Testing Document Download Performance - MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004-USING FLASH Use Manual

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Avoid animating bitmap elements; use bitmap images as background or static elements.
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For sound, use MP3, the smallest sound format, whenever possible.
To optimize elements and lines:
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Group elements as much as possible.
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Use layers to separate elements that change during the animation from those that do not.
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Use Modify > Curves > Optimize to minimize the number of separate lines that are used to
describe shapes.
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Limit the number of special line types, such as dashed, dotted, ragged, and so on. Solid lines
require less memory. Lines created with the Pencil tool require less memory than brush strokes.
To optimize text and fonts:
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Limit the number of fonts and font styles. Use embedded fonts sparingly because they increase
file size.
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For Embed Fonts options, select only the characters needed instead of including the
entire font.
To optimize colors:
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Use the Color menu in the symbol Property inspector to create many instances of a single
symbol in different colors.
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Use the Color Mixer (Window > Color Mixer) to match the color palette of the document to a
browser-specific palette.
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Use gradients sparingly. Filling an area with gradient color requires about 50 bytes more than
filling it with solid color.
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Use alpha transparency sparingly because it can slow playback.

Testing document download performance

Flash Player attempts to meet the frame rate you set; the actual frame rate during playback can
vary on different computers. If a document that is downloading reaches a particular frame before
the frame's required data has downloaded, the document pauses until the data arrives.
To view downloading performance graphically, you can use the Bandwidth Profiler, which shows
how much data is sent for each frame according to the modem speed you specify. The Bandwidth
Profiler is divided into two panes. The left pane shows information about the document, the
download settings, the state, and streams, if any are included. The right pane shows information
about individual frames in the document.
In simulating the downloading speed, Flash uses estimates of typical Internet performance, not
the exact modem speed. For example, if you select to simulate a modem speed of 28.8 Kbps, Flash
sets the actual rate to 2.3 Kbps to reflect typical Internet performance. The profiler also
compensates for the added compression support for SWF files, which reduces the file size and
improves streaming performance.

Testing document download performance

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