PicturesToExe v5.00 beta #2

[Lin Evans]

Another suggestion which would greatly simplify doing tasks such as JP did with the falling text would be the ability to "group objects" so they could be manipulated as a group. Then one could space independent letters, etc., and select two or more (all) as a group and move or size them independently of the rest of the image. Like a select all except selective grouping. I notice I can hold the ctrl key and place a rectangle around any combination but they can't be moved or manipulated as a group.

Lin

[Mike Reed]

Just to report that Igor's demo of v5 runs well on a HP Pavillion dv5094EA Lap top with just a hint (no more of a stutter) the graphics on that machine are driven by a ATI MobilityRadeon Xpress 200 series card. However on my desk top using a Matrox Millenium G400 AGP (twin monitor) it does not want to run at all and indeed locks up the whole system. Just thought you would like to know!

[alrobin]

Igor, I would like to second Lin's suggestions.

Lin, in the meantime, could you create a special PTE project file, and save images, with the special effects you want to duplicate in future, in this special "template" PTE show, which could then be opened and the images copied over to the new show as required?

[Lin Evans]

Igor, I would like to second Lin's suggestions.

Lin, in the meantime, could you create a special PTE project file, and save images, with the special effects you want to duplicate in future, in this special "template" PTE show, which could then be opened and the images copied over to the new show as required?

Excellent suggestion, Al!

That would definitely be easier than chasing down each different show to retrieve effects.

Best regards,

Lin

[JPD]

Another suggestion which would greatly simplify doing tasks such as JP did with the falling text would be the ability to "group objects" so they could be manipulated as a group

I am not sure to unterstand the problem, but all the objects of one level can be manipulate as a group when you work on the parent, it's what I did in my test.

You find here an exemple to have Blur function only during the zoom and not before or after the zoom, so the picture is alway correct and there is no Moire during the zoom

[Igor]

Mike,

It' s a bug in new drivers from Matrox. They just disabled very important function in their new drivers. Please install previous more old drivers. Unfortunately Matrox has very bad drivers for Direct 3D.

Lin,

It's a very good idea! Thank you.

We need time to think and discuss this idea - I thought that we could create manager of templates for quick adding of your Pan/Zoom effects. Now we need to concentrate on current important problems and re-activate "old" PTE functions. After this, we'll work with your idea.

[Lin Evans]

I am not sure to unterstand the problem, but all the objects of one level can be manipulate as a group when you work on the parent, it's what I did in my test.

Hi JP,

Let's say you wanted to move two letters of a word consisting of six separate png files. You can easily move all six as objects of one level, but when you want to separate them and only act on two or three, etc., without affecting the spacing or the others, if you could select only the two which you wanted to manipulate, then assign them as a "group" consisting of two elements, you could then manipulate them in any way without changing the relationship between the remaining four.

In desktop publishing software, for example, you have the ability to "group" separate text blocks or image blocks and move them as a group then "lock" their position. Also you can select "all" as with P2E and manipulate the entire "page" - but being able to choose elements on the page and assign them to a "group" which can be manipulated independent of the others makes doing some manipulations much easier.

Best regards,

Lin

[Igor]

I forgot to say about grouping of objects.

Just add "Frame" object and insert new image to this frame object. Now if you move this frame, inserted objects will be moved too. If you rotate or resize frame, inserted objects will be moved, too.

p.s. by the way, did you see new About window in version 5.00?

[JPD]

I hope that I understand what you mean. I just finish a test :

First I put a transparent file as image level 1 (4px BMP file)

Under it I put for the second level the same file 3 times.

Under the 1st second level file, I put 3 letters (png file) with option original and made some effect on each letter (pan/zoom/rotate)

I did the same thing for the 2 others 2nd level, 2 letters and 3 letters.

After I put effect on the second level picture (4px BMP) zoom, rotate... and the effect is also put one the letter by this way

At the end, I put also several effects on the first level picture and all the effects run at the same time and this test run very well.

[Lin Evans]

I forgot to say about grouping of objects.

Just add "Frame" object and insert new image to this frame object. Now if you move this frame, inserted objects will be moved too. If you rotate or resize frame, inserted objects will be moved, too.

p.s. by the way, did you see new About window in version 5.00?

Ah, the new About window is very nice! Good information and good to recognize all those who worked very hard to help make this a success!!

You are miles ahead of us! Thanks - that will be a great help - I'm going now to look at it. Yes, as per your earlier response - by all means the most important thing is to get version five debugged and launched. My suggestions are for thinking about in later release.

Best regards,

Lin

[JPD]

p.s. by the way, did you see new About window in version 5.00?

