Flash :: Anyone Know Of A Good Reliable Preloader

A Good Preloader
Need a simple progress bar preloader for a jpg slideshow within flash.
The code I have used consistently uses getBytes() and evalutates the entire
movie.
I want to load jpgs into empty movie clips and only show progress bar as
each image is loaded, not the entire movie.
(If the slideshow repeats, then the images will be cached and no longer show
the preload bar.)

Thanks

Any Good Preloader Tuts
Ok, since Preloaders require actionscript, I posted this here.

Does anyone know of a resource site, book, ANYTHING that just has different preloader tutorials?

Im talking about different "graphical" ways of showing preloaders and how to implement them. Using just numbers, bars, pictures, anything.

Ive seen tones of preloaders out there and I want to use others instead of my basic
(bytes loading/total bytes) style preloader.

Any help would be GREAT
Thanks in advance.

And yes, I already checked FK
Oh, using Flash MX

I'm Looking For A Good, Easy To Use Preloader..
I need to just basically drop in a solid preloader. Nothing fancy.

This has been a thorn in my side for awhile. Do you know where I can find some good ones?

Thanks.

Also, whats too big in terms of initial preloading wait time, for a 56k.

Thanks,

I'm Looking For A Good, Easy To Use Preloader.
I need to just basically drop in a solid preloader. Nothing fancy.

This has been a thorn in my side for awhile. Do you know where I can find some good ones?

Thanks.

Also, whats too big in terms of initial preloading wait time, for a 56k.

Thanks,

A Good ROUND Preloader, Where?
does anybody know where to find a round preloader.... like a pie chart that gets completed while loading the movie...?

thanx
mel

Need A Good Bar Preloader Tutorial
hi,

i need to get my hands on a good tutorial for a bar preloader, i've searched flashkit and the tutorials are either not what i'm looking for, or they skip steps and automatically assume you know what they did, so if someone could give me a good descriptive tutorial that goes through all the steps of creating a bar preloader it would be great. i'm not exactly stupid when it comes to action scripting but i'm not a genius either...

thanx

Preloader : Any Good Method ?
Hi,

I'm searching for a good method to build a preloader.
I need to load a SWF into a movie clip ... and I need to do a preloader for this SWF.
I know how to do a preloader in a movie-clip but the SWF I have to load is a slide presentation done with FMX2004Pro, and preloader won't work inside.
What I need is to find a way to preload the SWF into cache of another movie before playing it ...

Thanks for your help...

I'm Looking For A Good, Easy Preloader.
I need to just basically drop in a solid preloader. Nothing fancy.

This has been a thorn in my side for awhile. Do you know where I can find some good ones?

Thanks.

Also, whats too big in terms of initial preloading wait time, for a 56k.

Thanks,

Anyone Can Recommend A Good Preloader Tut
I know I suck for asking this, but I suck at AS. And I need to make a preloader that the bar will actually act as a mask and reveal a layer as it goes up. I need the % loaded text to.

I wasnt sure if there was a big change in procedure from mx2004 to f8. I found some online but they all seem to reference mx or mx2004

I'm Trying To Make A Good Preloader, But Just Have
a movie cilp right now.

Can you refer me to some easy to modify preloaders? I want to have the preloader animate through my movie clip as the file loads.

If you could send me a good one that would be great as well.

Thanks,

Looking For A Good, Easy Preloader....
I need to just basically drop in a solid preloader. Nothing fancy.

This has been a thorn in my side for awhile. Do you know where I can find some good ones?

Thanks.

Also, whats too big in terms of initial preloading wait time, for a 56k.

Thanks,

Help Please,Who's Reliable?
I dont know if this is the appropriate question for this section of the forum but I didnt know where to put it. I'm having a problem with deciding which web hosting service to choose. I know a lot of you guys have websites already, and i want to hear some recommendations. I just don't want to have some slow host that will delay potential viewer's download speed and that's unreliable. I know you guys can help me. Any honest suggestions??

