My First Beta 5 Slideshow :-)

[Lin Evans]

Too Cool! This isn't a great slideshow but it does show the power of the Beta 5 by using (actually over-using) some of the great features such as multiple images on screen simultaneously with individual control over zoom, pan, rotate, transparency, etc.

I learned that it's best to drag your final keypoint close to the transition to avoid abrupt stops in motion (you can see a few of them in this show). Once the "speed control" to slow down or speed up the motion is effective in the next beta, this probably won't be necessary, but to avoid an abrupt stop to action it's easier to drag the final keypoint close to the transition at the end to make a smooth end to one slide and a nice beginning to the next.

I haven't the skills that Igor has with using transparent PNG files - I couldn't make one work yet - for scrolling text so I used the older and more crude transparent GIF, but this program rocks!!! You can make text do about anything you want this way.

Anyway - for anyone with a pretty good video card this should run very smoothly. The images are high resolution in general and average a couple megabytes each or so. Link to the zipped executable below:

http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/coyote.zip

Thanks Igor and crew - fantastic start!!!

Best regards,

Lin

[Ken Cox]

great job Lin

now make a how to tutorial for us greenhorns:)

ken

[Maureen]

Well Done Lin

Enjoyed seeing the possibilities.

Have now sussed out how to do text !

Thanks

Maureen

[Heather Forcier]

Nice job, Lin! Your presentation certainly highlights some neat possibilities!

[Igor]

I really wondered how you quickly learned all new functions of the Visual editor!

Thank you.

I many times worried that Visual editor maybe looks too difficult for first understanding. But I didn't find other variants to provide you more simple inteface for individual animation of every object.

[Ronniebootwest]

Well done Lin,

Now let me echo what Ken Cox said "Now produce a tutorial to show us greenhorns how to do it" I am having trouble even to get an image to zoom IN (zooming OUT is easy)

Ron

[Lin Evans]

great job Lin

now make a how to tutorial for us greenhorns:)

ken

Hi Ken,

It's a fun one for sure - the first stab at a tutorial is in process :-)

best regard,

Lin

Well Done Lin

Enjoyed seeing the possibilities.

Have now sussed out how to do text !

Thanks

Maureen

Hi Maureen,

Yes, incredible possibilities for this for sure!

best regards,

Lin

[Ronniebootwest]

Computer freezes when Lin's show ends!

I played the slide show first time and it worked very well, I was impressed, BUT when I played it a second time I lost the use of my mouse after it ended. The computer just 'Hung' and clicking with the mouse had no effect at all. I had to restart my computer to reset everything.

Is this a problem?

Ron

Problem now solved! please see post below.

It was all down to not having the latest DirectX version 9.0c

[Lin Evans]

Nice job, Lin! Your presentation certainly highlights some neat possibilities!

Hi Heather,

Thanks - not the most aesthetic slideshow I've done but really just wanted to try out the features - the possibilities are certainly great with these features...

best regards,

Lin

I really wondered how you quickly learned all new functions of the Visual editor!

Thank you.

I many times worried that Visual editor maybe looks too difficult for first understanding. But I didn't find other variants to provide you more simple inteface for individual animation of every object.

Hi Igor,

With great power features there will always be difficulties with eazy user interface but your approach certainly makes sense once the user undstands that everything happens between the key points. It's an excellent way to achieve this - actually I can't think of any other way you could have done it.

I'm working on a tutorial which may de-mystify the interface for those having issues - hopefully I'll have something ready (a "beta tutorial" LOL) tonight or possibly tomorrow.

It took a few hours to figure out how everything fit together but it's much easier than people will first think. Thanks so much for releasing this beta so we can all learn the process and by the time 5.0 release is ready there will be plenty of "experts" here to help new users.

Best regards,

Lin

Well done Lin,

Now let me echo what Ken Cox said "Now produce a tutorial to show us greenhorns how to do it" I am having trouble even to get an image to zoom IN (zooming OUT is easy)

Ron

LOL - as we speak it's in process! Hopefully later today or tomorrow I'll have a first stab at it!

Best regards,

Lin

Computer freezes when Lin's show ends!

I played the slide show first time and it worked very well, I was impressed, BUT when I played it a second time I lost the use of my mouse after it ended. The computer just 'Hung' and clicking with the mouse had no effect at all. I had to restart my computer to reset everything.

Is this a problem?

Ron

Hi Ron,

Hard to say - it "may" have something to do with the memory leak. I've not noticed it but will try it myself to see if I can duplicate the problem.

