At last! Sound bar synchronisation problem fixed!

I've done it, the last major problem overcome! This one was a big relief, in with it being so close to the deadline.
The solution (dont ask why this solved it!):
I decided to initalise all the sound objects in the main screen file in their own layer on the first frame on the root timeline. Originally I had some initialised inside the stadium movie clip. My prediction is that the code for the sound objects was being overriden somewhere or was failing to be read when the main screen was returned to. Initialising them all on the root timeline on thier own layer ensured that they couldnt be obstructed or interfered with.

Tristan.

Update

The snake game is complete and has been integrated in with the rest of the application.

New sound loops have been found to tie in with feedback from our testing study. These loops have been put into the application as appropriate.

As there were problems with the sound levels and some of the descriptions in the rules file, the narration recordings for the referee videos have been re-done and narration has now also been included for the animated assistant referee signals.

I have made a start on the poster. The background layout and text box positioning is complete. Work on content is on-going.

Sam

Jerkiness of zooms reduced

At last ive figured out a reasonable method of smoothing out the zooms more. I noticed that the fills for the seats can be deleted as the stand colour underneath is the same so the seats will still looked filled in. On removing these, the zooms look much better. I have now gone through all the fla files and deleted the seat fills.

Tristan.

Problem with sound re-work

I have worked out a solution for linking the sound bars on each of the screens so that if you mute/unmute the sound on one screen it remains in that state when you navigate to another. However, I am having problems with the main screen. When the sound is muted and you navigate to another screen, return to it, and unmute, none of the sound objects work. I think this may be because the main screen works differently to the other child screens. The code structure is different. I have scoured it and followed it through, but with no luck.
I am currently seeking assistance.

Tristan.

Major slow script problem fixed

For a while, the Flash Player crashed after the quit button on the pong game was pressed and the stadium screen was loaded. This problem remained even when we replaced this screen with the snake game. I have examined this problem and discovered what was causing it. I firstly tried removing the code for the game, but this was not the problem. I figured out that it only happened when the snake game was selected after fully scrolling to the right. It did not crash if I scrolled over just enough so that the flag was visible. I had originally written actionscript that would stop the scrolling on frame 2 so that it would not go to frame 1, because there is code in this frame that tells Flash to go to frame 58. However, Flash wasnt playing this frame, but the variable that stored the current frame number which was to be passed to a external variable which also stored the current frame number of the stadium was being set to 1. Consequently, when you returned to the stadium from a child screen, this variable was telling Flash to go to frame 1. Therefore, when the main screen was reloaded, it was firstly being told to go to frame 58 where the value of the current frame variable was assigned to the _currentframe attribute, which then told Flash to go to frame 1, where it was then told to go to frame 58, and then back to frame 1, and so on. Therefore Flash encountered a never-ending loop and crashed. I fixed the problem by creating an if statement telling Flash to only decrement the current frame variable if the frame number was higher than 2.

Tristan.

Performance testing at University

During next week; the final week before the application deadline, i will bring the application to the labs and work on it there as the specs of these computers will probably be similar to those on which it will be run by the examinars. We will make its speed and performance ideal for these computers. The application will also burnt to CD/DVD to test how it runs from the target medium.
We also need to decide how the application will be presented (e.g. as swfs or projector .exe file(s)) and find out how this will be achieved.

Tristan.

Development tasks

Here are the improvements and problems identified during the testing study that we have decided to work on during the development phase:

- Better, less repetitive music. May include some drum and bass as suggested by one participant. Will consider decreasing the number of times the soundtrack loops.
(Samantha to search for better music)

- Sound bar not consistent throughout application; mute/unmute button always returns to unmute state when new screen loaded, regardless of whether the user has muted it.
(Tristan to fix this issue)

- Increase speed of application; focus on smoothing the zoom transitions.
(Tristan and Samantha to fix this issue)

Tristan.