Good Old Fashioned Preloader Trouble
My preloader seems to start at about 37% instead of 0% any ideas. Heres my code which is on the first frame, the 'bar' is the visual bit so it displays the percentage but you know all that.

Frame 1

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 ("main", 7) {
gotoAndStop("main", 1);
}

Frame 2

gotoAndPlay(1);

Many thanks in advance.

Good Old Fashioned Preloader Trouble
My preloader starts at 37% instead of 0% any ideas. Heres my code, the bar bit is to display the percentage but you know all that.

Frame 1
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 ("main", 7) {
gotoAndStop("main", 1);
}

Frame 2
gotoAndPlay(1);

GOOD Preloader In The Same Movie File?
I've been using oldnewbie's preloader, and it works fine, its just that it's a pain to have to make two files for every movie!

Anyone know of a good preloader for large files (2.5 mb)?

I tried my own and the percent loaded didn't show up until the movie was 68% loaded!

A Good Preloader For External SWFs?
I was going threw the tutorial section but wasn't able to find what I was looking for. Does anyone know of a place to get a good preloader that will work with loaded swfs?

Most of the one I used in the past deal with the size of my movie and internal movies. The one I need will be on _level1 with 2 swf being loaded onto _level2 and 3. I need it to check that the content has been loaded onto those 2 levels before the movie plays.

Thanks

[F8] Can Anyone Recommend A Good Preloader For Flash8?
Ive tried several including the one below, but they either give an error, or dont load properly (e.g. loading bar doesn't appear until the movie is nearly loaded anyway)

Thanks

[F8] Need A Good Preloader For External .xml File
Hi,
I am new to actionscript and am currently using the following script to load 25 images into a movieclip container ("lgpicture") from an external .xml file. The problem is that each image loads individually and there is a long pause between viewing each image for the first time. Instead I would like, if possible, to use a preloader that will load all images at once, before any image is viewed with a percentage bar or something like that. I am unfortunately unable to compromise on the image size (some well over 500K) but one long pause in the beginning is much more favorable than pausing between each image. I would really appreciate any help I can get!!!

code:
lgpicture._x=0;
lgpicture._y=30;
function loadXML(loaded) {
if (loaded) {
xmlNode = this.firstChild;
image = [];
description = [];
total = xmlNode.childNodes.length;
for (i=0; i<total; i++) {
image[i] = xmlNode.childNodes[i].childNodes[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
description[i] = xmlNode.childNodes[i].childNodes[1].firstChild.nodeValue;
}
firstImage();
} else {
content = "file not loaded!";
}
}
xmlData = new XML();
xmlData.ignoreWhite = true;
xmlData.onLoad = loadXML;
xmlData.load("images1lg.xml");
/////////////////////////////////////

/////////////////////////////////////
p = 0;
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
filesize = lgpicture.getBytesTotal();
loaded = lgpicture.getBytesLoaded();
preloader._visible = true;
if (loaded != filesize) {
preloader.preload_bar._xscale = 100*loaded/filesize;
} else {
preloader._visible = false;
if (lgpicture._alpha<100) {
lgpicture._alpha += 10;
}
}
};
function firstImage() {
if (loaded == filesize) {
lgpicture._alpha = 0;
lgpicture.loadMovie(image[0], 1);
desc_txt.text = description[0];
lgpicture_num();
}
}
function lgpicture_num() {
current_pos = p+1;
pos_txt.text = current_pos+" / "+total;
}

Good Preloader That Works In Flash 7
I have a client who insists his site is in flash seven for maximum compatibility with antiquated client technology. I need to find a bomb proof reusable preloader smart clip/component or preloader script that I can reuse with a progress bar and percent loaded. I have used macromedia's preloader but its bulky there has to be a favorite out there among developers.

thanks

Array.pop Reliable?
Doing some testing with arrays ive found that the .pop meathod doesnt always seem to remove the element from the array?

Any one else experianced this and does any one know any alternatives?

