MpegXtra® cast members operate only under Windows® 95 and Windows NT®. In addition, the ActiveX® network extensions should be present in the system or the Xtra will not initialize correctly (you can install ActiveX® network support using the freely redistributable AXDIST.EXE file, available from our web site). Therefore, you should create your Projectors to Windows® 95 and Windows NT®, and with the "Animate in Background" option checked. To prevent problems with palettes you should include with each projector a copy of the modified DIRECTOR.INI file you created following the instructions in the "Getting Started" section. The .ini file should be renamed to match the name of the Projector, i.e.:
Projector: myproj.exe
.INI file: myproj.ini
The Xtra is automatically included in the Projector if your first movie contains a MpegXtra® cast member. If you are creating a "dummy" projector that will call your .dxr movie, you can include the Xtra in the Projector using the MODIFY->MOVIE->XTRAS menu, and adding the MpegXtra.x32 file.
TIP: You can also deliver the MpegXtra.x32 file in a folder named XTRAS, located in the same directory of your Projector, if you do not want to embed the file into your projector. This is recommended for faster startup of your Projector, and for delivery on the NT platform.
We also recommend including a copy of the LINGO.INI file that is installed with the MpegXtra® sample movies in the same directory of your Projector. This modified Lingo.ini file contains the following code to prevent problems playing sounds when Intel RSX and DirectSound are installed:
on startup
if string(0.0)="a" then nothing
---Fix problem with sounds not playing
---if Intel RSX is installed
set the soundkeepdevice to 0
beep
end startup
The final structure of files should look like:
Projector - C:\myproj\proj.exe
.INI file - C:\myproj\proj.ini
Lingo.ini - C:\myproj\lingo.ini
Optional (if Xtra was not embedded into the Projector):
Xtra file - C:\myproj\Xtras\MpegXtra.x32
The Xtra will automatically locate all linked Media files that are located in the same directory of the Projector. When used with Director 5 and 6, the Xtra will also search all the directories listed in "the searchpath" Lingo variable for missing Media files. The release version of Director 7 has a bug, and "the searchpath" and "the searchpaths" variables are not being scanned correctly by Director. We included special code on MpegXtra 3.1 to work around the searchpath bug, using a global variable named tbsearchpath. You can include the following code on your LINGO.INI file to define and add directories to the searchpath and tbsearchpath variables, specifying relative directories to hold your linked MPEG files:
DIRECTOR 5 and 6 LINGO.INI:
on startup
if string(0.0)="a" then nothing
---Fix problem with sounds not playing
---if Intel RSX is installed
set the soundkeepdevice to 0
beep
-- Added to look for files in the "media"
-- subdirectory
append(the searchpath, the pathname & "media")
end startup
DIRECTOR 7:
on startup
if string(0.0)="a" then nothing
---Fix problem with sounds not playing
---if Intel RSX is installed
set the soundkeepdevice to 0
beep
-- Added to look for files in the "media"
-- subdirectory
global tbsearchpath
set tbsearchpath=[]
append(tbsearchpath, the applicationPath & "media\")
end startup
You can safely put your Media files in the "media" subdirectory (C:\myproj\media in the example above) and the Xtra will automatically find them when the Projector starts.
