Trio reflection

[thedom]

Please download the exe file of this new demo.

-

I started with an animation and declined it in 10 different ways.

Please note that everything was done within PTE, except I had to flip the images verticaly for the reflection and I had to make it in Photoshop because PTE doesn't offer this feature (yet ?).

I worked a lot on the soundtrack and included sound effects to enhance the animation.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

Exceptional! I love it!

Lin

[morasoft]

Hi TheDom:

Wonderful from start to finish. You get unexpected things with picturesToExe.

Will be this a template in the Shop?

morasoft.

[thedom]

Lin, Morasoft, thank you for your comment.

Yes, there will be a template in the Shop.

I really looked after the details in this demo : reflection on the ground, white reflection on the image itself (left upper corner), light shadow at the bottom of each picture, color background (done in PTE and very easy to change the colors to fit the picture), ...

I am really glad I succeeded to make something you like.

[Barry Beckham]

Dom

This is good work, but the transition as each image appears flickers quite a lot on my PC. It's probably better described as a pulsed effect. It looks as though too much is going on for my PC to cope with the transition.

A Quad Core 2.66Ghz

4 Gig of Ram

Nvidia Gforce 8600GT graphics

It runs everything else OK

[8321]

Hello Dom,

A great example of what can be done with PTE.

I scored it down because of the 'jitter' in the transitions. My PC runs my own PTEs without any problem so I think the PC is strong enough. Is it because you compressed the show for easier distribution or are the slides very big?

Jeff

[Lin Evans]

Hi Guys (Jeff, Barry),

I think something else must be going on. The show runs butter smooth on the two systems I've tried it on which are configured as follows:

1. Gateway with Pentium 4 running at 3.0 GHz with 2 gig of RAM, Direct x 9.06 and an nVidia 8600 GT (over-clocked) with 512 Meg video RAM. The display is 1280x1024 32 bit.

2. Dell Inspiron with Core 2 Duo running at 2.33 GHz with 4 gig of RAM, Direct x 9.06 and an nVidia 8800GT with 512 Meg RAM. The display is 1024x768 32 bit.

The second system I would expect to be able to run about anything smoothly, but the first one has less resources than your computer Barry and about the same video card except being overclocked which really shouldn't make that much difference. I'm wondering about available system resources or possibly something running in the background?

We have had these kind of problems in the past where seemingly there are sufficient resources yet something runs fine on one system but not on another. I will try this at 1600x1200 and see how it works and get back.

Both systems using Windows XP Home Edition.

Which operating systems are you using where you have the stutter or "jitter"?

Lin

Just tested it on the 8800GT at 1600 x 1200 and was still butter smooth. I can't run the LCD monitor on the gateway at any higher resolution than the 1280 x1024 because it's maxed out there. I'm guessing the issue may be related to how the OS uses resources rather than resources themselves. It would be interesting to get others to respond and see if we could find some "pattern" to the issue.

There is one strange thing though. If I let the slideshow run without touching the spacebar to pause it, the last slide which says "animation by theDom" just flashes on screen for a picosecond. If I press the spacebar any time within the slideshow, then the last slide stays on screen for the normal duration. I'm assuming Dom is using 5.7 beta 2 and I noticed a bug with it which I emailed Igor about. In my quickie slideshow where I duplicated the images and text from the Denver Post Blog about D-Day, the first slide takes forever (maybe 10 seconds) to show in the executable, yet pops right up in the Preview. AFAIK, the Preview creates a temp exe file so something is different. Also, when the exe file is created, it is twice the size of the exe reported before creation. I'm suspicious that the issue with the "jitter" could somehow be associated with this beta rather than a true problem with either the resources or show.

[8321]

Hope this helps find a 'pattern'.

I have XP Professional SP3

Intel Core 2 Duo

E7200 @ 2.53 GHz

2 GB RAM

Intel G33/G31 Express Chipset Family

Monitor LG Flatron L1950 SQ at 1280x960.

Nothing except Firefox that I know of was running (i.e. no Photoshop, no PTE).

I can't be sure but I think the sound is jittering too.

Say if you want me to try another screen resolution?

Jeff

[Barry Beckham]

The stutter is on every image using Vista business

I am running a large monitor 27in Dell

[thedom]

Hi, thank you for your comments and tests.

Barry, what is the resolution of you screen, 1920x1200 ?

As first explanation about the jitter, each slide includes 40 objects and there are 4 Mask Containers (3 of them are zooming/panning).

It is certainly a very big stress for cpu/graphic card.

And Lin is right, I used 5.7 beta 2.

I will make this demo with 5.6.4 to compare if there is a difference...

[8321]

Can you please make with 5.6.000000?

Jeff

[Barry Beckham]

Yes, my resolution is 1920*1200

[Ken Cox]

SMOOTH AT MY END AS WELL

AND

i was downloading at the same time at 250 kb/sec

screen res at 1024/768

pent 4 2.8 ghz

2 gb ram

256 mb ati 9600 all in wonder board

xp sp3

4 gb page file fixed size on separate drive

ken

[thedom]

I rebuild this demo with 5.6.4.

In the original exe (made with 5.7 beta 2), I used the internal editor for Masks.

In this new demo (made with 5.6.4), I used .png masks made in Photoshop.

Next I generated two exe :

I created the first exe with 5.6.4.

Then I opened the .pte project with 5.7b2 and created an other exe without changing anything in the pte project.

The first thing I noticed is the size of the exe :

- 7.77Mb for v5.6.4,

- 8.61Mb for v5.7b2.

