When a SWF file is used within iScreensaver, it is loaded as follows:
- It begins in the PAUSED state
- it is loaded into a window, the size of which may not match the screen exactly
- the window is adjusted in size to meet the screen
- It is given the PLAY command.
To make sure your SWF file works properly, you should do these things:
-
Make sure the SWF file does not start playing immediately, and responds to the Play/Pause commands. To test this, you can load your SWF file within Adobe Flash Player. If the animation begins immediately (or the Control menu does not allow you to choose Play/Pause) then you have a problem.
-
Make sure the SWF file does not start playing before the window resizes. If you notice any issues with the animation content not matching the screen exactly, you may have this issue.
The solution in either case:
-
Insert some blank frames (perhaps 0.25 to 0.5 seconds worth) BEFORE the first animation frame in your SWF.
-
In these blank frames, put a single rectangle that matches the size of the stage and is filled with the background color of your choice. (This is important so that iScreensaver can detect the “natural size” of your SWF animation, used for computing aspect ratios in the various stretch modes)
-
Verify that you have succeeded by loading the new SWF inside iScreensaver Designer, and opening the preview window. If it works, you should see
- the animation pauses when in pause mode, and plays when in play mode
- the SWF width and height were properly detected at the correct size (to see the Width/Height values, switch to List view, or right click the item and choose Item/Media, then open the Compression tab and verify the width, height values match your file.
Additional Notes:
-
do NOT attempt to enter full screen mode using [fscommand (“fullscreen”, “true”)] – this will cause a security violation on many systems and may also cause the screensaver to malfunction.
-
do NOT attempt to adjust the window size. Your SWF should be passive, allowing iScreensaver to set the window size.