Flash Problems.... Flash Problems... and MORE Flash Problems!!!!!!!

JohnWPB · 04-18-2007, 08:28 AM

Ok, Do not know where to begin, other than the "Flash Issues" have gotten out of hand. If you do a search on the forums for "Flash Problem" you will find literally hundreds of posts. This has been an ongoing problem for the past 3 years that I personally know of.

There are all sorts of supposed "solutions" like, renaming this flash OCX, Removing flash and reinstalling it, Installing flash with Internet Explorer, Installing the stand alone player, reverting to this or that version, throttling down the hardware acceleration a notch or two... but STILL there is no single solution to get this to work.

Guino has put SSSSOOOOoooo Much time and effort into Road Runner, we could never thank or pay him enough! So it's hard for me to say something negative about Road Runner. Be that as it may, this problem needs to be resolved.

I can play flash animations on websites, in the standalone flash player , and yet when trying to do the same thing inside RR, it can peg the CPU to 100%. This tells me that it HAS to be something inside Road Runner. Sure finding that sweet spot between Flash and Road runner is a work around, but still the problem is with Road Runner itself. I have never had flash peg my CPU at 100% in the stand alone player, on a website, or anywhere else for that matter, no matter what version of flash it was, or what version of flash the applet was written for.

Hell, reading a post the other day, Liquid Smoke wrote a AutoIt script, that would embed in Road Runner to display a flash applet! When the Flash was directly embedded in RR it was slow as molasses (Using the Flash Traffic Addon for Road Runner), but using AutoIt to embed the same thing, it worked at normal speed, and the CPU usage didn't show any change that the flash file was even running.

I heard one person even mention embedding the stand alone flash player inside Road Runner! Not a perfect solution by any means, but something that would at least work.

This has got to tell you that something is seriously wrong somewhere

There has to be some way to work this out with Road Runner. With more and more flash stuff being used the problem is just getting worse. Add in's like Flash Gauges, games, Traffic Plugins, Clocks, Replacement sliders and scroll lists... the list goes on and on.

This finally just really got to me a couple days ago, and why I decided to start this thread. I release an update for my skin, and when I packaged it, I had the main menu set to use a flash clock. I had numerous complaints that when the skin loaded, the CPU went to 100%. The could not even get to the menu in the skin to change the clock for a standard RR code Digital clock. For one of the users, the skin worked perfect on the desktop, and locked the car CPU to 100%. He has uninstalled flash, renamed the ocx's, reinstalled with Internet Explorer, throttling down the hardware acceleration, and 50 other things, and can not get RR to work with flash correctly.

This post is not simply a rant, but to start a discussion on how this problem can be fixed once and for all. Road Runner is, without a doubt the best Front End available, either for free, or something that you have to pay for. Flash, on the other hand with Road Runner is a serious drawback for a lot of people.

What can be done to fix this once and for all?

CdRsKuLL · 04-19-2007, 05:58 AM

I've been using flash for about 2 years now.. not really had a problem that I couldnt solve.. first try putting ,SOLID after your F01 line in the skin, this will speed it up by 50% at least as it doesnt then need to buffer it first before displaying. Second.. always use the latest flash version.. third make sure the app your using to design the swf file supports the latest flash version.. this was a major problem about a year ago when all swishmax swf files wouldnt play on flash 9, hence the renaming etc had to be done, but all that is a thing of the past now.. The only other really problem I've come across is the unichrome gfx card on the newer epia / jetway boards.. its crap to be honest with its 2d graphic abilitys and has been slagged off in the htpc media world as well.. I will be releasing my next alpha version of FU either tonight or tomorrow which is all flash based.. (0.4) have a play with that and you should see I dont have many problems at all.

CdR

ShawJohn · 04-19-2007, 06:10 AM

try turning graphics hardware acceleration down a notch, helped a great deal with my flash problems

JohnWPB · 04-19-2007, 10:26 AM

Guys, I wasn't asking for help to get flash working

And you can see I mentioned turning down the hardware acceleration in the first message, and 5 other workarounds.

It may seem like Flash is not a problem any longer, but do some searching on the forums, and, by all means have a look at the last 5 pages in my DigitalFX thread! Hahaah

The bottom line, there is NO reason a simple flash clock, should peg a computer at 100% CPU to the point of CTRL ALT DEL not even being able to respond. SOMETHING is wrong, and I was just trying to figure out the root of the problem, not work around it.

