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movieRate, movieTime, startTime,
stopTime and volume sprite properties.
The movieRate allows you to start and stop playback, as well as
adjusting its speed (eg, to simulate rewind and fast-forward operations).
The movieTime allows you to detect where you are in a movie, and
jump to a
different frame. You may also want to use the duration of cast
property to
compare the current movieTime with the length of the movie as a
whole.
The startTime and stopTime properties allow you to
specify a segment of the movie to be played back.
The volume property allows you to change the volume of a
movie's soundtrack.
For examples of some of these properties in use, see the next two questions.
on exitFrame if the movieRate of sprite myVideoSprite <> 0 then go the frame end exitFrame
This simply tests whether the sprite is still playing and, if it is, loops back
on the same frame. Note that if the loop of cast property is true
for the cast used in the sprite in question, this will never exit.
movieTime to the beginning and
restart it using the movieRate:
on backToStart set the movieTime of sprite myVideoSprite = 0 set the movieRate of sprite myVideoSprite = 1 end backToStart
It may sometimes be necessary, especially if you're also switching
castmembers at
the same time, to kickstart this process with liberal use of the
updateStage command.
However, Director does not presently include active support for QT2 specific features. So, for example, it does not allow you to alter the instrumentation of a QT MIDI file except at the moment of conversion.
Fuller support for QT2 has been mentioned as a feature expected in the next incremental update (4.04), but this remains to be seen.
Prerolling is a process specific to QT, which initializes QuickTime and prepares it for playback of a particular movie. It is an internal software call that developers of software using QT were recommended to use in earlier versions, but they often didn't without causing noticeable ill-effects. With QT2, failing to preroll is reported to cause a significant degradation of performance
Unfortunately, Director is one of those applications which doesn't preroll for QuickTime playback.
Apple have released a system extension to compensate for this and a few other problems, which is available from:
ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/multimedia/quicktime/MMTuner/Apple MM Tuner.hqx
This is for the Macintosh only. Whether a similar fix is required or likely to be provided for QTW remains to be seen.
directToStage property with my QT
movies?DirectToStage quicktime bypasses Director's offscreen buffering and
draws the quicktime movie's graphics tracks directly into the stage window. This
makes for
somewhat better performance, but prevents Director from applying any of its own
graphic effects. Ink effects and colorization are obviously out, but so is
front-to-back ordering of sprites. Like sprites with the trails effect,
directToStage quicktime is effectively drawn on top of everything
already present.
Using directToStage is therefore a matter of what results you want.
On the one hand better playback, on the other, no Director manipulation. The
choice is yours.
At least, unless you are using Windows, or are planning to port your Macintosh
movie. Director for Windows can *only* play Quicktime movies
directToStage (whether this is a limitation of DfW or QTW I
don't know), so the choice doesn't exist. Even if you are working on the
Mac, therefore, if you are planning to port use directToStage
for consistency.
Quicktime for Windows performance is somewhat different to the Macintosh. If you are playing movies on the PC, then it is a good idea when you branch from one screen to another and BOTH contain quicktime movies (but different actual footage) make sure they are in the same channel. It appears that if you branch to another screen, but QuickTime is still there, the movies leave chunks out. (This is NOT consistent, so difficulty is encountered in submitting a bug report.)
Another tip is to always stop your QuickTime movies on your current screen before actually making the branch:
on stopQT
repeat with count = 1 to 48
put the castNum of sprite count into spcheck
if spcheck > 0 then
if the casttype of cast spcheck = #digitalVideo then
set the movieRate of sprite count = 0
end if
end if
end repeat
end stopQT
This handler is used for us on all our quicktime programs, and it seems to be
working. BUT (there is always one), you will probably have to also do
STARTS on your movies. Use the above handler, but instead of
"movierate of sprite count = 0" set it to 1.
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (MCLI)
The Internet Connection at MCLI is
Alan Levine --}
Comments to
levine@maricopa.edu
URL: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/director/faq/faq8.html