What is Macromedia Director 6.5 Multimedia Studio?

With version 6.5 of Director Multimedia Studio, Macromedia incorporates a handful of new features and rolls in some version 6.0 features you could previously get only by download or special order. However, the other applications that make up Multimedia Studio — Sound Edit 16, Extreme 3D, and Xrez — haven't received any important updates in the version bump.

New to Director 6.5 is support for QuickTime 3.0 and QuickTime VR. Not only does version 6.5 play back QuickTime 3.0 movies, it also allows the author to rotate and mask QuickTime movies dynamically for dramatic effects. Director 6.0 supported QuickTime VR in a very rudimentary way, but 6.5 has scriptless support for basic QuickTime VR navigation and straightforward Lingo control of more advanced navigation such as pan, tilt, field of view, and hot spot detection.

In addition to providing new file format support via QuickTime 3.0, Director 6.5 can now import a number of new document formats and use them as the basis of a Director project. You can easily import PowerPoint presentations, converting each slide in a presentation to a section of Director’s timeline authoring interface, Score. By bringing all of a presentation’s sounds, images, and text into Director, you have more sophisticated control over media elements and navigation. Director 6.5 also imports Macromedia Flash projects, bringing the versatility and space-saving benefits of vector-based graphics to Director projects and Shockwave applets. Director can control most aspects of a Flash movie, including playback, scaling, sound playback, and rotation.

While Director 6.5 doesn’t implement any major improvements to Shockwave, Macromedia has included a new Aftershock utility. Aftershock 2 provides a simple, fill-in-the-blank interface for generating HTML code, including page layout, embedding, and alternative image commands. Aftershock also allows you to create multiple settings for different browsers, making it easier to embed a shockwave file properly for both Netscape and Microsoft browsers. While Aftershock certainly isn’t a panacea for learning proper HTML coding, it is a valuable tool for multimedia authors mainly concerned with testing their movies or applets prior to deployment.

One of the most interesting add-on features introduced into Director 6.0 last year was the Save As Java command, which allowed content creators to output their Shockwave files as Java code. Save As Java is now a standard command in Director 6.5, providing support for many of Director’s most common functions and lingo commands. Save As Java automatically converts cast elements and Lingo scripts into native Java types, then attempts to compile them with the most optimized method. The Save As Java function is a definite step forward in Director’s evolution, but the feature feels half-baked. Although the code is 100 percent Java, Shockwave movies recompiled as Java applets play just over half as fast as their Shockwave progenitors or applets built from the ground up in Java. Save As Java is a nice feature, but it is useful only for the simplest of Shockwave movies or as an instructional device, providing Java examples of analogous Lingo coding.

Macromedia did an excellent job of incorporating the features Director users need now, but failed to provide hard-copy documentation for these features. Users wanting to explore Quicktime VR navigation or the Save As Java feature will need to resort to either the online help or the written documentation on the CD. For a $199 upgrade you’d expect a printed supplement.

Sanchez, Rick. (October 1998). Director 6.5 Multimedia Studio. MacAddict. (pg. 60).

Download Macromedia Director 6.5 Multimedia Studio for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.1

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver