VCD Film, Television & An…on Creation Encyclopedia/mycd.iso/Direct5/DATA.Z/README.TXT

Text File | 1996-03-15 | 15.9 KB | 363 lines

March 1996

This file contains information about Director learned since the
manuals and help system were completed.

For the most up to date information about Director 5 please visit our
website at http://www.macromedia.com/Tools/Director

TEXT ISSUES
**Importing text formatting attributes**
Director does not support all rich text formatting attributes. When
importing text, Director ignores unsupported formatting attributes.
Some of the attributes not supported include: paragraph style tags,
tables, headers & footers, strike-through, small caps, all caps, auto-
numbering, double underline, and dotted underline.

**Formatting multiple text and field cast members**
You can select multiple text and field cast members in the cast window or
on stage and apply formatting with the text inspector or commands on
the Modify menu. Changes you make apply to all the characters in the
cast members.

The formatting options available are based on the first character of the
first cast member selected. If the first selected cast member is text, then
line spacing, leading, and paragraph controls are available. If it is a field,
only border and font options are available.

**Problems with older version of Adobe Type Manager**
Old versions of Adobe Type Manager can interfere with anti-aliasing and
cause other problems in Director. When working with PostScript fonts,
install the latest version of Adobe Type Manager. Director has been
tested and works correctly with version 3.8 for the Macintosh and 3.0 for
Windows.

**Line spacing problems**
If line spacing does not change as expected when you change the size of
characters or edit a movie on a different platform, select the entire
paragraph before specifying a new character size. Drag down past the
last line of the paragraph to make sure it's completely selected.

If you've selected a specific line spacing setting, Director doesn't make
further adjustments. Select the paragraph and enter 0 in the line spacing
field to have Director resume automatic line spacing.

**Importing rich text files created on other platforms**
When importing rich text files created on other platforms, Director assigns
the default system font to the text. It does not use the fontmap.txt settings.

PALETTE ISSUES
**Palettes.cst**
The Palettes.cst item on the Xtras menu opens a cast containing palettes
you may find useful. Included are versions of Director's built-in palettes
with the 20 standard Windows colors overlaid, and standard color
palettes from a number of third-party products, such as the ones used by
Indeo video compressors.

**Finding cast members by palette**
Although it displays 16- and 24-bit cast members without referring to any
palette, Director assigns a palette to 16- and 24-bit cast members in
order to display a palette in the paint window when you edit the cast
member. When you use the Find Cast Member command to find cast
members by palette, Director selects all cast members assigned to the
specified palette, regardless of their bit depth. If, after using Find Cast
Member, you use Transform Bitmap to remap selected cast members to
a new palette, Director changes the bit depth of all selected cast
members to the bit depth of the first selected cast member. Before using
Transform Bitmap, make sure only the cast members you want to change
are selected.

**Color restrictions**
Director only allows palettes with white in the first position and black in
the last (or vice versa). Director will not import a palette without these
colors, and will not change these colors in the color palettes window.

**Windows system palette for Director 4**
A palette named "System - Win (Dir 4)" appears at the bottom of the
palettes pop-up. It is the "System - Win" palette that shipped with
Director 4. It is not quite the same as the real System-Win palette, and
you'll notice your Windows UI changing colors slightly when you select it.
Movies that used the old System-Win palette will open with System-Win
(Dir 4) selected.

If you don't make any palette changes to your movie, it will look exactly
as it did in Director 4. To remap your movie to the new Windows system
palette, use Transform Bitmap to remap all cast members to the System-
Win palette. You should also select System-Win as the default palette in
the Movie Properties dialog box.

**Restricted colors for Windows**
When you use a palette that does not have the same colors as the
Windows system palette in the first and last eight positions, Director
switches to a fully black-and-white interface. Unlike Director 4, any
palette with the required colors in the required positions (not just
System-Win) will allow the Windows and Director interface to stay in
color.

In palettes that have the required Windows system colors, Director also
reserves four additional palette entries (two at each end) to include the
current colors used by the Windows 95 custom desktop color scheme.
This automatic palette adjustment occurs only on palettes that already
have the 16 Windows colors in them; other palettes are not altered.
These four colors are automatically reserved both on Windows and on
the Macintosh, to allow creation of artwork on the Macintosh that can be
played back under Windows 95 with custom desktop colors intact.