Testing study completed

Last Friday (16th March 2007) we returned to Chaucer Technology School to conduct our testing study with some of the year 9 girls (aged 13-14). The school computers did not not have any CD-ROM drives, and so beforehand I had arranged with the I.T. support at the school to have USB access on the computers so I could upload my application using my USB stick. Unfortunately, it didn't go quite according to plan. In order to quickly and conveniently provide the girls access to our application, it needed transferring to a network drive. When I.T. support did this, the external videos did not display. This was not because the contentPath link of the FLV Playback players were broken, because the videos worked fine when run directly off my USB stick. It was as if they were being blocked, possibly by a firewall. There was no time to try and solve the problem because the girls were in one of the I.T. rooms waiting. It was therefore decided that I loaded the application from my USB stick on the presentation computer in the room and demonstrated it on a projector screen. The girls would not get to use it but they would at least get to see it, which was sufficient to allow them to complete our questionnaire. Thankfully Samantha also had a copy of the application and while I was demonstrating it, she ran the application on one of the computers and a few of the pupils had a chance to use it. Once I had finished my demonstration, I let a pupil use the application at my computer. We had also devised some specific tasks that we wanted the girls to complete, and so only the minority that got the chance to use it could do these.
All in all, we received 21 fully completed questionnaires which was a sufficient amount to analyse. In general, the girls thought our application was user-friendly, encouraging, and had potential to inspire girls to take up football. They had also provided some good suggestions for how we could improve the application. These results however may have been different and more accurate if all the girls were able to use our application.

Tristan.

Pong Game Problems

I have had problems with the implementation of this game. The game itself works correctly, however when embedded within the stadium layers, it is impossible to quit or use the sound controls on the page, unthil the game has ended. I have tried all sorts to fix this problem and posted on help forums, but had no luck. As it is getting close to the deadline, the best solution was to scrap this game and come up with an alternative.

I am currently working on implementing a snake game, which at the moment does allow the user to quit the page whilst they are still playing the game. I am now in the process of finalising this game, by configuring the game movie clips to be set to the right co-ordinates on the page.

Sam

Chaucer Technology School Football Shoot

Today we travelled to Chaucer Technology School to film the girls' football team playing in a match against Canterbury High School. We gained footage of goals, corners, throw-ins and general play on the pitch. This footage will be used for the club office section, where the footage will be distributed across the two photo frames.

This was our last piece of filming for the project and we are now well on our way to completing the implementation section.

Testing is due to begin on Friday 16th March 07.

Sam

Will no longer be using Macromedia Director

Our project supervisor has said that we don't need to use Macromedia Director to create the CD/DVD-ROM. We can just burn the application's files using normal CD/DVD-ROM authoring software.

Tristan.

Many thanks to Chaucer!

Well, two good pieces of news. It looks like we will finally be filming the girls' football club at Chaucer Technology School on Monday 12th March 2007. The P.E. department have got back to me saying that the club trains on Mondays.
Also, I emailed the school for permission to conduct our testing study with some of their 13-14 year old girl pupils and today I received approval. They asked if it could take place on Friday 16th March 2007. This is fine as we now still have another week to complete the application and two weeks afterwards to review the responses to our testing questionnaire and make any necessary fixes and improvements.

Tristan.

Configuring sound effects in Flash

1. Import the sound effects into the library

2. Give each an identifier by right clicking on them and selecting "Linkage" from the menu. Tick the "Export for Actionscript" box and type a meaningful name in the "Identifier" field.

3. Create a new sound object for each effect in the actions layer of the root timeline:

my_sfx = new Sound(this);
my_sfx.attachSound("Identifier_name");

(Where "my_sfx" is the name of the sound object. This can be anything you like).

4. Where you want the sound effect to be played, intialise the sound object as follows:

_root.my_sfx.start();

(Use "_root." if you are calling the sound object from within a movie clip or button).

5. Configure the mute button by double clicking on the "mute" movie clip and inserting the following code for EACH sound object in the actions panel of the button on frame 1 of this movie clip:

_root.my_sfx.setVolume(0); // this kills the volume of the sound object

6. Configure the unmute button by double clicking on the "mute" movie clip and inserting the following code for EACH sound object in the actions panel of the button on frame 2 of this movie clip:

_root.my_sfx.setVolume(assignVol); // this assigns the volume of the soundtrack's sound object to the sound effect's sound object.

Tristan.

My narration done

When I played back some of the recordings I had done in the AV lab, there was noticable computer hum in the background. As I had a good quality microphone at home, on Tuesday I decided to re-record all my narration at home. The recordings were much better as there was no background noise. The quality of the microphone may not have been as good as those supplied at University, but the quality was good enough and the surroundings were more suitable to record in, so the actual recordings were far better.

Tristan.