Mip-mapping (anti-shimmering) option in v5.6

[Igor]

A demo how "Mip-mapping (anti-shimmering)" option for objects works in version 5.6:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/MipMapping.exe

[uuderzo]

Igor,

does this option affect performance or prefetching times?

Thanks. Umberto

[Igor]

It's free. Just resulting image looks a little more soft. But it isn't blur:

You can read more about mipmapping in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIP_mapping

[Tomuk]

A demo how "Mip-mapping (anti-shimmering)" option for objects works in version 5.6:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/MipMapping.exe

Igor,

I Imported and old project of mine into 5.6, a show with some objects that I had over sharpened.

I Simply checked the mip-mapping box and low and behold, no more shimmering and objects moving silky smooth, a show that I have now resurrected, I can't thank you enough.

Whats next....Burning to Blue Ray disc's?

Tom.

[Igor]

Tom,

Why not? We have good progress with it.

[Tomuk]

Tom,

Why not? We have good progress with it.

Igor,

Thats great news, I'll have to start putting more pennies into my piggy bank to save for a burner.

Tom

[uuderzo]

Trying this option I noticed that the animation "jumps" when the mipmapped picture comes in.

Maybe due to the time needed to compute mipmaps?

Umberto.

It's free. Just resulting image looks a little more soft. But it isn't blur:

You can read more about mipmapping in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIP_mapping

[Lin Evans]

Hi Umberto,

This probably indicates a marginal video card or low resources - on seven different systems we run I have never seen an instance of this happening.

Best regards,

Lin

[Igor]

Umberto,

Trying this option I noticed that the animation "jumps" when the mipmapped picture comes in. Maybe due to the time needed to compute mipmaps?

You are right! Really images with enabled "Mipmapping" option were not created and pre-loaded in advance. We just fixed this bug. Please wait for Beta 4. Probably it's main reason of jumps in animation you've found (if you slides contains objects with enabled "Mip-mapping..." option).

[uuderzo]

Igor, thank you for replying.

I sent you a PM about the difference between mipmapping problem and "jump after fade" problem (or better: "acceleration after fade" problem)

Regards, Umberto.

Umberto,

You are right! Really images with enabled "Mipmapping" option were not created and pre-loaded in advance. We just fixed this bug. Please wait for Beta 4. Probably it's main reason of jumps in animation you've found (if you slides contains objects with enabled "Mip-mapping..." option).

[Igor]

Umberto,

We just fixed this bug with mipmapping, please try updated beta:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_beta_fix.zip

p.s. we didn't change anything for "acceleration after fade" problem yet.

[uuderzo]

I can try the new beta this evening.

I don't have my laptop with me now.

Please be patient. Thank you, Umberto

Umberto,

We just fixed this bug with mipmapping, please try updated beta:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_beta_fix.zip

p.s. we didn't change anything for "acceleration after fade" problem yet.

[Adda]

Ups, with Beta 4 I have more jerking than with Beta 3.

If I deactivate Mip-mapping in all slides I have less jerking and it plays quite smooth also with my old GeForce 6600 GT card.

Andreas

[uuderzo]

Igor,

Just performed some testing on b4.

The freeze before mipmapped picture comes in is still here, but it's less noticeable.

I must say that the show I use as test performs continuous panning and zooming in

starting and ending slides, maybe this prevents the mipmapping "builder" to take

enough time to prepare all the mipmaps.

Obviously, if the first slide remains still before the mipmapped image comes in,

there is no freeze at all, well, maybe there is but it's not visible.

Anyway, personally I think that mipmapping is not so big trouble since I think i'll live

without it if my machine cannot support it well.

On the countrary, the "acceleration after fade" effect does concern me a lot, since

it is not avoidable. It looks like the new algorithm performs some kind of averaging

on previous frames time renderings, maybe with the purpose of smoothing the

adaption to different frame rates... but this has the effect that a fast frame rate change

needs about 1 second to be readjusted. It's really noticeable.

Maybe on faster machines the frame rate does not change too much between fade

and after fade (two pictures and one single picture) but I suspect that this should be

noticed also on faster GPUs.

I wait some good new on this aspect

Regards, Umberto.

Umberto,

We just fixed this bug with mipmapping, please try updated beta:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_beta_fix.zip

p.s. we didn't change anything for "acceleration after fade" problem yet.

[Igor]

Umberto,

We just reworked mipmapping option and it should work much better when mipmapping enabled. I'm sure it will fix the problem you've described. Please try Beta 5 when it's done.

[uuderzo]

Igor,

Finally I did some test with 5.6b6.

I confirm that the mipmapping "pre computing" glitches are gone.

It works well also on my machine (geeh!)

I confirm you also that when Aero Glass is turned on the animation has less frames per second but it is more stable,

without strange accelerations after fadings.

When Aero Glass is turned off the animation is more fluid but in some points of the show there are those

annoying accelerations, and that makes me think that I'll keep using PTE with Aero Glass despite the lower performance.

It looks like the bad effect comes in after fading from an heavy slide (with heavy I mean 4 or 5 pictures animated with Ken Burns effects).

Fading simple Ken Burns effects between single pictures does not introduce those effects.

I'll try when possible to install also XP on this machine and see what changes.

Regards. Umberto.

Umberto,

We just reworked mipmapping option and it should work much better when mipmapping enabled. I'm sure it will fix the problem you've described. Please try Beta 5 when it's done.