RE: FLASH: Streaming Load Movie actions

[John Leach]

Thanks Marc,


the problem is, I have a pre-loader to an intro movie, which leads to the

nav menu.

I want the user to be able to skip the intro movie and jump to the menu, but

if the intro isn't cached (say its the first time the user is viewing the

page, and decides they hate the intro after the first 2 seconds) they can't

skip to the menu, if it is part of the intro movie (and at the end).


So I was going to have Preloader and intro in one movie, and menu in 2nd

movie.   at the end of the intro, the menu is loaded, but if the user clicks

the skip button during the intro, it opens the menu movie (without having to

load the rest of the intro first, which has streamed MP3 sound track so is

quite long).


here is a lame ASCII attempt at simplifying this:



| Intro.swf |---->| Menu.swf |

     |                ^

     |                |

     -------skip-------


Obviously if the user skips the intro, they will have to wait for the menu

to load, that is no problem.

but if they watch the whole intro (like 60 seconds-ish) the would then also

have to wait for the Menu.swf to load before it displaying (this also has

music and a large jpeg at the start.


what I need to know is, will flash start to download Menu.swf if it finishes

downloading the intro before the intro has finished playing.

Basically, how intelligent is the flash players streaming



> First, try to avoid using scenes. They make advanced navigation

> and use of

> sound and movie clips unnecessarily difficult. Virtually all

> advanced Flash

> developers will give you that advice.

>

> If your menu system is always going to get loaded (as I assume is

> the case)

> then it should be part of the initial movie. The only reason to break it

> apart as a separate movie would be if it might not be needed at

> all, or if

> the user might choose to see something else (of substantial size)

> first. By

> making it part of the same movie, it will load as fast as the bandwidth

> allows, with no intervention on your part. Even if a frame Stop action

> keeps it from playing, it will still be loading as fast as possible.

>

> You can use If Frame Is Loaded in your preloader to make sure

> return trips

> to frame 1 do not require the viewer to sit through the preloader again.



flasher is generously supported by...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     flashforward2000 and The Flash Film Festival

  "The World’s Premier Flash Solutions Conference and Expo"

 March 27-29, Nob Hill Masonic Center, San Francisco, California


-Register before Feb 25 and save $200!!-- www.flashforward2000.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/flasher or email

helpchinwag [dot] com