Hi everyone,

I am not too sure what is causing this to happen but maybe a few
suggestions is all it will take to fix this problem.

Please try the following link to view the movie:
http://sweetness.dyndns.org/home.cfm?intro=false&showMP3=true

The provided link displays an MP3 player I've been working on (90% completed)
and there's a huge problem I just found few minutes ago. When you move the
mouse over embedded movie (left/right/left/right...continuously), the scrolling
text you see in the blue window scrolls at the proper speed. However, once you
stop moving the mouse over the movie or you move the mouse off of the movie,
the text scrolls extremely slow. I honestly have no clue what is causing this
to occur. I even uncommented my mouseListener functions to see if that was the
problem and it wasn't. If there is any further information that you would like
to better understand my current issue, please post a reply with whatever you
need. I'm not posting my actionscript because it's really long and I don't
want yall to waste an hour reading code (boring as heaven!). Thank you all in
advance.

Regards,

Adam

Here's a question: Does the mouse have any effect as far as the frames Rate
("fps") goes? This may be what the problem is, and maybe there's a work around
for the following code practice. Here's the code that starts scrolling the
text the first time in the movie telling the user that the MP3 player has been
loaded properly:


// inititialized variables
var scrollTextID = null;
var soundLoaderID = null;
var scrollSpeed = .5;
var initialMCPos = _root.MCsound_info._x;
var final_MC_Pos = (initialMCPos + _root.mask._width);




// functon declarations
function loadFunction() {
if(mySound.getBytesLoaded() == mySound.getBytesTotal()){
clearInterval (soundLoaderID);
_root.MCsound_info.sound_info = "Song loaded successfully! Please wait...";
// sound_info is the dynamic text field
setTextScrollerInterval();
}
}

function setTextScrollerInterval() {
scrollTextID = setInterval(startTextScroll,10);
}

function startTextScroll() {
_root.MCsound_info._x -= scrollSpeed;
szSoundInfoLen = _root.MCsound_info.sound_info.length;
// The length of the text string that is scrolling

EndOfScrollPos = (szSoundInfoLen * 5)-30;
// DO NOT EDIT: The position of the text that will let
us know when to move text to other
side of masking box

if(_root.MCsound_info._x <= (initialMCPos-EndOfScrollPos)) {
_root.MCsound_info._x = final_MC_Pos;
}
}

the mouse position could have an effect on cpu usage if your script contains
code manipulating enough objects to be noticable. the code you posted would
have no significant effect on the apparent fps.
you have some other code that tracks the mouse's position that's causing the
problem.

kglad,

You were right, and that's what I had assumed. I must not have commented
out ALL of the mouse listeners when I tested that theory the first time. I
commented out ALL of the mouse listener functions and the problem stopped.
Now, here's a question. How do I add a mouse listener SPECIFICALLY for a
particular "Movie Clip". For instance, on my volume slider, when you click the
"tick" to slide the volume slider left or right, I turned the "tick" ( the
little 2 x 5 px bar) into a Movie Clip symbol, named it "VolTick", and added a
mouse listener like so: Mouse.addListener(VolTick);.

Now, in the reference for Flash MX, Mouse.addListener[/B} registers and
object. Is the MC symbol, "VolTick", technically and object? When I debug my
movie inside of Flash MX and add a "trace" method, even if the mouse isn't
directly over the "VolTick" MC symbol, the trace method is invoked. How do I
make it so that the trace method (or in general, the "VolTick.mouseMove =
function() { ... };" ) is invoked ONLY when the mouse moves over the VolTick MC
symbol? Thank you again.




Mouse.addListener

Availability

Flash Player 6.

Usage

Mouse.addListener (newListener)

Parameters

newListener An object.

Returns

Nothing.

Description

Method; registers an object to receive notifications of the onMouseDown,
onMouseMove and onMouseUp callback handlers.

The newListener parameter should contain an object with defined methods for
the onMouseDown, onMouseMove, and onMouseUp events.

When the mouse is pressed, moved, or released, regardless of the input focus,
all listening objects that are registered with the addListener method have
either their onMouseDown method, onMouseMove method or onMouseUp method
invoked. Multiple objects may listen for keyboard notifications. If the
listener newListener is already registered, no change occurs.

every movieclip is an object so yes, VolTick is an object. and you can add a
mouse listener when the mouse is over VolTick, but that would be redundant.
you would be better served to apply mouse events directly to VolTick. for
example, if you wanted to adjust the volume of the currently playing movie when
the mouse is dragging your slidder you can use the following attached to
VolTick (your slider, i assume):

on(press){
this.startDrag(0,leftx,this._y,rigthx,this._y): // insert appropriate
position-limits in startDrag();
volumeI=setInterval(_root.volumeF,100,this._x,leftx,rightx);
}
on(release){
this.stopDrag();
clearInterval(volumeI);
}

and attached to a frame:

function volumeF(arg,L,R){
yourSound.setVolume(100*(arg-L)/(R-L));
}

kglad,

Thank you. That sounds like a better plan and I'm going to code my movie
that way. I'm just curious and this question doesn't have to be answered...why
does keeping a constant eye on the mouse effect the CPU so greatly? In my
opinion, that's something that should be worked on..or maybe it's somewhat of
an advantage to others. Whatever the case may be, it's still odd. Thank you
again for all of your kind wisdom.

Regards,

Adam

using a mouse listener essentially requires a loop of code that checks mouse
activity (position, button presses etc) with each time increment. that requres
some amount of cpu overhead. normally i wouldn't expect that to cause an
apparent playback problem. but the code in your mouse listener must have
required enough cpu cycles to slow playback. what was the code in your
listener?

