Image Limit in Flash/Flash Builder?

Question

So here's a fun one for you guys. Is there a limit on the number of images that can be imported into Flash or Flash Builder?

The answer, I would initially think, is no, however my current project is telling me otherwise. It started in Flash Builder. I was embedding images and etc like normal, using the standard "" code, when I noticed that when I exported the release build, some of the images would be missing. I went through all the links, everything was fine. I looked at all the images, they were all there. Eventually, I began shifting positions to see about layering issues, and I found something odd. Images that were being loaded first were also being removed after a certain number of images had been loaded. This interesting dilemma was also not tied to any specific image. Changing visible properties for different images would always cause the same results: the newest visible image would be added in, but the background image would be removed. There are a total of 65 images that may or may not need to be onscreen at any point in time. There are also 29 buttons, but they don't seem to affect anything when they're marked as visible or not. 22 images seems to be the safe number. When at 23 and 24, it seems to occasionally throw graphical errors when hovering over a button, in that all the area around the button seems to disappear to black. Upon reaching 25, the entire background image goes missing and there are more graphical errors when hovering over or clicking buttons. And for clarity's sake, these screens are not from the actual project. There copyright issues or US trade secrets or something that I could probably get fired for for showing. Either way, these images were put through FB and are exactly how they showed when I ran it.

How it should be:

https://forums.adobe.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadImage/2-6434400-644532/450-365/howitshouldlook.png

What it turned into:

https://forums.adobe.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadImage/2-6434400-644531/450-369/howitreallylooks.png

Note that there are 31 images in this example, including the gray/grey background. So yeah. Either I'm doing something wrong with how these are put into this project, or Flash Builder and Flash don't like it when you've imported over 22 images into them. I'm including Flash in this because a co-worker suggested I build it in Flash instead and do some wonky coding as a work around. Once I dragged the 20-somethingth png file in, things started to disappear. Then, when doing a ctrl-enter test, nothing is visible but a few of the upper layers, and yes, I've checked to make sure things weren't turned off/on.

I cannot give you code better than I've already stated, because that is literally all that is in the file. The Flash Builder SDK being used is 4.1, Flash version is CS 5.5. I have also fixed my .ini file so that it gets max memory without the extra crashing.

Thanks in advance guys :D

Answer 1

The issue is not the number of images, but the number of transparent pixels to render. It is a compositing optimization that has been in Flash Player since at least Flash Player 4 (though it was 8 instead of 23 at the time). As a side effect, it used to be a hacky way of creating interactive masks back when masks could only be layers in Flash Pro.

It doesn't even have to be images. If you make a movie clip and set its alpha to below 100% (but above 0%) and stack 23, whatever you put under it won't render. The number of compositing layers before giving up is ties to the SWF version you are targeting as well (for backwards compatibility).

(this was one of the first things I asked the Flash Player architect about when I worked on that team)