Site Problems

programming flash
1

Hey all, I have three questions for you guys.

First, I recently changed the text on my home page to load dynamically so it can be pdated easier. However, when I did, it made the text look very bad. It’s like it is making it pixel text now instead of anit-aliasing it. If someone could tell me why this is and how I can fix it that would be great!

Second, as some of you with slower computers might have noticed, my site looks terrible on them. I think I used way too much alpha, and I tried to fix most of the stuff on my site. However, then I heard that attachMovie can also be hard on computers, and I realized that I use attachMovie a ton, to load most of the content on my site. How can I change that? All of the content on my site uses attachMovie. What I do is that depending on the variable of the button pressed, it attaches the content of the right button. If someone could help em with this and also maybe give me a couple of tips on how to reduce the hardware requirements it would be appreciated! I would be happy to let someone use my .fla so they can check it out themselves.

Finally,
My splash site opens up the borderless window with the .swf in it. In the html of the splash page, I have designated what size the popup window should be. How do I make it so that the window will match whatever size the Flash movie is, so that I can use percents instead of a fixed pixel number?

Sorry for all the questions guys, and don’t feel like you have to answer them all. I just figured as long as I’m asking one, I might as well ask em all!

Thanks!
-brad-

2

<B>Reply to first</B> - I like the non-anti aliased text look on the main section. it looks clean. Also, dynamic textboxes cannot be anti-aliased, so there is no fix to that.

<B>Reply to second</B> - It looks like you have one basic fade animation for all your section backgrounds. Are you using multiple clips of this? I think you should just use it once and play it on every button, but also included on the button is the extra actions to load the text areas. This reduces the amount of movie clips used. I think…if what I said made any sense at all.

<B>Reply to third</B> - As far as I know you cannot define % sizes in a pop-up window. Isn’t your flash movie only one size? Why would you need it to open in different sizes?

3

Reply to First: OK no way to change that.

Reply to Second: I am using the same animation for every window, and then attaching the content using attachMovie. If there is a more efficient way I’d love to know it.

Replt to Third: I get some people that complain about my site being too small, so I was going to make the movie a percent of the browser window. If there is no way to do that, then oh well…

Thanks LostinBeta,
-brad-

4

<B>Reply to Second</B> - Hmmm, if that is the case, I don’t see how you can optimize it, unless you use loadMovie to load each section.

<B>Reply to Third</B> - I think the size of your site is fine. On my 800x600 (the only screen I have), it is just a tad too big to fit in the monitor. Nothing that conflicts with the movie though. I don’t think there is a way for doing %s with pop-ups. I have never tried though. So there might be hope.

This is fun:P

5

Reply to Second: Well on David’s attachMovie tutorial he mentioned it did take up cpu usage. And if yuou notice, when you highjlight a button, the text is slow coming from the right, and it gets even slower when you click a button. Both are used from attachMovie.

Reply to Third: How much smaller should I make it so that you can see it?

Haha I know. :slight_smile:

-brad-

6

<B>Reply to Second</B> - Maybe try using loadMovie then.

<B>Reply to Third</B> - The size may be all of 25 pixels off. It isn’t much. I don’t have a problem with it. I do have a problem with where it loads though. I am assuming you are statically making it load in the middle of the screen (so on large monitors it looks centered). If so, I can write you a script that auto centers your window when you pop it up. That will make it load in the center of an 800x600 window as well as a 1024x768 window.

7

Reply to Second: OK I’ll try.

Reply to Third: That would be great!

Thanks!
-brad-

8

Ok, here we go.
Add this in between the HEAD tags of your .html file.


<SCRIPT LANUGAGE="javascript">
<!--
function newWin(page,winName,w,h,scrollb,resize) {
var win=null;
centerWidth = (screen.width) ? (screen.width-w)/2 : 0;
centerHeight = (screen.height) ? (screen.height-h)/2 : 0;
settings =
'height='+h+',width='+w+',top='+centerHeight+',left='+centerWidth+',scrollbars='+scrollb+',resizable='+resize+''
win = window.open(page,winName,settings);
}
-->
</SCRIPT>

Use this as your link


<A HREF="javascript:newWin('http://www.lostinbeta.com','lostinbeta','300','200','no','no')">Open New Window 1</A>

If you have any questions on use, feel free to ask.
<B>EDIT:</B> I hope this works, I just wrote this up here, so I didn’t test it. If it doesn’t, let me know.

9

Hi,
Reply to first:

Embed the font outlines (in the text field properties, character button) to get antialiased dinamic text!

Cya

SHO

10

Hmm, I have actually never tried that. I usually don’t embed my font outlines because it increases load time a bit. But hey, if it works, go for it, it’s not going to be a HUGE difference in load time, probably barely noticeable.