Adobe Community: Timeout Object Problem: Can’t recreate scaling error

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1. Joshua Chunick,

May 13, 2008 2:44 PM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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could you post the general structure of your timeout object and in what type of script you create it? Thanks.

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2. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 14, 2008 11:19 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Thanks for the response. Upon further examination it looks like I may have been making an off-by-one error with an array. Apparently 26 is not the same as 27.

Take care.

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3. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 15, 2008 7:56 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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The off-by-one error was not the culprit (of this at least.)

Below is the core of my code. The idea is that when a 0 is encountered in an array we shrink a model by running a function. Usually the expected models are shrunk, but sometimes it fails. The whole thing is driven by the array _global.aHighestWin. I got a "bad" result, recorded the array and fed it back in. Sometimes the problem replicates, but usually not. This makes me think that I have a problem with the timeout objects.

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4. Joshua Chunick,

May 16, 2008 7:14 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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sTimeout.forget() will not kill the timeout.... in fact, it should throw an error.

you need to do this:
timeout(sTimeout).forget()

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5. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 16, 2008 7:24 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Thanks for the help. We'll see if that's the sole cause of my issues.

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6. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 16, 2008 8:08 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Chunick,

I am trying the method you posted, but am getting an error.

Script error: String expected
Timeout(sTimeout).forget();
timeout(“ShrinkTimeOut4330112”)

When I test to see what sTimeout is (trace(sTimeout.ilk());) it returns #timeout.

Do I need to convert sTimeout to a string and then use the timeout function? I’m not sure how to go about this.

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7. Newsgroup_User,

May 16, 2008 8:37 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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You probably just need to go

sTimeout.forget()

if sTimeout is already a #timeout object, then you do not need to put
another timeout() designation around it.

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8. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 16, 2008 9:58 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Mike Blaustein,

sTimeout.forget() is what I was originally using, so if I go back to that then we are still at the original problem.

I know the code I posted is a bit long, but can either of you see any reason why it may be behaving unexpectedly?

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9. Newsgroup_User,

May 16, 2008 10:15 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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I am not too savvy with JS syntax, but my main question is what is the
call to fShrinkLoop(mModel, sTimeout) sending as sTimeout?

In order for that to work, sTimeout should be the timeout object. Not
the name of the timeout. It should be what you previously referred to
as tShrinkTimeOut

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10. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 16, 2008 11:51 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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That may have been the problem. I am now passing the timeout object to fShrinkLoop instead of the name of the timeout.

Going to test for a while and see if I can recreate the behavior.

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11. Joshua Chunick,

May 17, 2008 6:07 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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ok, when I originally posted I had done a test based off the code you posted... There should be no way sTimeout is a timeout object because it's simply a string variable in your code:

sTimeout = String("ShrinkTimeOut"+(_system.milliseconds));

passing it to the timeout handler/function as a parameter of the time object, it should still be a string, so this line:
sTimeout.forget();

should not work, and did not in the code I wrote to test it. Either the code you posted is different than the code you're using or the example I wrote to test is different in some fundamental way.

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12. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 19, 2008 11:37 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Let’s try a new approach. I have linked to a Director file hosted at mediafire:
http://www.mediafire.com/?yemi5nzb0nm
There are five 3D objects in the scene, and I am trying to scale objects 1, 3 and 4 on the frame labeled “Shrink.” In setting up this example I have discovered that a trace statement somehow controls the success of the shrinking. If the trace statement is present, all 3 items scale as expected. If the trace is absent, only the last item gets shrunk.
What I am looking for is a function that will scale a 3D model down and then hide it once it’s almost at (0, 0, 0). I would like to run this same function on multiple objects at the same time. Can my linked Director file be turned into something that can do this?

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13. Joshua Chunick,

May 19, 2008 7:04 PM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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I downloaded the file and made a change which seems to work (don't know why, but it did):

//Creates a variable for the timeout name.
sTimeout = String("ShrinkTimeOut"+random(_system.milliseconds));

use the random() function... don't know why this would work, but it seems to.

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14. Lukewig,

May 19, 2008 9:15 PM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Hi

In the "fShrink", function the variable called "sTimeout" is a string:

sTimeout = String("ShrinkTimeOut"+(_system.milliseconds));

in the function "fShrinkLoop", the second parameter being passed in is the timeout object. Therefore in this function, the variable called "sTimeout" is a timeout object.

The thing to remember is the object that sends the message determines what the parameter is (it doesn't matter what you name the parameter).

In the case of Timeout objects, the first parameter is the object that Director sends the timeout callback message to (in this case, your model object... and since your model doesn't have a method for handling the response, Direct tries the global name space instead - but still conveniently sends the reference to the 'callback object' as the first parameter). The second parameter is always a reference to the timeout object itself.

(on a side note - you have taken advantage of a quirk with timeout objects that let you pass parameters with timeout callbacks by using the 'callback target' but letting a movie script handle the callback). If you want to send more than one parameter, you have to bundle them together into a single paremeter object).

-- Luke

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15. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 20, 2008 7:11 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Chunick
The addition of random does seem to work, as you pointed out. There is a very remote chance of that returning the same value for multiple objects, right? Even so, this will probably work for what I’m doing.

Lukewig
Thanks for your comments. The first chunk of code I posted is a bit of a mess. I was having a hard time trying to figure out why my shrink function worked sometimes and not others, so I began doing a lot of trial and error. Had I known that the presence or absence of a trace statement would have any bearing on the function’s performance I may not have thrown so much code at the wall waiting for something to stick.

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16. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 20, 2008 7:32 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Chunick, what version of Director are you using? I am running MX 2004 10.1. Does this behavior exist in Director 11?

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17. Joshua Chunick,

May 20, 2008 12:06 PM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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quote:

Originally posted by: adam@blueapplestudio
Chunick, what version of Director are you using? I am running MX 2004 10.1. Does this behavior exist in Director 11?

I couldn't tell you. I'm using MX2004 v10.1.1 as well. My trial period has run out for D11.

As for your previous question: There is a very remote chance of that returning the same value for multiple objects, right? Yes, There is, but it would indeed be remote. You could always add a couple other lines to test if it already exists in the timeoutList, but I don't think it's necessary.

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18. adam@blueapplestudio,

May 20, 2008 12:13 PM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Cool. Thanks again for all of your help.

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19. SujaiS,

May 26, 2008 3:40 AM in reply to adam@blueapplestudio

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Hi Adam,
The issue here is that the timeout object is being over-written in a single exitframe call, since the same name is used for the timeout, i.e sTimeout variable.

_system.milliseconds in the below function need not give a different value each time it is called. For e.g) If the same function is called multiple times within the same millisecond.

_system.milliseconds, has to be changes to some counter, so that it gives a unique value each time it is called.

Please check the modified code below.

function fShrink(nModelNumber) {
//Sets the variable.
mModel = aAllNullsAndModels[nModelNumber+27];
//Creates a variable for the timeout name.
sTimeout = String("ShrinkTimeOut"+ _global.counter++ ; -- This needs to be unique each time the function is called.
//Creates a timeout object.
tShrinkTimeOut = new timeout(sTimeout, 10, "fShrinkLoop", mModel, sTimeout);
}

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Timeout Object Problem: Can’t recreate scaling error

May 13, 2008 1:27 PM

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