Adobe Director Basics

ADOBE DIRECTOR BASICS
3D: Controlling action
Displaying changes on the screen is very time consuming, and it can be distracting. When initializing your world,
you may want to prevent any changes from being made visible. See “suspendUpdates” on page 394 for more details.
Collision detection requires intensive use of the computer processor, especially when there are many moving
objects that are close together. Limiting the use of Physics simulations, and deactivating any low-priority Physics
elements can improve performance. See “Physics simulations” on page 395 for more details.
Both JavaScript and Lingo provide multiple ways for achieving the same ends.
If you have a lengthy operation that needs to be repeated on every frame, it helps to that uses few lines of code is
not necessarily faster than one that uses more precise commands. This is especially true when using repeat loops.
See “CPU-friendly code” on page 396. It also helps to execute as much of your code as possible while the Director
playback engine is not busy doing something else. See “Using frame events wisely” on page 397.
Low-polygon modelling
Each face that appears in a scene requires its own personal treatment. The fewer faces you use, the faster the scene will
display.
Creating realistic low-polygon models is a specialized skill. Careful use of textures and normal mapping can lead to
very impressive effects. Click here for more information.
Reducing the number of faces at runtime
If you prefer to work with models that have a higher polygon count, you can use two techniques to reduce the
number of polygons that are displayed at run-time. You can use the LOD (Level of Detail) modifier to simplify the
geometry of models when they appear small in the distance. See “Level of Detail (LOD)” on page 51. This gives you
model-by-model control over appearance.
You can set a targetFrameRate and set useTargetFrameRate to TRUE. The 3D playback will use these settings to
reduce the number of faces used to display all models in an attempt to achieve the specified target frame rate.
Depending on the scene that you wish to display, you may find that you can increase the frame rate by 5 - 20% using
this technique.
useTargetFrameRate merges adjacent faces which have very similar orientations
In certain situations, such as when you use a narrow beam spot light, you may want to increase the polygon count on
a low-polygon model. You can use the SDS (SubDivision Surfaces) modifier to do this. See “Subdivision Surfaces
(SDS)” on page 51.
Last updated 8/26/2011
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