ActionScript Code:
counter = 1;

while(counter <= 3)
{
for(x = 1; x <= y.randomlist.length; ++x)
{
if(y.randomlist[x] == mainGrid[0][counter])
{
trace(y.randomlist[x]);
y.randomlist[x] = y.randomlist.pop();
break;
}

}
++counter;
}

Posted code that causing the error just incase this is it..

ScrollPane Not Reliable
hey. i set up my site (dangerboydesign.net) with content showing up in scrollpanes. it works perfectly on my computer in all browsers. but on some other computers, even the same OS and browsers and flash plug-ins, the content of the scrollPane is not masked by it, and the scrolling function is not there. as this is my portfolio, it obviously needs to be as reliable as possible. does anyone know a reliable way to use scrollPanes, or should i just trash thosh the whole thing and go back to html?

thanks,
morgan

Is SetInterval Reliable?
I am using setInterval to call a function every 4 seconds, but when I test my code it is very sporadic - sometimes it works fine and at other times the interval increases and the function gets called too fast. Why would this happen? Why would setInterval start calling myFunction every 2 seconds when I'm asking it to do so every 4 secs?

_root.intervalID = setInterval(myFunction, 4000);

HELP!!!

On (rollOver) Not Reliable
Hi there, this always bugs the sh*t out of me. I have three buttons. Each button controls an MC on rollover and rollout. Effectively, with each button rollover, the screen fades to black EXCEPT for the relevant button.

The code on my button looks like this:

Code:

on (rollOver) {
this.MyDamnmc.play(darkness_comes);
}
on (rollOut) {
this.MyDamnmc.play(darkness_fades);
So you would expect that when I rolled off the button, MyDamnmc would then play the darkness_fades label and return the screen to normal.

Problem is, it doesn't usually work like that. All three buttons have similar code, relevant to their own movie clips. What ends up happening is some MC's never receiv the rollOut instruction and the screen is left in blackness, even after rollOut. Is there any way to do it so that Flash ALWAYS performs the rollOut command? Or is this just wishful thinking?

I'm not a big code head - so any help is appreciated.

Dylan

SetInterval Reliable?
I am calling setInterval on a loadThumbs function that basically loads up thumbnails jpegs.
It seems when I test it locally in Flash, the thumbnails all load fine, one after the other, but when I test in the browser, sometimes, some of the thumbnails do not show up, so I have gaps in my row of thumbs. I have tried increasing the interval time from 200 to 700 to 2000 and this makes no difference.

What could be the problem?

I'm Trying To Make A Good Preloader, But All I Have Now Is The Movie Clip
Can you refer me to some easy to modify preloaders? I want to have the preloader animate through my movie clip as the file loads.

If you could send me a good one that would be great as well.

Thanks,

Are Shared Libraries Reliable?
I have just finished learning the basics of flash through the book Flash 5 bible and have started my first proper flash site. However I would like to use the shared library feature as several of my .swf files will use the same graphic symbols and movie clips, thus I only want to download them once. However in the flash 5 bible there is a warning that the shared library feature of flash has proven to work very inconsistently, so I just wanted to know if anyone knows exactly what the problems are with using shared libraries and if they can be avoided or is it simply not advisable to use a shared library at the moment?

thanks for any help

A Reliable Way To Communicate With The Browser ?
I'm looking for the best way to get a browser to give instructions to an .swf in a web page.

I am trying to use a single .swf as a navigation menu that would be used on every page throughout a site, without the use of frames.

At the moment, I've got the .swf preloading then calling a javascript function in the page via getURL(). The javascript checks the window.location.href and uses the playFrame() method to tell the .swf to play the frame that contains the links appropriate for the current page.

Works perfectly in IE and <NS6, but NS6 doesn't recognise playFrame() (or fscommand).

I realise I could make a separate .swf for each page that loads the menu .swf into another level and tells the menu to go to the right frame, but I want to minimise the amount of .swf files I have to maintain.

Anyone done this successfully before ?

