I just found this article on-line... apparently it is known that Flash isn't stable on 64-bit machines...
hey!... both of my computers happen to be Win 64-bit premium pro machines! And I have problems exporting Flash animation and building SWF files in AS7PRO. I also have problems accessing the in-application Library, which I've heard is Flash based. Could this be why?
So check this article out, though the title basically says it:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20016 ... ontentBody
SWF flies... could this be the reason for difficulties?
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
I read the article and it's not really saying swf is unstable on a 64bit platform - just that running a 32bit app/plugin on a 64bit system is generally suboptimal (i.e.: playback performance can suffer).
On my XP 64 system I run 32bit Firefox with the 32bit flash player plugin installed. Works fine. Same deal for Explorer (but I deliberately use the 32bit version - not the 64bit version). I guess there could be problems if one was running a 64bit browser and had the 32bit flash player installed - but I don't think the adobe installer would allow that to happen. I don't run Vista 64 or Win 7 64, so I've no clue if there's some chronic flash player problem with those versions.
I tested some of my ASPro7 projects and I can export to SWF format video files on XP 64 without any problems. Admittedly, the projects I tested are pretty simple. But...
If/when I need to get an ASPro sequence into SWF format, I personally wouldn't rely on ASPro's SWF export feature anyway. That's because of a basic workflow I stick to (regardless of the animation tool I'm using). That is, I render masters of my segments to AVIs via a lossless codec (e.g.: HuffYUV) first. I can then assemble/edit/resize/transcode from the masters to whatever I want - including SWF. Saves me the time of having to re-render segments out of the animation app(s) again if I need a different format. Note that lossless codecs create much larger video files than mpegs or H.264 based mp4s, so you need adequate disk space.
In the case of AVI-to-SWF transcoding, there are numerous commercial tools available that are pretty simple to use. But I'm a cheapskate: I use a free tool called "Super". It's here:
http://www.erightsoft.info/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe
It's a swiss army knife for transcoding AVIs and MPEGs to numerous formats - including SWF. Kind of a funky UI with a lot of options (which I need in my case), but it works great for me. It's also great for transcoding videos for playing on cell phones or portable media players. Some knowledge of audio/video formats and codecs is needed to get the most out of this tool.
On my XP 64 system I run 32bit Firefox with the 32bit flash player plugin installed. Works fine. Same deal for Explorer (but I deliberately use the 32bit version - not the 64bit version). I guess there could be problems if one was running a 64bit browser and had the 32bit flash player installed - but I don't think the adobe installer would allow that to happen. I don't run Vista 64 or Win 7 64, so I've no clue if there's some chronic flash player problem with those versions.
I tested some of my ASPro7 projects and I can export to SWF format video files on XP 64 without any problems. Admittedly, the projects I tested are pretty simple. But...
If/when I need to get an ASPro sequence into SWF format, I personally wouldn't rely on ASPro's SWF export feature anyway. That's because of a basic workflow I stick to (regardless of the animation tool I'm using). That is, I render masters of my segments to AVIs via a lossless codec (e.g.: HuffYUV) first. I can then assemble/edit/resize/transcode from the masters to whatever I want - including SWF. Saves me the time of having to re-render segments out of the animation app(s) again if I need a different format. Note that lossless codecs create much larger video files than mpegs or H.264 based mp4s, so you need adequate disk space.
In the case of AVI-to-SWF transcoding, there are numerous commercial tools available that are pretty simple to use. But I'm a cheapskate: I use a free tool called "Super". It's here:
http://www.erightsoft.info/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe
It's a swiss army knife for transcoding AVIs and MPEGs to numerous formats - including SWF. Kind of a funky UI with a lot of options (which I need in my case), but it works great for me. It's also great for transcoding videos for playing on cell phones or portable media players. Some knowledge of audio/video formats and codecs is needed to get the most out of this tool.
---
eok
eok
Thanks for the reply!eok wrote:I read the article and it's not really saying swf is unstable on a 64bit platform - just that running a 32bit app/plugin on a 64bit system is generally suboptimal (i.e.: playback performance can suffer).
On my XP 64 system I run 32bit Firefox with the 32bit flash player plugin installed. Works fine. Same deal for Explorer (but I deliberately use the 32bit version - not the 64bit version). I guess there could be problems if one was running a 64bit browser and had the 32bit flash player installed - but I don't think the adobe installer would allow that to happen. I don't run Vista 64 or Win 7 64, so I've no clue if there's some chronic flash player problem with those versions.
