An instance identifier called a movie IDUp to eight instances of the Movie Player can be resident simultaneously, allowing a single application to simultaneously load and play multiple movie files. Also, multiple applications can simultaneously load and play movie files, as long as the total number of movies does not exceed eight. Each Movie Player instance is associated with the following:
An instance identifier called a movie ID
A playback window called a stage window (the stage window is required only during playback)
A movie file (containing all animation and sound information)
The following illustration uses the analogy of a movie projector to show how the movie ID, stage window, and movie file all work together:
The Movie Player instance also uses the following items when playing a movie:
An off-screen buffer that allows frames to be drawn in memory before being displayed. If you're using the Movie Player functions, you can direct the Movie Player to omit the off-screen buffer, thus reducing memory requirements.
A frame index that keeps track of the current movie-frame number. The frame index references the frame displayed in the stage window.
Summary: Identifying Movie Player Instances
The following illustration shows three Movie Player instances, each with associated data objects. An mmpAnimate function call, which advances the movie one frame, is directed to the Movie Player instance with movie ID idMovie1.