I presume the explanation is that the core of pte 5.7b2 is modified and maybe the exe already includes the embryo of Mac output and new features which are not included in current beta release yet...

On my computer*, maybe the exe generated with 5.6.4 is a little bit more smooth, but if it is, it's really negligible.

Anyway, if you have time, could you download the new archive (same link) which includes now the two exe and tell me :

- if the result is smoother than the first I released yesterday (meaning that for complex animations, it would be preferable to use an external photo editor than the internal PTE mask editor)

- if there is a difference between the two exe included in the archive (meaning a version of pte is more optimized than the other)

Thank you.

* Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q9300 2.50 Ghz

NVidia GeForce 9600 GS

4 Go Ram

Screen resolution 1920x1200

Vista 64bits

PS : Jeff, why would you want me to use 5.6.0 ?

Anyway, sorry, I don't have this version anymore.

[Barry Beckham]

Both these last demos react exactly the same here. Quite a bad flicker/pulse that would make the template unusable for me.

[8321]

No improvement to flicker problem with both new versions. If it helps TheDom, the worst flickering is between the main examples when the screen goes momentarily black.

I will visit a friend this morning and report on what happens with totally different hardware,

Jeff

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

Both are perfectly smooth on my systems. The "only" difference which I can see is that the 5.7b2 version has for me the same issue with the last slide.

On the 5.6.4 version all slides display properly. On the 5.7b2 version the last slide just quickly "flashes" after extended black. It actually flashes so quickly that it's impossible to read the text - just a flash orange color, etc. However, if I press the space bar "anywhere" during the show to stop the show on a slide, the last slide displays normally. Something is not quite right about the beta yet.

Best regards,

Lin

I rebuild this demo with 5.6.4...............................

[thedom]

Barry, Jeff, Lin, thank you for your new tests.

Igor, if you read us, any idea about what Lin noticed with v5.7b2 ?

Barry, you could use the template if, instead of an exe, you would want to make a DVD or bluray...

Seriously, I am really wondering if there is not something wrong with your computer because it's very powerful !

Are you sure there is not an hidden application running in the back who "eats" your cpu ?

Did you try to lower the resolution to see how the demo runs ?

[Ken Cox]

STILL SMOOTH FOR ME

--5.6.4 and 5.7 b2 tested

- the quick black flash at end is there but i cant determine which is the fastest

downloading at time of test at +- 57 kb/sec

ken

[Barry Beckham]

I don't actually want to use the effect you have created, I just looked at it out of curiousity and thought I would let you know that I am unable to see it at its best. I think your animated work is very good, but it is not really my style of AV.

I don't believe I have any issues with my PC and yesterday I was working on 16 bit multi layered image files approaching 500 meg and had no problems at all. The machine plays everything else and works fine.

Don't worry about it, it was just a bit of info I thought you would want to know.

In fact it is issues like this that makes me sympathetic to software manufacturers who have to battle the same issues.

[8321]

PS : Jeff, why would you want me to use 5.6.0 ?

Anyway, sorry, I don't have this version anymore.

What I meant was, use the vanilla 5.6 release that the normal public download, not a pre-release version.

Jeff

[8321]

I will visit a friend this morning and report on what happens with totally different hardware,

Jeff

Tried another computer - same flicker problem.

I wish more members would comment to help Lin find a pattern.

Jeff

[thedom]

I don't actually want to use the effect you have created, I just looked at it out of curiousity and thought I would let you know that I am unable to see it at its best. I think your animated work is very good, but it is not really my style of AV.

I don't believe I have any issues with my PC and yesterday I was working on 16 bit multi layered image files approaching 500 meg and had no problems at all. The machine plays everything else and works fine.

Barry, I was joking when I said you could use the template to make a dvd/bluray.

I know this kind of effect is not your cup of tea. And I sincerely thank you for watching it.

I don't believe I have any issues with my PC and yesterday I was working on 16 bit multi layered image files approaching 500 meg and had no problems at all. The machine plays everything else and works fine.

That's why it's odd.

You have almost the same configuration as I have and the animation is perfectly smooth on my pc with 1920 x 1200 resolution.

I made a test with an old computer (AMD Atlhon XP 2400+, Nvidia Geforce 4 MX 420, 768 Mo RAM, screen resolution 1024x768) and except during the transitions (when the screen goes momentarily black), it's practically smooth.

Could you lower your resolution and tell us how it runs ?

What I meant was, use the vanilla 5.6 release that the normal public download, not a pre-release version.

Actually, version 5.6.4 is the "normal public download" on the Wnsoft PictureToExe page (Download trial : http://wnsoft.com/apr/index.html).

May be Igor could mention PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.6.4 (instead of 5.6) to avoid confusion.

Tried another computer - same flicker problem.

I wish more members would comment to help Lin find a pattern.

Jeff, do you know the specs of this computer (cpu, graphic card, ram, screen resolution) ?

Thanks.

[mhwarner]

I have a lot of flickering on both of the new versions. It's almost the same as those old-time movies and is especially noticeable in the transitions to/from the black. As someone else remarked, it also seems as if the music is stuttering as well, although that may actually be the music itself.

I have a Dell Inspiron I6400 with Intel Core 2 CPU T5500 @1.66 GHz with 2 GB of RAM and an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics card. Not top of the line, of course, but most other shows run pretty smoothly on it. For now, just using the laptop screen itself as I don't have access to my external monitor at the moment.

Also running XP SP2.

[thedom]

Hi mary,

Thank you for your feedback.

Actually, I am quite sure the music is not stuttering on your pc, it's the music itself that gives you this feeling.

What is the resolution of your laptop screen ?