Best regards,

Lin

[Ronniebootwest]

Hello again Lin,

I think that I have solved the problem I had with my computer freezing.

Realised that I was using an old version of DirectX, so I followed Ken's example and updated to version 9.0c and your show run's as smooth as silk now and does not crash me out at the end.

Looking forward to seeing your tutorial now so that I can get to grips with this new version 5 of PTE.

I bet we are now going to see a prolification of slide shows on Beechbrook now - not sure if I am looking forward to that because an overuse of Pan & Zoom can really spoil a slide show. Fingers crossed eh!

Ron

[Igor]

Ron,

Thank you that you noticed it.

We'll work with this question.

[nickles]

Hello Lin:

Very nicely done..indeed!

Keep working with it and post a few more sample shows...I love your ideas and usage in this demo.

Please answer one question though....What were those darned coyotes digging up?

sincerely,

ken

[ronwil]

I have holes in my lawn but not from coyotes but urban foxes, but what they are digging up goodness knows.

I am looking forward to your tutorial Lin - it should help me immensely. My initial foray must have been like the other Ron's.

My download of version 5.0 is now in a separate folder so that it doesn't interfere with the sequence I am on at the moment.

Ron [uK]

[Igor]

I'll fix this moment in the next beta. By default v5.00 installer will suggest another folder than previous v4.xx

[JRR]

This isn't a great slideshow but it does show the power of the Beta 5 by using (actually over-using) some of the great features such as multiple images on screen simultaneously with individual control over zoom, pan, rotate, transparency, etc.

Lin

Very nice quick study.

Not quite smooth on my machine when there are two effects at the same time (GeForce 2Pro/2GDS card)

I hope everyone takes not of your "actually over-using" comment. Your show is a great demo which is what it is intended to be, but I have seen shows from the competition software where they actually did use pan or zoom on EVERY shot for no apparent reason.

Lin, what size were the images that you used. Both pixels dimensions and kb size pls

thanks

[Lin Evans]

Very nice quick study.

Not quite smooth on my machine when there are two effects at the same time (GeForce 2Pro/2GDS card)

I hope everyone takes not of your "actually over-using" comment. Your show is a great demo which is what it is intended to be, but I have seen shows from the competition software where they actually did use pan or zoom on EVERY shot for no apparent reason.

Lin, what size were the images that you used. Both pixels dimensions and kb size pls

thanks

The file dimensions were 2268x1512 pixels and the "average" jpg file size was 1.5 meg

Best regards,

Lin

Hello Lin:

Very nicely done..indeed!

Keep working with it and post a few more sample shows...I love your ideas and usage in this demo.

Please answer one question though....What were those darned coyotes digging up?

sincerely,

ken

Hi Ken,

LOL - they were trying unsuccessfully to dig out a ground squirrel which managed to evade their best efforts and live to pass on these "superior" ground squirrel genes to it's progeny!

Best regards,

Lin

[ghopkins]

Lin,

Very nice! I really enjoyed watching the new possibilities

work across my screen. The photo rendering looked very good.

I was not able to get the show to run at my office. I had tried

it on one of our sales machines, a 700 Mhz. PIII with 512 MB RAM,

and running XP Pro (SP2). I could hear the audio, but no visual at all.

At home I run a 3.6 Ghz. w/HT- P4 with 1 GB RAM and 160 GB Hard Disk.

No problems there. ;o)

Thanks again. I can't wait to see what the final release of PTE will be like,

if this is beta. AWESOME!

The best to you,

Greg

[Lin Evans]

Lin,

Very nice! I really enjoyed watching the new possibilities

work across my screen. The photo rendering looked very good.

I was not able to get the show to run at my office. I had tried

it on one of our sales machines, a 700 Mhz. PIII with 512 MB RAM,

and running XP Pro (SP2). I could hear the audio, but no visual at all.

At home I run a 3.6 Ghz. w/HT- P4 with 1 GB RAM and 160 GB Hard Disk.

No problems there. ;o)

Thanks again. I can't wait to see what the final release of PTE will be like,

if this is beta. AWESOME!

The best to you,

Greg

Thanks Greg - the older systems probably don't have a 3D graphics card and with this beta version I think that's necessary. With the release and possibly with later beta version the shows can be run from the processor and not absolutely "require" a graphics card with hardware acceleration, etc.

The vast majority of people change computers every three years or so and it's much more likely that the older systems will be replaced sooner rather than later. LOL

Best regards,

Lin