CdRsKuLL · 04-19-2007, 11:08 AM

did you do the clock ? maybe you have an error in your flash code, i'm using several clocks on my fu skin and not having a problem with any of them.. when doing a clock you only need it to update its code once a second so if your running 20fps then use frame 1 and 20.. no point having it like frame 1 and 2 as its a waste

CdR

JohnWPB · 04-19-2007, 02:12 PM

Me.... Write the clock?

I couldn't code in flash to save my life! Hahahahh! You my friend are the flash Guru hands down!

It's just one of the clocks on the Internet that you run across now and then.

Again the bottom line, is very simple. Run that same clock in Adobe's Flash Player, or in a web browser, and there are NO CPU problems in any way whatsoever. So that, 100%, without a doubt, in any way, whatsoever, points to the way that RR handles flash in the first place. period.

On the other hand, if this is not still a problem, just do a simple search of the forums for "Flash Problem"

As for the ".solid", that will not work in 90% of situations, unless you want a nice white area instead of the transparent area around the flash clock or object.

I have not said anything to this point, but every time I read you referring to your new skin as FU I definitely get a chuckle

(Possibly a subliminal thought or message related to your previous skin?) I try to tell myself that it stands for "Flash University"

liquid_smoke · 04-19-2007, 02:28 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by JohnWPB

I have not said anything to this point, but every time I read you referring to your new skin as FU I definitely get a chuckle

(Possibly a subliminal thought or message related to your previous skin?) I try to tell myself that it stands for "Flash University"

hahahah, so what does it stand for?

anyway, i know what you mean about flash and RR. There def is something different about how it works in RR, but with that said in the same breath i havnt had any issues with flash. I also dont use much flash either, so go figure.

I think your problem with your clocks maybe that its redrawing on everyframe/updating every sec like cdr was saying. Since u didnt create them this is likely the issue. But to go back to what your bottom line point is, you shouldn't have to create the flash file this way, thus making cool stuff u find on the internet not really usable inside RR.

Chuck · 04-19-2007, 02:45 PM

CdRsKuLL I tried the ,solid thing and the cpu’s did go down but the background in the flash turned white even though I have the background set as black in the .fla file.

Any clues?

CdRsKuLL · 04-19-2007, 04:51 PM

Hi Chuck, the background in flash is just for design purpose, just place a solid black shape at the bottom of your swf file :-) if thats the colour you want

FU stands for Freedom Ultimate, but I do like yours .. lol

:-) CdR

DJiK · 05-30-2007, 01:53 AM

Has anybody try to overcome this general flash issue beyond the thread?

Sonicxtacy02 · 05-30-2007, 09:06 AM

there's not much anyone can do about it.. i mean the problem lies within the way flash is drawn in rr... without MAJOR code changes its something we have to deal with. Hopefully the flash that utilizes hardware acceleration will be released soon and that further mitigates the issue.

DJiK · 05-31-2007, 01:42 AM

Personally I have a feeling this has to do with the skin-resizing ability RR has.

Is there a way someone could compile Road Runner without that added ability for test purposes?

Nomader · 05-31-2007, 07:41 AM

john,
I know that does not help much, or considered an orthodox solution, but i think that upgrading to a microATX will solve 90% of the problems..

use a more powerful CPU and you will not even notice a cpu usage increase..or software imperfections..

sexy6s · 05-31-2007, 10:11 AM

I'm currently running a Centrino 1.6ghz w/512 memory, and i to am experiencing a pegged cpu @ 100%....i'm currently using the FSR skin. I only have xp sp2 w/office 2003 iguidance, winamp, newest version of flash, and about 2 gigs of music on my laptop....depending on what day it is the cpu usage will go from 100 down to maybe around 50-70% (all this when the main screen is up) while playing music and w/ or w/o the visualization playing....if anyone has any kind of work around for this please let me know....i really like the skin...and i've spent alot of time tweaking it to.... ;o(

Nomader · 05-31-2007, 12:25 PM

guys i am running a sempron 2800 , 512 RAM, and never ever had any flash problems, and i have installed every software you can imagine

the 1 and only time i had a flash problem was when i was learning flash (i am still learning

) and had created a swf that updated a zilion times a second.. optimizing swf's is the basic key.
by the way i have 6-7 flash items runing simultaneasully (<-was that spelled right) in every .skin!!!
can you send me the swf's that troule you!

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