I could really use some help

[klopek]

I originally posted this thread at the Flash 5 general board, but this is probably the best forum.

I have tried everything I can think of, could someone with more Flash knowledge than me please help?

I have created the primary portion of a flash movie. It contains two scenes and several buttons. The three main buttons in the movie all have rollover action states that load a simple text movie into the main movie. There are no movie clips in the loaded movies just one simple frame of text.

When I use the test movie feature, my movie works perfect, exactly how I want it to be. All rollover states work sounds work, movies load just fine. My problem is when I attempt to convert the movie to a projector file.
everything works smooth until I rollover my buttons. I get a weird hesitation, almost like a foreign blank frame gets loaded that I never created. After that happens, the projector works fine, I can rollover the buttons with no problem. In fact if I replay the projector (without stopping it and restarting it), I will not get the hesitation again. I only get it on the initial startup.

Is it a bad idea to use load movie actions with a projector? I need to have a flawless presentation cd to send to companies as a presentation of my artwork, I would really appreciate some help.

One last note, I was assuming projector files were a standalone format, my projector file does not seem to work if it is outside of the folder that contains my original swf's

Thanks alot

[StoneCOM]

This has happened to me as well....I created a scrolling credits with a button in it. Unfortunately this seems to be just too CPU intensive (Just like Alpha Transparencies; you can read more about this in the optimization turorials). The problem is that the Computer just doesn't have enough power to handle all that until it's all played once and then it's thereafter loaded into Memory. You can try a preloader....that's about the only sure way to get it to run correctly due to this problem.

As far as the projector not loading as a standalone, I know this is the case for HTML but shouldn't be in this case. However it's possible that something (a scene maybe) loading from the swf files. My best suggestion is try making a copy of you project, then tear the copy apart testing as you're breaking down to it's basic form and you should be able to narrow the problems down quickest that way. This will allow you to go back to your master and fix the problems with minimal hair pulling before becomming a member of the hair club for men.

[klopek]

Thanks for the reply. I am pretty sure my cpu is powerful enough. I am running a G4 at 400 mhz with 128 mb of ram(the ram may be a bit low). Someone at the Flash 5 general board told me I should copy my file to a zip or cd then paste it to the desktop run it through once and then make the projector. That, he says should take care of the "glitch".

Also, my projector has several load movies. If I make a projector, is there a way of embedding the movie so that they are all part of the same projector? Or do I have to make sure I include all of the external movies with my main projector when I distribute my cd? I'm new at this.

Thanks again

[johnie]

The standalone means that it will play without the Flash Player installed on the computer not that it will package the files for you. The Load Movies must all be in the same directory or refrenced correctly.

There are programs that will package all of the associated swfs into 1 exe, SWF Studio-Projector Launcher-Jugglor-Swiff Canvas, but there are not any tools to do this on the MAC or for the MAC projector.

I have seen player slowdown on a P III 900 Mhz with 128 ram and slowdown on an AMD 1.3 ghz 128 machine ram so it would seem that even the most advanced machines experience cpu slowdown with the flash 5 player (I've noticed it in both the SWF and in the exe).

There are a lot of limitations to the SWF player that Macromedia does not tell you about for example... there is a 16000 shape/instance, 16000 frame, and 16000 action limit. When you come close two one of these limits or come close to a combination of those limits then the player slows dramatically. In Fact if you excede the limit the player freezes imediatly and will no longer play. I have noticed slow down (Dramatic) at about 5,000 shapes and have seen it at around 2,500 shapes with alpha. The Macromedia support pages reccomend using Director for large files and are aware of the slowdown for large files- in otherwords they don't plan on fixing it anytime soon becuase then Flash will start to cut into director sales.

[klopek]

Thanks alot for the info, that explains alot.