Preloading Sound

[cocklebank]

I am almost at the point of of throwing my computer off the roof of my flat

I have made my little 'ambiance swf' and defined a sound object in using the old faithful method of...

firstSound = new Sound(this);
firstSound.attachSound("sound01");

_root.firstSound.start();

in frame 1 of the main timeline I have used my stock preloader which is coded as follows:

total_bytes = _root.getBytesTotal();
loaded_bytes = _root.getBytesLoaded();
remaining_bytes = total_bytes-loaded_bytes;
percent_done = int((loaded_bytes/total_bytes)*100);
bar.gotoAndStop(percent_done);
ifFrameLoaded ("loader", 30) {
gotoAndPlay(3);
}

This code works on all my other movies but not this one. Is there anybody out there who can help. Maybe even take a look at my fla.

Regards.

[cocklebank]

here is the link to my web page:

www.poipoi.info/mike/index.html

and here is the pesky fla...

[hp3]

if your sound is in the same SWF as the load progress code then review FAQ #3.

if you are attempting to display load progress of an external SWF, then you will need to know the correct target path to the SWF and include this in your code, instead of _root.

[cocklebank]

The load progress code is on frame1 and the sound object is on frame 3 - all in the same swf...

What am I reviewing in FAQ#3 I don't follow.

Cheers

[hp3]

The default behavior of Flash is to load attached sounds before anything else in the movie.

It does not matter where in the movie you create your sound object, Flash will load the sound before it loads frame 1.

Therefore the sound will load before Flash executes your load progress message, making your load progress message useless.

A2 under FAQ #3 explains how to work around this problem by unchecking the "export in first frame" box.

[cocklebank]

I was looking in the wrong FAQ (no wonder it made no sense)

Ok. I was looking at your tutorial and I'm going to have to be really simple now cos I'm still a bit confused. My ambiance.swf is an external swf loaded into my main template. I have unchecked export in first frame as you pointed out but now when I export the swf the sound doesn't load at all.

I'm sure i'm being really dumb but how can I resolve this?

I apreciate your help.

[hp3]

if you are loading an external SWF the noraml approach is to load it into a movie clip in the main movie and track load progress from the main movie.

So just put the sound object in the external SWF and put the load progress code in the main movie.

// external SWF
mysound = new Sound(this);
mysound.attachSound("linkage");

// main SWF
loadermc.loadMovie("urlto.swf");
// load progress code.

If you need general help with load progress messages and external SWF you might follow up in the ActionScript forum.

[cocklebank]

ok thanks, thats what i was confused about.

one last quick one then I'll stop bugging you.

So If I put the load progress code into the main template will that affect the way that my initial content is loaded or will that play as normal with the sound loader visible in say the bottom corner?

Thanks

[hp3]

loading external SWF, and displaying a corresponding load progress message should not interfere with playback of content you have already loaded. This assumes you set up the load progress message so that it runs independantly of the rest of the main SWF.

Loading external SWF while progressively loading/playing the main SWF might interfere with the main SWF playback because there might not be enough bandwidth for both.

Safest thing to do is to wait until Flash finsihes loading main SWF content before attempting to load external SWF.

[cocklebank]

Ok thanks for the advice mate