MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX 2004-USING DIRECTOR, Use Manual, Page: 202 / 500

202 Chapter 9: Using Flash, Flash Components, and Other Interactive Media Types
•
Use Lock-Step or Fixed playback mode to adjust the Flash content frame rate. Lock-Step gives
the best performance, because playback of the Flash content is synchronized to the Director
movie frame for frame.
•
Set the
static
property of the sprite to
TRUE
if your sprite contains no animation (such as a
static block of text) and doesn’t overlap other moving Director sprites. This keeps Director
from redrawing the sprite every frame unless it moves or changes size.
•
When modifying Flash properties using script, set the properties for the sprite rather than
for the cast member. Setting the properties for the cast member modifies values at the cast
member level and broadcasts the change to all sprites on the Stage. This overhead can affect
performance. If you have only a single sprite for the cast member, modify the sprite
property directly.
•
Limit the amount of script that executes while the Flash content plays. Avoid tight repeat
loops between frames. The usual Director performance optimizations apply when using
Flash movies.
•
If you import compressed SWF files, be aware that Director will use memory for both the
compressed and decompressed versions of the file until the file has been completely
decompressed into memory.
Using Director movies within Director movies
You can import a Director movie into another movie as an internal or linked cast member, with
the Import command. As with other media types, you can link to an external movie file or
import the file so that it becomes internal media. The way you choose to import a movie affects
its properties:
•
For linked movies, cast member scripts and behaviors (sprite scripts) work as before; select
Enable Scripts in the Linked Movie tab of the Property inspector. Frame and movie scripts do
not work. As with other types of linked media, the external movie file must be present on the
system when the host movie plays.
•
For movies imported as internal media, the movie appears as a film loop, and interactivity does
not work. Use this mainly for animations.
For both types of imported movies, the host movie controls the tempo settings, palette settings,
and transitions. Settings for these methods in the imported movie are ignored.
Once it is imported, the movie appears as a cast member in the Cast window. The cast members
of a movie imported as internal media also appear in the Cast window. You can animate the cast
member just as you would any graphic cast member, film loop, or digital video.
To import a Director movie:
1
Select File > Import.
2
From the Files of Type pop-up menu, select Director Movie.
3
Select a Director movie.
4
To determine whether the movie is imported into the current movie file or linked externally,
select a Media option.
Standard Import imports all the movie’s cast members into the current cast and creates a film
loop that contains the Score data. Scripts in the imported movie will not work.
Link to External File
creates a cast member that references the external movie file. A linked
movie appears as a single cast member.
5
Click Import.