Digital Workshop

Hi,

I have created a screensaver in which some flash movies are displayed in random order. Everythings works fine on my machine and on another machine in my office. Unfortunately the saver does not work correctly on my customers machines. The saver works until the point when the fist flash movie should be displayed but nothing happened after that point.

The flash movies are in Flash 5 format and on the customers machines the Flash 8 browser plugin is installed. Is something else needed to run the saver without probs?

Thanks in advance for your hints.

T.

How did you embed the Flash files? If they are in DocViews then the clients will need QuickTime 6 or better.

Hi Duncan,

I have used the "create Video" button in the toolbar and then set the the filename to the flash movie. How can this be done in another way without the need of quicktime?

T.

Use a Browser object to host the SWF files instead. This will use the IE Flash plugin (if available).

Duncan, thanks a lot. I will try this.

T.

Duncan,

it seems that a browser object can only host webpages that are hosted on internet or intranet.
I cannot see how I can build a screensaver in this way. Did I misunderstand you or is there another way to solve this prob?

Thanks in advance.

T.

Use a variable to reference a local file. For example:

as the source.

I do a lot of web sites and use a program called SwishMax to author Flash for some of them. Suddenly some of the flash files were not showing up. Traced it down to users having the latest Flash plugin could not see certain Flash files authored in SwishMax. A patch was issued to fix the authoring program and a small program issued to fix up all affected swf files. Maybe the same thing has affected Flash authored in Opus. Here is a link to the program for fixing older Flash files and maybe it wil fix up those. (downlod the swf9 patch, and make a backup of your files before you run them through the 'fixer') This might not be the issue in this case but it might just come up somewhere else when Flash movies suddenly don't play on a certain computer. DW might want to look into this.

http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?area ... =downloads

Hi Duncan,

Thanks for your explanation.

I tried this but this solution does not work in my case. Since I have to detect the end of one swf as a trigger to start the next, I cannot do it in this way. The "sychnronise to end" trigger does not work with browser objects.
In addition I am afraid that my customer will not like seeing his swf-files laying around on the users harddisk.

Do you plan to add a real embedding of flash files in executables and screensavers without the need of quicktime for the near future?

Especially in the case of screensavers the most users will not like the effort of downloading and installing Quicktime before they can use a screensaver or another small application.

T.

The Flash ActiveX (Browser) player does not support playback of embedded content, it also does not provide synchronization messages, so it will never be possible to provide the same functionality. To achieve what you are attempting, you will have to use the QuickTime playback.

Most home users and many business ones will already have QuickTime - it's a very popular format for web and downloaded video.

Also, you can provide the QuickTime install on your CD with your application if you fill out a form on Apple's website to get a free redistribution license.

Would it not be easier to optionally embed the needed flash player in the Opus setups as some tools (e.g. screensaver tools or flash projector tools) do?

This would make the setup only about 2 MB bigger without the need to install Quicktime and subscribe apples licence agreements.

T.

That's not the problem - the Flash player alone cannot do what you want (play from an embedded source or provide loop/end notifications). This is a limitation of the ActiveX framework, not Opus or Flash. You will have to use QuickTime to achieve what you are trying to do.

thanks, I think I understand now how this works.

What happens with embedded flash movies when exporting to flex? Is quicktime needed on the users machine in this case too?

And another question in this context. What is the best way to use frame based animations in Opus when I want to avoid flash animations and the quicktime installation?

T.

The movies become part of your new SWF file. QuickTime is not required.


Sorry, don't understand the question. Standard Opus animation actions will work in Flex publications (with a few exceptions such as Shear)

... thanks for your clarifaction of this point.



... sorry if I had not made this clear. What I meant was this:

What is the best way to use or create frame animations (which consists of a sequence of bitmaps) in Opus (not in flex!)?

Since the Opus predefined animations are all move animations I wonder if it is necessary to use a third party tool to create frame animations and import them into Opus.

In this case I think there is no other way than to import swf, avi or mpg files and add QuickTime to the installation.


T