I tested some of my ASPro7 projects and I can export to SWF format video files on XP 64 without any problems. Admittedly, the projects I tested are pretty simple. But...
If/when I need to get an ASPro sequence into SWF format, I personally wouldn't rely on ASPro's SWF export feature anyway. That's because of a basic workflow I stick to (regardless of the animation tool I'm using). That is, I render masters of my segments to AVIs via a lossless codec (e.g.: HuffYUV) first. I can then assemble/edit/resize/transcode from the masters to whatever I want - including SWF. Saves me the time of having to re-render segments out of the animation app(s) again if I need a different format. Note that lossless codecs create much larger video files than mpegs or H.264 based mp4s, so you need adequate disk space.
In the case of AVI-to-SWF transcoding, there are numerous commercial tools available that are pretty simple to use. But I'm a cheapskate: I use a free tool called "Super". It's here:
http://www.erightsoft.info/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe
It's a swiss army knife for transcoding AVIs and MPEGs to numerous formats - including SWF. Kind of a funky UI with a lot of options (which I need in my case), but it works great for me. It's also great for transcoding videos for playing on cell phones or portable media players. Some knowledge of audio/video formats and codecs is needed to get the most out of this tool.
It is very possible it is a problem or incompatibility with my system of some sort. I have of course 'trained' myself so I don't use those things which cause problems (e.g., I never use the Library, I always use 'Import Anime Object' instead since the Library crashes on me all the time).
But. I noticed you said this:
For all my SIMPLE cases I had no problem creating a SWF file. It was when I got past frame 640 (or something like that) that the application would freeze and stop responding. Before that I did all the tutorials and exported them in Flash/SWF with no problem. Even posted some on my website!I tested some of my ASPro7 projects and I can export to SWF format video files on XP 64 without any problems. Admittedly, the projects I tested are pretty simple. But...
But when I did something 'serious' it dies every time I got past 25 seconds or so.
Now I'm not saying that this would happen to you, just that since it works for simple cases for me too you might want to try a more 'complex' case to see if it is a problem you might have to deal with at some point (hopefully not)...
And yes, I have a video editor that exports into Flash, so I can always export from AS7PRO in another format and then make the SWF version ala the video editor. But that doesn't change the notion that AS7PRO should be able to do it by itself without having to do this takes-twice-as-long workaround solution...
[==Peter==]
Some things need to be clarified:
- The reported problems on 64-bit-machines only affected the Flash player. The Flash authoring environment (aka the Flash program) never had any trouble with that, AFAIK.
- Exporting SWF from AS only uses the vector graphics portion of the SWF file format. This part hasn't changed for ages. If you have trouble with it, please check the appendix of the AS help for all restrictions of SWF output - there are quite some.
- Exporting "SWF" from some video editor is a completely different thing, because it only uses bitmap data and converts them into the FLV video file format which Flash uses to display in an SWF player. This has nothing to do with vector graphics.
- The reported problems on 64-bit-machines only affected the Flash player. The Flash authoring environment (aka the Flash program) never had any trouble with that, AFAIK.
- Exporting SWF from AS only uses the vector graphics portion of the SWF file format. This part hasn't changed for ages. If you have trouble with it, please check the appendix of the AS help for all restrictions of SWF output - there are quite some.
- Exporting "SWF" from some video editor is a completely different thing, because it only uses bitmap data and converts them into the FLV video file format which Flash uses to display in an SWF player. This has nothing to do with vector graphics.
I tested it and AS7 failed to make a file in swf and mov while avi was produced correctly. I mean no files were produced with swf and mov export.
During my test I set file with compatible features compared to flash export (red dot on each layer).
I checked compatibilities issues with the number of core in use and 64/32 bits systems.
Obviously I need flash export from AS for professionnal task ...
note : I changed my OS since one year switching from XP to Vista family premium 64 bits, now AS6 has the same issues.
note2 : I see on this forum customers have same issues on Windows Seven and Mac OSX.
During my test I set file with compatible features compared to flash export (red dot on each layer).
I checked compatibilities issues with the number of core in use and 64/32 bits systems.
Obviously I need flash export from AS for professionnal task ...
note : I changed my OS since one year switching from XP to Vista family premium 64 bits, now AS6 has the same issues.
note2 : I see on this forum customers have same issues on Windows Seven and Mac OSX.