# Flashes locked at 600 by 400 resolution?



## marvin (Apr 13, 2009)

Hi. Sorry if that's been discussed, I've searched for some info with no results...

Anyway. I noticed that flash artworks are forcibly shrunken to 600 by 400 resolution. Just... why?

All my flashes look now as they should not look, they got empty bars on their sides - they were made to fit 640 x 480 resolution and till today everything worked fine. And now it looks a bit creepy :/
And look at  twinkle-sez's flashes, they got even bigger white bars on their sides.

I hope everything will be repaired and restored as it should be...


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## creaturecorp (Apr 13, 2009)

This is happening with my own Flashes as well.


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## BadDogAnimations (Apr 14, 2009)

All my old ones are 600x400 and anything new i upload is the same..

I had a little look around and couldnt find any that arent 600x400.


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## marvin (Apr 14, 2009)

Yeah... I opened 10 or so completely random flashes from *browse *and they were all 600x400. 
I hope thats an error to be fixed, not a new Flash submissions policy :/

(or was it the trick to make Flashes creators go-active on FA forums  )


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## BadDogAnimations (Apr 14, 2009)

Oh god i didnt even think about it being a new policy. Im not going waste my time editing all my work so its 600x400 or so it masks everything that people shouldnt see. 

I doubt that its somthing like that, the file size remains the same no matter what the viewing size is so it wouldnt make any sense to do somthing like that. I has to be a glitch but the question is will they fix it, the problem with the .swf on flash animations is still out there.


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## Stratelier (Apr 14, 2009)

Strictly speaking the Flash file is not edited/modified in any way (as opposed to images when they exceed the size limit).  The <object> element that links in the Flash element is simply given a maximum size of 600x400, it is clientside scaling.  Since Flash animations are frequently scalable (vector graphics), I'm guessing this is not considered _much_ of a problem.


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## marvin (Apr 14, 2009)

Stratadrake said:


> Since Flash animations are frequently scalable (vector graphics), I'm guessing this is not considered _much_ of a problem.



Well yes and no 
 It is a problem since every flash other than having 3:2 proportions will have empty bars on its sides or top/bottom. 
Think of vertically-oriented flashes, if it was 300x600 it'll now be 200x400 with two 200px wide blank bars - one on each side.
Moreover, some flashes may have objects that move across the screen from one side to another, appearing and disappearing by scene's edges. But when the flash is scaled with wrong proportions, the object may be seen when it shouldn't be.


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## yak (Apr 14, 2009)

It is a temporary measure until I find a way to deal with php outright crashing on trying to determine the correct dimensions of a flash file. 
Black bars on the sides seemed like a less serious issue then having some flash submissions whitescreen, at that time.


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## BadDogAnimations (Apr 14, 2009)

marvin said:


> Well yes and no
> It is a problem since every flash other than having 3:2 proportions will have empty bars on its sides or top/bottom.
> Think of vertically-oriented flashes, if it was 300x600 it'll now be 200x400 with two 200px wide blank bars - one on each side.
> Moreover, some flashes may have objects that move across the screen from one side to another, appearing and disappearing by scene's edges. But when the flash is scaled with wrong proportions, the object may be seen when it shouldn't be.



I dont really have too much of a problem with all that since my animations are 700x450 and i only get a little line on the top and bottom. My main problem was that since it was scaled down all the lines in the animation now look alot thicker, so some of the smaller details are lost or are now poor quality. 

Its good that the problems are being fixed i just hope it dosent take forever. Can we get some kind of estimate on how long its going to be before its fixed?


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## Timduru (Apr 14, 2009)

yak said:


> It is a temporary measure until I find a way to deal with php outright crashing on trying to determine the correct dimensions of a flash file.
> Black bars on the sides seemed like a less serious issue then having some flash submissions whitescreen, at that time.



Maybe force it to 640x480 in the meantime, instead of 600x400 
I think 640x480 is one of the most used size, 
and it keeps the 4/3 ratio while 600x400 does not.


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## Firehazard (Apr 14, 2009)

Timduru said:


> Maybe force it to 640x480 in the meantime, instead of 600x400
> I think 640x480 is one of the most used size,
> and it keeps the 4/3 ratio while 600x400 does not.



Well, 550Ã—400 is the default, so I would guess most wind up being that size.


