Flash Limits

[senocular]

I think its a good idea to set some known limits to Flash - things which are good to be aware of for future reference and if not, something to just be impressed or enamored with

here are some things Ive jotted down recently. Ill add more as I think of them

==============================================
[size=4]Flash limits[/size]

[DOCUMENT]
size:
-[size=1]width[/size]: 1 to 2880
-[size=1]height[/size]: 1 to 2880

drawing extents within:
-[size=1]width[/size]: -720 to ** document width + 720**
-[size=1]height[/size]: -720 to ** document height + 720**

-[size=1]grid spacing[/size]: 7.2 to 288
-[size=1]frame rate[/size]: .01 to 120
-[size=1]frames[/size]: 16000
-[size=1]layers[/size]: 16000
-[size=1]movieclip instances[/size]: 16000
-[size=1]loaded movies (in levels)[/size]: 16000

[MOVIECLIP]
drawing extents within:
-[size=1]width[/size]: -720 to 720
-[size=1]height[/size]: -720 to 720 (1440x1440)

-[size=1]_xscale/_yscale values[/size]: ~ 3276800
-[size=1]_alpha values[/size]: 256
-[size=1]_alpha steps[/size]: ~ .4 (don’t increment _alpha below that value)
-[size=1]_x/_y steps[/size]: .05 (don’t increment _x/_y below that value)
-[size=1]_rotation[/size]: -180 to 180 (you can set it to values beyond these but will revert to a value in that range)
-[size=1]_rotation steps[/size]: .1 (_rotation wont be seen in increments below that value)
-[size=1]attached clips before drastic attachMovie speed drop[/size]: ~ 800-1000 (common in grid creation; creating new clips to attach groups of clips, like each row, to will reduce the slowdown)

[TEXT]
-[size=1]characters in a textfield[/size]: ~63000 (?)
-[size=1]rotation of dynamic or input textfields w/o embedded fonts or static w/ device fonts[/size]: 0 (no rotation)
-[size=1]max size of POST data (loadVars and XML Objects etc)[/size]: around 64k
-[size=1]characters for URLs set in Character panel[/size]: 127

[SCRIPTING]
depths:
-[size=1]depths of existence[/size]: -16384 to 2130690045
[size=1](createEmptyMovieClip can surpass these values in creation but not always accurate
max reliable: 2147483647, min reliable: -2147483648)[/size]
-[size=1]removable depths[/size]: 0 to 1048575

-[size=1]recursive function call levels[/size]: 256
-[size=1]loop calls[/size]: processor dependant, 15 or 20 seconds until timeout

[MISC]
-[size=1]Flash Player zoom[/size]: 2000%
-[size=1]line thickness (Flash authoring)[/size]: .1 to 10
-[size=1]line thickness (AS)[/size]: 0 to 256 (increments of 1; 0 is hairline)
-[size=1]size of imported bitmap[/size]: 5x5 minimum
-[size=1]shape hints[/size]: 0 to 26
-[size=1]blending[/size]: up to 24 layers per pixel

[AVM2]

datatype limits:
-[SIZE=“1”]uint[/SIZE]: 0 to 4,294,967,295 (2^32 - 1)
-[SIZE=“1”]int[/SIZE]: -2,147,483,648 (-2^31) to 2,147,483,647 (2^31 - 1)

BitmapData:
-[SIZE=“1”]max total pixels FP10[/SIZE]: 16,777,215 (2^24 - 1) (see here)
-[SIZE=“1”]max dimensions FP9[/SIZE]: 2880 x 2880px

[ABC] (ActionScript bytecode)

-[SIZE=“1”]max unique bytecode instructions for the VM[/SIZE]: 256

-[SIZE=“1”]String size[/SIZE]: 1,073,741,823 bytes (2^30 - 1) (hard to quantify a character length in a multibyte charset)

-[SIZE=“1”]function max parameters[/SIZE]: 1,073,741,823 (2^30 - 1)
-[SIZE=“1”]class implements interface max[/SIZE]: 1,073,741,823 (2^30 - 1)

[Language]
-[SIZE=“1”]versions[/SIZE]: 1-3 (I tried to use 4 and it blew up)

==============================================

suggestions welcome and will be added to this list

[system]

nice, nice…waiting for more…

[system]

minimum _alpha or change in _alpha: approx 0.4

since _alpha is stored in 256 shades from 0-100.

100/256=0.390625

if you set alpha to .3 it will round off to 0. if you continue adding .3 to it, it will continue to round off to 0 and never change. if you add .4 to it, it will gradually go up.

[system]

nice info guys. Some things I was really interested in knowing here. Thanks.

[system]

you cant import an image less then 5x5 i think…

i tried 1x1 and it wouldnt let me

[system]

*Originally posted by theworldinside *
**you cant import an image less then 5x5 i think…

i tried 1x1 and it wouldnt let me **

Flash 5 could do 1x1… in Win 9.x. heh. I based a whole contest on that way back when, though some people couldnt import the gif and those running 2000+, Flash crashed when selecting the image in the library

good one Ill say 5x5 now until someone confirms otherwise.

[system]

What about size limits in an mc with scrollpane component?

I tried to paste a five page text block into an mc with the component attached and it would not take it all, could do something like three pages okay. Weird?!?

[system]

Wow this is quite nice - shall I add link this post sen as a quick link under Flash MX basics?

Cheers!
Kirupa :sure:

[system]

hmmm I dont know… I dont think Ive ever come across any of these issues in first learning Flash - so I dont know how concerned youd need to be with them when in your ‘basics’ phase of learning. Interesting enough otherwise though

[system]

hey kirupa! I think u should add this post to the basic link in flash mx, good and insteresting idea!

[system]

Movie Clip can’t be content of itself [COLOR=red][SIZE=3]on flash’s workspace[/SIZE] [/COLOR] [SIZE=1] sen[/SIZE] (try to put symbol1 into symbol1)… tried to put it in with every idea i got…

[system]

you can do that at runtime with attachMovie. You cant do it in Flash because it would cause an infinite loop of a movieclip containing itself… containing itself… containing itself… which wouldnt (and isnt) really possible for flash to concieve

[system]

indeed, bu if i would resize it to smaller one?? it would be like 0o. and smaller until it disappears…
crazy…

[system]

actually, you should never increment a number by anything smaller than 0.5 - there is a bug in the flash player!!
i don’t know the number of iterations, because it’s different for different numbers (any floating point number with values smaller than 0.5 after the integer).
try this in flash 5 or MX:
nCount = 0;
for (var ii = 0; ii<100; ii++) {
trace(nCount += 0.4);
}

the values in the output window will end in 999999.
for some of you math/physics people out there who need accurate floating point numbers watch out for this.

jeremy

[system]

its not like you should never increment by small values

http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/roundoff_error.htm

[system]

no one has ever been able to tell me why that error occurs!
thank you, senocular, for pointing that article out. i actually ran into the problem when i was using a substring of a number as a string.

jeremy

[system]

Max zoom = 2000%

[system]

rage, the website inovation.com… is it yours? if so… you should put the .swf height and width because it will just resize depending on how big the browser window is. and the larger it is, the more choppy… just a tip

hawk

[system]

hey senoc,
got a flash limit q? for ya. just got helped out big time by grim and indo, but the three of us couldnt understand why when you have an image outide the BIG grey area the image is completely blurred (as in the case of creating a sliding menu) but when you make that image into a mc then it works…wondering if its a glitch or something

thanks
P

[system]

smallest _x / _y movement = .05px

in fact, all values assigned to those properties are rounded to the nearest 20th of a pixel.