Do you turn OFF Hardware acceleration

[Ian]

To re-iterate some of the points from above, I frequently make use of menus for club/federation/festival events, and ALWAYS turn off hardware acceleration to prevent system resource issues. The menus are used to launch a variety of shows from different people, made with a variety of software and different versions of PTE. I acknowledge that it would be possible to use v4 to make the menu instead, but then you are stuck with the old grey buttons rather than the current designs.

I also use a a short animated sequence as an intro show, culminating with a page of buttons to launch the sequences. Because of the need to disable the hardware acceleration, I make the animated show with the acceleration turned on, which then quits to reveal an identical 'last page' with just the buttons, made with acceleration turned off.

I accept that the majority of users are only catering for their own shows and are therefore in complete control, but for the few who use PTE to run festival events removing the on/off option would be a retrograde step.

Ian

[xahu34]

... I acknowledge that it would be possible to use v4 to make the menu instead, but then you are stuck with the old grey buttons rather than the current designs ...

Ian,

Presently you could work with v5.6. But (as I've mentioned above) the question arises if v5.6 (or v4.9) will run with future operating systems. So, I would like to see some menu/sequencing functionality for external applications inside the new versions.

Regards,

Xaver

[Guest Yachtsman1]

If like me you were unsure of the effect of turning off Hardware Acceleration, there is a brief explanation here

http://www.deskshare.com/Resources/articles/dmc_turnoffhardwareacceleration.aspx

Yachtsman1

[nobeefstu]

If like me you were unsure of the effect of turning off Hardware Acceleration, there is a brief explanation here

http://www.deskshare.com/Resources/articles/dmc_turnoffhardwareacceleration.aspx

Yachtsman1

Eric,

I think I somewhat understand your possible concerns. However ... PTE does not TURN-OFF your PCs Hardware Acceleration and in no way changes any of its video/system settings. The D3D Hardware Acceleration checkbox in PTE options just enables or disables the PTE show from using your PCs Hardware Acceleration if available.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric,

I think I somewhat understand your possible concerns. However ... PTE does not TURN-OFF your PCs Hardware Acceleration and in no way changes any of its video/system settings. The D3D Hardware Acceleration checkbox in PTE options just enables or disables the PTE show from using your PCs Hardware Acceleration if available.

Hi

Last night at our camera club meeting (first of the season) members show what they have been up to in the summer, I was the only one with an AV show of suitable length so I showed it via the clubs laptop & projector, it was horrendous, the scrolling text was jerky and other basic annimation not much better.

In view of my lack of knowledge on the subject I did a test using the same show with HA turned off via the project option in PTE, it was again horrendous. I switched it back on and it runs fine. However it would appear the switch off facility is not used frequently & once more the majority will get their way and it will be removed. Is this democracy??? I have voted to keep it.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1

[xahu34]

... Is this democracy??? ...

Democracy? This is the wrong term here!

I think that this poll shall give the users (who do not have anything to decide) the illusion to take part in a decision that has already been made - perhaps a decision which isn't that bad

Regards,

Xaver

[Guest Yachtsman1]

I'd call that hypocritical, you voted to keep it, which is you through & through.

Yachtsman1

[Igor]

Xaver,

This poll was intended to help us choose right decision.

I've learned now a main usage of this option, and we'll keep this option untouched.

Thanks for all comments.

[Ken Cox]

Xaver,

This poll was intended to help us choose right decision.

I've learned now a main usage of this option, and we'll keep this option untouched.

Thanks for all comments.

GLAD THE old ones won one for a change

ken

[thedom]

If I understand correctly the issue, if the ability to set Hardware Acceleration to OFF would disappear, there would be problem with menu made with PTE (with Hardware Acceleration ON by default).

I made a test tonight with last beta (v6 beta 15) and even with a very old computer, everything runs perfectly smooth and there is no flashback.

Each slideshow was made with hardware acceleration ON.

THE MENU :

First, there is a kind of black screen (ClickMe.exe) with a little animation and a "start" button to click when your audience is ready and quiet.

This button launchs the main menu (with a little animation too). This menu has a background music.

From this menu, you can launch 6 slideshows.

Actually, it launchs the same slideshow (but I don't think it's an issue).

The slideshow itself displays 2 pictures with simple pan and zoom animations.

If you press ESC during the slideshow, it returns to the beginning of the main menu (except when you exit Windows Media Player, the menu will continue where it was, no "rewind").

In main menu, if you click on the upper right image, it launchs Windows Media Player.

As I said, it's really perfect and I do not have any issue (tested on 3 computers).

Please download and test this menu (start ClickMe.exe first) and make your comments.

Do not hesitate to tell me if I missed something in the discussion.

[Ken Cox]

If I understand correctly the issue, if the ability to set Hardware Acceleration to OFF, there would be problem with menu made with PTE (with Hardware Acceleration ON by default).

I made a test tonight with last beta (v6 beta 15) and even with a very old computer, everything runs perfectly smooth and there is no flashback.

Each slideshow was made with hardware acceleration ON.

THE MENU :

First, there is a kind of black screen (ClickMe.exe) with a little animation and a "start" button to click when your audience is ready and quiet.

