This file contains late-breaking news about Macromedia Director 4.0.4 for Macintosh.
SERIAL NUMBERS
Your serial number is located on the registration card. You need the serial number to run the Director application for the first time. If you are upgrading from version 4.0 of Director for Macintosh, your serial number prefix has changed from DM400- to DRM404-. For example, if your Director 4.0 serial number was DM400-1234-5678- 9012, your new serial number would be DRM404-1234-5678-9012.
WHAT’S NEW SINCE VERSION 4.0
Director for Macintosh 4.0.4 is now accelerated for the Power Macintosh. It operates identically on either a standard Macintosh or Power Macintosh computer. Director for Macintosh 4.0.4 will open movies that were created using any Director 4.x release for either Macintosh or Windows.
The Projector Options dialog box has been modified so that you can create a projector for a standard Macintosh computer, one accelerated for a Power Macintosh, or for both. (Power Macintosh projectors only run on a Power Macintosh. Other projectors will run on any Macintosh.) To specify the type of projector you want to create, select an option from the Projector Will Run On pop-up menu in the Projector Options dialog box. Be aware that if you select All Macintosh Models from the pop-up menu, the projector will be considerably larger.
This release contains two variations of the resources file that is used to create Macintosh projectors. Director 4.0 68K Resources is used if you select Standard Macintosh in the Projector Options dialog. Director 4.0 Resources creates projectors that run accelerated on a Power Macintosh computer.
A new version of online help now runs significantly faster.
• The Director 4.0 Help Media file contains graphics used in the help system.
• Many Lingo help topics include example Lingo scripts that you can select, copy, and paste into your own Director scripts. These examples are now included within the Lingo help topics, not in topic notes, as described in Using Director.
• The help window is now resizable and movable. If you have two monitors, you may want to keep the help window open all the time, particularly if you look up a lot of Lingo commands. You can now print topics from the help system using Command-P.
With faster and faster processing, Director now supports tempos up to 120 frames per second. You can edit the tempo in the control panel, the Set Tempo dialog box, or in Lingo. Don't use Lingo to set the frame rate any higher, though. You will need to thoroughly test movies and projectors using faster frame rates to make sure that synchronization is still as desired.
Director for Macintosh now works on a PowerBook with mirroring enabled. Palette changes affect both monitors if they're set to the same bit depth. Most transitions will run on both screens. However, dissolve bit and dissolve pixel transitions will only occur on one screen; the second screen will be updated as soon as the transition finishes.
Director automatically prerolls QuickTime movies for better playback with QuickTime 2.0.
The following changes have been made to improve interoperability with Director for Windows:
• Director now maps most upper-case ASCII characters
• A new FontMap.TXT provides better cross-platform font mapping
• The videoForWindowsPresent Lingo function has been added
All Director dialog boxes are now movable by dragging the title bar.
The default setting for the Load Cast option in the Movie Info dialog box has been changed from Load Cast After Frame One to Load Cast When Needed. This option can still be changed with the pop-up menu in the dialog. If your movie has jerky animation, you may want to ensure cast members are in memory by using the Lingo commands preLoad or preLoadCast. Also when preloading cast members, either by a Lingo command or with the movie preload option, consider setting the preLoadEventAbort to TRUE so that users can interrupt the process.
Virtual Memory
Director for Macintosh 4.0.4 and the projectors it creates are now compatible with virtual memory on both standard Macintosh and Power Macintosh computers. Virtual memory is an option in the Memory control panel that makes space on your hard disk act like additional – but slow – RAM. For example, you could use it to make a Macintosh with 8 MB of built-in RAM act like one with 12 MB, and then set the preferred size for Director’s memory requirement (in the Finder's Get Info window) to 10 MB.
However, the slow speed of virtual memory compared to real RAM – and its lack of knowledge about what data a program is likely to need next – usually makes it a poor choice for multimedia applications. More memory does not necessarily mean better performance unless the memory is real RAM. In fact, virtual memory can easily cause awkward pauses and sound or video dropouts if the system chooses an inopportune moment in a movie to swap data between RAM and disk.
