Flash Site Design - site/concept check & question

Author

site/concept check & question

Charmaine99

2004-06-23, 7:14 am

Hi all,

What you think? this is more so just an idea i am testing out.

http://melonsite.port5.com

question: does anyone know why it takes so long for the preloading to appear?
- it only seems to appear when the movie is like 90% loaded anyway?

this is a bit of a wip, so any comments & suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks all.

ladyluna

2004-06-23, 12:17 pm

Hi,
I am not really sure what the site is for. I guess if a user goes there they
will have a purpose to be there, but if I just ran into the site, I wouldn't
understand what Melon is. I like the navigation, although it did become hard on
the eyes pretty quickly. Could just be me...
As far as your preloader, how did you build it? What is your code? It may not
be functioning, but rather just playing once the movie is loaded. Without
knowing how it is built, it is hard to tell.
Luna

Laiverd.COM

2004-06-23, 12:17 pm

That website 'eats' and average of 75% !! of my processor capacity (PIV 2.6
Ghz with 1Gb RAM); that cannot be good. Other than that I find the
navigation counter intuitive, which may be the purpose, but its irritating
to me. Other than that: simple concepts are good ;-)

John

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Charmaine99

2004-06-23, 12:17 pm

Thankyou for your posts ladyluna and lavierd.

The code i have got on the preloader is:

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
loading = _parent.getBytesLoaded();
total = _parent.getBytesTotal();
percent -= (percent-((loading/total)*100))*.25;
per = int(percent);
percentage = per+"%";
if (percent>99) {
_parent.gotoAndPlay(2);
}
}

melon isn't really anything, the site was just a bit of experimentation
really. maybe something i could use in the future for an advert or something.

yeh, I don't know why it eats so much... i know it really makes the flash
player work for sure. it's attaching mc's from the library at random and then
i've got the clip that the library items are attached being duplicated and
placed randomly on the stage. any ideas how i could improve the amount of
processing required? I am not really any good at actionscript, still a newbie,
so any pointers into improving that area would b good.

Thanks again for your posts.

Laiverd.COM

2004-06-23, 7:16 pm

Well, I'll tell you what eats that much: it's the continuous fading in and
out of movies ;-)

John

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Laiverd.COM

2004-06-23, 7:16 pm

read 'movies' as 'pictures'

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tralfaz

2004-06-23, 11:15 pm

"Charmaine99" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:cbbk5m$236$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Hi all,
>
> What you think? this is more so just an idea i am testing out.
>
> http://melonsite.port5.com
>
> question: does anyone know why it takes so long for the preloading to
appear?
> - it only seems to appear when the movie is like 90% loaded anyway?
>
> this is a bit of a wip, so any comments & suggestions are much
appreciated.
>
> Thanks all.

It's a very common complaint. It amazes me that so many experienced people
still don't know about the late starting pre-loader problem.
It is caused because of this approximate order of loading...

1) Load all the library stuff that will be needed in frame 1
2) Load components
3) Load any library item that has a linkage name
4) Start playing at frame 1 (the preloader)

Because of this loading sequence the preloader in frame 1 can't even start
to play until a whole bunch of library stuff is loaded first.
Sometimes you can fix it by making the preloader on level 0 and load
everything else into another level.

If you move all content off of frame 1 (all movieclips etc) and inside the
library don't export anything in frame 1, then the preloader can start much
sooner.
Sometimes, because of the way the project is made it is necessary to make
the preloader a separate swf file that loads the main swf file. That way,
the preloader can start right after loading only it's own pieces. Done that
way it can also be a modular preloader that can be used for all your
projects. This is my preferred method.

good luck,
tralfaz

Charmaine99

2004-06-24, 4:14 am

so it's the alpha that eats? I think i may revert back to the no alpha version
then. Thanks John.

Thankyou so much for your detailed info tralfaz, so loading the movie in as an
external one from the preloader is the best way to go? can you still load
external movies into the main external one then too?

I'm still a newbie, just under six months learning flash so really appreciate
the info you guys have to offer.

Thanks again.

tralfaz

2004-06-24, 7:16 pm

"Charmaine99" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:cbdg3i$gl3$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> so it's the alpha that eats? I think i may revert back to the no alpha
version
> then. Thanks John.
>
> Thankyou so much for your detailed info tralfaz, so loading the movie in
as an
> external one from the preloader is the best way to go? can you still load
> external movies into the main external one then too?
>
> I'm still a newbie, just under six months learning flash so really
appreciate
> the info you guys have to offer.
>
> Thanks again.

Very welcome. Yes, any loaded clip can load another one. The thing is
that if the preloader loads main.swf and main.swf is just a shell for
loading external files, the preloader will only show the loading progress of
main.swf before it loads any external file. Then when main starts playing
and loading it will need it's own preloader for the elements that are
loading into it.
tralfaz