Preloader doesn't show right away

[f3ar]

I have a website I'm working on that has 4 scenes. On scene 1 I alloted the first 2 frames to my simple preloader. When I load the movie up from my webserver, it's just white space...after about a minute (I have a cable modem) my preloader finally shows up, but it's already at 90% or so, it loads the last 10% with the preloading visible then goes to the correct page upon completion... I have 2 questions...

1) is the first scene created in the flash movie always going to be the first scene attempted to load when you try to view the .swf online? If not, is there a way to specify which scene is loaded (not just played) first?

2) Why doesn't my preloader show up immediately? It is the first frame on scene 1! :( Is there something new with flash 8 that won't show the movie till it's nearly loaded?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
f3ar

[Grant B]

I'm interested in this answer too.

I am trying to teach myself various things and have a similar issue with this template mockup.
http://www.grantbarker.com/grant_barker_Flash_template2.html

Maybe the actual preloader is too heavy on graphics.

I notice the templates at Template Monster all instantly and correctly load their preloaders which are usually simple and small file size designs probably.

Using the seperate MovieClipLoader style preloader is no problem (it sits in another swf). But having the preloader on the first couple of keyframes like you suggest is not working so quickly for me either.

[Headshotz]

It is preloading the preloader, you will notice it in alot of games.
It is better to have a simple preloader or load your content externally
so you have 2 preloaders...

[senocular]

see:
http://www.senocular.com/flash/tutorials/preloading/
namely the section on "Loading Complications"

[f3ar]

Thanks for the advice guys!

On another note, the link to the external preloader on http://www.senocular.com/flash/tutorials/preloading/ is not working, file is no longer hosted I guess....anybody got a place where I can look at some great external preloader tutorials with attached flash files?

[Grant B]

Thanks for the advice too.

[senocular]

Thanks for the advice guys!

On another note, the link to the external preloader on http://www.senocular.com/flash/tutorials/preloading/ is not working, file is no longer hosted I guess....anybody got a place where I can look at some great external preloader tutorials with attached flash files?

woops, I fixed it.

[f3ar]

Sweet thanks! :)