For these reasons, Macromedia recommends that you not use virtual memory with Director or projectors on the Macintosh. You can obtain much better performance when you author a movie by handling memory management yourself. The Lingo commands preLoad and preLoadCast let you load the particular cast members you will need for a particular portion of your movie. Later, at a time in the movie where a short pause is acceptable, you can unload them using the commands unLoad and unLoadCast, and load other castmembers for the next portion. In addition, each cast member has a purge priority setting. You can almost always obtain excellent performance if you ensure that the cast members you need are in real RAM.
LOCALIZED SOFTWARE
Director 4.0 movies are designed to work with English text on non-Roman script systems, such as Japanese, Korean, or Chinese. Using non-Roman text in Lingo scripts or from user input, however, may produce unpredictable results. Contact Macromedia or a Macromedia retailer for localized versions of Director that you can use to build localized Director movies.
CROSS-PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT
Director 4.0 is the first cross-platform release of Director. Although movies can be opened on the Macintosh or on Windows, projectors can only be played on the platform on which they were created.
Director 4.0 for Macintosh movies can only be played on Windows using Director 4.0 for Windows; they are not compatible with Director Player for Windows (DPW) 3.1, nor can Director 4.0 movies be saved in earlier movie formats.
Additional information on cross-platform features such as the FONTMAP.TXT file is included in the Tips & Tricks guide. Tips & Tricks also includes hints on debugging, synchronization, projectors, protected movies, and shared casts.
Carriage return/line feed characters
The file I/O XObject does not map CR to CR/LF when saving text to a file. To create a text file with a CR/LF at each line ending, use a Lingo expression like the following before you write each line out to the file:
put theText & return & numToChar(10) into theLine
When using text in movies that are going to be ported, remember that the Macintosh uses a CR (Carriage Return, ASCII 13) to denote the end of line, while Windows machines use a combination of CR/LF (Carriage Return/Linefeed, ASCII 13/10) to denote the end of line. This can cause problems when parsing or displaying DOS text strings with Lingo, because a Windows machine will have an extra character at the end of the line in addition to the CR. When displaying text only within Director (that is, without the FileIO DLL), Director will handle this for you automatically.
File extensions in cross-platform movies
Director dialog boxes display files that have a filename extension matching the recognized DOS extensions. Use these extensions for linked files in cross-platform movies:
Director Movie .DIR (or .DXR for a protected movie)
Bitmap .PIC or .PCT
Sound .AIF
Font Map .TXT
QuickTime .MOV
When issuing "go to movie" or "open window" commands, there is no need to include the .DIR or .DXR extension in the movie's name. Just use the eight-letter filename when referring to the movie. Lingo will add either extension for you. This allows you to test with regular movie files and then protect them during the final stages of the project.
Miscellaneous issues
Projectors don't include any files that were linked when imported, including sounds, PICTs, or digital videos. If you have externally linked files, provide them to users in the same folder as the movie that calls them.
When authoring a cross-platform movie on the Macintosh, remember that AIFF sound files must have the .AIF extension for the sound to play in Director for Windows. Files should be properly named prior to importing. Linked .AIF files can be played back on either Macintosh or Windows.
Linked .WAV files can only be played back on Windows. Only uncompressed linked .WAV files are supported; if you wish to use compressed sounds on Windows, you must use the Lingo MCI command to play them.
When making custom menus on Windows, the ALT-0197 character does not look like the "wavy equals" sign (≈). Although it looks like a capital A with a circle on top of it, it is completely functional on both Windows and Macintosh.
Inserting XObjects or other files into the resource fork of a Director movie on the Macintosh is not recommended because they would not be readable on Windows. Keep added resources external and use the openXLib command instead.
Director does not support links to files whose pathname is longer than 255 characters on Macintosh and 64 characters on Windows. This limitation affects the following uses of linked files:
• Linked cast members
• Files mentioned in your Lingo scripts
• Movies accessed via the "goto movie" command.
WHAT’S NEW SINCE VERSION 3.1
Memory requirements
The Director application has a default memory partition of 4,500K; Director can be run in a minimum partition of 2,000K with significantly reduced performance. The Director application requires a 68030 (or better) Macintosh with at least a 13-inch monitor. The sample movies require a monitor set to 256 colors.
