March in the XaraXone

[mckinney]

I've now had a chance to view the new XaraXone main page flash logo from another machine (Pentium 733 w/Win2K) and although the CPU usage while the flash is active is about 90%, the system response is not as sluggish as on the NT4 system.... Faster processor, better video drivers, perhaps?

Gary - the sluggishness I was referring to was *after* the whole logo has loaded and the animation engine was running, so I don't think the file size (download time) really factored in. This issue seems more like one that should be posted on an appropriate Flash animation board (where ever that might be)!

Finally, just to reiterate Ivan's comment - the animation *is* very nice!

- Pete

[gwpriester]

Wayne F, AKA IVCA, wrote to suggest:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> ...as a footnote you may already know tweening large objects and/or conversely, many alpha type objects, slow any flash animation regardless of pre-established frame rates. This may account for "sluggish" animations. I belive there's a forum thread that mentions this.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Makes sense to me. Being a Flash newbie myself, I shall revist the aniimation when I have a moment and see if I can reduce the drag a bit.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Every So Humble...

[This message was edited by Ed Portas on March 09, 2001 at 02:28 AM.]

[gwpriester]

New XaraXone Title Graphic

I'm not sure if this solves the sluggishness problem but I have sure been learning about Flash.

I have replaced the animated XaraXone title graphic with a new Flash movie.

This one uses Flash's Mask layer to create the traveling wedge.

I also discoved that, contrary to everything I believed, you can export Linear Transparency from Xara X and import it into Flash. (Boy do I have egg all over my face).

Anyway, have a look if you get a chance and tell if this new file is any better, no difference, or worse.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Every So Humble...

[Steven Collier]

This is one of those popular misconceptions. There is no problem with the flash plugin absorbing all the available processor resources, the multi-tasking nature of Windows means it will give them up when needed by other applications.

What's the point in having a 1Ghz processor and never taking over 50% usage, may as well have saved your money and bought a 500Mhz [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[mckinney]

The new flash logo (still) looks great and subjectively it does not seem to slow my computer down quite as much as the old Flash logo. The CPU usage is still high however (50% on this dual CPU system, which is the same as for the old Flash file). I'll check it on a single-CPU system when I have a chance.

Another (interesting?) observation is that the sweeping color wedge appears to slow slightly during the time that the text color is fading. Is the Flash engine using a lot of processor power to create the fade effect (and doing do totally independantly of the sweep)? How many totally independant operations is the Flash engine performing? Perhaps this is a clue....

With regard to processor usage in general, I'll have to disagree a bit with Steve. I see your point in that if Windows & the computer does have the horsepower available, why not use it? The problem here is that this Flash program always seems to want as much as it can get and will take a larger share of the processor time than it probably needs to get the job done. In doing so, it slows all other operations on the PC, including the user interface and other active graphics on the web page (which was what I noticed immediately when first viewing the page). As a quick example, try viewing two or three web windows showing the XaraXone logo simultaneously and watch both the animations and your system slow down....

Not that 100% processor usage is the end or the world or anything.... I just figured Gary ought to be able to have his cake and eat it too, somehow (small file size and easy on the system resources)!

- Pete

[This message was edited by Peter McKinney on March 07, 2001 at 04:09 PM.]

[diniel]

When I look at the new flash animation my processor usage steps from between 45 to 65% depending where the animation is in its sequence, and going to a non-Flash website relaxes the CPU down to about 3%. I have an 850MHz Athlon processor with Win2000 and 256MB Ram. I agree with Steven though - I left the animation running and tried doing other things, and they were not slower at all.