Scaling MovieClips VS Performance

Just wondering if anyone knows for sure if scaling an animated MovieClip effects it’s playback performance?

I’m guessing it does as I would assume the renderer would need to apply the scaling to any vector graphics on every frame. I’m asking specifically from a non-uniform scale where you only scale a MovieClip along one axis.

It does. Think about it this way: if you scale an mc up, there are more pixels. Rendering more pixels means a need for more power. Easy

I’m not necessarily referring to just scaling up, I’m asking for a non-uniform scale like halving a MovieClip’s width where the aspect ratio is changed from it’s original dimensions. Was just wondering if anyone knew of any links where this has been tested.

I’m not necessarily referring to just scaling up, I’m asking for a non-uniform scale like halving a MovieClip’s width where the aspect ratio is changed from it’s original dimensions. Was just wondering if anyone knew of any links where this has been tested.

Becomes slow only if your MC has bitmaps in it. Flash uses vector graphics,which are fast. Even if you don’t scale up, fash stills redrawn the next animated frame.

Becomes slow only if your MC has bitmaps in it. Flash uses vector graphics,which are fast. Even if you don’t scale up, fash stills redrawn the next animated frame.

Vectors can actually be MORE processor-intensive which is why Flash has a cacheAsBitmap option. They’re not always more CPU -intensive – it depends on the complexity of the vectors. I understand the logic you’re using – a vector can use much less information to describe graphics, so you’d think the CPU would have to work less to render it, but keep in mind that it has to figure out every pixel either way, and vectors are just mathematical equations that describe how to render the pixels. There are algorithms Flash can use with bitmaps that can make it easier on the rendering engine too.

In the end, I’d recommend doing your own testing. Sometimes vectors may perform better, but (especially if the vectors overlap and/or are semi-transparent) bitmaps may be a better choice.

As far as scaling MovieClips and how it affects performance, the biggest factor is just how many pixels must be re-rendered on each frame (areas of change). The bigger the area, the more work for the CPU , so scaling up will hurt more than scaling down.