I have a 1.6 Mb. swf file which is taking too long to load in the
browser. The swf has many pictures but they have been optimised .

Would like to know how this file can be optimised so that it loads in
the browser much faster.

Loading in parts is not an option because the swf needs to play
smoothly and continuously.

There is something called Flashoptimizer which claims to optimise upto
60%. Before I purchase it I would like to know if it is really good
enough.

The swf is for a movie website

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Clarification of Question by aarogya-ga on 26 Sep 2005 09:07 PDT

Would like to know if Flash Optimizer or Optimaze is good enough for
what I want to achieve. Is it recommended?

You may use Adobe "ImageReady" or "Jasc Animation 3"(?) Both of these
are useful and easy to use. You may download a trial. You may also use
LimeWire as a file sharing program to get this.

Having Limewire without an Antivirus may harm your computer and destroy it.

don't bother, the software you mentioned is only for
animation...there's little you can do about optimizing
pictures....unless you can find someone to redraw them in vector
format.

From your post, it sounds like your SWF is mostly JPG images. Best
strategy is to import the images in the size/resolution that they will
be displayed. That is, don't scale big images in Flash, they will
still be big. Also, you can force Flash to not recompress your images
(assuming you've already compressed them in a good image editor.)
Another important thing is to place the images on the root timeline in
the order that they will display, rather than forcing linkage to the
first frame and using ActionScript control. This will allow for
progressice streaming of your images, which will appear to download
faster. I don't have any experience with the so-called SWF optimizers,
so I can't recommend them.

There is a lot you can do to minimalize the image size. Flash is never
good at compressing images, so whether you are using fireworks or some
other imaging software, compress the heck out the images. Also, keep
in mind that your images might be disproportionately large compared to
what is actually being shown. Reducing the DPI and squishing the jpeg
down as much as possible is the best way I have seen. Oh yeah, no png
or bmps, those are memory hogs and never look as good.

I regularly do photoshows in flash and run into this issue all the
time. If you are using programs like Swish, zip compression will get
you your best bang for the buck...