caffrey75
08-06-2001, 12:54 PM
Hi all,
Sorry about the length of this message but I really need the full benefit of your advice and knowledge here. (a quick thank you to Jessie for his help a few months back with the 'pub promotions' project - the advice was sound as a pound, unfortunately the bloody pub didn't want to spend any pounds in employing the idea. Their loss, but a big thank you anyway mate!)
I've been working on a larger project for the last year or so, but certain issues are driving me up the wall and I feel like I am constantly backing myself into a corner with it! It's basically a CD-ROM product detailing a comprehensive directory of all the Golf Courses in Devon, England - we have poured heart and soul into making it the most detailed guide of its kind, and are deep into doing Somerset and Cornwall. The big 'BUT' here is that it has been completely designed in Flash because I love Flash and consider it the best tool in the world!! We have already had the Devon version out on sale (until we were sued for something ridiculous!!) - it ran through a haphazard combination of a Visual Basic front end menu which, in turn, called up 4 large Flash/FlashJester Projector executables disguised as *.dat files. I was always very unhappy with this method of delivery, largely because the Visual Basic menu could not compare to the rest of the CD in quality, among other things. Anyway, I've decided that I would like to re-issue the CD-ROM using a different methodology.
I've sent my thought process down so many different avenues regarding what method to use, but it is driving me gradually crazy. I have received better advice and guidance from this site than I have from a lot of the apparent 'professionals' in my area, and I'm really begging for it here.
My current train of thought is this:
* Although previous versions have installed themselves onto the hard drive via Visual Basic, there is no real reason why it shouldn't simply run from the CD only: I've dispensed with an updates idea. And rather than use a bunch of *.executables, I thought about using one main *.exe file which, in turn, will call up each golf course via 'loadmovie' (all other files will remain as swfs). Is this wise? Obviously the chief worry is people copying a golf course swf from the CD and sending it to their mates. However, I noted with interest a comment made by Mortimor Jazz in a previous thread where you can rename a *.swf to a *.css and still call it from a movie. This is the same kind of simple deception we used on the last version where the *.exes were renamed to *.dats and, at the moment, I am tempted to use this again.
* One of the other problems I can foresee here is that users will need the Flash 5 plug-in to use the CD. Does anyone know Macromedia's policy concerning this? Although it's free for download I'm not sure about them taking kindly to people including it on commercial CD-ROMs.
This is basically the long and short of it at the moment. It all sounds a bit unprofessional, I know, but our main problem lies in the fact that there is only me working on the computer side of this and, after initial costs, being sued, overheads etc etc we have no capital left to employ a firm to process the whole lot in something like Director (although there seems to be nobody in this backward part of the world skilled enough to use that particular tool!). My expertise is principally graphics and I am pretty much out of my depth here. Any advice, tips, tricks etc that anybody has to offer on this would be just fantastic. Sorry to witter on!!
Cheers,
Alex Mann (caffrey75)
http://www.golfexpodevonuk.co.uk
Sorry about the length of this message but I really need the full benefit of your advice and knowledge here. (a quick thank you to Jessie for his help a few months back with the 'pub promotions' project - the advice was sound as a pound, unfortunately the bloody pub didn't want to spend any pounds in employing the idea. Their loss, but a big thank you anyway mate!)
I've been working on a larger project for the last year or so, but certain issues are driving me up the wall and I feel like I am constantly backing myself into a corner with it! It's basically a CD-ROM product detailing a comprehensive directory of all the Golf Courses in Devon, England - we have poured heart and soul into making it the most detailed guide of its kind, and are deep into doing Somerset and Cornwall. The big 'BUT' here is that it has been completely designed in Flash because I love Flash and consider it the best tool in the world!! We have already had the Devon version out on sale (until we were sued for something ridiculous!!) - it ran through a haphazard combination of a Visual Basic front end menu which, in turn, called up 4 large Flash/FlashJester Projector executables disguised as *.dat files. I was always very unhappy with this method of delivery, largely because the Visual Basic menu could not compare to the rest of the CD in quality, among other things. Anyway, I've decided that I would like to re-issue the CD-ROM using a different methodology.
I've sent my thought process down so many different avenues regarding what method to use, but it is driving me gradually crazy. I have received better advice and guidance from this site than I have from a lot of the apparent 'professionals' in my area, and I'm really begging for it here.
My current train of thought is this:
* Although previous versions have installed themselves onto the hard drive via Visual Basic, there is no real reason why it shouldn't simply run from the CD only: I've dispensed with an updates idea. And rather than use a bunch of *.executables, I thought about using one main *.exe file which, in turn, will call up each golf course via 'loadmovie' (all other files will remain as swfs). Is this wise? Obviously the chief worry is people copying a golf course swf from the CD and sending it to their mates. However, I noted with interest a comment made by Mortimor Jazz in a previous thread where you can rename a *.swf to a *.css and still call it from a movie. This is the same kind of simple deception we used on the last version where the *.exes were renamed to *.dats and, at the moment, I am tempted to use this again.
* One of the other problems I can foresee here is that users will need the Flash 5 plug-in to use the CD. Does anyone know Macromedia's policy concerning this? Although it's free for download I'm not sure about them taking kindly to people including it on commercial CD-ROMs.
This is basically the long and short of it at the moment. It all sounds a bit unprofessional, I know, but our main problem lies in the fact that there is only me working on the computer side of this and, after initial costs, being sued, overheads etc etc we have no capital left to employ a firm to process the whole lot in something like Director (although there seems to be nobody in this backward part of the world skilled enough to use that particular tool!). My expertise is principally graphics and I am pretty much out of my depth here. Any advice, tips, tricks etc that anybody has to offer on this would be just fantastic. Sorry to witter on!!
Cheers,
Alex Mann (caffrey75)
http://www.golfexpodevonuk.co.uk