LoadVars - How Reliable Is 'loaded'?
hi everyone

myloadVar.loaded will be true when the communication has finished successfully. but is that reliable? a package loss over the net is possible when sending AND receiving. so.. .when i am sending a variable to a php-script by using myloadVar.send(), can i be sure that this variable did not get to the serverscript after one or two minutes if that loaded-flag keeps being false?

if not, what possibility do i have to be sure, if a variable could be delivered or not to the serverscript?

thx
mario

Reliable Button Fade In And Out
Hi,

Two things, first:

I'm having trouble making a button that when moused over fades in and when moused off, fades out. The problem seems to be that Flash doesn't always catch the mouse off so the button doesn't fade out till I mouse over and out again. I've been trying this with the button being a movie clip that is a motion tween fade in and out with a stop action on the first frame and the fully opaque frame. I put play actions for mouse over and mouse out.

Secondly, I'm sure there is a better way to do this with action script but I am unsure about how to get the movie clip to fade in the amount I want over the time I want. If anyone could point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it.

A Reliable XML Socket Server
can anyone recommend a good socket server?

I Want To Use MC Tween, But It Isn't Reliable. Thoughts?
I have been using the MC Tween class, and it seems to work really well, doing everything I tell it to. Locally, that is. But when I post it up online, it is unreliable, and sometimes just doesn't work.

I have a big site that basically has one main swf and then calls in other swfs. When the other swfs get called in... I typically have movie clips in them that have ,

Code:
onClipEvent(load) {this._alpha = 0; }

And then I tell them to....... alphaTo(100,.4,"linear");

or something similar to that. But it doesn't always work. And I can't figure out why. One thing I have been doing is....I am 'including' the mc tween class in each swf. Do I only need to include it on the main swf once? Does it perhaps hurt me to put the include code on every sub swf?

Please help. I am at a loss with this one.

[F8] Reliable Timer For Game?
I am trying to come up with a reliable timer for my game that counts how long the user has been playing a level.

I have tried setInterval but it is unreliable. Is there a better way to do it?

'More Reliable' Random Numbers?
I'm wanting to randomly generate numbers in the range of 0 to 19 inclusive. I have a script working, but I would prefer the results to be as even as possible, ie an equal number of results for each value.

The following AS generates numbers 0 - 19 and provides a breakdown of the results. As you can see, they are a little varied.

ActionScript Code:
//Generate Numbers 0 - 19 and display results

var a0:Array = new Array();
var a1:Array = new Array();
var a2:Array = new Array();
var a3:Array = new Array();
var a4:Array = new Array();
var a5:Array = new Array();
var a6:Array = new Array();
var a7:Array = new Array();
var a8:Array = new Array();
var a9:Array = new Array();
var a10:Array = new Array();
var a11:Array = new Array();
var a12:Array = new Array();
var a13:Array = new Array();
var a14:Array = new Array();
var a15:Array = new Array();
var a16:Array = new Array();
var a17:Array = new Array();
var a18:Array = new Array();
var a19:Array = new Array();

var total:Number = 0;
var repeats:Number = 1000;

for (var i:Number = 0; i<repeats; i++) {
var randNum:Number = Math.round(Math.random() * 19);
var useArray:String = "a" + randNum;
this[useArray].push(randNum);
}

for (var i:Number=0; i<20; i++) {
var useArray:String = "a" + i;
trace(i + "s: " + this[useArray].length);
total += this[useArray].length;
}
trace ("Average should be " + (repeats/20));
trace("Total: " + total);

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I Want To Use MC Tween, But It Isn't Reliable. Thoughts?
I have been using the MC Tween class, and it seems to work really well, doing everything I tell it to. Locally, that is. But when I post it up online, it is unreliable, and sometimes just doesn't work.

I have a big site that basically has one main swf and then calls in other swfs. When the other swfs get called in... I typically have movie clips in them that have ,

Code:
onClipEvent(load) {this._alpha = 0; }
And then I tell them to....... alphaTo(100,.4,"linear");

or something similar to that. But it doesn't always work. And I can't figure out why. One thing I have been doing is....I am 'including' the mc tween class in each swf. Do I only need to include it on the main swf once? Does it perhaps hurt me to put the include code on every sub swf?

