Creating
Projectors
MpegXtra
cast members operate only under Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT 4. In addition,
the ActiveX network extensions should be present in the system or the
Xtra will not initialize correctly. Therefore, you should create your
Projectors to Windows 95 and Windows NT, and with the "Animate in Background"
option checked. To prevent problems with palettes you should include with
each projector a copy of the modified DIRECTOR.INI file you created following
the instructions in the Getting
Started section. The .ini file should be renamed to match
the name of the Projector, i.e.:
Projector: myproj.exe
.INI file: myproj.ini
The Xtra is automatically included in the Projector if your first movie
contains a MpegXtra cast member. If you are creating a "dummy" projector
that will call your .dxr movie, you can include the Xtra in the Projector
using the MODIFY->MOVIE->XTRAS menu, and adding the MpegXtra.x32 file.
TIP: You can also deliver the MpegXtra.x32 file in a folder named XTRAS,
located in the same directory of your Projector, if you do not want to
embed the file into your projector. This is recommended for faster startup
of your Projector, and for delivery on the NT platform.
We also recommend including a LINGO.INI file with your Projector. This
file should contain the following code to prevent problems playing sounds
when Intel RSX and DirectSound are installed:
| on
startup |
|
set
the soundkeepdevice to 0
|
| end
startup |
The final structure of files should look like:
| Projector
- C:\myproj\proj.exe |
| .INI
file - C:\myproj\proj.ini |
| Lingo.ini
- C:\myproj\lingo.ini |
Optional (if Xtra was not embedded into the Projector):
| Xtra
file - C:\myproj\Xtras\MpegXtra.x32 |
The Xtra will automatically locate all linked Media files that are located
in the same directory of the Projector. Additional directories can also
be specified using the SEARCHPATHS list attached to each MpegXtra castmember.
This list can be edited directly from the MpegXtra castmember properties
dialog box and is saved with the castmember in the Director movie. Both
absolute and relative directory entries may be used. Relative directories
are evaluated in relation to the projector executable, while absolute
directories must contain a drive letter and complete pathname information.
| Examples: |
| Relative
directory entry: media |
| Absolute
directory entry: E:\media |
When used with Director 5 and 6, the Xtra will also search all the directories
listed in "the searchpaths" Lingo variable for missing Media files. The
searchpaths is also evaluated before any Lingo in the current movie executes
so it should be set preferably in a LINGO.INI file. The release version
of Director 7 had a bug that was corrected in version 7.02, and "the searchpath"
and "the searchpaths" variables were not being scanned by Director. We
included special code on MpegXtra to work around the searchpath bug, using
a global variable named tbsearchpath. You can include the following code
on your LINGO.INI file to define and add directories to the searchpath
and tbsearchpath variables, specifying relative directories to hold your
linked MPEG files:
| DIRECTOR
5 and 6 LINGO.INI: |
| on
startup |
|
set
the soundkeepdevice to 0
|
|
--
Added to look for files in the "media" subdirectory
|
|
append(the
searchpath, the pathname & "media")
|
| end
startup |
| DIRECTOR
7: |
| on
startup |
|
set
the soundkeepdevice to 0
|
|
--
Added to look for files in the "media" subdirectory
|
|
global
tbsearchpath
|
|
set
tbsearchpath=[]
|
|
append(tbsearchpath,
the applicationPath & "media\")
|
|
append(the
searchpaths, the applicationPath & "media")
|
| end
startup |
You can safely put your Media files in the "media" subdirectory (C:\myproj\media
in the example above) and the Xtra will automatically find them when the
Projector starts.
