I have several flash movies on a site. They all loop through an animation which lasts for approximately 15 seconds (but this is not set in stone). They all begin to play at the same time and are in sync.
However, when I resize the browser window, or scroll the page, if a flash player instance is not in the viewport, it stops playing. When it returns to the viewport, it resumes and subsequently is out of sync with the other flash player instances.
I am under the impression this is a flash player optimisation. Is there anyway of disabling this behaviour, possibly through JS / AS3? It appears to happen in Firefox and Chrome on Windows.
UPDATE
Just to clarify. I have methodologies in place using local connection and ExternalInterface to sync the ads. What I am looking for is a method to disable the "optimisation" of FlashPlayer which results in the frame rate being drastically reduced.
You can't disable this feature. It's put in place to lower the memory and CPU use when the flash application isn't visible.
What is available for you though is something called the Throttle API. This is a dedicated API created to allow creators of Flash applications the ability to be notified exactly when their application is going to be slowed down/throttled.
Here's an example.
addEventListener(ThrottleEvent.THROTTLE, onThrottleEventHandler);
function onThrottleEventHandler(e:ThrottleEvent):void
{
if(e.state == ThrottleType.THROTTLE)
{
/**
* the player is about to be slowed down to a frame rate
* set in e.targetFrameRate
*/
}
else if(e.state == ThrottleType.PAUSE)
{
/**
* the player is going to be paused completely, AKA 0 fps
*/
}
else if(e.state == ThrottleType.RESUME)
{
/**
* the player is now back to normal as it has resumed
* from the paused or throttled state
*/
}
}
Now you can figure out a way that works best for you but my suggestion is to store the current time that has passed whenever being throttled or paused via:
currentTime = getTimer();
Then calculate how much time has passed once your application has resumed using:
passedTime = getTimer() - currentTime;
Then do what you like with this information.
Hopefully this has helped, should offer you a greater degree of control now that you're familiar with the Throttle API. For more information on it, check it out in the documentation here: ThrottleEvent
I belive this kind of behavior its normal, its kind of a bug of flash that has never been fixed.
I belive inha may got u a solution, but not on an enter_frame event. that just to brutal.
what I would do is:
create a timer event.. each X seconds.. so it will call a checkFunction,
in my checkFunction(). I would check if all my movieClips are syncronized.
and if I found 1 that is not.. ill put a simple gotoAndPlay(xFrame);
var aMovieClips:Array; //get all ur movieclips into this array.
var timeToCheck = 1000; //time to check for a unsincronized movieclip
var time:Timer=new Timer(timeToCheck,0);//do inifinite call each 1000 seconds
time.start();
time.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, checkFunction);
public function checkFunction(e:TimerEvent):void
{
var aCurrentFrames:Array;
for (var n:int = 0;n<aMovieClips.length();n++)
aCurrentFrames.push(aMovieClips[n].currentFrame);
//so now u have all current frames of all movie clips.. so u can add a
//gotoAndPlay(x); to any unsyncronized movieclip
}
If it is very important that each SWF progresses simultaneously, I would control it by JavaScript.
Assuming each SWF file is a simple MovieClip, something like this is how I would go about it:
Set the Document Class of each FLA file to this:
package {
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
public class ExternalInterfaceControlledMC extends MovieClip {
public function ExternalInterfaceControlledMC() {
this.stop();
if (ExternalInterface.available) {
try {
ExternalInterface.addCallback("setFrame", jsSetFrame);
} catch (error:Error) {
trace("An Error occurred:", error.message);
}
} else {
trace("ExternalInterface is not available");
}
}
private function jsSetFrame(value:String):void {
var frameNumber = int(value) % this.totalFrames;
this.gotoAndStop(frameNumber);
}
}
}
In the JavaScript, you would add a reference of each instance of the SWFs into an array, then use a timer to tell each SWF to progress to a frame number.
var swfElements; //Array
var currFrame = 1;
function onPageLoad() {
//Init timer
setInterval("progressFrame", 1000 / 30); //30 fps
}
function progressFrame() {
for (var i = 0; i < swfElements.length; i++) {
swfElements[i].setFrame(currFrame);
}
currFrame++;
}
Please beware that nothing about this code is tested and is only meant to be used to illustrate my train of thought.
