Linking Director Movies?

[wuzzle]

How do you link projectors? I'm doing a project that will have many sections and I don't want all the sections running on the same score. I want the menu to link to different sections which will be organized into their own movie.

By the way, the project is going to end up being a cd-rom presentation.

 

[archerofloaf]

You can make your menu a director movie that you create your projector with. Then with each separate section i would suggest upon making them separate director files use the play movie "X" action on a mouseDown handler when you want the projector to go to another part of your presentation. You do not have to project these other dir files, the projector accesses them within the exe. But make your your secondary dir files are in the same directory so the exe will be able to find it,otherwise you put in its path in the lingo script (which might be problematic if the distribution of the projector is more than one computer.) Hope this helps

 

[wuzzle]

Ok, so I'm assuming what I would do is this:

Open a Director file and make a button with this in the Mouse Down script:

play movie "secondmovie"

Create a projector of the movie, and make sure that secondmovie.dir exists in the same directory as my .exe...Then open the .exe and test the button.

Am I right? I can't be because that's not working.

 

[wuzzle]

Heeeellllpppp meeee pleeeaaaassseee

 

[archerofloaf]

When you tested this, did the file extension .dir exist in the secondmovies file name. that is if you are on windows or mac did the file read "secondmovie.dir" because if so you would have put in play movie "secondmovie.dir". Thats the only thing i can think that is causing failures. This method has given me no problems in the past.

 

[wuzzle]

Ok, I've got that part working. Now there's another little issue:

This is what I've got in my button:

on mouseDown me
go movie "secondmovie"
end

and it opens secondmovie.dir but only after bringing up a prompt that says "This application requires an Xtra (Text) that either does not exist or failed to initialize properly. Please make sure the appropriate Xtras are in the Xtras folder(s)."

This is such a simple function that it doesn't seem like it would need a special Xtra...I tested it on someone else's computer and it did the same thing. Any simple solutions?

 

[archerofloaf]

Your secondmovie may have a media element that your first dir when it is projected does not need or have. If the Xtras are included in the executable, then find out which one you need and include it in an Xtras folder or try including it in the first movie which will put it in the projector.

 

[wuzzle]

Nah, I don't know what the problem was. I just saved the .dir as a different filename and now it works fine.
Thanks very much for all your help!

 

[Guest_imported]

I am moving out of the Shockwave industry to become an Xtra developer but dun know where to start, any ideas...

 

[Horrid]

Start by going to macromedias site, they have an entire section on xtra development there somewhere, includeing the XDK (xtra development kit) with documention for every Macromedia product.