The following code is my mouse listener functions. By simply setting an
interval whenever the mouse is moved over the symbols, I can easily bypass the
whole mouse listener crap. By the way, after doing so, the movie plays
perfectly (i.e., No lag!!!). After experiencing this problem, I now know that
I must dramatically limit the amount of Mouse listening I do. I thank the
creator of Actionscript for "setInterval()" and "clearInterval()". They save
so much coding time and give you so much more ideas to impliment into your
movies. I love it! Thank you kglad for all of your input.

Regards,

Adam

// was previously VolBG.onMouseMove = function() {};
function VolBGonMouseMove() {
if(overVolBG && !VolSliderMoving){
tempVolLevel = VolBG._xmouse+50;
tempVolLevel = (tempVolLevel > 100) ? 100 : tempVolLevel;
tempVolLevel = (tempVolLevel < 0) ? 0 : tempVolLevel;
timerText = " " +(tempVolLevel)+ " %";
}
}


// was previously VolTick.onMouseMove = function() {};
function VolTickonMouseMove() {
if(overVolBG && VolSliderMoving){
tempVolLevel = (VolBG._xmouse+50);
tempVolLevel = (tempVolLevel > 100) ? 100 : tempVolLevel;
tempVolLevel = (tempVolLevel < 0) ? 0 : tempVolLevel;
timerText = " " +(tempVolLevel)+ " %";
controller.volumeSet = tempVolLevel;
controller.mySound.setVolume(tempVolLevel);
}
else if(overVolBG && !VolSliderMoving){
tempVolLevel = VolBG._xmouse+50;
tempVolLevel = (tempVolLevel > 100) ? 100 : tempVolLevel;
tempVolLevel = (tempVolLevel < 0) ? 0 : tempVolLevel;
timerText = " " +(tempVolLevel)+ " %";
}
}


// was previously DurTick.onMouseMove = function() {};
var i = 0;
function DurTickonMouseMove() {
with(DurTick){
if(DurSliderMoving && controller.IsPlaying){
// calculate elapsed time for song
absoluteDurHours = ( ( (controller.mySound.duration * .001) /60) /60);
absoluteDurMinutes = ( (controller.mySound.duration * .001) /60);
absoluteDurSeconds = controller.mySound.duration * .001;

absoluteDurPos = (DurTick._x-Dur_left); // between 0 and 100
secsPerTick = absoluteDurSeconds/100;
tempNewSecs = (absoluteDurPos * secsPerTick);
controller.p_hours = Math.floor(((controller.mySound.position *
..001)/60)/60);
controller.p_minutes =
Math.floor((Math.floor(controller.mySound.position * .001)/60));
controller.p_seconds = Math.floor((tempNewSecs));
playAt = Math.floor((tempNewSecs));

// This does a little fancy check to increase the minutes when seconds
reach 60
i = ((tempNewSecs/60) >= (i+1)) ? Math.floor(tempNewSecs/60) : i;
// moving right
i = ((tempNewSecs/60) < i) ? Math.floor(tempNewSecs/60) : i; //
moving left
controller.p_minutes = i;
controller.p_seconds = (controller.p_seconds > 59) ?
(controller.p_seconds - (60*controller.m)) : controller.p_seconds;
controller.m = (controller.p_minutes > 0) ?
controller.p_minutes : (controller.m*1);
controller.n = (controller.p_minutes == controller.n) ?
(controller.n+1) : (controller.n*1);
controller.p_seconds = (controller.p_seconds == 60) ? "0"
: controller.p_seconds;
controller.p_seconds = (controller.p_seconds < 10) ?
"0"+controller.p_seconds : controller.p_seconds;
timerText = (controller.p_hours>0 && controller.d_hours>0) ?
((controller.p_hours+":"+controller.p_minutes+":"+controller.p_seconds)) :
(controller.p_hours>0) ?
((controller.p_hours+":"+controller.p_minutes+":"+controller.p_seconds)) :
(!controller.p_hours>0 && controller.d_hours>0) ?
((controller.p_minutes+":"+controller.p_seconds)) :
(controller.p_minutes+":"+controller.p_seconds);
}
}
}

Actually, each function is designated it's own MC instance in which case, there
are three separate intervals; one for each function. The CPU rate is not
affected by doing a setInterval, unlike the object.onMouseMove() methods. I
see your point though. Is there a simpler way to go about displaying (1) the
actual time position in the song when someone drags the duration tick [like in
Win. Media Player], (2) The volume level when cursor is "over" the volume
slider, (3) The volume level as the user drags the volume tick? This seams to
be the most beneficial and easy way to do what I just described. Any suggested
are greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Adam

if you're initiating 3 setInterval()'s when your slider is pressed (and
clearInterval() when your slider is released) to check those check those 3
things, then that shouldn't be a problem. i thought those functions were
executing in response to mouse movements.

[Note: MC = "Movie Clip" in this thread/post]

Yeah, oringinally they were. However, I converted the Mouse listener code (
object.onMouseMove = function() {...} ) into normal functions in which each
function has it's own interval; when mouse is moved over MC A,
setInterval(functionA, i). where i is time in milliseconds, calls functionA().
Then clearInterval(functionA_ID) is set when mouse is moved off MC A...and this
is the case for three separate movie clips: (1) The background for my volume
slider, (2)the volume slider itself, and (3) the duration slider. I hope that
explanation helps a little better.

Regards,

Adam