Related
I support several churches that don't have musicians, by providing a little website with a bunch of pure Javascript so they can select music for their services from a collection of about 1100 mp3 and m4a music files. Previously, they created playlists in iTunes or Media Player, but after a track completed, the player would immediately start the next track unless they quickly clicked 'Stop'. So my website allows them to select all their music ahead of time (up to 10 tracks), with a separate "Play" button for each. Hit "Play" and it plays that one track and stops. (Duh.)
I'm encountering delays in loading the files into my "audio" tags - and I need the file to load when they select it so I can display the track duration, which is frequently important to the selection of the music for the service. A delay doesn't occur very often, but often enough to be annoying. Also, the load will occasionally time out completely, even after several attempts. I've experimented played with various techniques, like using setTimeout with different values to allow several seconds before checking if it's loaded, or, loading 5 or 10 times with shorter timeout values until it's loaded. I created a test page that indicates that the timeouts vary greatly - from 2% to 5% of the time, to upwards of 25% occasionally (during tests of 1,000 to 10,000 random loads).
My first technique was relying on events (I tried both 'canplay' and 'canplaythrough' events with minimal difference):
const testAudio = document.getElementById('test-audio');
let timeStart = Date.now();
function loadMusic(p_file) {
testAudio.src = p_file;
testAudio.addEventListener('canplaythrough', musicLoaded);
timeStart = Date.now();
testAudio.load();
}
function musicLoaded() {
console.log('music loaded in ' + (Date.now()-timeStart) + 'ms');
testAudio.removeEventListener('canplaythrough', musicLoaded);
/* should I add/remove the listener each time I change the source file ? */
}
My second approach (from a post here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10235919/the-canplay-canplaythrough-events-for-an-html5-video-are-not-called-on-firefox) is to check the 'readyState' of the audio element after a specified timeout, rather than relying on an event. This question specifically addressed Firefox, so I should mention that in my tests Firefox has horrible load times for both the "events" and the "readyState" techniques. Chrome and Edge vary in the range of 2% to 6% load failure due to timeout and Firefox has 27% to 39% load timeouts.
let myTimeout = '';
function loadMusic(p_file) {
myTimeout = setTimeout(fileTimeout, 1000); /* I've tried various values here */
testAudio.src = p_file;
timeStart = Date.now();
testAudio.load();
}
function fileTimeout() {
if (testAudio.readyState > 3) {
console.log('music loaded in ' + (Date.now()-timeStart) + 'ms');
} else {
/* here, I've tried calling loadMusic again 5 to 10 times, which sometimes works */
/* or, just reporting that the load failed... */
console.log('music FAILED to load!');
}
}
I have a shared server hosting plan, and I suspect the delay might be due to traffic on my server. Unfortunately, my hosting service turns a deaf ear to anything that might be application or content related (not surprising). And this isn't worth upgrading to a dedicated server just to eliminate that variable. But I suspect that might be a major factor here.
I need a technique that will always work - even if it takes 30 seconds or more. As long as I can display an intermittent "Still loading..." type message I (and my users) would be satisfied. The "track X won't load" messages happen often enough to be annoying. Early on, I had a few files with bad characters in the file name that needed to be fixed before they would load. So the users think that problem persists. But I know I've fixed all them now.
Any and all suggestions are welcome - but I'd love to keep everything in plain Javascript.
Using an audio constructor:
function loadMusic(p_file) {
myTimeout = setTimeout(fileTimeout, 1000);
let audioConst = new Audio();
audioConst.src = p_file;
timeStart = Date.now();
}
function fileTimeout() {
if (audioConst.readyState > 3) {
console.log('music loaded in ' + (Date.now()-timeStart) + 'ms');
} else {
console.log('music FAILED to load!');
}
myTimeout = '';
}
I'm working on a Javascript Music App that includes a Sequencer. For those who are not familiar, MIDI sequencers work pretty much like this: There is something called PPQ: pulses per quarter note. Each pulse is called "Tick". It depicts how may "subdivisions" there are per quarter note, like resolution. So Sequencers "play" the Events that are in the tracks one Tick at a time: Play Tick1, wait Tick Duration, Play tick2, Tick Duration, and so on.
Now, let's say we have a BPM (Beats per Min) of 120 with PPQ=96 (standard). That means that each Quarter Note Duration is 500ms, and each Tick Duration is 5.20833ms.
What Timer Alternatives we have in Javascript?
1) We have the old setTimeOut. It has several problems: the min. wait time is 4ms. (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope/setTimeout#Minimum_delay_and_timeout_nesting)
It is also subject to JITTER/time Variations. It is not precise and it is demanding, as call backs are stacked in the even loop.