This button launchs the main menu (with a little animation too). This menu has a background music.

From this menu, you can launch 6 slideshows.

Actually, it launchs the same slideshow (but I don't think it's an issue).

The slideshow itself displays 2 pictures with simple pan and zoom animations.

If you press ESC during the slideshow, it returns to the beginning of the main menu (except when you exit Windows Media Player, the menu will continue where it was, no "rewind").

In main menu, if you click on the upper right image, it launchs Windows Media Player.

As I said, it's really perfect and I do not have any issue (tested on 3 computers).

Please download and test this menu (start ClickMe.exe first) and make your comments.

Do not hesitate to tell me if I missed something in the discussion.

Dom

there is a utilty on Bill's site that is the type of menu show that required hardware accelleration to be turned off on certain computers to get it to work

we dont hear of Ken Nickles any more but he has several shows still at Bill's site

ken

PTE Organizer

File Size: 23.6M

By: sknickles@sbcglob...

Download Count: 1972

Author's Notes

[thedom]

Thank you Ken, I downloaded this utility but I still don't understand what is the issue.

Still no problem with Hardware Acceleration turn ON with this project for me.

What do you mean by "required hardware accelleration to be turned off on certain computers to get it to work" ?

What are the specifications of those computers ?

And how does my menu run on your computer ?

[Ken Cox]

Thank you Ken, I downloaded this utility but I still don't understand what is the issue.

Still no problem with Hardware Acceleration turn ON with this project for me.

What do you mean by "required hardware accelleration to be turned off on certain computers to get it to work" ?

What are the specifications of those computers ?

And how does my menu run on your computer ?

DOM

I AM JUST REPORTIN what went on with other people reported on their computors when they tried to make/run menu shows -- this was an ongoing problem for years - quite likely before you came on the scene

I guess you missed Ian's reply on the subject -- in order run a competition he has to have the option available

What are the specifications of those computers ? -- how would i know the specs of computers from all over the world that compete in competitons

I check shows for their operation by request and report back to the author directly

i have not run the menu show of i mentioned for years so i cant remember

ken

[xahu34]

... Please download and test this menu (start ClickMe.exe first) and make your comments.

Do not hesitate to tell me if I missed something in the discussion ...

Which "Action on mouse click" do you use in your example for starting "Slideshow1.exe": Is it "Run slideshow ..." or "Run application ..."? If you want to combine slideshows that are created with different tools or different versions of PTE, you must choose the second option.

Regards,

Xaver

[thedom]

Thanks Xaver for your answer.

If I use "Run application ..." (instead of "Run slideshow with return..."), I have a quick flash of the windows bar at the bottom when I launch "Slideshow1.exe" from the main menu.

And the main menu doesn't start from the beginning when "Slideshow1.exe" is ended (or if I press ESC during "Slideshow1.exe").

But if turn OFF hardware Acceleration, I have EXACTLY the same problems as above.

I am sorry but I still don't understand the issue with Hardware Acceleration ON.

Ian (or somebody else), can you tell me more about the "system resource issues" you encounter with this option ON ?

[Ken Cox]

Thanks Xaver for your answer.

If I use "Run application ..." (instead of "Run slideshow with return..."), I have a quick flash of the windows bar at the bottom when I launch "Slideshow1.exe" from the main menu.

And the main menu doesn't start from the beginning when "Slideshow1.exe" is ended (or if I press ESC during "Slideshow1.exe").

But if turn OFF hardware Acceleration, I have EXACTLY the same problems as above.

I am sorry but I still don't understand the issue with Hardware Acceleration ON.

Ian (or somebody else), can you tell me more about the "system resource issues" you encounter with this option ON ?

well dom

years ago i sent you my faq file which you did not think too much of

this entry from 2007

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6604&st=0entry40885

so maybe you should use the forum search function and you will see the problems some people have had

ken

[xahu34]

... I am sorry but I still don't understand the issue with Hardware Acceleration ON ...

Hi,

I have made similar experience, no problems with the D3D mode so far. On the other hand, it is said that an application that uses D3D fullscreen mode should not call a second application which does the same. There might be situations where such a constellation will cause conflicts.

Regards,

Xaver

[thedom]

Peace and Love Ken, that's exactly my point.

I remember perfectly that the problem occured BEFORE with previous versions, I had it myself.

But TODAY, I do not have it anymore.

That's why I made a menu with v6 beta 15.

I just wanted other people to try it on their computer and report issues if there still are : http://www.thedom.fr/share/dload.php?action=file&file_id=338

As I said in my previous post, I made the test on three different computers, and even with a very old one, nor problem at all.

[CorVdK]

Hello Dominique and other participants to this discussion,

If you want to read more about previous efforts and want to go through the saga, see play multiple pte after each other pte show for camera club .

If you go there, some links are not working any more, except you still can try TEST Chain Show.zip

The only thing I can say is that with PTE version 6.0 beta 16 my show is still playing perfect with no flicker or other interruptions what so ever.

