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CellSpark FAQ
What phones does CellSpark run on?
The number one question but the list is too big and growing.
If a phone can run Java then it can run CellSpark. Any Midp (1.0 or 2.0) phone is supported.
If the phone runs a non-standard Java (eg. i-mode)
then it might possibly require a custom player of which cellspark
has several. For a list of Java phones try
www.jbenchmark.com.
Does CellSpark require any plugins or special embedded firmware other than Java?
No, the player is included in each midlet. This is a core feature of the product.
What are the .CSM files that CellSpark creates?
These store the animations for editing in CellSpark. When an animation is ready, select
the phone type and press the 'create' button to create the JAR file that will run in the
phone.
If the standard MIDP player works in most phones why do I need the others?
The phone specific players add non-midp features such as
sound, machiuki (screensaver) support and so on.
Can my movie be any width and height?
Yes. If the movie size is different from the phone screen size when it runs
the movie is centered over the actual screen.
Are there any size limits on the number of objects, steps, objects in a frame etc?
There are but they are too large to worry about.
What does the little key button do on the left of each timeline?
You can edit one visible layer at a time but you may well want to see what is on other
layers when you do. Pressing the key button on a timeline causes that layer to be
painted in the edit window but not edited. This is useful for lining up layer objects.
What sound formats can I use
In the basic Midp 1.0 player, none. It varies in the phone specific players with the
most common way to play sound using the JSR135 Multi-media Java extension if the
phone has it.
The japanese phones support the SMAF (.mmf) format because they use the
yamaha sound chip while the latest phones like the
Nokia series 60 phones (excluding the 7650) support Midi type 0 files which
produce fantastic sound (as does Siemens). The Nokia series 40 player supports
the Nokia short messaging ringtone (.OTT) format. In general it is best
to be careful using sampled sound file formats such as WAV because these are huge
compared with their duration and can negatively impact download size.
Should I worry about movie run-time effecting download size?
No. The length of the movie doesn't effect the size of the runnable files. Other factors such as
number of events and image files included are more influence on size.
How can I reduce the file size of images?
Image file size is the biggest headache when minimizing total midlet size. The smallest images files
are those with 256 colors or less ie. GIF images or 256 color PNG images. Once you get over 256 colors
then even JPEG images can be quite big and PNG even bigger.
How do align up the moves of several layers?
By right clicking on an event you get a menu that allows you to cut and paste moves.
make sure all the moves of the layers you want to co-ordinate start and end at the
time. Set the move for the layer that has to move furthest with one of the tools
(eg. the hand tool). Now copy the move for that event and paste it into the move
events for all the other layers. Preview to check that the moves are working as you expect.
How do I cut and paste objects on a layer
A single layer can be saved as a .csl file. Create the object or objects you want to cut and
paste, onto a layer and save that layer to a .csl file. Whenever you want to add those objects
to the current layer, just import that .csl file. A .csl file can used by different movies.
How can I make the movie go faster on a phone?
You can't however by increasing the 'resolution' number for the movie you can make something
like a move appear a little closer to the correct speed. A resolution that is too low
will make moves go very slowly. (Check the explanation of the resolution in this manual).
When I present a number of options using hotspot layers must I suspend the movie?
No. The movie can continue. A suspend is not mandatory.
Can I chnage the softbuttons during a movie?
Yes. Softbutton layers have timelines that allow you to say when a softbutton is associated
or disassociated with a button and there can as many of these layers you like in
a movie. If two layers try to set the softbutton to different values then it the last
softbutton layer that takes command of what the button does.
Can softbuttons and hotspots be used to dial telephone numbers?
Yes, this is true for the Midp2.0 and i-mode 504i players.
They can also open the phones browser with a specific internet address.
How big can my movies be?
The product allows movies to be of any size however the phone and network operator will
limits of what can be downloaded at one go. On i-mode 503i phones for instance the
initial downloaded iappli can't be bigger than 10K. Chaining movies gives fast startup
time and gets around size limitations. Note that the movie player gets downloaded
only once during a movie sequence.
What kinds of images can I use?
Different phones can support different images. All I-mode phones support GIF. I-mode 504i phones also support
JPEG. Most other phones support at least PNG images but not usually GIF.
The editor
will convert these automatically to PNG for use on standard midp 1.0 phones when creating runnable movies. When creating
browser applets PNG images will be automatically converted to JPG. It may be
worthwhile checking the specs of the phones you expect the movie to be running on.
Do I need special software to run on the server than delivers movies to phones?
No. Movies can be uploaded to a server as static files with FTP and are accessed
by phones like normal webpages, via HTTP.
Do animations have to come from a server?
No. Many phones like the Nokia allow midlets to be transferred via infrared or bluetooth.
Why don't the emulators work?
The product doesn't and can't ship with eumlators other than it's own preview function. It's up to
you to go to the appropriate manufacturers website and install the emulator you will
use. Then set the command line correctly for your emulator. The product ships with
command lines already configured for a standard Windows98 system but these may be different
for your computer depending how you install the emulator and on what operating system.
Sun's 'appletrunner' utility is installed when Java is installed and this is used as the default for running applets
from the editor.
Can I create movies for a phone that has a Java API that's not i-mode or MIDP?
Contact the author wih details of the API. It's not hard to add a new player that
works with a particular implementation of MIDP.
I added some visible stuff to a layer. Why isn't it visible when I preview?
You must define a 'show' event on the timeline before anything is visible.
I'm used to flash. How can I do tweening?
Tweening (movement between two positions) is done is the product by creating a 'Move'
event on the timeline to say the layer must move to this position by a given time.
Alternatively, if moves are too processor intensive on a slow phone, a series of
'Show' events at different positions can achieve the same thing.
Why can't I play Midi files in a Nokia series 40 phone?
Unless a Nokia phone has JSR-135 implemented, Midi can't be played by a Java midlet.
Only WAV or OTT files can be played by a Nokia series 40 phone with Midp1.0.
Can I store created files anywhere on the disk?
Yes. Remember that .csm files that chain to each other must be in the same directory.
In a sequence of movies how do I designate the first movie in the sequence?
The movie being edited when the runnable files are created is always the first movie
in a sequence. Any movie in a directory can thus be nominated as the first movie in
a sequence.
Can I predict the movie size from the CSM file size?
Yes. The runnable movie JAR size is approximately the .CSM file size plus the
player size, which for most phones is around 7k.
My text is OK in the preview but is different on the phone
CellSpark allows for definition of all the fonts defined by the Java MIDP 1.0
specification and simulates the likely sizes in the previewer. It's up
to the phone manufacturer however how these fonts are implemented and a given font can appear
different on the actual phone. The tip is to put text as far up and left as possible
with room to expand to the right.
Will the CellSpark 504i i-appli's run on later FOMA and MOVA series phones
The 504i i-appli has the parameter "ProfileVer= DoJa-2.0" set in the JAM file which
should allow it to run on newer phones.