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## marvin (Apr 14, 2009)

The truth is... there is no default. We are talking about dimensions of an artwork, flash, but still an artwork. 
You can't say whats the default dimension value for jpg picture on FA, right? (please do not confuse it with the max value)

600x400 is as good (and bad) choice as every other. The only *right* choice, however, is letting the Flash decide what it's own size is.

I'm glad that the problem is being fixed (however I must admit I haven't ever came across the bug that yak is talking about). I only hope it won't take long. An estimate on how long its going to be would be a nice idea.


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## creaturecorp (Apr 14, 2009)

yak said:


> It is a temporary measure until I find a way to deal with php outright crashing on trying to determine the correct dimensions of a flash file.



I'm supposing you've been using a function like getimagesize(); to retrieve the dimensions. There don't seem to be any server-side alternatives. 

Maybe you could try javascript as a temporary solution: http://blog.codefidelity.com/?p=14


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## Runefox (Apr 14, 2009)

yak said:


> It is a temporary measure until I find a way to deal with php outright crashing on trying to determine the correct dimensions of a flash file.
> Black bars on the sides seemed like a less serious issue then having some flash submissions whitescreen, at that time.



...

How about actually asking the artist via input boxes at upload time what the optimal dimensions of the flash are? I don't really understand what the point in trying to determine the dimensions of a flash file would be, to be honest - There isn't really a set resolution, so at best you're just going to get an optimal viewing resolution. If you take that information from the artist at upload time, it should be trivial to size-down if necessary to a square resolution to keep the aspect proper. And if they don't specify - Well, _then_ break out the 600x400.

Sure, it's not automagical, but not everything has to be.


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## creaturecorp (Apr 14, 2009)

Runefox said:


> ...
> There isn't really a set resolution...



All .swf files have embedded dimensions that can be retrieved via PHP.


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## Firehazard (Apr 14, 2009)

marvin said:


> The truth is... there is no default. We are talking about dimensions of an artwork, flash, but still an artwork.
> You can't say whats the default dimension value for jpg picture on FA, right? (please do not confuse it with the max value)


Of course there's a default!  And most of the popular Flash series don't bother changing it.  Homestar Runner, Weebl and Bob, and nearly everybody on Newgrounds.  Probably because Flash is one of the few programs that don't prompt you for dimensions at all when you tell it to start a new file.


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## Runefox (Apr 14, 2009)

creaturecorp said:


> All .swf files have embedded dimensions that can be retrieved via PHP.





yak said:


> ...php outright crashing on trying to determine the correct dimensions of a flash file.





creaturecorp said:


> I'm supposing you've been using a function like getimagesize(); to retrieve the dimensions. There don't seem to be any server-side alternatives.



Of course.

In other words, there's meta data to be had, yes, but if it's crashing PHP to try and parse it, it might be prudent to look at an alternative way of doing it in the meantime until such a time where automated parsing, well, works. Which in this case might (actually, probably will) require a recompile of PHP.


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## marvin (Apr 15, 2009)

creaturecorp said:


> All .swf files have embedded dimensions that can be retrieved via PHP.


Yes but since there is a problem with that retrieving, I say Runefox's solution is better as for a temporary solution.

Or admins could go one step further and let the system detect flash size while submitting AND ask about it's size. There would be text boxes containing detected size and a question - is the size correct? If not, user could change it. 



Firehazard said:


> Of course there's a default!  And most of the popular Flash series don't bother changing it.  Homestar Runner, Weebl and Bob, and nearly everybody on Newgrounds.  Probably because Flash is one of the few programs that don't prompt you for dimensions at all when you tell it to start a new file.



Oh you mean _that_ kind of default!  Well I'm not much into Newgrounds, but I've been playing a lot of flash games here and there and they all come in different sizes


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## BadDogAnimations (Apr 15, 2009)

marvin said:


> Yes but since there is a problem with that retrieving, I say Runefox's solution is better as for a temporary solution.
> 
> Or admins could go one step further and let the system detect flash size while submitting AND ask about it's size. There would be text boxes containing detected size and a question - is the size correct? If not, user could change it.
> 
> Oh you mean _that_ kind of default!  Well I'm not much into Newgrounds, but I've been playing a lot of flash games here and there and they all come in different sizes



To be honest i wouldnt mind it if they just replaced the current system with Runefox's solution. All it means is that i have to write in an extra 6 numbers and if it fixes the problems i doubt that many other people would care. (That is if it would fix the current problems).

As for the "Default" thing, if you havent noticed this isnt Newground. 
On FA you cant just have a default size for flash because the submissions are different here. 
*Flash animations*, *Games* and *Movies * here are usualy not the default size because most animations are based on images and most movies and games have had the proportions modified to make them look better.


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## Runefox (Apr 15, 2009)

> Of course there's a default


Just like there's also a default in Photoshop; Other applications will have different defaults, and it's rather unreasonable to think that people won't stray from the default dimensions.


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## kshade (Apr 15, 2009)

Why not:

Manually entered dimensions
_if not entered fall back to_​php autodetect
_if that crashes fall back to_​640x480 or whatever


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## Runefox (Apr 15, 2009)

> php autodetect
> if that crashes fall back to


Unfortunately, once PHP crashes, it just outputs a white screen; You can't really do much to change that. It'll stop what it's doing altogether.


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## kshade (Apr 15, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Unfortunately, once PHP crashes, it just outputs a white screen; You can't really do much to change that. It'll stop what it's doing altogether.



I don't know too much about PHPs specialties anymore, but shouldn't a try-catch-block work? If the whole interpreter crashes, well, that'd be really bad.


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## Stratelier (Apr 16, 2009)

kshade said:


> If the whole interpreter crashes, well, that'd be really bad.


Exactly.  Fatal errors are one thing, but if the interpreter crashes outright....


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## RainbowCemetery (Apr 16, 2009)

newgrounds asks you to input the dimensions of your flash manually, i don't mind doing that


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## kshade (Apr 16, 2009)

These bug reports say that the crash is fixed in PHP 5.1.3 and it really seems to take the interpreter with it. What the...

http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=36542
http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=37643


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## Runefox (Apr 16, 2009)

Runefox said:
			
		

> Which in this case might (actually, probably will) require a recompile of PHP


Sounds like I was right on that one.


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## Kio (Apr 16, 2009)

Yeah the current embedding looks just awful.

I think the max for flashes should be like 1024 x 768. Flash doesn't show much performance over that size for complex animations anyway.
But many people also submit the drawings or simple animations in flash format. What's the max for drawings? Maybe it should be the same size for flash?

Plus allow us to access flash's 9 fullscreen feature, that'd be awesome for games and videos.


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## Runefox (Apr 16, 2009)

Kio said:


> Plus allow us to access flash's 9 fullscreen feature, that'd be awesome for games and videos.



I'm not really up on Flash in general, since I've never gotten into it, but isn't that feature only available for use with FLV's, not Flash in general?


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## creaturecorp (Apr 16, 2009)

I guess I forgot to press the submit button yesterday, but I was going to suggest using javascript as a temporary solution to detect the dimensions.

http://blog.codefidelity.com/?p=14

Also...



Runefox said:


> I'm not really up on Flash in general, since I've never gotten into it, but isn't that feature only available for use with FLV's, not Flash in general?



Fullscreen is available for any Flash provided the designer makes a button for it and the "allowFullScreen" parameter is set to true in the source code.


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## Firehazard (Apr 18, 2009)

RainbowCemetery said:


> newgrounds asks you to input the dimensions of your flash manually, i don't mind doing that



I checked this just now with a nonstandard-sized Flash, because I honestly didn't believe it at first.  Son of a biscuit, it does.  Seems to me if they, of all people, haven't implemented an autodetect by now, it must just plain not be possible.


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## creaturecorp (Apr 18, 2009)

Firehazard said:


> Seems to me if they, of all people, haven't implemented an autodetect by now, it must just plain not be possible.



If you go back and read the thread, you'd notice there are multiple ways of detecting the dimensions of a Flash movie.


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## net-cat (Apr 18, 2009)

It's actually not exceptionally difficult to discern the dimensions of a Flash file.

Unless you happen to be using PHP.

I'm working on it.


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## Runefox (Apr 18, 2009)

net-cat said:


> It's actually not exceptionally difficult to discern the dimensions of a Flash file.
> 
> Unless you happen to be using PHP.
> 
> I'm working on it.



Python to the rescue! =D


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## Ryuu Majin (Apr 23, 2009)

Stratadrake said:


> Since *Flash animations are frequently scalable (vector graphics)*, I'm guessing this is not considered *much of a problem*



Ungngng, sorry to break you, but I'm not a Flash Animator. I'm using Flash to make my comic bilingual. And you know, my comic is pretty much bitmap and not vector. So you can guess, the _LOCKED_ res of FA Flash is pretty much ruining my comic, especially because the orientation is _not_ landscape

Sample: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2036815

Yes, there is zooming option by right-clicking, but the zooming in is pretty much not 100%, making the comic have jagged outlines. And I prefer posting my comics bilingual.

I hope FA would do anything about this. I consider this as a *PROBLEM*.


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## Bokracroc (May 5, 2009)

Any progress on the matter or just some sitting on hands action?


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## creaturecorp (May 11, 2009)

http://blog.codefidelity.com/?p=14

Did anyone actually take a look at this?


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## Kio (May 17, 2009)

Wait isn't GD library able to get the dimensions of a swf file? It works for my site.



> I'm not really up on Flash in general, since I've never gotten into it, but isn't that feature only available for use with FLV's, not Flash in general?



It's not limited to FLV, everything can use Full Screen as long it is initialized by a button and allowfullscreen parameter is on.


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## yak (May 18, 2009)

Kio said:


> Wait isn't GD library able to get the dimensions of a swf file? It works for my site.


Yes, except for some cases where it doesn't, causes a fatal exception and the interpreter to dump a core. 


----

Going to be fixing this today.


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## Kio (May 21, 2009)

Weird, hasn't happened for me. So it's an unfixed php bug?

In that case I second the manual input of width and height, it should be easy just 2 extra columns in the database.

Also about fullscreen a param: <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> will be enough to let us use flash player's fullscreen capabilities.


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## Bokracroc (May 24, 2009)

_*wink wink nudge nudge*_

Do we have to threaten "Loss Of Furry Pron" viewing to actually get this fixed anytime soon?


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## Devious Bane (May 25, 2009)

I support it.
Of course the usual complaint is the stretching/shrinking factors. Hence we have background exposure(color'd bars, things that were cropped off) from the modified resolution. I don't care really.

Though, it would be a good idea to modify it as the max and the resolution should be modified to those limits with breaking the aspect ratio.
*E.g.* 300x100 flash, Ratio 3:1 -> *600*x200 result, Ratio 3:1


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## RainbowCemetery (Jul 7, 2009)

any new word on this? this issue still exists


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## yak (Jul 8, 2009)

Thanks for reminding.


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## kshade (Jul 10, 2009)

Okay, do you still have a flash file somewhere that causes the interpreter to crash and maybe a test case? 
The PHP developers claim that a crash bug was fixed in PHP 5.1.3, which version of PHP/GD are you running? 
They also say that PHP can crash when you try to get the dimensions of a corrupt flash file because too much memory is allocated (According to them that's not a Bug. WTF?).


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## Carenath (Jul 10, 2009)

kshade said:


> Okay, do you still have a flash file somewhere that causes the interpreter to crash and maybe a test case?
> The PHP developers claim that a crash bug was fixed in PHP 5.1.3, which version of PHP/GD are you running?
> They also say that PHP can crash when you try to get the dimensions of a corrupt flash file because too much memory is allocated (According to them that's not a Bug. WTF?).


Last I checked, net-cat had found a solutoin to the issue and was re-writing it in PHP to be used here.. I'll poke him about it when I see him next.


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## Bokracroc (Jul 28, 2009)

Hai.


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## Devious Bane (Jul 29, 2009)

Bokracroc said:


> Hai.


Y hallo thar.


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## Sixelsixel (Jul 29, 2009)

I hope this viewing of swf files has a happy conclusion, any artist can get bored always drawing in the same dimensions (I always initially forget to add my own black bars, usually have things drawn around the sides not meant for publication).


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## Rossyfox (Jul 29, 2009)

Sixelsixel said:


> I hope this viewing of swf files has a happy conclusion, any artist can get bored always drawing in the same dimensions (I always initially forget to add my own black bars, usually have things drawn around the sides not meant for publication).



You know Flash files can be deconstructed right?~


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## Bokracroc (Jul 30, 2009)

Sixelsixel said:


> I hope this viewing of swf files has a happy conclusion


I'd be happy with any conclusion at the moment.


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## Firehazard (Jul 30, 2009)

Rossyfox said:


> You know Flash files can be deconstructed right?~



I think the point was that these "things not meant for publication" shouldn't be visible when the viewer is just watching the cartoon normally.


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## yak (Jul 31, 2009)

I know I promised, but things have happened. I'll take care of this first as soon as I get some time.


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## marvin (Aug 11, 2009)

Well I see that things are back to normal and swf files resolutions are displayed all fine 
Thank you very much!


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