"Control using presentation playbar" causes SWF files to become choppy

[Guest]

Hello All,

We just started using Adobe Presenter after purchasing the eLearning Suite and we are having some issues.

Here is the background.

First - we have a swf file - about 30 seconds long, there are several animations going on at one time.

We took that swf - opened preseneter - created a new slide - Insert swf - then publish.

The slide looked perfect - but we then hit the play/pause button.  It seems like any tweens in the swf that were on the main stage time line would stop,

but any symbol that had its own timeline just kept on going.

We then re-published selecting Control using Presentation Playbar under Manage SWF File.

We were able to pause everything this time - but the swf was very choppy, sometimes going backwards and just very jacked up.

The stand alone swf plays just fine.

This is causing us major issues right now.

Can someone PLEASE direct me to an answer?

I cant image im the only one to experience this.

Thanks

-Rob

[catholicon]

The slide looked perfect - but we then hit the play/pause button.  It seems like any tweens in the swf that were on the main stage time line would stop,

but any symbol that had its own timeline just kept on going.

I assume (according to your description below) that you didn't have control by playbar. In that case, the embedded swf work as if they are playing standalone. i.e. Presenter won't be calling any gotoAndStop, gotoAnyPlay etc calls on the embedded content. So, I don't think even the main stage timeline of the embedded swf would stop.

We then re-published selecting Control using Presentation Playbar under Manage SWF File.

We were able to pause everything this time - but the swf was very choppy, sometimes going backwards and just very jacked up.

The only things that Presenter might be doing while controlling-by-playbar is calling gotoAndStop, gotoAndPlay, etc. So, again I don't know how the non-main-stage-timeline object are getting controlled. Moreover, you said that the swf becomes choppy: does that mean there are some animations which appear with jerks or is there some video? (for video, it should always be better to hand over the video to presenter!!)

This is causing us major issues right now.

Can you share the swf in question? Or maybe some swf with similar problems which you might share?

[Guest]

Thanks for the quick response - here is a quick demo i put together to show the issue.

Also - when I refer to choppy - all we has is animations going on - there is no video - you will see what I mean in the test 2 below.

The FLA file is here :

http://taketwodevelopment.com/rob/fla/test1.fla

The swf is here :

http://taketwodevelopment.com/rob/fla/test1.swf

6 seconds (180 frames @ 30 fps)

There is no stop at the last frame so it should just loop.

I published the 2 tests all the exact same settings.

settings ->playback

Auto playon start is ON

Loop Presentation is OFF

Include slide number is OFF

Pause after each animation is ON

duration of slide without audio 12 seconds.

For the first test - the "Control using presentation playbar" is NOT selected.

http://taketwodevelopment.com/rob/test_1/

The play button does nothing at all - when the slide hits the end - things just keep going.

For the second test - the "Control using presentation playbar" IS selected.

http://taketwodevelopment.com/rob/test_2/

You will see that the black box has a distinct Choppyness about it - and when it makes the first pass - its all jacked up at that point.

The play / pause button only controls the black box - the other 2 balls just go about its business.

Now I cant show the actual slide Im working - but it has a lot more going on - to the point where when the player has the controler - both things on the main timeline as well as others are very choppy.

I hope that helps demonstration what is going on and  Im hoping its just something as simple as how im publishing the FLA.

What Im trying to get at is have the play / pause button when i hit it - to stop everything - when i hit it again - start everything.

Any help would be great!!

Thanks

-Rob

[Guest]

Rob,

First and foremost, any Flash file that contains nested movie clip elements will not be controlled by Presenter's playback component.  Bottom line: nested movie clips in Flash operate independently of the main timeline...that "process/protocol" is also carried over when importing SWF objects into Presenter.  So unless everything is on the main timeline of Flash, you can forget trying to control such elements.

One method to overcome that problem is to change the behaviour of the nested movie clip in Flash.  Namely, switch between movie clip to graphic instance on the Flash stage and that might nullify what you're experiencing in Presenter.  The only caveat is that you MUST set the number of frames in the main timeline (i.e. Flash) to the same number of frames that exist in the nested movie clip timeline.  From there, controlling the SWF object in Presenter should perform better.

As for the "stuttering" artifact (as I like to call it) that you mentioned previously, that problem might actually be caused by a slight timing glitch that happens when playing SWF content in Presenter.  Fortunately, that doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, it's a real pain.

I've run into that nasty bugger before and after a lot of testing, what I've discovered in my work is that it's a Flash-based problem with using swf files with longer timelines—sometimes as little as :60 seconds, but usually with much longer timeframes—being controlled using the "controlled by presentation playbar" from the Manage SWF settings.

The workaround hack/solution requires either basic editing in Flash, or a slight adjustment in PowerPoint to eradicate the problem:

1. Make note of the duration of your Flash animation.  This means going back into Flash and moving the playhead to the last frame of your timeline to get its duration.

2. Go back to PowerPoint and open the Audio Editor

3. Subtract ONE SECOND from the duration of your "silenced audio" (making sure you still have the swf controlled by Presenter)

Alternate:

If you have audio (like a voice over) on the slide, I realize eliminating a second from the slide isn't going to work.  In that case, go back into Flash and ADD one more second's worth of frames to the main timeline.  Republish the Flash file and then re-import into PowerPoint.

In essence what this does is keep the visuals playing according to Presenter's timeline at 30fps, while the SWF file is "forced" to run at that same tempo; so what happens is that the playback for the flash file becomes slightly "compressed", and most visual stutters are eradicated.

I have a couple of examples to demonstrate that this technique works...and who knows...maybe its just the way I'm building stuff, but hopefully this will help you out as well.

Best,

Rob

http://www.robrode.com/yabb/

[Guest]

Rob,

Thanks for the response, Ill give a few of the suggestions a shot.

_rob

[buzimonkee]

I am having the exact same issue.  I have been all over the forums, tutorials, everything available online, and I can not find a solution.  I have followed rob's (other rob here) link and followed his suggestions all and still no solution.  I have seen examples where the swf files run smooth online, but no one seems to know how to do it correctly-  very frustrating since I have two weeks to complete my project.

HELP!!  Anybody who has been successful, please pass the torch of knowledge on, please please please-

I am working on a PC, should I be using my Mac?

Thanks,

John

[Maureen_Brennan1]

I *just* started working with Presenter and ran into the same issue.  Animations jumped around, and did not synchronize to the animation.  In most of my slides, the audio stopped playing sporadically.

I noticed that this behavior only happened when  selected the option to "control using presentation playbar" in Presenter (7.0.6).  That's when I realized that my Captivate output was using a different frame rate.  We are supposed to use 30 frames per second with Presenter.  When I re-published my SWF files in Captivate with 30 frames per second, all visual and audio problems disappeared.

Maureen