thedom

Fantastic pictures ! Patrick, you should try a noise reducer. I use Neat Image ( http://www.neatimage.com/download.html ) and I am really glad with it. I made a test with one of your picture (see files attached - before & after : noise reducer, contrast increased then image sharpened) and I think the result is good even if you loose details. What do you think ?

Morasoft, To be honest I only read the description of Universal Maps Downloader v4.4, I didn't try it but I don't think that's what I'm looking for. But thanks for searching. Peter, Yes I remember JPD's demo. It was an improvement of my "GoogleEarth Zoom demo" ( http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ost&p=29116 ) If I remember correctly, JPD's result was much smoother than mine but his zoom was much smaller. To have a smooth zoom, I think you have to multiply the number of capture. But actually this time, I don't want to make a zoom. I really want to capture the Google Earth "fly to" movement (zoom and pan combined). I'm sure it's possible to have a decent result to simulate such an effect in PTE but I don't want to spend time on it. Tom, Thank you very much for mentionning FRAPS. I don't mind the watermark. I had much better result with this software than with Camtasia (about ten fps) But I guess FRAPS still needs a lot of ressources to make the capture because this time, when I record the sequence, that's Google Earth sequence that is not smooth anymore. I keep looking and will let you know if I can have a good result with FRAPS or with an other software.

I would like to capture a Google Earth sequence (a "fly" from Paris to Tokyo) to insert the animation in PTE as .jpg images. The fly in Google Earth is perfectly smooth but the capture I get with Camtasia of this "fly" is very jerky. I modified the parameters of the codec (divx) to decrease the quality of the capture, decreased the size of the area selected Camstudio will record (down to about 900x600) but the best I could get is about 2 to 3 frames per second maximum. Did anybody already had a good result with Google Earth and Camtasia (or any other screen recorder) ? Any idea on how to improve it ? Thanks for your help.

Igor wrote about one year ago (I couldn't find the post) that he would add the ability to add a border to an object in a future version. May be in next version... ?

Mike, Please post your pte project. Delete all the slides except the one with the curtain. Save the project as an archive (in PTE, File | Create Backup in ZIP). Upload the zip file somewhere. It will be much easier for us to help you if we can see your project.

Lumenlux, Maureen and David, thank you very much for your comments. Lumenlux, I know that you're not very fond of effects. Knowing that you appreciate this slideshow means a lot to me.

Very nice illusion ! I have a very sharp view of the leading and trailing edge with absolutely no ghosting following the movement on my LCD (Iiyama ProLite 82403WS), even when the "phono platter" accelerates .

Hello 8321, in the main window of PTE : - select the slide(s) you want to copy with a left click, RIGHT click, then select "Copy Slide". - RIGHT click the slide where you want to paste the slide(s) you just copied, , then select "Paste Slide". The slides copied will be pasted just BEFORE the slide you right clicked. But I guess your problem is somewhere else because CTRL+C & CTRL+V should work... And I confirm there are "Copy Slide" and "paste Slide" in the Slide Menu... You have to copy a slide first to be able to paste it.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your comments. I put a lot of efforts into this one.

Thanks Lin, your comments means a lot to me. Actually, this show is "only" an enhancement of an effect I made about two years ago : http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7193 But at this time, the mask feature was not available and the magnifying glass effect was actually totally fake.

Hi Peter, I guess the advantage you see to be able to import a .psd file would be to be able to manipulate each layer in PTE and apply PZR independtly to each of them, right ? What you can do is to save in PS each layer as an independant image file (.png or .jpg) and add all this files in PTE. Unless you have something else in mind ?

Here is a new slideshow of Libya. [ 8 minutes and 17 seconds - 35.73Mb ]

A technical masterpiece ! The dodecahedron is absolutely amazing but I think my favorite part is the ballet (thumbnails of your grandchildren ?) Congratulations.

Hello TT, The size of your mask should be the resolution of your screen (I guess 1920x1200 or less). The size of the cut out in this mask have to respect the ratio of your pictures (3:2 if I refer to your "Beamish" slideshow). But what you could do is to use a PTE mask (mask container). You can use a rectangular mask too display your pictures "through" it. It depends on what you're more confortable with. See project attached to see what I mean : - slide 1 : Mask done in Photoshop - slide 2 : use of a mask container The result is about the same but the mask container gives you much more flexibility. If you finally decide you want the image to be bigger, with solution 2, it will take you seconds. Project1_May16_2009_12_37_25.zip

Xaver, thank you for the link. I respect the opinions expressed by the members in this topic you mentionned but may be it's not the opinion of the majority. I remember a lot of topics where people asked for basic audio functionalities too. IMHO, the idea of Stéphane (and Tom in the other topic he gave just above) is not to implement all the features of a photo editor but only a few things for more flexibility. And of course, not right away in v5.7 but in a future version.

I can understand that somebody do not find this feature interesting and won't use it even if available. But why would somebody refuse to implement it if it's feasible ? Xaver, if you can find it, could you give the url of the topic where forum members express such an opinion ? We have to keep in mind that only 3 or 4 years ago, a lot of people were against PZR in PTE...

I totally support this suggestion. And I add the ability to apply an amount of blur on an object...

Thanks Chris. I completely agree with you when you say that movement adds life. But of course, the animation must be appropriate.

Here is my last attempt to make the well known magnifying glass effect. This effect is applied to various insects. [ 3 minutes and 30 seconds - 11.12Mb ] Download this slideshow here Comments welcome.

I finally succeeded to make it work. I don't know exactly what I made wrong. Anyway with last version of PTE (5.6.3) and last version of ShowVideoPTE, there is no problem under Vista. For my need, I don't want the slideshow to become inactive when videos play to let the music of the PTE slideshow to play continiously over the videos. That's why I UNticked this option (in Project Options | Main tab). And it works perfectly. I have a final issue with the taskbar though. It appears temporarily during half a second before and after each video. Is there a way to fix this ? UPDATE : actually, after reading nobeefstu's post (just above ! ) , I ran HideShowTB on slide 2 (instead of 1) and it works. The only problem is that the whole taskbar does not disappear. The windows "Start" button on the left of the taskbar continue to appear temporarily.

Wideangle and I can't make it work. Could anybody post a complete project including the exe (and the zipped PTE project), ShowVideoPTE and the avi file to verify if we made something wrong or if there is a real problem with some PC ? Thanks.

Same problem with XP too wideangle. I created a folder and put "ShowVideoPTE.exe" in it. I created a subfolder named "Movies", put my video in it and rename it 1.avi. In PTE, I created a slide that uses "Run External application" with "ShowVideoPTE.exe 1 2" as parameter. But no video played when running the slideshow.... Am I doing something wrong ?

Thank you for your comments. I tried to be imaginative with this slideshow but I can perfectly undestand some will prefer still images. As you explained it morturm, the animation slides are like a pre-dinner drink (cheers ! ) and I tried to make somethig very graphic like a modern painting. And the still image that come after each animation slide is here to give you time to have a closer look.

Same problem here. I am under Vista. I will try the same project and same files with XP on a laptop and will let you know how it works...

I think it's a very good idea and very appropriate to add pictures on your main page... for a slideshow software. Igor, can you tell us more about version 5.7 or is it premature ?