Re: FLASH: 3 questions

[Marc Hoffman, Poison Dart Frog Media]

At 03:55 AM 4/22/00 , you wrote:


>my client is requiring that I use a non-system font, and currently I'm

>loading each bit of content as a separate MC.


I assume you mean movie, not MC


>   my question is, would it be

>better(smaller) for me to create all the content variations as MC's in the

>base timeline library and set their visibility to 0, as opposed to loading

>them as needed?  my concern is if each movie has to save the fonts it may be

>more efficient on filesize to keep each content movie in the main timeline

>and only have 1 reference to the font.



you are correct. Reusing the characters is a lot much efficient than 

reloading the shapes in a new movie.



>also.....

>

>is there a way to set priority on the loading of a MC... I have 5 MC's

>loading at once and it seems as if I must wait until they all load in before

>my button actions (which load additional MC's ) work correctly..  I'd like

>to trap a button event that pauses the loading of the background MC and

>loads the appropriate content MC for that button, then resumes the loading

>of the background MC.. is this yet possible in Flash via: FS, 3rd party, or

>any  other known method?



again I think you mean movies, not movie clips, but I'm not sure. You 

cannot control how simultaneous loads will occur (that is, which one will 

finish first). All you can do is make them sequential. To stall one 

timeline until another timeline has loaded, stop the first timeline and 

have a command in the second timeline that tells the first timeline to 

proceed. That command can be based on If Frame is Loaded (useful if you 

want the second timeline to load but not to play immediately), or if the 

second timeline is set to play as it loads, the command can just be in the 

last frame of the second timeline. See http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/if_frame.



>and while I've got your attention

>

>can I save an swf object at runtime, w/ or w/o Generator?.. like a

>paintbrush program that remembers the users picture upon subsequent

>visits...



I believe this would require FS Command to JavaScript to set a cookie, or 

ActionScript to send data to a server-side processor, which would be 

contacted by the Flash in a subsequent session. Cookie would be quicker.


>and NOT choosing from a set of known components w/ associated

>ID's..  but dynamic content, saved on the fly?  additionally, is their a

>vector format definition language for Flash  that can represent all

>vectorized images in a text format or one coming soon?


Out of my field, but since .swf is open format you might be able to do 

that. Remember the .swf is flattened, so it does not contain all 

information contained in the source file (.fla).




Marc Hoffman


Poison Dart Frog Media

http://www.dartfrogmedia.com



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