differences between using wmode transparent opaque or window for an embedded object on a webpage

Question

when embedding a Flash object with the  lt object gt  and  lt embed gt  tag  there is an attribute called wmode  It seems that most of the time  wmode  transparent  is the same as wmode  opaque  as the Flash doesn t actually have any transparent color so that the bottom HTML element is to be shown   As a result  opaque should be faster than transparent since it requires less processing for transparency  yet most of the time i see Flash object embedded with transparent instead of opaque   opaque is needed so that other HTML element won t be covered up by the Flash object  such as a menu item that pops up an extra sub-menu won t be covered up by the Flash object    By the way  is there formal documentation for wmode s opaque  transparent  and window   I was only able to find blogs that describe it but not the formal documentation   thanks

User · Answer

Opaque will cause less system strain since 'transparent' will still attempt to apply alpha. The reason you see transparent used instead is because most web authors don't pay attention to detail (ie, just copy-pasted some embed code they found).

BTW, you are correct about it being undocumented. The best I've ever seen is a blog by a guy who claims to have talked to a Macromedia developer about it. Unfortunaetly I can't find the link.

EDIT: I think it was this one: http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=e5141

User · Answer

One bizarre thing is that in Chrome   Firefox  the MOUSE LEAVE event isn t dispatched for OPAQUE and TRANSPARENT   With WINDOW it works fine  That one took some time to find out  grr      note  jediericb mentioned this bug - which is similar but doesn t mention MOUSE LEAVE

User · Answer

There s a pretty good write up in the Adobe KB s on  wmode  and other attributes with regards to their effect on presentation and performance   http   kb2 adobe com cps 127 tn 12701 html

User · Answer

also  with wmode opaque and with IE  the Flash gets the keyboard events  but also the html page receives them  so it can t be use for something like embedding a flash game  Very annoying

User · Answer

Here is some weak adobe documentation on different flash 9 wmode settings   A note of caution on wmode transparent is here in the adobe bug trac   And new for flash 10  are two new wmodes  gpu and direct  Please refer to Adobe Knowledge Base about wmode

[flash] differences between using wmode="transparent", "opaque", or "window" for an embedded object on a webpage

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