2) There is an alternative to setTimeOut/setInterval which involves using requestAnimationFrame(). It is VERY precise and CPU efficient. However, the minimum time it can be set is around 16.7ms (the duration of a Frame in a typical 60FPS monitor)
Is there any other Alternative? To to precisely schedule an event every 2-5ms?
Note: the function done in side the loop, playEventsAtTick() is NOT demanding at all, so it would never take more time to execute than Tick Duration.
Thanks!
Danny Bullo
To maintain any sanity in doing this kind of thing, you're going to want to do the audio processing on a devoted thread. Better yet, use the Web Audio API and let people who have been thinking about these problems for a long time do the hard work of sample-accuracy.
Also check out Web MIDI (chrome only).
Thanks nvioli. I'm aware of Web Audio API. However, I don't think that can help here.
I'm not triggering AUDIO directly: I have MIDI events (or let's say just "EVENTS") stored in the TRACKS. And those events happen at any TICK. So the Sequencer needs to loop every Tick Duration to scan what to play at that particular tick.
Regards,
Danny Bullo
In a separate thread, such as a web worker, you can create an endless loop. In this loop, all you need to do is calculate the time between beats. After the time is valid, you can then send a message to the main process, to do some visuals, play a sound or what ever you would like to do.
Here is a Working example
class MyWorker {
constructor() {
// Keeps the loop running
this.run = true
// Beats per minute
this.bpm = 120
// Time last beat was called
this.lastLoopTime = this.milliseconds
}
get milliseconds() {
return new Date().getTime()
}
start() {
while (this.run) {
// Get the current time
let now = this.milliseconds
// Get the elapsed time between now and the last beat
let updateLength = now - this.lastLoopTime
// If not enough time has passed restart from the beginning of the loop
if (updateLength < (1000 * 60) / this.bpm) continue;
// Enough time has passed update the last time
this.lastLoopTime = now
// Do any processing that you would like here
// Send a message back to the main thread
postMessage({ msg: 'beat', time: now })
}
}
}
new MyWorker().start()
Next we can create the index page, which will run the worker, and flash a square everytime a message comes back from the worker.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<script>
// Start the worker
var myWorker = new Worker('worker.js')
// Listen for messages from the worker
myWorker.onmessage = function (e) {
var msg = e.data
switch (msg.msg) {
// If the message is a `beat` message, flash the square
case 'beat':
let div = document.querySelector('div')
div.classList.add('red')
setTimeout(() => div.classList.remove('red'), 100)
break;
}
}
</script>
<style>
div { width: 100px; height: 100px; border: solid 1px; }
.red { background: red; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div></div>
</body>
</html>
Get Off My Lawn: The approach you suggested does not completely work. Let's say I add a method to the web worker to STOP the Sequencer:
stop() {
this.run = false;
}
The problem is that the method myWorker.onmessage = function (e) {...} never get's triggered. I suspect it is because the Web Worker Thread is "TOO BUSY" with the endless loop. any way to solve that?
Also, while playing, it works.....but the CPU goes up considerably..... The only possible Solution would be a Sleep() method, but Real SLEEP that does not exist in Javascript...
Thanks
I'm currently in the process of creating a webapp that detects whether the user is sitting or standing. I have had great success with detecting the tilt of the device, changing a boolean variable and sending the correct data to a graph.
The following code runs perfectly in the background, updating the data every second.
var trackInterval = setInterval(function(){
if(isSitting){
addData(myPieChart, "Sitting");
} else{
addData(myPieChart, "Standing");
}
}, 1000)
My issue is that the listening function that changes the variable 'isSitting' does not continue once the browser is closed. This means that the last value of 'isSitting' gets data added to it, even though the device might be tilted otherwise.
This is the code that creates the accelerometer updates:
window.addEventListener("devicemotion", accelerometerUpdate, true);
var isSitting = true;
function accelerometerUpdate(event) {
var aX = event.accelerationIncludingGravity.x * 100 ;
var aY = event.accelerationIncludingGravity.y * 100 ;
var aZ = event.accelerationIncludingGravity.z * 100 ;
if (aY > 600 || aY < -900 ){
isSitting = false;
} else{
isSitting = true;
}
}
I have tried Chrome, Opera and Firefox on my Android device.