**Using DeBabelizer to remap to Windows system palette**
DeBabelizer's Windows default 256 palette does not match Director's
"System-Win" palette. Using the DeBabelizer Windows palette in
Director causes the interface to switch to black-and-white. See the
previous entry.

**Editing 4- and 16-color palettes**
4- and 16-color palettes can't be edited in the color palettes window
unless the system is set to the same color depth. Recent Macintosh
models do not offer these color depth settings.

USING THE WINDOWS 95 LOGO ON YOUR PRODUCTS
Products you develop with Director are eligible for the Windows 95
logo. To find out about requirements, contact:

-- Microsoft Developer Solutions Phone-Fax service [phone]
-- [e-mail]
-- http://www.windows.microsoft.com
-- WINNEWS on America Online
-- GO WINNEWS on CompuServe
-- JUMP WINNEWS on Prodigy

Please see our website at http://www.macromedia.com for the most
up-to-date information concerning obtaining the
"Designed for Windows 95" logo for your product authored using Director 5.

COPYING SCORE CELLS
**Copying between movies**
When copying score cells between movies, make sure the movie you are
copying from has been saved. Otherwise the copy may not be
successful.

If you copy a section of score with a linked external cast from one movie
to another, Director asks if you want to link the external cast to the movie.
If you choose OK, Director links the external cast to the new movie; if you
choose Cancel, Director imports the needed cast members to an internal
cast in the new movie.

LINGO ISSUES
**Closing and opening MIAWs**
While a movie in a window (MIAW) is hidden, it continues playing
animation, sounds, and transitions unless the movie is paused. They
stop only when the window is forgotten. To pause a MIAW, use the
pause command in the MIAW's closeWindow handler. A MIAW's
closeWindow handler is called whenever the window is hidden by
clicking the close box, changing the window's visibility, or issuing the
close window command.

To continue a paused MIAW, use the continue command in the MIAW's
openWindow handler.

A MIAW's stopMovie handler is called only when the movie plays
through to the end or jumps to another movie. It isn't called when the
window is closed or the window is deleted by the forget window
command.

When a forget window command is given for a MIAW, the window and
MIAW disappear without calling the stopMovie, closeWindow, or
deactivateWindow handlers.

If a sound is playing in a MIAW when it is forgotten, the sound continues
playing until another movie requests the sound channel or stops the
sound.

**Duplicating cast members in projectors**
The Duplicate Cast Members for Faster Loading option in the Projector
Options dialog box should not be used if the movie sets the filename of
an external cast.

Duplicate Cast Members for Faster Loading duplicates cast members
that are referenced more than once in the score and places them in
optimum order in the internal cast for fast loading when the projector
plays. For example, if a cast member is used once in frame 4 and once in
frame 2000, two copies are made. For sprites of cast members in a
linked external cast, an internal copy is made and used instead.
Therefore, if you set the filename of the linked cast, the sprites do not
update.

**Setting properties**
You cannot use the put command to set properties. You must use the
set command.

**Using saveMovie**
Using saveMovie in a Windows 3.1 projector may corrupt the projector.
The problem does not occur when using saveMovie in Director movies
called from projectors, or protected movies.

**Identifying field cast members created in Director 4**
For movies created in Director 5, the type of member returns #field for
field cast members and #richText for text cast members. However, field
cast members originally created in Director 4 still return #text for the type
of member. This is to provide backward compatibility for movies
that were created in Director 4.

**Idle loading cast members**
Director can idle load cast members from an internal or external cast.
However, it cannot idle load linked cast members.

Cast members that were  idle loaded remain compressed until the
movie uses them. When the movie plays back, it may have noticeable
pauses if it decompresses a large number of cast members at
the same time.

**Score recording**
You can't start a score recording session from within an on enterFrame
handler.

If the score is open, Director redraws all markers each time you set a
marker from Lingo. This can slow down score recording significantly
when a movie has a large number of markers. Avoid this problem by
closing the score window before recording.

**Watcher window**
The watcher window displays only 255 characters per expression.
Expressions longer than this, including long lists, are truncated.

Watching too many variables in the watcher window can slow down
Director's performance.

**Using the updateFrame command in the last frame**
When used in the movie's last frame or any frame after that, the
updateFrame command duplicates everything in the frame and copies it
into the next frame. (You can determine the last frame number using the
statement put the lastFrame.)

To avoid this, assign an empty frame script or tempo setting in a frame
that is well past the last frame in which you plan to record score. For
example, if you're recording 100 frames starting at frame 25, you could
put an on enterFrame handler that contains only the nothing command in
frame 140.

