compressed image files?

[johnAq]

There is something of a trade-off in this area. It comes down to processor speed & disk speed.

Uncompressing an image file is done by the processor (I believe), so you might see some 'sluggishness' on SLOWER CPUS

If you use uncompressed (or less compressed) art then this might alleviate some of that CPU problem, BUT - now the computer will take longer to read that file off the disk, so you would probably still see a similar problem anyway, especially when running off CD (not to mention shockwave download speeds).

I don't think however, that the uncompress/recompress thing is true. Once you have displayed a graphic, it will stay in memory & display it quickly if needed again unless Director is running low, in which case it will purge old unused cast members from RAM to make room for new ones it needs. it doesn't need to recompress members to unload them.

You can tell Director to preload & unload cast members using Lingo (look up those commands in the Help). Another good way to prepare members for fast display over a specific number of frames is to put them in a frame just before your animation and to move them off of the visible area of stage. This will require a short pause while you load them in the previous frame, but the following animation will be as smooth as possible.

hth

johnAq