAndPlay("Scene 1"); //the scene redirect that loops the load sequence
} else {
gotoAndPlay("Scene 2"); //the first action scene, after Scene 5
                        //which was dragged up from an after
                        //upgrade scene insertion
}

//in loader bar fill which is a movie
this._xscale = ((root.getBytesLoaded() / root.getBytesTotal()) * 100);

That should (hopefully) explain a few things until an example code package arrives.

[kenlynch]

No need to work on this anymore, loading movies are back

[Twisted Mind]

Originally posted by kenlynch
No need to work on this anymore, loading movies are back

Hmm, this thread might still be good. We can't program our preloaders. But, i'm sure that feature will be implented soon anyway...

[kenlynch]

Originally posted by Twisted Mind
Hmm, this thread might still be good. We can't program our preloaders. But, i'm sure that feature will be implented soon anyway...

What do you mean we can't program our preloaders? You can use any movie as a preloader.

[Twisted Mind]

Originally posted by kenlynch
What do you mean we can't program our preloaders? You can use any movie as a preloader.

I mean, program when the movie should start (maybe BEFORE the whole movie is loaded), set a certain time when the loading movie should detect when the movie is loaded and so on... Or is it possible now? I haven't tried...

[kenlynch]

Ahh, I see. There are currently two options: load the whole movie and load the content. For most situations I think that these will suffice.

[dniezby]

You no longer have to figure out the loading movie problem.
Download V4.4 beta and it's already been re-installed.

[Twisted Mind]

Originally posted by dniezby
You no longer have to figure out the loading movie problem.
Download V4.4 beta and it's already been re-installed.

Didn't read the posts above, huh?

I just want to program the loading movie my self. But i think that it can be done in the program know anyway...

[JSDvs9172]

It is definitely back in.

I downloaded the new beta to my computer by making a remote connection to it as soon as I got back to all this from a good few days away from the forum and tested out the loading movie feature on v4 beta 4. Thank God it's back and I can stop doing this crap!

Anyway, here's my test of the [reimplemented] loading movie autobuild that we should have had since beta 1. I used the one that consists of a filler bar as in my last example except as provided in 3DFA 4 beta 4. The example once again uses Vocal Alphabet as the movie to load. I'll do some new examples if I think of anymore. I stuck with this one to save some time for finishing out my vacation, and also for lunch break.

http://crhs.ods.org/jeffrey/vocalalphabet4.html