Using Director > Playing Movies over the Internet > About streaming with the Score and behaviors |  |

About streaming with the Score and behaviors

The easiest way to create a movie that streams well is to arrange the Score properly and use behaviors to control the playback head. Director downloads cast members in the order in which they appear in the Score. Try to arrange the Score so that events don't make the playback head jump far ahead in the Score, where cast members have not yet been downloaded. For example, if you place a menu in the first frame of a movie and a user chooses an option that sends the playback head to frame 400, the cast members for frame 400 probably won't be available right away.

To avoid this problem, begin a movie with a simple introductory scene containing a few small cast members, preferably vector shapes. You can use a streaming behavior from the Library palette to make the introduction loop until the cast members required for the next scene have been downloaded in the background.

Several behaviors included with Director control the playback head or a progress bar while media elements are downloading. These behaviors make it easy to allow enough time for downloading to catch up with action in the Score.

Looping behaviors

Looping behaviors make the playback head return (loop) to a frame or stay on the current frame until specified media elements have been downloaded, and then continue to the next frame. Attach a looping behavior to a frame in the script channel, not to a sprite.

Loop until Next Frame is Available loops the playback head to a specified frame until all the media elements required for the next frame have been downloaded.

Loop until Member is Available loops the playback head to a specified frame until a certain cast member has been downloaded.

Loop until Media at Marker is Available loops the playback head to a specified frame until all the media elements for the frame at the specified marker have been downloaded.

Loop until Media in Frame is Available loops the playback head to a specified frame until all the media elements required for a certain frame have been downloaded.

Jumping behaviors

Jumping behaviors make the playback head skip to a specified frame or marker once certain media elements have been downloaded. Attach a jumping behavior to a frame in the script channel, not to a sprite.

Jump When Member is Available moves the playback head to the specified frame once a certain cast member has been downloaded.

Jump When Media in Frame is Available moves the playback head to the specified frame once the media elements for a particular frame have been downloaded.

Jump When Media in Marker is Available moves the playback head to the specified frame once the media elements for the frame at a particular marker have been downloaded.