Re: FLASH: technostrut - pet project #2

[John Croteau]

Hi Sheryl,


> I would like the questions to be loaded at random. So that if a user

> takes the quiz more than once the question won't always appear in the

> same order.

See below for pseudo randomizer.


> I have built a rough frame work using Load movie that loads

> a few dummy questions in a linear fashion and it works <yippie> I have

> also built a version using scenes. The writer in going to be adding

> questions over the summer . I though that by using load movie, it would

> make later additions easier.

It would probably be best not to use Load Movie's or Scenes.

Use Movie Clips instead of Load Movie especially when things are

sequential.

Use a longer timeline or the MC as scenes technique instead of Scenes.

http://www.FlashBible.com/Members/MovieClips/AsScenes.htm


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You can create pseudo-randomness with Flash 3 (without JavaScript) using

a free running Movie Clip which will be polled when you need to get the

next random event.


There are several ways to set this up but using nested movie clips

inside the random movie clip is the most flexible. You can poll (get

with Tell Target) the next random event from a button Action or from a

Frame action (no need for user to press). The Random Movie Clip should

be in its own layer starting in the first (or possibly second) frame in

the Movie and have only empty frames following it in that layer all the

way to the end of the movie.


It is best to have at least one button to give at least a unique

starting point for the Randomizer MC. If on the Web you can put the

Randomizer in the Load movie (the delay in the loading will create some

randomness).


If you have 4 options, instead of a Randomizer MC with links to 1, 2, 3,

4 you would make one with 20 links or more with a list of apparently

random links to your 4 Labels. Such as 2, 3, 1, 4, 2, 4, 3  etc.  


Without any button action the 'random' order will always be the same

starting with the same number, but it will appear random except to

someone starting over.


With a single Button action the starting point should start to appear to

be random. If they don't appear random you should be able to change the

length of the randomizer timeline to get a better pseudo random effect.

The longer the time that the button(s) stops the main timeline (the

random MCs timeline will still be running) the closer the event will be

to a real random event.


Note, the button actions don't have to be done at the time of choice.

They just need to stop the main timeline at some time before the choice

is made so that the Randomizer MC and the main timeline will 'randomly'

offset from each other.



-----------                               -----------------------

John Croteau

croteauerols [dot] com (mailto:croteauerols [dot] com)

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