My configuration:

HP Pavilion m8180.be

Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz

Physical Memory: 3070 MB

DirectX: 10.0

Hard disk total: + 4 TB

Video card: NVidia Geforce 8600 GT 512 MB ram VGA DVI

Monitor: HP f2105 Wide Flat Panel Monitor - res.: 1680 x 1050

VISTA Home Premium

I also tried the demo on a XP machine, Pentium 4 2 GHz, Memory: 1 MB, Nvidia Geforce Graphics n card with 128 MB.

Greetings,

Cor

[CorVdK]

Hello thedom,

I tried your demo, absolutely perfect, no flickering, no hickups, very smooth with hardware acceleration on.

5 shows are started and the third slide from right started the Media Player, right?

Greetings,

Cor

[CorVdK]

Which "Action on mouse click" do you use in your example for starting "Slideshow1.exe": Is it "Run slideshow ..." or "Run application ..."? If you want to combine slideshows that are created with different tools or different versions of PTE, you must choose the second option.

Regards,

Xaver

Hello Xaver,

I have tried in our club evenings to run the shows of m-objects and ProShow Producer, via PTE <Customize Slide> <Main> "Advanced Options" path to the "Run external application" with no problems.

As long as it is an "EXE" everything is working fine.

Greetings,

Cor

[thedom]

If you go there, some links are not working any more, except you still can try TEST Chain Show.zip

The only thing I can say is that with PTE version 6.0 beta 16 my show is still playing perfect with no flicker or other interruptions what so ever.

I just tried your project with v6 beta 16 too.

It plays perfectly for me.

I tried your demo, absolutely perfect, no flickering, no hickups, very smooth with hardware acceleration on.

5 shows are started and the third slide from right started the Media Player, right?

Thank you for your test.

Yes, the third slide at the bottom starts Windows Media Player.

I think it would be very interesting to have feedback from other users in order for Igor to take the right decision.

If some have problem, the option has to be kept, no discussion.

But if there is no more issue, why not remove it if this is going to make it easier for Igor and Team to maintain the code and developp new features ?

=> Please try this menu : http://www.thedom.fr/share/dload.php?action=file&file_id=338

I have tried in our club evenings to run the shows of m-objects and ProShow Producer, via PTE "Action on mouse click" with no problems. To start the shows I have used "Run external application...". As long as it is an "EXE" everything is working fine.

Very interesting to know.

I am sure a lot of members will be glad to know that too.

Thank you for the information Cor.

[goddi]

Greetings,

I would like to understand better what the mouseover states about Hardware Acceleration when it says "In case of old video card, slide show will use software mode automatically." What does "software mode" mean? Does the "software mode" vary from PC to PC?

Thanks... Gary

=====================

You know that Project options contains an option "Hardware acceleration (Direct3D)" which is turned on by default. This option came with v5.0 two years ago.

[Ken Cox]

Greetings,

I would like to understand better what the mouseover states about Hardware Acceleration when it says "In case of old video card, slide show will use software mode automatically." What does "software mode" mean? Does the "software mode" vary from PC to PC?

Thanks... Gary

=====================

Dom

Igor has already made the decision to leave it functional -- he made the decision after Ian made his posting -- guess you missed that entry as well

ken

[CorVdK]

Greetings,

I would like to understand better what the mouseover states about Hardware Acceleration when it says "In case of old video card, slide show will use software mode automatically." What does "software mode" mean? Does the "software mode" vary from PC to PC?

Thanks... Gary

=====================

Hello Gary,

Yes, it's a lot about the graphics card. You can read some info from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows operating systems (Windows 95 and above) and in the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems. Direct3D is used to render three dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D also allows applications to run fullscreen instead of embedded in a window, though they can still run in a window if programmed for that feature. Direct3D uses hardware acceleration if it is available on the graphics card, allowing for hardware acceleration of the entire 3D rendering pipeline or even only partial acceleration. Direct3D exposes the advanced graphics capabilities of 3D graphics hardware, including z-buffering, anti-aliasing, alpha blending, mipmapping, atmospheric effects, and perspective-correct texture mapping. Integration with other DirectX technologies enables Direct3D to deliver such features as video mapping, hardware 3D rendering in 2D overlay planes, and even sprites, providing the use of 2D and 3D graphics in interactive media titles.Direct3D is a 3D API. That is, it contains many commands for 3D rendering; however, since version 8, Direct3D has superseded the old DirectDraw framework and also taken responsibility for the rendering of 2D graphics.^[1] Microsoft strives to continually update Direct3D to support the latest technology available on 3D graphics cards. Direct3D offers full vertex software emulation but no pixel software emulation for features not available in hardware. For example, if software programmed using Direct3D requires pixel shaders and the video card on the user's computer does not support that feature, Direct3D will not emulate it, although it will compute and render the polygons and textures of the 3D models, albeit at a usually degraded quality and performance compared to the hardware equivalent. The API does include a Reference Rasterizer (or REF device), which emulates a generic graphics card in software, although it is too slow for most real-time 3D applications and is typically only used for debugging. A new real-time software rasterizer, WARP, designed to emulate complete feature set of Direct3D 10.1, will be included with Windows 7; its performance is said to be on par with lower-end 3D cards.

Direct3D's main competitor is OpenGL.

And about the History too (see link History).

Greetings,

Cor