Skip navigation

AIR Development

Currently Being Moderated

Preload to Memory ( is that even possible ) ?

Apr 3, 2012 10:09 PM

So I noticed with the app I am working on. There are some stutters the first time a section animates on the stage. Once its been seen on the stage is performs great for the duration of the session.

is there a way to preload all these movieclips to memory or something so that they will always perform great from the first time they are displayed to the stage ?

923 Views 29 Replies Latest reply: Applauz78, Apr 4, 2012 5:52 PM

Replies

Currently Being Moderated

1. Donny1985,

Apr 3, 2012 11:11 PM in reply to Applauz78

Report

I've found I sometimes experience less stutter if I have everything on the display list and control through visible rather than add/remove children.
Also you can try hiding through off screen x or y properties.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

2. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 5:34 AM in reply to Donny1985

Report

I always thought best practice is to removeChild and null movieclips when they arent needed for the moment. ?

WIth your method of visible and x y positioning. ... do you just do an addChild on everything when your app first starts and then position all elements to visible / false and/or off stage ?

then just toggle and set up as you need ?

I have a feeling the same issue will happen where it will stutter the first time it is used. It's almost like the display has to actually see it one time through before it will remember it and play it smooth the next time.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

3. Colin Holgate,

Apr 4, 2012 6:18 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

It sounds like you're using GPU. When you do, the bitmap doesn't get transferred to the GPU until the first time it is within the stage area. If you smoothly animate it from outside of the stage, it will stutter as it goes into the stage area. You can solve that by placing it in the stage area for at least one frame's worth of time before you move it. It can be invisible at the time, it will still be cached. Then on the frame where you start to animate it, set it to be visible.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

4. Mark.Raykhenberg,

Apr 4, 2012 9:49 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

The simple solution is to have a loading screen and simply place all your concent on the stage hiddent behind the loading screen image, then proceed to the level or animation you are loading, this way you get that first time on stage part out of the way in the background.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

5. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 9:51 AM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

So Im trying that .. and it seems to work with MovieClips that are only 1 level. However if its a movieclip that contains another movieclip in it... its not caching the 2nd level movie clip.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

6. Mark.Raykhenberg,

Apr 4, 2012 9:53 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

Put that second level movie clip to load on the stage as well.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

7. Colin Holgate,

Apr 4, 2012 9:55 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

Of course that will be the case. You would need the sub movieclip to be in the stage area of the movieclip. You're only just getting a hint of why I like Direct more than GPU, if Direct ends up being good enough!

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

8. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 10:09 AM in reply to Colin Holgate

Report

The second level movieclip is on the stage.

To test..

I left visible to true .. so I can verfiy everything is on the stage ... then I do the initial tweenMax from the off the stage back onto the stage. .. The first time this happens.. .it skips. Every time after that .. its fine,

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

9. Mark.Raykhenberg,

Apr 4, 2012 10:14 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

Love me some TweenMax, TweenLite. Anyhow you can then pretween your content before you show it to the user, do an accelerated tween so in like .1 seconds.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

10. Colin Holgate,

Apr 4, 2012 10:31 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

I wasn't expecting that having the sub movieclip on the stage would help. If it's on the stage area of the movieclip it is in, then I would expect it to work.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

11. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 10:44 AM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

Mark . can you elaborate on this ?

How do you pre tween with tweenMax ?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

12. Mark.Raykhenberg,

Apr 4, 2012 10:47 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

Oh I sounded over complicated on my post, I am still in that whole hide your content you want to load in the background mode, then tween it it while its hidden once, just an accelerated version of it, then when you tween it for the user it will be pre tweened.

