Menu Problems?

[baldsparky]

Hi

I created 2 projects in beta 15, (project1 and project 2) each with one slide and each slide with zoom effect.

I created a button in project 1 to run an application (project 2), when I ran proiject 1 it was fine, but when I clicked on the button to run project 2, project 2 ran very jerkily.

I then recreated project one and unchecked hardware acceleration in project options, screen tab.

Then when I ran project 1 it ran jerkily, but then when I clicked on the button to run project 2, project 2 then ran smoothly, completely opposite to above.

I don't know if I am doing anything wrong (probably), but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

paul

[Lin Evans]

Hi Paul,

You are not doing anything "wrong". Right now it's not possible to run two executables simultaneously with each using hardware acceleration. The proper way for now is to not use any animation in your menu program and to turn off hardware acceleration in that executable. The the program being called will run smoothly.

This is not really a PTE issue but rather an issue with hardware acceleration and video card capabilities. It's simply not feasible to have multiple executable files all using hardware acceleration and running simultaneously. Even though your menu isn't being displayed, it's still "running" in the background.

Lin

Hi

I created 2 projects in beta 15, (project1 and project 2) each with one slide and each slide with zoom effect.

I created a button in project 1 to run an application (project 2), when I ran proiject 1 it was fine, but when I clicked on the button to run project 2, project 2 ran very jerkily.

I then recreated project one and unchecked hardware acceleration in project options, screen tab.

Then when I ran project 1 it ran jerkily, but then when I clicked on the button to run project 2, project 2 then ran smoothly, completely opposite to above.

I don't know if I am doing anything wrong (probably), but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

paul

[Ronniebootwest]

Hi Paul,

You are not doing anything "wrong". Right now it's not possible to run two executables simultaneously with each using hardware acceleration. The proper way for now is to not use any animation in your menu program and to turn off hardware acceleration in that executable. The the program being called will run smoothly.

This is not really a PTE issue but rather an issue with hardware acceleration and video card capabilities. It's simply not feasible to have multiple executable files all using hardware acceleration and running simultaneously. Even though your menu isn't being displayed, it's still "running" in the background.

Lin

Lin, I cast some doubt on your conclusion here! I also have this problem and, on my computer, the menu runs perfectly with 'Harware Acceleration' enabled. It is also enabled on 2 exe shows that are called from the menu. However, when I sent the whole exe file to others, it produced 'jerkiness' as described above. This is well documented in previous posts on this subject.

Ron

[baldsparky]

Hi Lin

thankyou for your help, and your very quick reply. I did away with the animation as you suggested , but it didn't seem to make any difference whether hardware acceleration was checked or unchecked everything ran smoothly either way.

I have just read Ron's reply but unlike him, I have not sent my projects to anyone else. I have a laptop too, so perhaps I will send them to myself and then try them on my laptop.

Once again, many thanks

Kind regards

Paul

[Ronniebootwest]

Hi Lin

thankyou for your help, and your very quick reply. I did away with the animation as you suggested , but it didn't seem to make any difference whether hardware acceleration was checked or unchecked everything ran smoothly either way.

I have just read Ron's reply but unlike him, I have not sent my projects to anyone else. I have a laptop too, so perhaps I will send them to myself and then try them on my laptop.

Once again, many thanks

Kind regards

Paul

Hello Paul,

I am interested in this issue and would appreciate it if you could send me copies of you exe show and also the project file.

These files are going to be to big for email so I suggest that you use Mediafire or Yousendit to get it to me.

Ron

[baldsparky]

Hi Ron

I have sent you an email with a link to download the test project I have tried. I've not done this too often so if you have any trouble please let me know.

Kind regards

paul

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ron,

If this is the case, what prompted your complaint in the first place? When you sent me your three programs (menu and two executables being called) I created a new menu with no animations and with hardware acceleration turned off and it worked properly. With hardware acceleration on in both the menu and the program being called they did not run properly on my development system which has a very high end graphics card and plenty of resources.

Few people have hardware capable of running both a menu with hardware acceleration and an executable being called from that menu with hardware acceleration turned on. The simple solution is to turn off animations AND hardware acceleration in the calling menu if you want the combination to work properly on other computers. This is being obfuscated unnecessarily. Igor has explained the issues involved in other posts.

Best regards,

Lin

Lin, I cast some doubt on your conclusion here! I also have this problem and, on my computer, the menu runs perfectly with 'Harware Acceleration' enabled. It is also enabled on 2 exe shows that are called from the menu. However, when I sent the whole exe file to others, it produced 'jerkiness' as described above. This is well documented in previous posts on this subject.

Ron

[Lin Evans]

Hi Paul,

That's because without animation, hardware acceleration isn't doing anything of importance in the menu. If you turn off hardware acceleration in the calling menu, you won't have a problem with jerky movement on the programs being called from that menu. But if you have animations in the menu and turn off hardware acceleration, those animations in the menu will be jerky.

