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Macromedia Director 8.5 Full: How to Create 3D Web Content with Shockwave Studio



Macromedia is passionate about what the Web can be. Its award-winning products empower designers and developers to efficiently create and deliver the most engaging experiences on the Web, and enable innovative Internet business applications. Headquartered in San Francisco, Macromedia (NASDAQ: MACR) has more than 1,600 employees worldwide and is available on the Internet at www.macromedia.com.




Macromedia Director 8.5 Full




Director published DCR files that were played using the Adobe Shockwave Player, in addition to compiling native executables for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Director allowed users to build applications on a movie metaphor, with the user as the "director" of the movie. Originally designed for creating animation sequences, the addition of a scripting language called Lingo made it a popular choice for creating CD-ROMs, standalone kiosks and internet video games content during the 1990s.


Version 11.5 added 5.1 channel surround sound audio capabilities, real-time mixing, audio effects and DSP filters. Also, there is added support for H.264-video integration for full-screen and high-definition playback. Other supported formats include: 3D importer for Google SketchUp, streaming support using RTMP and ByteArray datatypes.


Available for download from the Macromedia Online Store now, Macromedia Director MX 2004 costs US$1,199 for a full license. Upgrades from Director 8.5 and Director MX costs $399. Director MX 2004 requires Mac OS X v10.2.6 or higher.


Macromedia, Inc. announced on April 24, 2001, the immediate availability of Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio, which will enable developers to bring 3D-enhanced Shockwave content to the Internet. The program features a new version of the Shockwave Multiuser Server, Havok physics engine for 3D game behaviors, support for Flash 5 and the ability to stream RealMedia content. 3D support in Director and Shockwave Player was jointly developed with Intel Corporation and is built on the Intel Internet 3D Graphics software. The program provides developers with a robust 3D content creation and publishing solution, by working with leading 3D vendors to ensure developers can make use of their existing 3D authoring expertise. "Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio enables Director users to create real world applications that deliver immersive 3D, while existing 3D developers can reach a new Web audience," said Peter Ryce, senior director of product marketing, Macromedia. "With the authoring prowess of Director and the power and penetration of Macromedia Shockwave Player, the platform for delivering high-impact 3D Web experiences is now here." Users will benefit not only from the new 3D functionality, but also from such features as Flash 5 integration. With built-in support for RealAudio and RealVideo, Director will let developers deliver audio and video content using the leading streaming format on the Web. With Shockwave Multiuser Server 3, developers can now utilize server-side scripting capabilities, UDP networking and have 2000 users simultaneously view their Shockwave multiuser content. Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio is immediately available for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. The studio is priced at $1199 for new users, $199 for users upgrading from Director 8 and $399 for users upgrading from Director versions 5 through 7. French, German, Japanese and Korean versions of the studio are expected to ship in June. The free, 3D-enhanced Shockwave Player is also available for immediate download from www.macromedia.com/software/shockwaveplayer/.


The terminology of Director relates to a theatre production. The stage is the window that contains the movie, the cast members are the resources that the movie uses such as graphics, text, sound, behaviors, etc. The score is a chronological progression of all the components of the movie, and the scripts control the actions of the movie, the cast members, etc. Once one learns the terminology, the mechanisms of how Director performs are easy to understand, and the steps to create a movie progress in a logical manner. The interface is clear as are the menus and palettes. While the screen is full, it does not impede the work. I have a 19 inch monitor but I use a resolution of 1024 x 768 since it is easier on my eyes than the higher resolution that is commonly associated with a 19 inch monitor.


Text or field member property that determines text alignment. Possible valuesfor a field are "left", "right", and "center",while the possible values for a text member are #left, #right, #center, and#full.


First cross-platform authoring environment, bringing full Windows support rather than just a Player. Support for PowerMacs and multimedia capabilities for Pentium-class CPUs on Windows. Available as part of Director Multimedia Studio, including MacroModel, Source Forge and Adobe Premiere.


