Problems with MDM Zinc 3.0

[quicksmack]

first of all, let me just say that if anyone out there knows a better application aside from Zinc, please let me know...

i just finished making a project in flash and i have just downloaded the MDM Zinc 3.0 so i can do the ff:
1. disable "right-clicking" (to avoid the user from doing so and clicking on "play" when the menu pops up in the swf file)
2. disable window resizing
3. convert the swf into an .exe / projector file
4. take advantage of the other features Zinc has

its pretty easy to use..
but i have a few problems though...

first, the project seems to be lagging a bit / running slow.. the animations stutter from time to time.. its not a super-drastic lag, but the slowness and time-to-time lagging is quite obvious as opposed to when i play the game on the regular swf file... am i doing something wrong? is there a specific checkbox / setting in Zinc that i should manipulate?

second, there is a Zinc watermark on my projector.. but this can easily be solved by purchasing the full product of course haha..

third, well, this is the least of my concerns, after using the program for a while, an "error" window pops up saying Zinc has to close..

well, im kind of new to this "flash compiler" thing.. and i need some help from those who know..
if you know an alternative program, let me know...
thanks...

[quicksmack]

first of all, let me just say that if anyone out there knows a better application aside from Zinc, please let me know...

i just finished making a project in flash and i have just downloaded the MDM Zinc 3.0 so i can do the ff:
1. disable "right-clicking" (to avoid the user from doing so and clicking on "play" when the menu pops up in the swf file)
2. disable window resizing
3. convert the swf into an .exe / projector file
4. take advantage of the other features Zinc has

its pretty easy to use..
but i have a few problems though...

first, the project seems to be lagging a bit / running slow.. the animations stutter from time to time.. its not a super-drastic lag, but the slowness and time-to-time lagging is quite obvious as opposed to when i play the game on the regular swf file... am i doing something wrong? is there a specific checkbox / setting in Zinc that i should manipulate?

second, there is a Zinc watermark on my projector.. but this can easily be solved by purchasing the full product of course haha..

third, well, this is the least of my concerns, after using the program for a while, an "error" window pops up saying Zinc has to close..

well, im kind of new to this "flash compiler" thing.. and i need some help from those who know..
if you know an alternative program, let me know...
thanks...

[northcode]

I know of a few alternatives.

First you can check out the best...

SWF Studio http://www.northcode.com

And if you want a good laugh you can check out the rest :)

mProjector http://www.screentime.com
SWFKit http://www.swfkit.com
SWiSH Studio http://www.swishzone.com
Jugglor http://www.jugglor.com
Zinc http://www.multidmedia.com (you already know about this one)

Now I'll be a little more serious...

Most of the time, all you get by asking "what tool should I use" is biased propaganda from the vendor (heh) or great testimonials from current users but none of that will be of any real decision making value to you, there just aren't any quick answers. You should plan to spend some quality time with each product if you're going to be using one of them day in and day out.

All of the third party tools have trial versions. If you want to get a feel for each of the products the best thing to do is to download them and try them for yourself. When you download the trial, don't just fire up the UI, do something real with it. Build the examples and look at the example code. Pound on the product a bit, see what breaks (or doesn't).

Pick a simple but realistic project for yourself (like building a CD front end or something) and see how it goes with each product. Pick something that in a perfect world you could bang out in a day and plan to spend a week on it to get yourself over the initial learning curve. Most of these tools cover too much ground to just be absorbed by intuition. RTFM.

Most, if not all, of these tools also have online forums where you can interact with other users, ask for help, look at past problems and solutions and get a feel for the community. Definitely check out the forums, you'll probably be spending a lot of time in them. The forums are a big open window into the product and the company. See what kinds of problems people have or have had. Are the problems caused by the product (quality, doc, stability), by learning curves or other factors?

Finally, ask each company questions by forum, email or phone before you buy and see what kind of response you get. If you actually decide to try a little test project you'll probably have to ask for support at some point anyway, so you might as well give that a test drive too.

Hope that helps.

[quicksmack]

i just posted my question in the MDM forum.. guess what, according to the "users active" there were only 2 members online.. haha so much for support.. i doubt ill be getting an answer anytime soon as it seems no one really visits that forum..

anyways, im now downloading SWF Studio and ill give it a try...

thanks for the help :cool:

[northcode]

The MDM forums used to be quite active but MDM has been "dark" (silent, quiet, invisible, unreachable) for a couple of months now. Their users are crying for help but MDM isn't responding in their forums or to support emails if you believe the reports of their own users in the forums.

They finally broke the silence after a couple of months with a post on their blog, but it's not an explanation, apology or even remotely helpful to their desperate users. They talk about "unforseen circumstances" like an AIR extender product that Adobe scared them out of releasing several months ago, some kind of hardware failure that cost them "many weeks of lost development time" (backups anyone?) and some support/developer "restructure" thing they're doing (staff mutiny?)

Basically that post says "hey, this is not our fault, thanks for buying Zinc, we'll get back to you when we're ready". I hope nobody has a deadline approaching...

[CyanBlue]

Ouch!!! :(

[Robbus]

Currently the only reason to use Zinc 3 is because of it's Linux support, unfortunately the current 3.0 build (13) is pretty screwed on Linux and OSX which is more than a little frustrating as we have a shed load of legacy Zinc 2.5 products that we want to upgrade to 3 and then to AS3 but it's just not viable at the moment.

If you're just wanting Windows projectors then all of the above suggestions are pretty good, let's also not forget the joy of Director. OK cost might be more of an issue there!

Cheers,
Rob

[quicksmack]

i have come to the conclusion that it could be the embedded watermark (since im using the trial version) that is causing the framerate to lag / slow down...

thanks anyways everyone for your help...