The "answer" to the issue is to not have hardware acceleraton turned on in the menu calling other executables which do use hardware acceleration. The video environment just can't handle this in the vast majority of systems.

Lin

Hi Lin

thankyou for your help, and your very quick reply. I did away with the animation as you suggested , but it didn't seem to make any difference whether hardware acceleration was checked or unchecked everything ran smoothly either way.

I have just read Ron's reply but unlike him, I have not sent my projects to anyone else. I have a laptop too, so perhaps I will send them to myself and then try them on my laptop.

Once again, many thanks

Kind regards

Paul

[baldsparky]

Hi Lin

thanks again for all your help. I have put your advice into practise and everything works fine.

Kind regards

Paul

[Igor]

Lin,

You are absolutely right. There is a problem with "Run Application" action. We'll rework this moment in the next v5.10 - we'll manage several individual slide shows as one virtual slide show and this will solve this problem. We can't do it right now, because this work will take at least one month and full beta-testing all PicturesToExe.

Currently there are two solutions.

First variant, as Lin said, turn off "Hardware acceleration" option in Screen tab of Project options in slide show which will act as menu (to run other slide shows).

Another variant.

Don't use "Run Application" at all.

Use "Run Application And Exit" action together with "Run application after last slide" option (in Advanced tab of Project options) to return back to menu slide show.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ron,

I think Igor has provided a workable solution to your earlier issue. Go ahead and create your menu program complete with searchlights and animations with hardware acceleration set to "on". But instead of calling your programs with "Run Application", call them with "Run Application and Exit". This effectively kills the Menu.Exe program on exit so the exclusivity of hardware acceleration is released.

Then on the programs being called, in the Project Options set "Run application after last slide" option (in Advanced tab of Project options) to return back to menu slide show.

This will let you have both animated menus with smooth animations and also smooth animations in the individual slideshows being called. It's a small extra step but will provide a proper work-around.

Best regards,

Lin

Hello Paul,

I am interested in this issue and would appreciate it if you could send me copies of you exe show and also the project file.

These files are going to be to big for email so I suggest that you use Mediafire or Yousendit to get it to me.

Ron

[Igor]

Lin,

Thank you.

One additional moment for discussion. "Run application after last slide" option works only as it called - after last slide. If user click Esc during a show this option will not work.

However there is undocumented option in .pte project file opt_runapponexitiflastslide if set it to 0 (zero), "Run application after last slide" will work even on pressing of Esc key. Should we make this option available public in Project options? Although I don't see any free place for this checkbox.

[alrobin]

One additional moment for discussion. "Run application after last slide" option works only as it called - after last slide. If user click Esc during a show this option will not work.

However there is undocumented option in .pte project file opt_runapponexitiflastslide if set it to 0 (zero), "Run application after last slide" will work even on pressing of Esc key. Should we make this option available public in Project options? Although I don't see any free place for this checkbox.

Igor,

Personally, I don't see the need for an option to "run application" after aborting the first show - for me, pressing "ESC" should stop everything. If intended otherwise, the author could add the ability during the first show to jump to the last slide, in which case the next application would run as planned.

[baldsparky]

Another variant.

Don't use "Run Application" at all.

Use "Run Application And Exit" action together with "Run application after last slide" option (in Advanced tab of Project options) to return back to menu slide show

Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

Igor I ran your test that you prepare for Dom,

I just prepared my EXE files with Run action.

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/RunAndExit.zip (650 KB)

Please let me know how it will work.

I found that when I ran your test, and when I clicked on the button for run slideshow 2 and exit, I was momentarily returned to the desktop before slideshow 2 began. Is this what is supposed to happen?

However there is undocumented option in .pte project file opt_runapponexitiflastslide if set it to 0 (zero), "Run application after last slide" will work even on pressing of Esc key. Should we make this option available public in Project options? Although I don't see any free place for this checkbox.

Would this facility be useful if you had a separate menu show used for calling other shows, then if you wanted to click esc during one of these called shows you would then be returned to the menu show to select another?

Many thanks

Kind regards

paul

[Lin Evans]

Hi Paul,

Yes, that's the way it's designed. By about a one second delay, the momentary return to the desktop releases the exclusivity on the hardware acceleration.

Lin

Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

Igor I ran your test that you prepare for Dom,

I found that when I ran your test, and when I clicked on the button for run slideshow 2 and exit, I was momentarily returned to the desktop before slideshow 2 began. Is this what is supposed to happen?

Many thanks

Kind regards

paul

[baldsparky]

Hi Paul,

Yes, that's the way it's designed. By about a one second delay, the momentary return to the desktop releases the exclusivity on the hardware acceleration.

Lin

Thnks for the explanation Lin, much appreciated.

Kind regards

paul