[thelist] [Flash] ::: External .swf ::: Access to "parent" object model

[Geoff Sheridan]

>The reason
>I am using external .swf files is to a)bring down the initial download
>time, and b)allow easy insertion of another section. Do I have to
>explicitly unload an external .swf to free up the memory used, or does
>Flash clean up after itself?

Very interesting question. I would say from my experience that it is
necessary to explicitly unload movies.
Also, using _levels can cause problems. I designed a site
architecture where content loaded in the background on successive
levels to maximise bandwidth usage and it did not work. Although my
abilities as a programmer might rightly be questioned, some the
problems I encountered seemed to have more to do with poor memory and
bandwidth utilisation by the plug-in. The plug-in struggled when a
lot of content was loaded simultaneously.

The solution I came up with involved loading successive external
.swfs into a target blank movieclip on _level0. This forces flash to
flush the content of the previous .swf. For some reason it also
seemed to be more robust than using levels.

An incomplete but possibly useful account of what I did is available
( http://www.retrocool.org.uk ), under 'preloading system, readme'.

HTH

Geoff