Beta Test Our Challenge! (updated 10/7)

[Tbone]

After simply refreshing the page, and doing it again, the video sped up to proper speed, and I have the dialog options I didn't before. Odd...

So it sounds like the first time you just weren't able to load the movie fast enough, but the second time the video was already cached so it played smoothly.

Is anyone still getting an issue where the movie doesn't load at all or starts 3/4 of the way through on the newest version?

[Anamodiel]

I'm going through it again right now, and things are downloading VERY slowly. I assume that's just an issue on my end, but it took me a while to load. Once the loading was done, and AP started to talk, it kept cutting out like it wasn't streaming the audio fast enough. No text appeared after. Refreshed.

The second (soft) refresh through the audio was fine. The first movie loaded at the correct time, but it acted like I was watching a slow-downloading movie on Youtube; it would start, then stop, and then go VEEERRYYY SLOW. The entire time, AP talked at normal speed, though. Eventually, once the movie was done loading, I couldn't move forward and had to refresh.

Third (soft) refresh through, the audio was fine. The first video loaded at the back end (blinking red dot on the earth-like planet)... but was in slow motion and eventually bugged out like it did the second time. I couldn't click anything.

Fourth (soft) refresh through, I was finally able to get past the Iego description with the video playing at the correct time and loading right away. However, once I got to the description of the Angels, only one frame stayed on the screen. I don't know whether the frame is the first frame in the movie or if it's somewhere in the middle. I think it might be the first frame. Again, no text pops up because the Flash thinks the movie is still playing. Audio loaded fine. It seems like the video isn't downloading properly? It says at the bottom of my Firefox that it's "Done" loading, which means the Flash or my browser thinks it doesn't have anything else to download.

Fifth (soft) refresh through. Iego loaded fine. Got to the Angel description and the wall only showed one frame again (albeit a different one most likely further into the video). Again, at the bottom of my browser, it says the page is "Done" and it isn't transferring anymore data.

Sixth (soft) refresh through. Iego video loaded fine, but the audio stopped at "The truth about Iego goes much deeper" and no text popped up to click.

HARD refresh. Loading bar took about 25 seconds to get to 100%. After that, it says "Done" at the bottom. *fingers crossed*. Nope. Iego video looked like it began to load correctly, but hung on the picture of the moon/planets for a little too long, but then moved at a normal speed and finished about 8 seconds after it should have. AP continued to talk while the video hung, and I didn't see any text pop up after the video/audio was done.

HARD refresh. Loading bar took 45 seconds this time. Bottom said Read jwnettesheim.startlogic.com once the loading bar finished and the video wall came up. Got through Iego successfully. Video for the Angels didn't load this time, and no frames from the video showed up either. It was just a blank wall (however, the wall lightened a good bit). After the audio finished, no text popped up.

2nd refresh (soft refresh). Loading bar did not go to 100% right away like it did for the other soft refreshes, but actually took about 25 seconds to load, which means, I assume, that it downloaded more stuff on top of the stuff I downloaded the first time in the hard refresh I did before this. Iego loaded fine, but, again, it hung on the Angel video. No video was shown, although audio played. The wall, again, lightened up.

3rd refresh (soft). Loading bar went to 100% right away. Again, wall became whiter when describing the Angels, but no video was shown. No text popped up either, so I was unable to continue.

I've been telling myself for a while now that this is my last refresh, yet I keep going through it, blindly hoping that it'll just suddenly start working. I'm going to do one more hard refresh, and then call it quits.

Final hard refresh. This time the loading bar took about 80 seconds to go through. Once it got to 100 percent, it said "Done" at the bottom. During the loading sequence it was "Transferring". For a few seconds while the wall/AP was coming up, it said "Read". Iego movie loaded correctly! Angel movie didn't. No text appeared, audio loaded. Wall turned whiter.

I'm done.

[Tbone]

So it seems apparent that the text doesn't load because the flash thinks the movie is still playing. The audio is a separate mp3, and therefore will play even if the movie isn't playing properly.

I think we definitely just need to find a different way to call the movie files. Right now they are being called externally, rather than incorporated into the flash.

I'm surprised about the long loading times. It always loads very quickly for me, almost as if nothing is happening, and I haven't had any problems recently with playing the movies and progressing through.

What browser were you using, Ana?

[Tbone]

Well, I just tested it briefly and the Iego movie loaded at the wrong place for me. At least the problem appears to be consistent.

Please let us know if you have loading problems anywhere else BESIDES the movies (so if text doesn't load after just a riddle, for instance).

[Anamodiel]

Firefox on a Mac. Remember, though, I'm pulling information from servers located in the United States FROM Italy, so my download times are going to be slower than yours. Plus, my internet speeds are not as fast as yours are.

[Da6onet]

Firefox on a Mac. Remember, though, I'm pulling information from servers located in the United States FROM Italy, so my download times are going to be slower than yours. Plus, my internet speeds are not as fast as yours are.

Makes me wonder how slow the connection can be before things mess up or how slow the computer must be for that matter.

[Anamodiel]

Firefox on a Mac. Remember, though, I'm pulling information from servers located in the United States FROM Italy, so my download times are going to be slower than yours. Plus, my internet speeds are not as fast as yours are.

Makes me wonder how slow the connection can be before things mess up or how slow the computer must be for that matter.

My download speeds can't be the only issue, because, eventually, I would have been able to get past that video. I spent more than an hour going through the Beta-8, refreshing each time.

My internet is slow, yes, but it isn't that slow. There's no way that movie is over 10 MB, and it shouldn't take more than 2 minutes to load it. I'm able to stream entire episodes of TV shows online without much trouble, so this can't be the only issue.

[Shirokumo]

I had trouble, as T-Bone noted, streaming the video the first time around, though I was on my gaming computer and my net connection is 10mbps DL speed. I had nothing running in the background, and I don't believe anyone else on my network was doing anything bandwidth heavy.

It's still possible it's on my end, but those issues make me think it might be server side, wherever the Flash is calling the movies from. Having the Iego movie last 10-15 seconds longer than it should my first time around makes me shudder to think what someone on a budget computer and connection might experience... Of course, my understanding of this stuff is elementary at best, maybe one of you guys can tell me more.

[Saint]

I have been using Internet explorer as that is all I have on this computer.  Ill try the new link and see if its any better.

Findings thus far with the AP with new link:

(1) Angel chick only appears for about a second, seems like that should be longer.  On my following attempts, she only flashed for like a mili second. Happens everytime

(2) When asked to choose my poison, I chose "My Mind".  The text disapeared but nothing happened. No way to advance. I have gone through this twice and same result each time. Mind does not work.

(3) On my first attempt I saw the complete moon sequence. On my second attempt I asked "where am I" after first riddle.  On one attempt it flashed the red light sequence. On my next attempt it only went dark, then back to light with no video whatsoever. This is repeatable.

(4) After number puzzle, the Ap asks a question, the reply text is visable however it will not let me click on it.

unable to complete the challenge due to either text not clickable or text not appearing and I tried like 10 times, it doesnt seem to happen at the same place everytime.

[Shirokumo]

Just got through the first riddle on the first phase, (redemption!), but I'm in class. Yes, this is what I do instead of paying attention to Comparative Government. When I get out of here I'll run through as much as I can on both windows and OSX, in safari, chrome, and firefox on both.

Also: That should have not taken me as long as it did. Just had a flashback to that *Doh!* feeling that became all too common with the old challenge.

[Manic Velocity]

I'm getting the same video quirks that everyone else is.  Other than that, everything is working fine.

[Tbone]

Regardless of your internet speed, it shouldn't stutter or skip of freeze like it is doing. We should make sure everything is loading with the loading bar, so if you know you have a slow connection, it might take a minute or two to load.

"My mind" and "blaster" are currently disabled. Clicking on them won't do anything currently. We are still creating that content. Please choose "lightsaber".

I think if we can figure out how to safely call these videos, that will solve 90% of our issues. I'm concerned about when the text freezes or doesn't load and it's not during a movie sequence (for instance, why is the text not clickable after the number pyramid?)

These were all issues we had with the first round of beta testing. I thought most of them had been fixed for the second round, but now either they've all come back or they were never gone to begin with.

[Tbone]

Ok, I just ran through all of Part 2 and everything worked PERFECTLY for me. The movies loaded perfectly, the audio...EVERYTHING.

Also, it took me less than two seconds to load to 100%.

Am I THE ONLY ONE who can go through the whole thing with no issues? If so, what could the reason be?

I'm going to make sure my cache and everything is completely clear and then try again.

[Tbone]

Running it a second time after clearing cache and everything, it still only took me two seconds to load to 100%. the Iego video started about 4 seconds further in than the beginning. The Angels video started about 8 seconds further in than the beginning. Last time it did this, the more I refreshed, the more towards the end it started. Hmm...

Possible solutions:

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/20/861833
http://www.askapache.com/flash/preloading-caching-flv-mp3.html

[Saint]

I dunno, I tried it on more than one computer, pretty much the same result.. on both firefox and IE,  no videos.