Any help or tips to work around this would be greatly appreciated
This sounds like regular behaviour as your javascript code, to be executed, should run in your browser.
To achieve your goal, a possible guess would be to look into a way to use this api in service workers, which is currently not possible with the devicemotion api but should be (at least with chrome) with the new Generic Sensors API described here : https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/sensors-for-the-web
The Problem
I need to be able to synchronize some JavaScript events to specific timing in YouTube videos as closely as possible. While I understand there are some limitations to how accurate timers can be in browsers, I think it should be possible to do better than what I'm getting from the video player. I used the following code on starting playback of the YouTube video.
startTime = new Date();
setInterval(function () {
samples.push({player: player.getCurrentTime(), jstime: new Date() - startTime});
}, 20);
This code gets the current time that the video player thinks it is at with player.getCurrentTime(), and logs it along with regular clock time against the time that playback was started. The following results give you an idea of the accuracy:
{"player":0.188,"jstime":109},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":125},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":140},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":171},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":203},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":218},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":234},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":265},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":296},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":312},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":327},
{"player":0.676,"jstime":577},
{"player":1.012,"jstime":624},
{"player":1.187,"jstime":655},
{"player":1.187,"jstime":671},
{"player":1.187,"jstime":686},
{"player":1.187,"jstime":717},
{"player":1.187,"jstime":733},
{"player":1.187,"jstime":749},
{"player":1.187,"jstime":780},
{"player":1.187,"jstime":811},
{"player":1.447,"jstime":842},
{"player":1.447,"jstime":858},
{"player":1.447,"jstime":873},
{"player":1.447,"jstime":905},
{"player":1.447,"jstime":936},
{"player":1.447,"jstime":951},
{"player":1.447,"jstime":998},
{"player":1.605,"jstime":1029},
{"player":1.605,"jstime":1061},
Some digging online reveals that the accuracy of the YouTube video timer comes directly from the underlying player (which will usually be HTML5 in my case), and should not be relied upon for anything more accurate than a few hundred milliseconds.
A Possible Solution
A few observations/assumptions (and some stating the obvious):
The time retrieved from player.getCurrentTime() will be approximating something constant.
The rate at which player time passes should be nearly the same for the clock-on-the-wall. (It may drift slightly though due to the fact that video frames are usually tied to an audio clock which always varies from machine to machine by a few Hz.)
If I observe both clocks over time, I should be able to determine the difference in rate between them (which should be close to 0).
Once the error rates are known and samples are taken over time, it should be possible to derive a timer that is close to the accuracy of the most accurate timer of the two (the clock provided to JavaScript). Is this assumption correct?
How to implement?
Given the inputs of player time and JavaScript clock-on-the-wall time, how can I derive a timer that I can call every animation frame to give me the highest accuracy possible?
How accurate could such a derived time be?
I've done this sort of thing before (admittedly using ActionScript and targeting the AVM) but the principles still stand.
Don't rely on the browser (or app) for timing info.
Think about it, a little bit of buffering on the video side, or the occasional beach-ball / spinning hour glass, and suddenly your synchronisation is wrong.
What you want to do is hook into media player events, and then react to the time of the video.
The W3 HTML5 Video demo page [ http://www.w3.org/2010/05/video/mediaevents.html ] shows a whole bunch of properties and values - the ones I think you'd be wanting to take a look at are the timeUpdate event and the currentTime property.
I think I've figured out how to accomplish this. A bit messy for now, but you get the idea.
function youTubeTimer (player) {
var startTime;
var totalTime = 0;
var lastPlayerTime;
//Array of offsets between the JS timer and reported video player time
var deltas = [];
// Amount of time to correct
var correction;
player.addEventListener('onStateChange', function (e) {
if (e.data === YT.PlayerState.PLAYING) {
startTime = new Date();
} else if (e.data === YT.PlayerState.PAUSED || e.data === YT.PlayerState.BUFFERING || e.data === YT.PlayerState.ENDED) {
totalTime = ((new Date() - startTime)/1000) + totalTime;
}
if (e.data === YT.PlayerState.ENDED) {
console.log(totalTime);
}
});
function getJsTime() {
if (player.getPlayerState() === YT.PlayerState.PLAYING) {
return ((new Date() - startTime)/1000) + totalTime;
} else {
return totalTime;
}
}
// Call this function frequently!