Projectors have a default memory partition of 4,096K. Black and white projectors designed for Macintosh Classic screens may run in partitions as small as 1500K or even less. The best way to decide upon a minimum partition for your movie is to test it. Projectors without enough memory allocated may not run. Projectors with shared cast movies require larger partitions than the default.
The best way to avoid low memory problems is to allot a large memory partition and save frequently. Missing cast members, sprites leaving trails, and flickering pointers are signs of low memory.
Director 4.0 lets you carefully control when cast members are retained in memory and when they are “purged” to make room for other cast members. Four levels of control are provided, including 0—Never, which forces cast members to stay in memory permanently (or until their priority is changed). The 0—Never setting should be used only with extreme caution because Director will not purge items marked 0—Never, even under the most critical low-memory circumstances, potentially leading to a crash. For maximum safety, we recommend using the purge levels of 2—Next and 1—Last for the most critical cast members. The default purge priority is 3—Normal.
Converting movies created in version 3.0 or 3.1
The Shared Cast movie must now be named Shared.Dir; this is to let you use the same
shared cast on the Macintosh and on Windows. When you choose Update Movies, Director makes a copy of the shared cast and renames it “Shared.Dir”.
To update movies from Director 3.0 or 3.1 format, use the Update Movies command:
1. Place all older format movies together into a folder.
2. Create a new, empty folder on your hard disk.
3. Launch Director and select Update Movies from the File menu.
4. In the Update Movies dialog box, select the folder containing the old movies. Then, in the second dialog, select the new, empty folder you created. The old-format movies will be updated as they are copied from the old folder to the new folder, one by one.
If the 3.x movies use a Shared Cast movie, proceed using the same steps above, except do the following:
1. Before you begin, determine where the shared cast begins (for example, F11).
• Run Director 3.x and use it to open the file called Shared Cast.
• Find the first occupied cast member in the cast window. The number of the first cast member is where the shared cast begins.
2. Be certain that all the movies in the folder were designed to use the same Shared Cast movie. If not, convert them in two batches.
3. Quit Director 3.x and open Director 4.0.
4. In the Update Movies dialog, select the Adjust Pre-4.0 Shared Cast References
checkbox.
5. Select the source folder as usual. An additional dialog now appears.
6. Type in the number of the old shared cast starting position.
7. Indicate where you want the new shared cast to begin and click OK. Then, in the next dialog, select the destination folder and proceed as above.
When the conversion is done, you’ll find that:
• All movies have been copied into the new folder and updated.
• Your “Shared Cast” movie has been renamed “Shared.Dir”.
• The cast members in the shared cast movie have been shifted.
• All score references to cast members in the shared cast have been shifted.
When updating movies:
• Don’t place any Director 4.0 movies in the same folder as your 3.x movies.
• Don’t rename the Director 3.x movies “Shared.Dir”. The Shared Cast movie will be
automatically renamed to “Shared.Dir” when it is converted to 4.0 format.
• If any of the 3.x movies used unlinked QuickTime cast members, Director will create external files on disk in order to store the QuickTime links. This is because Director 4.0 no longer supports unlinked QuickTime cast members. If you find that these external files are not needed, use the Digital Video Cast Member Info dialog to change the cast member filename back to the original movie file.
The Allow Outdated Lingo setting in the Movie Info dialog box is available for movies
converted from earlier versions of Director; it is checked by default. The purpose of the checkbox is to support older Lingo syntax (such as references to cast members by octal IDs like B15). It is saved on a movie by movie basis. Whenever you turn this setting on or off, you should immediately choose Recompile All Scripts from the Text menu to ensure that your scripts have been properly compiled with the new setting.
When you use Allow Outdated Lingo in a project with a shared cast movie, the Allow
Outdated Lingo setting should be the same in the Shared.Dir movie as in each of the other movies in the project. If different settings are used, Lingo could fail to compile some of the scripts in Shared.Dir because Director only obeys the Allow Outdated Lingo setting of the movie you currently have open.
Using Sounds in Movies Created in Earlier Versions of Director
If you are using a Director movie that was originally created on the Macintosh in Director 3.1, verify that the Loop checkbox for the sounds in the Cast Member Info dialog is set the way you want. Sounds from these movies have Loop selected by default. The External Sounds File in older versions of Director for Macintosh need to be reproduced in a normal sound file format to be used in Director 4.0.x.
