In AS2, I had developed and gotten fairly efficient at an approach to preloaders with projects that had (somewhat large) class code associated with them. I would have the very simple few lines of preloader code functions in frames 1 and 2 of the main movie timeline, and set the swf to export classes to frame 3. that way, the preloader didn’t have to wait for the bulky class code to load before it could start.
now with AS3, I’m wondering if this approach will no longer work. I notice there is still a setting for pushing class code loading to a later frame. Does this also apply to the DocumentClass?
If so, what would the context of code on frames 1 and 2 be if the DocumentClass code didn’t load until frame 3?
Or does Flash force the load of the DocumentClass code in frame 1 regardless, and allow only other class code to be deferred in loading?
btw, I know a lot of people prefer using a preloader swf that loads an external swf as the rest of the movie. I don’t really like that approach though. Causes every flash project to need two files… or you have to have some more elaborate reusable preloader that you signal which child to load.
In AS3, the interplay between a parent and child swf seems to be a lot better, but in AS2, it caused a lot of problems (shared libraries, dynamic sound loading, etc) so I just got into the habit of not doing the external load just for a preloader, and only doing external loading of child swf’s if absolutely necessary.