Adobe 65036570 User Guide - Page 442

ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 431 User Guide Physical Memory shows the amount of actual RAM installed in the system. Total Used indicates how much RAM is being used for a movie. Free Memory indicates how much more memory is currently available in your system. Other Memory indicates the amount of memory used by other applications. Used By Program indicates the amount of memory used by Director (excluding the amount of memory used by the Director application file). Cast & Score indicates the amount of memory used by the cast members in the Cast window and the notation in the Score window. Cast members include all the artwork in the Paint window, all the text in the Text windows, cast members that use the Matte ink in the Score, thumbnail images in the Cast window, and any sounds, palettes, buttons, digital video movies, or linked files that are imported into the cast and are currently loaded into memory. Screen Buffer shows how much memory Director reserves for a working area while executing animation on the Stage. 3 To remove all items that can be purged from RAM, including all thumbnail images in the Cast window, click Purge. All cast members that have Unload (purgePriority) set to a priority other than 0-Never (as specified in the Property inspector's Member tab) are removed from memory. This procedure is useful for gaining as much memory as possible before importing a large file. Edited cast members are not purged. Whenever Director runs low on memory, such as when trying to load many large cast members, other cast members are automatically unloaded from memory. For more information, see How Director unloads items from memory. Using script to change a cast member's purgePriority property is a good technique for controlling memory management. However, changes to the purgePriority property do not take effect until the next time a cast member is used. For example, if you change the property in an exitFrame or enterFrame script in the same frame as one by a cast member, the cast member is treated as if it had its old priority because all drawing on the screen is done before any enterFrame or exitFrame scripts are performed. Loading and unloading individual cast members You can use script methods to unload cast members that you know are no longer in use to make room for new ones. You can also force large cast members to load before they are actually needed. This prevents a pause that can occur when large cast members load normally, just before being drawn on the Stage. Use the following methods to control cast member loading and unloading: • To load a specific cast member or set of cast members, use the preLoadMember() method. • To load all the cast members used in a specific frame or range of frames, use the preLoad method. • To unload a specific cast member or set of cast members from memory, use the unLoadMember() method. • To unload all the cast members used in a specific frame of your movie, use the unload method. • To determine the number of bytes of memory required to display a range of frames, use the ramNeeded() method. To convert the number of bytes to kilobytes, divide the result by 1024. • To determine the current amount of available memory, use the freeBytes() or freeBlock() method.