Protected movies and projectors
Update Movies may also be used to protect movies so that they can’t be opened with Director. Protected movies should be kept on a hard disk or CD-ROM and called by Lingo in a projector. Update Movies always prompts you to save a copy of the movie because once protected, there is no way to recover the original contents of the movie.
All projectors must include at least one Director movie. Every movie listed in the Create Projector play list will automatically be included in the projector file. A movie that has been embedded in a projector cannot be retrieved from the projector or converted back into a Director movie. Embedded movies are automatically protected when they are added to the projector.
Protected movies cannot be embedded in projectors. You should only protect the movies that you wish to leave on the disk as separate files from your projector. The Shared.Dir movie may be included in a projector, or protected and left outside the projector.
The fixStageSize Lingo command has no effect in projectors. In projectors, when you use the “go to movie” or “play movie” command, the stage will always resize. Also, retrieving scriptext does not work, as this is stripped from projectors.
DIGITAL VIDEO ISSUES
Note that “digital video” is used generically throughout the Director documentation to refer to QuickTime and AVI (Microsoft Video for Windows) movies. “QuickTime” refers specifically to movies in Apple Computer’s QuickTime format.
QuickTime export replaces Accelerator as a way to obtain predictable tempos when exporting Director movies. However be aware that exporting full-screen dissolves or any transition that takes a lot of steps should be avoided, since it may take an undue amount of time to save. A workaround is to use transitions on a smaller portion of the stage.
Exporting a digital video movie with PICT selected only exports one frame of the movie.
Digital video movies must now be externally linked. When you update a Director 3.1 movie with a non-linked QuickTime cast member, Director will create a separate QuickTime movie on your disk to hold the QuickTime information that was formerly stored inside the Director movie. If the 3.1.3 movie was stored on a locked disk, Director may prompt you for a location in which to save the newly created link.
You cannot set the start time and stop time for direct-to-stage digital video movies without controllers unless the movie is playing. This is changed from Director 3.13.
When Direct to Stage is selected in Digital Video Cast Member Info for a QuickTime movie, the movie leaves trails.
If attempting to relink digital video movies on the fly, use the fileName cast property instead of the importFileInto command. Director cannot import digital video movies, but instead keeps links to external files, so using importFileInto may produce errors.
Lingo says that the registration point of a digital video movie is 0,0. Actually, the
registration point is the midpoint of the movie.
SOUND NOTES
You can import sounds that have been saved by SoundEdit, SoundEdit Pro, or SoundEdit 16 with 3:1 or 6:1 compression, so long as the sounds have been saved as resources.
AIFF-C can play back as linked files or with the Lingo sound playFile command. However, you cannot import AIFF-C files as in-memory sounds.
Internal SND cast members are not compressed.
Sounds in the score and puppeted sounds play from RAM. Using sound playFile, external sounds stream from disk. It is difficult to stream two sounds at once or to stream a sound while loading graphics.
If you are using a Director movie that was originally created on the Macintosh in Director 3.1, verify that the Loop checkbox for the sounds in the Cast Member Info dialog is set the way you want. Sounds from these movies have Loop selected by default. The external Sounds File in older versions of Director for Macintosh needs to be reproduced in a normal sound file format to be used in Director 4.0.x.
MOVIE IN A WINDOW (MIAW) INFORMATION
The main movie controls the current palette. Palette channel settings in MIAWs are ignored, as are puppetPalette commands. However, you can use the tell command from within a MIAW to instruct the main movie to change the palette.
If you want a MIAW to open another MIAW, tell the main movie to open the second MIAW.
Opening a MIAW no longer causes a white image to be drawn before the first frame.
Modal windows now work properly in projectors.
The activateWindow, deactivateWindow, and closeWindow events are sent to MIAWs when you click them. If these events are handled in the movie script, then it is possible to track which MIAW is active.
If you want to get back the value of a function from a MIAW, either set the result to a common global variable in the MIAW (if you know in advance that these movies will work together) or use the following Lingo construct:
tell the stage to myFunction()
put the result into field "foo"
Global variables persist across movies; all MIAWs have access to all global variables. Parent scripts can be used to privatize persistent variables so that another movie does not inadvertently change them.
