external .swfs or one big mother of a file?

[Minky]

Yoohoo!

I'm about to start a project which is a CD Rom presentation with about 20 different sections.

I know most people seem to use Flash for web and have smaller sections in .swf files which are loaded into the main .swf, but I'm wondering if it would be better to make my movie completely self contained like a Director .exe file but with scenes and frame labels to separate everything in my .fla file.

I used Director a number of years ago for CD Rom work, but have probably forgotten everything I learned by now - that's why I decided to do it in Flash.

I'm worried the resulting file will be huge and I don't know if this will cause problems with the .swf file when the end user tries to run it on their PC or from the CD, but I like the idea of there only being ONE file for someone to click on, and open the whole presentation.

Yours confusedly,
Minky-poos :rolleyes:

[Abelius]

Not going to the web? Loading everything locally -I mean- from a CD or hard drive? Hey, I wish I had that problem!!! :) :) :)

I would make the whole thing in two or three swf files, and load only the text, dynamic images (if necesary) from external files)...

On the other hand, when depending on bandwith speed, hack the thing down as finely as possible! :) The more, the merrier!

[farafiro]

if u r gonna do it off-line, or as u say in a CD no worry about the size. I make it all within one so BIG file

[wirelessRT]

I think I have a related issue...

I'm working on a flash movie what is BIG - 80mb plus! I'm under some pressure to make it one big file, it really just looks better on a CD... But the problem is it takes FOREVER to load.

I even tried to place in some Preloading screens, but they don't seem to work.

Is this just the nature of something so massive?

Rich

[Minky]

Thanks for the info, guys!

Hmmm... Still a bit wary, but my movie is mainly text and static piccies/graphics, no major animation involved, just lots of different screens, scrolling text, buttons, a questionnaire etc.

YES! I think one file will be the way to go for now.

A large portion of it needs to be printable as well. I haven't looked into this yet, but if you know of any probs regarding printing out text that is contained in a scrolling text box (so ALL the text gets printed out rather than just what is visible at the time) I'd be grateful if anyone could warn me in advance - before I start pulling all nighters trying to figure out something that can't be done!

Muchos gracias amigos!
Minky