Yes Igor, but my name isn't correct :-(

Dollangère become DollangÄre

[Igor]

Jean-Pierre,

Sorry! Please send me your name in Word file.

[Lin Evans]

I forgot to say about grouping of objects.

Just add "Frame" object and insert new image to this frame object. Now if you move this frame, inserted objects will be moved too. If you rotate or resize frame, inserted objects will be moved, too.

p.s. by the way, did you see new About window in version 5.00?

I just tried it - works "PERFECTLY" THANK YOU, THAN YOU -

For those who haven't tried this. IT's the little "Add Rectangle" at the top of the screen next to "add image".

Just draw a ractangle on your screen over the base image. Assign the relationship when you "add" images you want to group under the "rectangle" - in other words click on the "rectangle" then add the files you wish inside. The rectangle will have a "blue color" on your screen. Set the transparency for the rectangle to "0" at the beginning (first keypoint) then anything you do with the rectangle will be reflected also in the objects within. If you zoom the rectangle or rotate it, etc., the objects within will maintain their respective distances and relationships but will react to the zoom by enlarging or shrinking in size. They will also react by rotation or other animation controls.

You can also select the objects within the rectangle and change their individual relationships by assigning independent actions to each - very cool!

Best regards,

Lin

[JPD]

Jean-Pierre,

Sorry! Please send me your name in Word file.

Don't worry, Igor, that's no matter for me, I suppose you have better to do

[JPD]

Just draw a ractangle on your screen over the base image

The reason for which I don't use the rectangle is when I put inside an object with Original option, it has not the original size but is generally bigger than it real size. Maybe I made a mistake, but with an external file I haven't the problem.

Does your object has the right size when you put them in a rectangle?

[Lin Evans]

The reason for which I don't use the rectangle is when I put inside an object with Original option, it has not the original size but is generally bigger than it real size. Maybe I made a mistake, but with an external file I haven't the problem.

Does your object has the right size when you put them in a rectangle?

No, the size of the object placed in the rectangle changes according to the size of the rectangle you have drawn. There is probably some relationship based on the original size so that if we could constrain the rectangle to a fixed size then the object placed in it would reflect its original size as well. Perhaps Igor can shed more light on this?

All objects within the rectangle will change size proportionally so that if you size them once they are in the rectangle as individual elements then resize the rectangle, the objects within will also change size in unison. At present the "secret" then would be to place all your objects in the rectangle before without changing their individual sizes. They would then keep in proper proportion to one another and you can size them as a "group" to suit the zoom of the background picture. This would make it very eazy to achieve the effect of diminishing point (like looking down a railroad track) with your text as you did in your example. You change the size of each letter of the word inside the rectangle, then when you zoom the rectangle everything stays proportional but the entire "word" just gets larger or smaller.

Best regards,

Lin

[jevans]

I am trying beta#2 and have some questions which I hope are not too stupid.

1. I have downloaded a sample show by JPD who uses the object window. I note that the tick box in the main window which, on previous versions of PTE you use to select whether the slide or the object is viewed is missing. Is this just a feature that has yet to be added?

2. In the test show done by Igor, in the objects window there appears to be only one keypoint at the beginning. I thought you had to have at least two points.

3. In the objects window, if you add a single slide, the timeline at the bottom of the screen shows the time of the selected slide plus the time of the transition for the next slide. If you press play, the cursor continues over the transition effect of the next slide.

Jeff

[alrobin]

1. I have downloaded a sample show by JPD who uses the object window. I note that the tick box in the main window which, on previous versions of PTE you use to select whether the slide or the object is viewed is missing. Is this just a feature that has yet to be added?

You can insert a black slide if you want a blank. Igor probably hasn't gotten around to implementing the "blank" image feature yet in v. 5.0.

2. In the test show done by Igor, in the objects window there appears to be only one keypoint at the beginning. I thought you had to have at least two points.

If you leave it with only one, then the image will persist over the time to the end of the section indicated by the vertical blue lines. If you move the vertical lines toward each other, then the object will appear and disappear at the times indicated. You only need to add another keypoint if you want the object image to change at some point.

3. In the objects window, if you add a single slide, the timeline at the bottom of the screen shows the time of the selected slide plus the time of the transition for the next slide. If you press play, the cursor continues over the transition effect of the next slide.

This is so that one can merge the end of the object action with the next transition.

[sanewcomb]

I know this is beta software, but wanted to remind people they should

exercise care in running it and who they send beta made slideshows to.

Beta #2 caused critical errors on two of my machines.

