A problem with a menu sequence

[fh1805]

I would welcome advice in respect of a problem that I am struggling to eliminate or circumvent.

Later this year I will be providing an afternoon's entertainment for a local organisation by showing them a selection of my sequences. I would like to build a menu sequence that I can use to "front end" all the other sequences. I've researched this subject among the previous posts on the forums and have read the dialogue between Jeff Evans and Al Robinson on the subject of chaining menus and submenus. I also noted the thread initiated by Lin Evans on the subject of executable menus and hardware acceleration. I have tried to take on board the various recommendations made in those threads. But I still have a problem. First let me set the scene...

All the existing sequences that I want to use were built using PTE v4. They all start and end with a black slide and are set to "Close show after last slide"

In order to check everything out before building the final menu I built a little test menu system using PTEv5. In this there are three "target" sequences and the test menu sequence. The three "target" sequences have the same build: a black slide, a coloured slide and a final black slide. All three sequences are set to "Close show after last slide". I have left all other PTE settings at default values in these three except for: setting Fade In/Out as the only transition, setting mouse left click to Next slide and mouse right click to Previous slide and hiding the mouse cursor during the show.

The menu sequence consists of a single image with three buttons on it. The Project Options for this sequence are defaults except for: When show ends keep last slide on screen, mouse buttons set as for the other shows, always show mouse cursor, hardware acceleration is unticked and transitions are disabled. The only image is customised to have an onscreen duration of 600 seconds.

The executable file names are:

Menu_Mk_II.exe

Show1.exe

Show2.exe

Show3.exe

I have placed a shortcut to Menu_Mk_II.exe on the desktop. When I launch from this shortcut the menu appears as expected. Clicking any of the three buttons starts the relevant show. The problem occurs at the end of the started show. There is a lot of flickering/flashing before the menu image is displayed. During that flickering/flashing it is possible to make out that the original desktop display is in amongst it all.

I started Windows Task Manager to try and see if I could see anything unusual and noticed that when I launch the Menu_Mk_II.exe two copies of it are shown as running in the Applications tab of Windows Task Manager. Why two copies? Is the presence of the second copy contributing to this problem?

The PC system is a Compaq Presario desktop with Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz processor, 2GB RAM running under Windows Vista. The graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS.

If I can get past this problem the exe files will eventually be copied over to the lap top that I use to drive my digital projector.

Please, can anyone offer any advice on how to get a smooth transition from the end of a "target" sequence back to the menu sequence image?

[alrobin]

Peter,

This used to happen with some of the earlier beta versions of v.5. When you close both the intro sequence and the "second" sequence, do they still show in the Task Manager? If so, reboot the pc, and try again.

Re the glimpse of the desktop between shows, this is normal, and is one of the issues Igor will be looking into.

[Barry Beckham]

Peter,

This used to happen with some of the earlier beta versions of v.5. When you close both the intro sequence and the "second" sequence, do they still show in the Task Manager? If so, reboot the pc, and try again.

Re the glimpse of the desktop between shows, this is normal, and is one of the issues Igor will be looking into.

Peter

This isn't exactly the proper solution I know, but I use PTE quite a bit as menus just as you describe and I always find PTE4 works better for me. The buttons in PTE4 are not quite so grand as in PTE5, but it works every time. I aslo don't like the way the button sizes change in PTE5 depending on the length of text on that button.

I just feel PTE4 buttons are easier to size and they look good too

PTE5 and PTE4 will install and work fine side by side, so there is one option while you track down one for PTE5

[fh1805]

Al,

After the Menu exe and the Show exe have both been closed down there are no copies of either of them in the Windows Task Manager. The only time I see any extra copies is just after I have launched the Menu exe - and at that point I always see two instances of it in the Windows Task Manager under the Applications tab. And this situation applies only to the PTEv5-built form of the Menu exe file. The PTEv4-built Menu exe appears as just the single instance that I was expecting.

Barry,

I have PTEv4 and PTEv5 co-existing on both the desktop and the laptop computers. Also, like you, I make extensive use of PTEv4-built menus. I'm a regular visitor to this particular local organisation and, although they are not a photo group, several of the members are keen photographers and they always ask about the tools and techniques of building the sequences. I just wanted to show them something with a bit of the "gee whizz!" factor included. I had in mind to have "New!" flashing alongside the buttons for the sequences that they haven't seen before. But Lin's caution about animation and hardware acceleration on menus sort of put the kybosh on that idea.

I'll probably use PTEv4 to build a modified version of my existing master menu but colour code the buttons of the new sequences.

Both,

Thanks for the help. Your friendly and freely-given advice is, as always, most gratefully received.

[Ken Cox]

Peter

Ron West seems to be hiding lately but he with Lin's help developed a menu a while back but it was not an easy task -- the acceleration thing gave them trouble big time

there was another member that gave it a go as well with a lawn bowling demo and he experienced the same problems

so you might search the forum

Ron might have a pdf on his site

ken

[Ronniebootwest]

Hi Ken - I'm not hiding, just that the weather is so good at the moment (temporary I am sure) that I have been out and about with my new camera (Canon 1Ds Mark II)

Peter,

Yes I did make a pdf on 'How to create a one page menu' I got over the problem with the flashing back to desktop, by simply making sure that as each slide show finishes, it returns to the menu. I did this in version 4 and again in version 5 and it all works for me now.

Visit the tutorial page on my website and download the tutorial (it is FREE).

Ron

[fh1805]

Ken,

Thanks for the steer towards Ron's site.

Ron,

Thanks for making all that help resource available online - and free!. I've been using PTEv4 for about two years and PTEv5 for about 2 weeks. I already have a master menu built under PTEv4 which works fine. I was wanting something a little different (see my reply to Barry in post #4 above). Your excellent tutorial covered familiar ground for me but didn't include anything drawn from your experiences with PTEv5 (or have I downloaded the wrong file?). The problem manifests itself only with a menu built using PTEv5 and occurs on both the Windows Vista desktop PC and the Windows XP laptop (although on the latter, all that appears between the end of the inner show and the return to the menu screen is the Windows Taskbar - and this vanishes of its own accord)

Al's reply (see post #2) indicates that this flicker/flash in PTEv5 is an already known problem that Igor and his team of magicians will seek to rectify in a future release. If you have a method of eliminating the flicker/flash in a PTEv5-built menu I would very much like to know what the secret is - pleeeeease!.

[alrobin]

Here is the reference to Igor's answer to the problem of the flashing desktop:

In v5.1 or v5.2 we plan to make possible compilation of several individual projects to one EXE file and you will able to make menu and slide show with any necessary behaviour in one EXE file.

The quote is taken from this thread (post #8):

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....;hl=compilation