Remember to remove the empty frame script after you're done recording.

**Last frame when generating score**
When generating score, the frame immediately after the last frame you
update flashes to the screen when the endRecording command is given.

You can avoid flashing frames by doing three things:
-- Setting up an auxiliary frame that has the same sprites as the frame
that the flash occurs in
-- Setting the updateLock to TRUE during score recording to keep the
stage constant
-- Keeping the playback head in the auxiliary frame during score
recording.

This way, the image that flashes on stage matches the existing image
and isn't noticeable.

For example, this handler records score cells from frame 100 to frame
150. When it finishes, frame 151 will flash to the stage. It hides the flash
by displaying the frame Wait Here, which has the same sprites as frame
151, during score recording:

on doSomeScoreRecording
   go to label("WaitHere")
   set the updateLock = TRUE
   set startFrame = 100
   set endFrame = 150
       go to frame StartRecordHere
   beginRecording
     repeat with i = startFrame to endFrame
        --
        -- Put Lingo that sets up frame here
        --
        updateFrame
     end repeat
  endRecording
  go to label("WaitHere")
  set the updateLock = FALSE
end

XTRA DEVELOPER'S KIT
The Xtra Developer's Kit is included in the MACROMED folder on the
Director CD. It is not installed by the installation program.
You can copy it from the CD without using any installation or
decompression program.

MISCELLANEOUS
**Xtras folders for projectors**
Projectors look for Xtras only in the Xtras folder that is in the same
folder as the projector, not in the shared Xtras folder. While authoring,
Director also looks for Xtras in the Xtras folder in the Program Files
folder (Windows) or the System folder (Macintosh).

**Applying ink to editable fields**
If you apply any ink other than Copy to an editable field, the field will not
be editable in a projector.

**Using Director with the Windows 95 Plus kit**
Using the Windows 95 Plus kit may cause bad stage redrawing in
Director when resizing windows. The Windows 95 Plus kit sets
windows to show their contents while dragging.

To disable this feature in Windows 95, open the Display Control Panel,
choose the Plus! tab, and then deselect Show Window Contents While
Dragging.

To disable this feature in Windows NT, open the Desktop Control Panel,
and then deselect Full Drag.

**Fitting digital video movies in the video window**
Digital video movies appear at their full size in the video window.
If the movie is larger than the video window, Director centers it
in the window and the edges do not appear. If you want Director
to scale the movie to the size of the video window, right-click
inside the video window and choose Fit to Window from the
shortcut menu.

You cannot copy and paste frames in digital video movies unless
Fit to Window is on.

**Paint window dotted line button**
The button showing a dotted line does not create a dotted line; it
indicates an invisible border. If you draw a filled shape with the dotted
line selected, there won't be a border. For unfilled objects, it draws a one-
pixel line.

**Numeric keypad shortcuts**
The numeric keypad shortcuts only work when Num Lock is off. When
it's on, the keypad enters numbers.

To turn number lock on or off, press Num Lock.

**Using IMA-compressed sounds**
IMA-compressed AIFF sounds and QuickTime soundtracks that have
been IMA-compressed work only as linked external files. If you try to
import IMA-compressed sounds without selecting the Linked checkbox in
the Import dialog box, the import does not work.

**Importing PICTs in Windows**
The Windows version of Director assumes that all PICT images are
32-bit, whether you import as a bitmap or a PICT. When the Image
Options dialog box appears during import, make sure to select the correct
color depth option.

If there is a custom palette attached to the image, Director does not give
you the option of importing the palette when you import the image. You
can remap the image to any of the palettes available to Director. If you
need to use the image's palette, convert the image to another compatible
format, such as BMP. You can then import the image along with the
custom palette.

**RAM requirements for Director with Window NT**
Although it may be possible to run Director on Windows NT with 16 MB
of RAM, at least 24 MB is recommended for acceptable performance.

**File I/O for NT**
The built-in File I/O Xobject is not supported in Windows NT. The Mech
sample movie uses File I/0, so the Open and Save buttons produce
script errors when the movie is run on Windows NT

**Using the Restore button in Sprite Properties**
The Restore button in the Sprite Properties dialog box is the equivalent
of the Restore to Size of Cast Member option in Director 4.0. It restores
scaled sprites to the same size as the cast member. It has no effect on
text or field cast members.