User Guide

52 Chapter 3: Writing Scripts in Director
Core objects
This category of objects provides access to the core functionality and features available in
Director, such as the Director player engine, movie windows, sprites, sounds, and so on. They
represent the base layer through which all APIs and other object categories are accessed.
There are also a group of top-level methods and properties that enable you to access all of the core
objects directly, instead of having to traverse the object hierarchy to access a specific core object.
For a reference of the available core objects and their APIs, see Chapter 5, “Director Core
Objects,” on page 101.
Media types
This category of objects provides access to the functionality of the various media types, such as
RealMedia, DVD, Animated GIF, and so on, which are added to movies as cast members.
Literally, media types are not actually objects, but rather cast members that are of a specific type
of media. When a media type is added to a movie as a cast member, it not only inherits the
functionality of the core Member object, it also extends the Member object by providing
additional functionality that is available only to the specified media type. For example, a
RealMedia cast member has access to the Member object’s methods and properties, but it also has
additional methods and properties that are specific to RealMedia. All other media types also
exhibit this behavior.
For a reference of the available media types and their APIs, see Chapter 6, “Media Types,”
on page 119.
Scripting objects
This category of objects, also known as Xtra extensions, provides access to the functionality of the
software components, such as XML Parser, Fileio, SpeechXtra, and so on, that are installed with
Director and extend core Director functionary. The preexisting Xtra extensions provide
capabilities such as importing filters and connecting to the Internet. If you know the C
programming language, you can create your own custom Xtra extensions.
For a reference of the available scripting objects and their APIs, see Chapter 7, “Scripting
Objects,” on page 137.
3D objects
This category of objects provides access to the functionality of the cast members and text that are
used to create 3D movies.
For more information about 3D movies, see the Using Director topics in the Director Help Panel.
For a reference of the available 3D objects and their APIs, see Chapter 8, “3D Objects,”
on page 141.