I’ve only been using Flash for about a month now, well, maybe less. I read as much as I can but I have a little problem I just can’t figure out.
I have a small swf file that contains the sound for the site and the button to toggle the sound. There are 2 layers in this small swf (65k). The first layer for the sound with 2 labeled keyframes and the second for the button with 2 keyframes (1st for music on -2nd for off). Here’s the code on the button:
on (press, release) {
if (bass == “true”) {
bass = “false”;
gotoAndStop(2);
stopAllSounds();
} else if (bass == “false”) {
bass = “true”;
gotoAndPlay(1);
}
}
Like I said this is in an swf file of its own so GotoandStop doesnt affect the main swf. The main file uses the loadmovie command to link the sound swf into an empty container. Kinda weird I guess.
I have a preloader too - compliments of Kirupa -
PROBLEM IS: The 400k main movie loads before the sound swf as you’ll see if you click on the link below. I tried to import the sound swf into the main and use attach movie, but the swf won’t work.
Same problem if I just try dragging it out of the Library. It plays like a regular movie file with 2 frames, not a button.
If I open the sound fla file and try to copy the frames into my main fla, the button ends up stopping the whole movie, not just the sound (despite changes to the code). I’d like to attach the source but the files are huge.
Can anyone out there help out a newbie?
And BTW, you can lemme know what you think of the site too. It’s still a work in progress Thanx all.
So what you want is to load the music (with button) before the main swf?
If that’s so, a quick way to do it is to start loading(loadMovie) the music swf in the very first frame of your movie(notice that if you load it into a container MC that MC has to exist so it has to be in that first frame) put a preloader (loading music… kind of thing) that stops the movie and checks if that container(or level) is loaded(check if getBytesLoaded >4 && getBytesLoaded >=getBytesTotal to make sure that the swf is loading into the container and you aren’t checking just the bytes of the container itself). Once loaded make the movie go to the preloader of the main movie(as u have it know).
This way you load the sound file first and once it’s loaded the main movie is loaded.
If you want the movie to just wait once for both files to be loaded
start loading the music swf in the very first frame of your movie and put the preloader in the second one adding the container (or level) bytes to the bytes loaded check.
:goatee: Hey thanks - you got exactly what I was trying to say - I’ll update the code tonight (I do all my work in the wee hours of the morning) and I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Just to clarify though, if I want my original preloader to load the entire movie (sound included) - do I just more or less use the code you provided in my original preloader frame (without shifting it 1 frame over) and how should I address the movie clip (sound.swf) being that its not in my main library? BTW, if I don’t necessarily need the sound.swf to show a loadbar graphic, can I just use
_root.content.loadmovie (“music.swf”, newsound,0)
in one of my preloader frames.
Think I’m starting to confuse myself.
The only thing I don’t get is that from what I can see, the code will load the sound.swf but the original preloader will load the container - or did I not get it?
Thanks again for your quick reply and help - sorry if I get a little redundant. I appreciate your help.
But, yes , you need to shift everything one frame so the external swf has time to start loading. In that frame is where you start loading it – loadMovie(“sound.swf”, _root.container_mc) –
and , of course, **container_mc ** has to exist in that very first frame in order to load the sound.swf into it.
I appreciate all your advice. I tried the code out last night, shifting the preloader frame over and such but still no luck. I did everything like you said including the container mc in the first frame so it could load. I just couldn’t figure it out.
Tonight I’m trying to work with the mp3 exporting it for runtime but I don’t know if that’s gonna change anything. Any BTW, for some reason, I think the reason it’s not working is because it’s loading just the container. I tried checking the files size of the container and/or the _x _y dimensions but it still didn’t work.
For those of you who are wondering, the site is www.autotile.com
The music loads 5-20 seconds after the main swf depending on connection speed.
Oh, why is it that buttons lose their functionality when you import the swf files? Still can’t figure that one out.
Thanks again eki,
If you’ve got anything else, lemme know.
Just wanted to post to let you know that I solved the problem. What I did was create a toggle button within my main swf. I then converted the button into a movie clip with 2 frames, one for the off and the second for the on, each with stop actions on the 2 frames.
To the clip itself, I included an attachsound action linking it to the sound.mp3 file in my library (I figured if I’m loading an external swf, the only real setback I would have with this approach is that it would effectively load the mp3 before my preloader. Sooooooooooo, to fix that problem, I included the mp3 file in the same frame, set it to start (0 loop) and used setVolume to set the property to 0.
In this way, I was able to avoid having the mp3 load before my preloader, and even after it loads, you don’t know it. The buttons inside the movie clip merely raised the setVolume to 100.
Interesting way - funny in Flash how you can work around certain things.
Anyway, I’d like to thank Eki - would never have figured it out without.
Check out the site if you get a chance and let me know what you think.
it’s nice to meet grateful people (that’s he spirit of forums, or, at least, that’s what I think).
I’ve had a look at the site and found a ‘problem’ :
Even though I switched the music off in the home screen when moved to another section (gallery for instance) it switches back on.
You need to know if the user 's turned the music off when moving to a new section and store than info in a variable that if is true (musicOff) stops (or turns the volume to 0) the sound.
Do you mean in two separate html files?
Yes, I’ve just checked it and seen that that’s the case.
What you need to do is load the gallery.swf directly into the main.swf rather than embeding it into an Html file
First of all I would do it as you do it with frames in Html. Have a frame set :Traslated into Flash[in your example] a movie with a transparent MC-To contain (be loaded onto) the content(“container”)-. ** all the buttons -sound button included-** in a layer above the container and the sound itself. and this code in the first and only frame(load the home page into the container and swap it for the rest of the sections.):
And the same on the home button to go back to the home page.
This way the sound and it’s handler (sound button)are in the root and not affected by user moving sections in the site.
This wouldn’t be a problem for me to do. In doing it this way, I’m using loadMovie right? - not Attachmovie? I can’t use attach because the file size would be so huge that no one would wait for it to preload - about 800k +.