This is kind of a hacky way of doing it, but if it works and solves your issue then who cares, right?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

13. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 11:11 AM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

ahh ... tween it while hidden ... You had me excited for a minute.. thought maybe greensock had a method of pre caching the movieclip its going to tween to the GPU. Gonna try your method now. Will report the results.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

14. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 11:28 AM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

Mark,

No go .. this didnt have any influence at all

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

15. Mark.Raykhenberg,

Apr 4, 2012 11:33 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

So it still stutters when you tween it the second time? Seems strange since you said after you tween it once the second time around it runs smooth, so the hidden tween would be the tweening it once and the visible tween would be the smooth tween.Did you tween it the first time while its set to visible = false? If so do it with it being visible, although hidden, you know what I mean.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

16. Colin Holgate,

Apr 4, 2012 11:36 AM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

The visibility won't affect whether it's cached. Whether it's inside the stage area does. Having the same symbol cached at a different position in the hierarchy doesn't mean that other cases where the symbol is used is also cached.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

17. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 11:37 AM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

no no ..

So whats happening is that it stutters on the first real visible tween.

I even tried using loadChild when the app first loads.. but set an index of 0 to hide it.

then when you click the button to view that movieclip .. I moved the index up to bring the clip to the front and do the tween .. That still stutters.

I tried putting the tween while the movieclip is at 0 .. even tried using the exact tween statement of the actual tween I perform while visible. ... It still stutters.

Once the stutter happens once.. it never happens again until you close the app completely. and re open.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

18. Mark.Raykhenberg,

Apr 4, 2012 11:42 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

What is the movie clip in question, is it just a still graphic or is it a timeline animation, or are you tweening children inside the parent mc from the stage?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

19. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 11:44 AM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

Right now its just a movieclip and on the stage of that movieclip is 15 movieclip icons.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

20. Mark.Raykhenberg,

Apr 4, 2012 11:49 AM in reply to Applauz78

Report

And then you are tweening those 15 movie clips from the main stage?

And from previous post it sounds like you have tried putting those 15 mcs in the preloading hidden screen? correct?

From my experience flash seems to have a bit of a delay playing sounds or movie clips or anything the first time it encounters it however playing it once before seems to solve this problem, not sure why any of my pro tips are not helping

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

21. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 11:56 AM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

Lets call my main movieclip    MainMovie_mc

inside of MainMovie_mc is 15 movieclips   they are all on the stage already.

On the hidden preload I am only doing the addChild from the library for MainMovie_mc   ..    as it contains all the other smaller movieClip icons.

When Im doing the hidden tween I am only doing that tween on MainMovie_mc

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

22. Mark.Raykhenberg,

Apr 4, 2012 12:00 PM in reply to Applauz78

Report

Try preloading those 15 mcs separately on the preload hidden screen, just for my own amusement.

Also try it without addChild but just plop those movie clips down on the timeline.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

23. Colin Holgate,

Apr 4, 2012 12:00 PM in reply to Applauz78

Report

How long after you addChild the MainMovie_MC do you tween it?

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

24. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 12:02 PM in reply to Colin Holgate

Report

There is a big delay between adding child and when I do the tween. THe tween is invoked by a button press.. so I have lots of time to wait before I push the button to do the real tween.

I do the hidden tween immedately when the addChild is performed.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

25. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 12:09 PM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

Gonna try putting the movieclips right on the timeline and controlling them from there with visible true / false now ... will report the results.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

26. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 12:17 PM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

WOW! ... adding the movieclip directly to the timeline makes it a lot worse!

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

27. Mark.Raykhenberg,

Apr 4, 2012 12:30 PM in reply to Applauz78

Report

Now I am totally confused. You tried taking out the 15mcs from the parent and putting them on the timeline? I was suggesting just duplicating them on the timeline as their own entities and still keeping them in the parent mc, I am guessing you put them all in one mc for a reason. Also how does your loading screen work? Are you pausing on it for a second or two or do you just let the movie play through that frame? You might need to stop there for a few seconds to allow flash to load up all the assets.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

28. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 12:35 PM in reply to Mark.Raykhenberg

Report

Im using a timer for the loading screen. Right now Im holding it for 4 seconds.

|
Mark as:
Currently Being Moderated

29. Applauz78,

Apr 4, 2012 5:52 PM in reply to Applauz78

Report

OMG!!! .. Just figured it out!... This is horrible. ONE of my text boxes was set to Readability instead of Animation. Works like a charm now! ... O M G!

|
Mark as: