Playing vector based SWF files

[Greatminty]

I have 20 SWF files containing vector based animations, grabbed from a site three years ago. I had kept a very small shockwave player in the same folder and it played them, but then deleted the folder, and only managed to re-download the SWF files subsequently. Now I cannot find a program that plays them or able to convert them to a more widely used format ( avi, mp4 etc ). They won't play in the Adobe Flash Player, Gom, VLC, nor any of the alternative programs I've downloaded, and I've tried a few free online conversions as well - none convert or play. They see the SWF files, but cannot process them. I presume it's because because they are vector based. Can anyone suggest a small player, hopefully portable so I don't have to install it ? I would have attached one of the SWF files to this post, but even this system doesn't recognise them !

Thanks

[LigH.de]

SWF = "ShockWave Flash".

My suggestion: Swiff Player (you may have to install the ActiveX player for Internet Explorer from Adobe as well).

[poisondeathray]

Were they just the SWF only, or did they include accessory files ?

BTW, you can bypass filetype restrictions on this site by using an archive like zip, 7zip, rar etc...

[Greatminty]

Tried Swiff Player and installed Active X which it requested - files didn't play. As far as I can remember, there were no accessory files. I've attached one of the files compressed with a 7z extension.

[poisondeathray]

eg. mpchc, potplayer can play it

web browsers should be able too if you have flash installed, eg. firefox plays it

[Cornucopia]

Note: the Adobe "Shockwave" player, is a different beast than the Adobe "Flash" player, and so it might better accommodate vector animations and complex sprites, actions, scripting...
Or if you have access to Adobe (or Macromedia before it) Director or Flash, Flash Builder, or maybe even Flex, you could export it there (to a standard video media file, such as flv, mp4).

Sometimes the SWF is so complex, it needs to be decompiled (extract elements), which I believe Sothink can do. Then those elements can be exported separately and re-assembled in a video editor.

Sometimes you cannot export or decompile, and for those, a good option is to use Flash or Shockwave player to play it, and just do a screen recording.

Scott

[Greatminty]

Potplay couldn't play them, but MPCHC and Internet Explorer can ( after Shockwave installation and re-installing the Flash player for the fourth time ! ). Thanks. I'll now do a screen recording.

[LigH.de]

SwiffPlayer supports a few specific features of ShockWave Flash animations a generic media player may not know about, especially regarding partial loops.

[Greatminty]

That may be so LigH.de, but it's of no use to me if it won't play the 50k SWF file at all.

[LigH.de]

The file you attached to reply #4 above does not contain vector animations, but a Flash Video (600x350 px, 24 fps) wrapped in a ShockWave player container. It plays nicely on my PC in SwiffPlayer.

SwiffPlayer reports the video to require at least FlashPlayer 8. So I would guess it's either H.263 or On2 VP6 video.

I hope the attached "gecko" is indeed a vector based animation instead...

[Greatminty]

Odd that I couldn't get any of the files to play in SwiiffPlayer then. I don't have FlashPlayer installed so had to download it, meaning it was the latest version. I assumed that as none of the programs I installed wouldn't play the files, and they couldn't be converted ( through free online converters or installed programs ), it was because they were Vector based. As you say the file didn't contain any vector animations at all, that's even more strange. But at least a workaround was suggested which worked for me in the end.