Re: FLASH: Bit vs. Vector

[Kristopher Schultz]

One reason for the performance difference between bitmaps and vectors is

that Flash anti-aliases vectors on the fly. For vectors that are displayed

at a large size this can be VERY processor intensive because there are a lot

of edge pixel values to calculate. If you switch you viewing quality to

"low" (in the stand-alone Flash Player or your HTML parameters) you should

see a significant improvement in playback of the vectors because

anti-aliasing will be disabled.


Vectors with a lot of points and curves - say in the hundreds or thousands -

will also tax the processor. Stock vector clip art tends to be very bloated

in this way and performance can often be improved by using the "Optimize

(curves)" feature in Flash (found in the "Modify" menu). Often, it's better

just to turn it into a bitmap if the file size isn't too adversly affected.


Bitmaps can be slow under certain conditions, as well. If you are displaying

a bitmap at anything other than 100%, performance will be affected somewhat.

If you are scaling them AND have their "smoothing" option turned on (which

is the default) AND your display quality is set to "best" the performance

hit will be more significant because Flash will use a better scaling

algorithm. Also, if your bitmap has an alpha channel (PNG), it will have to

calculate pixel values on the fly for any pixel that isn't 100% opaque.




kristopher schultz - mills james productions

programming : compression : management


@ www.millsjames.com - columbus, ohio





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