this.getHighResPlayerTime = function getHighResPlayerTime() {
if (!player.getCurrentTime) {
return 0;
}
var playerTime = player.getCurrentTime(); // Seconds of playback, reported by the video player
var jsTime = getJsTime(); // Seconds from the clock time when the video started
// Has the player time been updated? Adjust the correction offset.
if (playerTime !== lastPlayerTime) {
lastPlayerTime = playerTime;
// Store up to 20 samples of offsets
if (deltas.length >= 500) {
deltas.shift();
}
deltas.push(jsTime - playerTime);
// Calculate a new correction value
correction = 0;
for (var x = 0; x < deltas.length; x ++)
{
correction += deltas[x];
}
correction = correction / x;
}
return jsTime - correction;
}
}
I'm making a webpage with dynamic content that enters the view with AJAX polling. The page JS occasionally downloads updated information and renders it on the page while the user is reading other information. This sort of thing is costly to bandwidth and processing time. I would like to have the polling pause when the page is not being viewed.
I've noticed most of the webpages I have open spend the majority of their time minimized or in a nonviewed tab. I'd like to be able to pause the scripts until the page is actually being viewed.
I have no idea how to do it, and it seems to be trying to break out of the sandbox of the html DOM and reach into the user's system. It may be impossible, if the JS engine has no knowledge of its rendering environment. I've never even seen a different site do this (not that the user is intended to see it...)
So it makes for an interesting question for discussion, I think. How would you write a web app that is CPU heavy to pause when not being used? Giving the user a pause button is not reliable, I'd like it to be automatic.
Your best solution would be something like this:
var inactiveTimer;
var active = true;
function setTimer(){
inactiveTimer = setTimeOut("stopAjaxUpdateFunction()", 120000); //120 seconds
}
setTimer();
document.onmouseover = function() { clearTimeout ( inactiveTimer );
setTimer();
resumeAjaxUpdate();
}; //clear the timer and reset it.
function stopAjaxUpdateFunction(){
//Turn off AJAX update
active = false;
}
function resumeAjaxUpdate(){
if(active == false){
//Turn on AJAX update
active = true;
}else{
//do nothing since we are still active and the AJAX update is still on.
}
}
The stopAjaxUpdateFunction should stop the AJAX update progress.
How about setting an "inactivity timeout" which gets reset every time a mouse or keyboard event is received in the DOM? I believe this is how most IM programs decide that you're "away" (though they do it by hooking the input messages at the system-wide level)
I've looked at that problem before for a research project. At the time (2-3 years ago) I did not find a way to get information from the browser about whether or not you are minimized :(
First check when the window loses and gains focus.
window.onblur = function () { /* stop */ };
window.onfocus = function () { /* start */ };
Also, for various reasons, the user may stop reading the page without causing it to lose focus (e.g. he gets up and walks away from the computer). In that case, you have to assume after a period of inactivity (no mouse or keyboard events) that the users' attention has left the page. The code to do that is described in another answer.
I know you've already accepted an answer but I'd personally use a combination of several of the answers mentioned here for various reasons, including:
Using mouse events only alienates users proficient at keyboard based browsing.
Using blur/focus events don't allow for users who go make a cup of tea ;-)
I'd most likely use something like the following as a guideline:
var idleTimer, userIsIdle, pollingTimer;
document.onkeydown = document.onmousemove = resetTimer;
window.onload = function () {
pollingTimer = window.setTimeout(runPollingFunction, 30000);
resetTimer();
/* IE's onblur/onfocus is buggy */
if (window.navigator.appName == "Microsoft Internet Explorer")
document.onfocusin = resetTimer,
document.onfocusout = setIdle;
else
window.onfocus = resetTimer,
window.onblur = setIdle;
}
function resetTimer() {
if (userIsIdle)
setBack();
window.clearTimeout(idleTimer);
idleTimer = window.setTimeout(setIdle, 120000); // 2 minutes of no activity
}
function setIdle() {
userIsIdle = true;
window.clearTimeout(pollingTimer); // Clear the timer that initiates polling
window.clearTimeout(setIdle);
}
function setBack() {
userIsIdle = false;
runPollingFunction(); // call the polling function to instantly update page
pollingTimer = window.setTimeout(runPollingFunction, 300000);
}
You can listen for mousemove and keypress events. If one of those has been fired in the past X seconds, then continue with your updating. Otherwise, don't update.
It's not perfect, but I think it's the best you can do with pure JS.
If you want to venture into the world of Flash, Silverlight, or Java, you may be able to get more information from the browser.