The updater will rename certain user-editable files rather than deleting them in an effort to preserve any user edits. These include fontmap.txt, xtrainfo.txt, director.ini, lingo.ini, and the help data file.


If you encounter problems installing full-set Japanese fonts on Macintosh, be sure to check "Use System Temporary Memory" in General Preferences (it is on by default). Problems include occasional crashes, apparent hangs during font creation, corrupt font cast member thumbnails, or only a partial character set.


You must be connected to the Internet before you can successfully employ "Download if Needed" for an Xtra in the Modify:Movie:Xtras dialog. If you are not connected to the network, clicking "download if needed" for an Xtra pauses the system for some time while the computer searches for a network connection.


Director movies are cross platform. You can take a DIR file made with a Windows Director and open it with Director on the Macintosh. Projectors however, are platform specific. Projectors are self executables that allow you to run your movies without the need for Director or any other software to be installed on the computer. With earlier versions of Director, you were required to create a Mac specific projector with a Macintosh Director and a Windows specific projector with a Windows Director. Director MX 2004 allows you to create both platform projectors from one version of the software. This tutorial will show you how to create a fast start stub projector for both platforms with Director MX 2004 on Windows. While you will see that this process can allow cross platform development without ever going to a Mac, there are a number of issues you will need to consider. We will cover some of these issues as we move through the tutorial. One issue I will mention now is it is always a good idea to move files between the different operating systems if you intend your application to run on both. Testing for any differences in the way that your files look and play will help you to avoid any potential problems. What is a stub projector? In the most simple terms, a stub projector is a small, start-up file that launches the main application stored in one or more separate Director movies. The stub projector has minimal content. It sets up the way your application will look (such as playing in a window or full screen) and stores all the executable information. By minimising your application content in the stub, your executable remains small in file size and so starts much faster. Developing an application as a series of small, interlinked movies with a fast start stub projector is much better from a memory management point of view, over creating a single large file that stores everything. It will result in more efficient and smoother playback of your application.


2. Click on the stage, then click on the Movie tab in the Property Inspector. Change the Stage size to 800 x 600. We will be creating a full-screen application. For general purpose CD-ROM applications, 800 x 600 is a standard size used today. A few years ago, 640 x 480 was the standard. While, both larger and smaller stage sizes are used, 800 x 600 is a good size to choose if you want to ensure your application runs on a range of computer configurations.


1. Open Windows Explorer and find the folder where you saved your stub.dir. In this folder, create a new subfolder called ApplicationSetUp. Move the stub.dir, main.dir and stub.exe into this folder. 2. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Director MX 2004\Configuration I'm assuming Director is installed on your C drive. The path structure should be the same regardless of the drive letter. In this Configuration folder you will see a subfolder called Xtras. Copy and paste this folder into your ApplicationSetUp folder. This Xtras folder you copied contains all the standard Xtras that come with Director and any that may have been installed at a later stage. For our application, we don't need all the Xtras. To find out which Xtras you need you would have to go to each movie and choose Modify > Movie > Xtras . Since this is a painfully slow process, the better approach is simply to go through the Xtras folder and identify which Xtras you remember using in your application. With experience, you will be able to quickly identify the 'right' and 'wrong' ones. If you include Xtras that your movie does not use, the movie will be unaffected and the only issue will be that you have more files and larger disk space than required. If you don't include the required Xtras, well, you have seen what can happen. Some Xtras, known as Tool Xtras are only used when authoring and have no affect when running a projector. So, you can delete the Tool folder under the Xtra. Xtras are platform specific. If you're creating a cross platform application, you will need the Xtra file specific to that platform type. Projectors will find Xtra files no matter how deep they are located in the Xtras folder and regardless of any subfolder names. So, here's how you can set up your folder structure for cross platform delivery: ApplicationSetUp Xtras Win All Windows X32 files here Mac All Mac Xtra files here 3. Go back to C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Director MX 2004\ Copy the Director application resource files to the ApplicationSetUp. These files can be either placed in the same folder as the projector, or can be inside the Xtras folder. The files to be copied are as follows: 2ff7e9595c


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