Please help. I am at a loss with this one.

Flash And Javascript - Reliable?
I'm just wondering how reliable Flash interacts with Flash and javascript interacts with Flash? Has anyone had any problems?

Thanks for any feedback!

Matt

EDIT: more specifically, I need to use Flash in one frame and the content in another. I need to use Flash to load different content files (using php) into the other frame. The content frame may need to change the state of the Flash movie also. Is this all possible? What version of Flash Player is needed?

Fast And Reliable Conversion
i have an one minute movie as an AVI.
i need to know the tool's name that makes the conversion from AVI to SWF

thanks

I Want To Use MC Tween, But It Isn't Reliable. Thoughts?
I have been using the MC Tween class, and it seems to work really well, doing everything I tell it to. Locally, that is. But when I post it up online, it is unreliable, and sometimes just doesn't work.

I have a big site that basically has one main swf and then calls in other swfs. When the other swfs get called in... I typically have movie clips in them that have ,

Code:
onClipEvent(load) {this._alpha = 0; }
And then I tell them to....... alphaTo(100,.4,"linear");

or something similar to that. But it doesn't always work. And I can't figure out why. One thing I have been doing is....I am 'including' the mc tween class in each swf. Do I only need to include it on the main swf once? Does it perhaps hurt me to put the include code on every sub swf?

Please help. I am at a loss with this one.

Flash Video Reliable?
Hi guys,

does anyone know how reliable Flash video is in MX 2004?

I've posted this query to a couple of sites, and no-one seems to be in a position to say whether Flash now is a viable alternative to Real Video, etc.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Preloader Leads To Quick Distorted Line... And Then All Is Good
After my preloader runs its course there is a very quick distorted line that goes up the middle of the flash player window, then scene two plays fine just the way it does on testing. Any clues as to why?

How To Reveal And Hide My Preloader......additional Effect That Will Look Good
Is it possible to use a movie as a mask.

The reason I ask is that I would like a large rectangle "gray" to reveal all my preloader graphics, then as the shape tween completes for the preloader to begin.

And when the prelaoder reaches 100%, for the shape tween mask to hide all the preloader content and reveal the main design template.

With the preloader being based on three keyframes, or more like two key frames, I am unsure if this is possible?

If it is a possibility Then please provide me with any solutions in going about this successfully for my project.

I hope you can help or point me in the right direction for this thread.

cheers

Trevor Saint

How Reliable Are Frames Alignment In Netscape ?
Ok, I'm used to coding Frames into IE5.

I was wondering how reliable are Frames alignement and display in Netscape (3.X, 4.X, 5.X, 6.X) ?

Problems or issues ?

Flash Internal Password - How Reliable Is It?
Hi,

if (password == "MySecretPassword") {
gotoAndPlay("Load Password Protected Movie");
} else {
gotoAndPlay("WrongPassword");
}

Is this easliy crack even if I do the following?

pls note
1.the protected movie only loads when it reaches the frame: "Load Password Protected Movie"
2.this frame is on another movie so right click 'play' would not forward the movie

Thanks in advance

Making A Reliable Loop (not DO, FOR Or EnterFrame)
Hi all,

I'm trying to make a function happen -

Code:
function moveClip(clipname) {
do {
clipname._y += (clipname._y /2)
} while (clipname._y < 46)
}
when a button is pressed but DO loops seem always to crash the player. FOR loops are no use because they happen too quickly.

I'm trying to get an MC to move to a certain position dynamically when a button is pressed, then move back when another is pressed. I know i can do this using onClipEvent(enterFrame) but it means messing with different frames of each MC having different scripts in the onClipEvent part (to move it back and forward) and that's clumsy as hell, not to mention a lot of work.

Surely there is a more streamlined way to make a loop, so when the button is pressed, the function checks the _y value of the clip and moves it accordingly until it's in place.

Thanks in advance for any help

-meph-