Director Articles

On this page, you may add any interesting articles, topics on Adobe Director that don't fit in other categories in the Directorforum Collaboration Wiki.

Kerning in Director 11.0.3

Kerning in Director 11.0.3 (Hotfix 3) is working for all fonts with Flat Kerning.

• Flat Kerning: A huge table of kerning pairs and their respective values. This is the only available kerning type for TrueType fonts.

Kerning does not work for fonts with class based kerning.

• Class Based Kerning: OpenType fonts with a large number of glyphs would require a very large table of kerning pairs, which could lead to software crashes. This is why class based kerning was introduced. Here all glyphs are categorized in classes and kerning values are only stored for class pairs. Well, in reallity it's a bit more complicated, but I think this is enough to understand the difference.

Tools: To check the type of kerning for a specific font, you can use the trial of FontLab (no time limit, Win/Mac)) or if you're on Windows, there's a free Font Properties Extension from Microsoft.

• http://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontlab-studio/
• http://www.microsoft.com/typography/TrueTypeProperty21.mspx

Serialize, Deserialize from D11 to mx2004

Migrating a project from MX2004 to D11, even with the automatic convertion tools isn't as easy as it should.

There are issues with the things that where changed between versions, specially those related with fonts, 3d and xtras (but others can creap up unexpectedly).

To make things worse, docs related to the several director objects is scarce, dispersed and sometimes innexistents. To get ALL the properties of a object is sometimes near impossible.

Check the article here: Serialize, Deserialize D11&MX2004

Adding a Spell Checker to your Application - Status: In Progress

This article discusses how a developer can add spell checking functionality to a text member in their application without having to purchase an Xtra.

Check the article here: Adding a Spell Checker to your Application

How to Create a Poor Man’s Xtra - Status: Proposed, Not Completed

This article discusses how to use Valentin's Shell Xtra in conjunction with a console app that we will create in C# Visual Studio Express, and finally a neat trick Valentin (yet again!) discovered to package it all together in a projector.

Check the article here: How to Create a Poor Man's Xtra

How to Build Utilities for Authoring - Status: Proposed, Not Completed

This article teaches everything you need to know on how to build helpful utilities for use in the Director authoring environment by walking the reader through building a utility.

Check the article here: How to Build Helpful Utilities for the Director Authoring Environment

Customizing the Authoring Environment - Status: Proposed, Not Completed

This article will provide various tips and tricks on ways to configure the Director authoring environment to your liking.

Check the article here: Customizing the Authoring Environment

MUS 3.0: The Basics, Explained (Part 1) - Status: Proposed, Not Completed

This article will sort out the confusing information in the MUS 3.0 manual and help the developer get the basics of MUS configured and running to send messages between a client and server.

Check the article here: Multiuser Server 3.0: The Basics, Explained (Part 1)

MUS 3.0: Troubleshooting Networks (Part 2) - Status: Proposed, Not Completed

This article continues the Multiuser Server configuration discussion with useful information on how networks are configured and what needs to be done to establish a successful connection between the client and server.

Check the article here: Multiuser Server 3.0: Troubleshooting Networks (Part 2)

Collision Detection Scripts for 2D Games - Status: Proposed, Not Completed

This article will discuss several different implementations of collision detection systems for 2D games with code and embedded shockwave examples.

Check the article here: Collision Detection Scripts for 2D Games

Creating a Professional Looking Projector - Status: Proposed, Not Completed

This article will give an overview of what a developer should consider when creating a professional looking projector.

Check the article here: Creating a Professional Looking Projector