COMPATIBILITY ISSUES
Norton Utilities: Storing Director 4.0 movies in a soft partition may cause an alert (-43. File not found).
Digidesign sound drivers (version 1.1): A bug in Apple’s Sound Manager 3.0 extension can cause periodic spikes of distortion during audio playback with AIFF files that are either linked or called with sound playFile. This problem does not occur with audio-only QuickTime movies or with unlinked AIFF sounds, so if you experience this problem, import AIFF files rather than linking to them or use audio-only QuickTime movies.
Now Utilities 4.0: Using NowMenus may cause keyboard shortcuts to appear incorrectly (i.e., unmodified) in the Director menus. For example, Command-? may appear as Command-/.
QuicKeys 2.1.2a and the CE Toolbox: The Location extension has been reported to cause bus errors when used with Director 4.0.
Novell network problem: Director does not support launching and registering the application from a server. This is noted in our licensing agreement. If you do run into crashes with Director movies on a Novell network, try removing Foreign File Access from your System folder.
Back 2 The Folder has been reported to cause problems with the open and import dialog boxes.
Using memory managers such as Optimem may result in inaccurate statistics in the memory bar in the About Director dialog box. Although there are no other known conflicts between memory managers and Director, Macromedia does not officially support their use.
IDIOSYNCRASIES
Please consult Appendix A of Using Director or the shortcuts section of help for a complete list of Director shortcuts. Director 4.0 includes many keyboard and mouse shortcuts. Only the simple Command-shortcuts are listed in the menus.
If you’re having a lot of ugly results with palettes changing on the color windows, use the Black and White User Interface option in the Preferences dialog box. This will not eliminate strange colors entirely, but it should reduce them. The color of window title bars and scroll bars is controlled by the Color control panel.
Cast members have two different kinds of registration points. Bitmapped cast members created in the Director paint window or imported from other applications always adjust their registration points to the center of the image. However if you use the registration point tool in the paint window or if you paste a cast member into the cast window, the cast member will have a fixed registration point; this means that if the image gets larger or smaller, the registration point will stay the same. Duplicating a cast member preserves the kind of registration point the original cast member has.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF TECHNICAL INFORMATION
MacroFacts
The MacroFacts fax server contains the latest technical notes on subjects such as additional sound and video card certification efforts, projector memory requirements, sound optimization and other subjects. It may be accessed by dialing 415/863-4409 or 800/449-4409 from any touch tone phone and following the instructions. Be sure to have your fax number available when you call.
Macromedia's Online Technical Support
Macromedia provides technical support through various online services, including CompuServe, America Online, eWorld, and Applelink. Participating on the online services is highly encouraged because it puts you right into the heart of the multimedia development community. Please leave public messages in our forums instead of sending direct e-mail to Macromedia technical support representatives. Public messages will receive our highest priority and can also be answered by anyone in the forum, not just Macromedia.
CompuServe
To reach our forum on CompuServe, GO MACROMEDIA. On CompuServe, we provide message areas for discussion of our products and multimedia development, as well as libraries that contain useful utilities, examples, and other files.
America Online
To reach our forum on America Online, use the keyword Macromedia. On America Online, we provide message areas for discussion of our products and multimedia development, as well as libraries that contain useful utilities, examples, and other files.
Applelink
To reach our forum on Applelink, go inside the Third Parties folder. On Applelink, we provide libraries that contain useful utilities, examples, and other files.
eWorld
To reach our forum on eWorld, go to shortcut Macromedia. On eWorld, we provide message areas for discussion of our products and multimedia development, as well as libraries that contain useful utilities, examples, and other files.
Internet
Even though Macromedia doesn't provide official support on the Internet, there are a few locations where you can share information about our products with other users.
If you have access to the Usenet newsgroups, there are the comp.multimedia and alt.authorware newsgroups. Comp.multimedia contains discussion about general multimedia topics. There are also mailing lists for Authorware Professional and Director. These mailing lists are distributed through e-mail accounts, so they're available to users who can receive Internet e-mail.
To subscribe to the Director mailing list, send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU. In the body of the message, type SUBSCRIBE DIRECT-L <firstname> <lastname>.
