The blue area in object animator

[uuderzo]

Wow. I just discovered that each object in the object animator displays a blue range on the time line when selected.

Is this range used to optimize memory consumption? I noticed that it can be adjusted and when the time cursor goes out of the blue range the object itself disappears.

I didn't notice it before. Maybe I'm so lazy I didn't notice it for months...

Greetings! Umberto

[xahu34]

.... I just discovered that each object in the object animator displays a blue range on the time line when selected.

Is this range used to optimize memory consumption? I noticed that it can be adjusted ....

I would like to know this, as well.

Regards,

Xaver

[Igor]

In fact limiting of visibility for an object by setting this time range gives same result as setting 0% opacity at the keyframe.

And both methods provide same optimization of a slide - video card doesn't render such object at this moment that actual for slow video cards.

[uuderzo]

In fact limiting of visibility for an object by setting this time range gives same result as setting 0% opacity at the keyframe.

And both methods provide same optimization of a slide - video card doesn't render such object at this moment that actual for slow video cards.

So... Limiting the "scope" and setting visibility to 0% has the same effect, as you said.

Can we consider the scope as a shortcut to avoid setting opacity or does it have more features?

I suppose that since the scope is a single range that cannot be "broken", once the picture goes

out of scope then it can be unloaded from the grahics card memory.

Are all pictures loaded before the slide starts showing or are them loaded following the "scope"

timing? Can I use the scope to fit in the graphics card memory (at different times in the same slide)

more graphics than the card can accept?

Thanks... Umberto

[Igor]

PicturesToExe always loads all Image objects of a slide to video memory ignoring time range or opacity values.

To provide non-stop animation PicturesToExe's engine preloads three slides in advance to video memory.

But if slide contains many heavy images DirectX may unload invisible image objects from video memory giving priority to visible images. It happens in case of lack of video memory and it doesn't occur instantly - DirectX needs some time to render at least one frame of a slide to a screen to determine what images are more important at a particular moment.

[uuderzo]

PicturesToExe always loads all Image objects of a slide to video memory ignoring time range or opacity values.

To provide non-stop animation PicturesToExe's engine preloads three slides in advance to video memory.

But if slide contains many heavy images DirectX may unload invisible image objects from video memory giving priority to visible images. It happens in case of lack of video memory and it doesn't occur instantly - DirectX needs some time to render at least one frame of a slide to a screen to determine what images are more important at a particular moment.

I don't want to be annoying, just want to understand better PTE behavior.

So, is time range equivalent to set picture opacity? Is it, say, redundant?

Thanks... Umberto

[Igor]

Exactly. Just two different ways leading to same result.