PreLoader for Photo slide show

Submitted by Taz on Wed, 2008-10-22 01:30.

Member's Forum

Hey I'm just putting together a website, and like a lot of sites it features a flash photo slide show near the top that goes through a series of photos. I was wondering whether it is good practice to put in a preloader in the flash or whether i don't have to bother.
It loads fine on my computer but I have a good internet connection.
Are there any rules on when you should put in a preloader ie when a file gets over a certain size? Or should you just put one in all the time?

Cheers

It depends

Submitted by spigot on Sun, 2008-10-26 03:09.

Testing the file with the Bandwidth Profiler can help... Test your movie, and in the resulting .swf file in Flash Player, choose View > Download Setting and set it to 56k. Rewind the movie and if it takes more than 5 seconds to load, then I would use a preloader. Not that this is a standard, per se, but if I had to stare at a blank screen for more than 5 seconds, I'd be gone.

~ spigotdesign.com