Optimising the Loading

Movie loading requires some planning. You have two options: to pre-load the file or to use streaming, which permits playback while the movie is loading.

Advantages and drawbacks

• To pre-load an animation, you use the If frame is loaded function. It checks that a part or all of the movie is stored in the memory. The first and obvious advantage is that the movie playback is smooth and reacts as expected. The drawback is that the visitor has to wait for the entire download to be completed before being able to view the movie. This technique is essential when the movie is full of interactivity.
  
  


Figure 4: The If Frame is loaded function


• As for streaming, this is only efficient when the movie is small, and can also reduce the quality as it is rare to have a perfect connection. The information flow is often irregular and your movie will inevitably follow the throughput.
  
  

There is no ultimate loading solution and often a combination of the two methods is used. For instance, you can load the biggest media (sounds, images, bitmaps) before letting the streaming start. Or you can also break down the largest sequences into several scenes to allow the first scene to be viewed while the others are still loading.