sprite_manager

sprite manager The suggestions given by others will definitely do the trick. However, I would use a completely different approach if I were going to write something like this. I would choose a range of "empty" sprites to manage and write a sprite manager. You may have similar functionality already. In these "empty" sprites, I would put a zero pixel castmember and attach the proper behavior(s). See my article on DOUG at: http://www.director-online.com/accessArticle2.cfm?id=326 That way, all the functionality is already in place (all the behavior(s) are there), but it really doesn't do anything, or show anything to the user because the cast members are "empty". When you want to allocate a channel, you call this sprite manager, it gives you back a channel, then you set the member to whatever you want. A simple sprite manager could be done like this (untested - but the right idea): --SpriteMgr property plAllocation -- property which is a list of allocations property pchLow -- channel of the first sprite to manage property pchHigh -- channel of the last sprite to manage property pnmZeroPixelMember -- number of the zero pixel cast member on new me, chLow, chHigh pchLow = chLow pchHigh = chHigh pnmZeroPixelMember = the number of member "Hide" -- a zero pixel castmember in your cast mInit(me) return me end on mInit me plAllocation = [:] repeat with ch = pchLow to pchHigh addAProp(plAllocation, ch, FALSE) -- initialize them all to false end repeat end on mAllocateChannel me -- find the first empty channel repeat with ch = chLow to chHigh fThisStatus = getAProp(plAllocation, ch) if not(fThisStatus) then -- found it! setAProp(plAllocation, ch, TRUE) -- mark it as allocated return ch end if end repeat alert("Attempting to allocate a channel, but there are none left") end on mDeallocateChannel me, whatChannel fThisStatus = getAProp(plAllocation, whatChannel) if not(fThisStatus) then alert("Trying to deallocate" && whatChannel && "but it has not been allocated") return end if setAProp(plAllocation, whatChannel, FALSE) -- set the allocation back to false sprite(whatChannel).member = pnmZeroPixelMember -- reset the graphic end Hope this helps, Irv -- Lingo / Director / Shockwave development for all occasions