ERROR #1

Frozen mouse while running P2E 5.0 beta #2 and editing a slideshow.

This was on an Win XP SP 1 machine, Athlon XP 2000, 1 GB RAM, and

GForce 6600 GT w/128 MB. Mouse Pointer was frozen on screen and all

mouse functions were lost, even after P2E was closed. Mouse function

did not return until reboot. This has never happened on this machine in

3 years of use, including writing code.

ERROR #2

All slideshows created by either beta program crash on a Pentium II

with 256MB RAM running MS Windows 98 4.10.1998 with a NVidia GeForce4

Ti 4200 video card. I don't know if ver. 5 is suppose to run on Win 9x, but

I couldn't find any OS limitations and ver 4 works on Win 9x.

Details of these errors have been emailed to the developers.

I am as impressed as others with how well the program/engine performs

the pan and zoom effect. As Igor has written, it takes advantage of calls

to the video GPU and/or video subsystem directly like video games (I

apologize if the terminology is incorrect). But this also makes errors

potentially catastrophic, bringing down the entire OS. So take care in

running the betas and avoid doing it when running important tasks (other

than beta testing P2E 5.0

I wish the best of luck to Igor and his team in eliminiting all bugs and

making the code not only leak tight, but "air tight"! I'll continue sending

errors that I see to further this effort.

Steve

P.S. On a related note, I would think this approach will lead to a

narrower target market. Not only are other OSs excluded and a steeper

hardware requirement, but I think it will be difficult to make AVI files

from these slideshows. The advantages gained by making direct calls

to the video system are not easily captured by video movie standards.

Video games require running the game engine to replicate game demos

or "game movies". But Igor & Co. has surprised everyone with this effort so

far. Look forward to more surprises.

[Lin Evans]

snip

Steve

P.S. On a related note, I would think this approach will lead to a

narrower target market. Not only are other OSs excluded and a steeper

hardware requirement, but I think it will be difficult to make AVI files

from these slideshows. The advantages gained by making direct calls

to the video system are not easily captured by video movie standards.

Video games require running the game engine to replicate game demos

or "game movies". But Igor & Co. has surprised everyone with this effort so

far. Look forward to more surprises.

Did you read the original explanation? There will be two graphics engines in the release product. An older one to permit use of the same parameters as used on earlier versions of P2E and a new graphical engine to allow the user a choice of rendering resolutions rather than being fixed at 720x576 pixels.

The only operating systems excluded of any consequence will be the Apple OS but Apple will be including the possiblity of running Windows applications in a dual operating environment using Intel processors.

Hardly anyone will be running presentation slideshow software on Unix or Linux and I doubt that it's a big priority. The hardware requirements will be in line with what the future requires to run Windows Vista for high resolution output.....

Best regards,

Lin

[jevans]

You can insert a black slide if you want a blank. Igor probably hasn't gotten around to implementing the "blank" image feature yet in v. 5.0.

If you leave it with only one, then the image will persist over the time to the end of the section indicated by the vertical blue lines. If you move the vertical lines toward each other, then the object will appear and disappear at the times indicated. You only need to add another keypoint if you want the object image to change at some point.

This is so that one can merge the end of the object action with the next transition.

Thanks Al, that clears up these points. just want to be sure I understand how the system works.

Jeff

[LumenLux]

Regarding use of the "rectangle" on the object screen. I admit to some confusion with this and the copying of keypoints and their actions.

Say on slide #1, in the O/A screen, on the timeline, I have 18 key points in the last half of the slide's duration. Is there a way to copy the 18 keypoints onto Slide #2? In this case, slide#2 would be the same photo as slide #1, but I want slide #2 to not have the first half actions of slide #1, but have only the 18 keypoints duplicated from Slide #1.

[potwnc]

Has anyone been able to produce a show that ends when the last slide ends? I check that option, but it makes no difference - the show always repeats from the first slide. Is this not supposed to work or is it a bug?

[LumenLux]

Not a bug, Igor's intent for this Beta stage.

When working on a slide's O/A screen (objects & animation), is there a way to "cancel" latest changes to that screen? Often I have a lot of o/a work doing fine on the slide but decide I want to add something or change something. In the process the o/a screen ends up with all kinds of things I don't like. How do I get rid of the "mistakes" and revert to the slide as previously used? This seems like such a big and common problem, there must be a simple answer I am missing at the moment? If I am not missing something, then I hope Igor it might be possible to implement a "cancel" or "revert" button?

[alrobin]

Robert,

Can you not use the "undo" button at the top? It will do multiple "undo's". Don't know if there are any restrictions.