Igor

We'll update the forum today. Invision Power Board has issued the security update. It will solve a problem with appearing of spam messages.

We're still working on v5.6 I hope Beta 1 will be ready on this week. Sorry for delay. We've added one more new transition effect betwen slides - Swap 3D (In addition to other new effects of v5.6: Flip 3D and improved Curling of Page). Also new Mask object will be improved - it will possible to apply several Masks to one image for creating virtually unlimited special effects.

I just returned to home from Great Britain. I was in The Highlands of Scotland.

I'll have a far trip outside my country during next two weeks. From 12th to 28 of September. I'd like to ask in advance excuse me for the delay with replies. P.S. The first beta as scheduled will be ready by end of September.

We just fixed this bug for future v5.6. It may happens because of empty text object only (no text) in mini-Player. In this project there was a text template for all slides - "Display filename of main image". But some slides didn't have main image and text comment became an empty string.

We've added a new transition effect between slides to future version 5.6 Flip 3D http://www.wnsoft.com/test/Flip3D_demo.zip (3.4 MB) p.s. Beta 1 will be published in three weeks.

Thanks, Gary, I've reproduced this problem and we'll fix it.

Gary, Thanks, I just sent you PM message. I need project files.

Just write here in Russian your suggestions. Можно написать здесь по-русски Ваши предложения. В техническую поддержку тоже можно писать по-русски.

I just realized that in this demo I've used photographs by Bill & Karen Hines from England 2003 AV without their permission. Excuse me, Bill! I very like this slideshow and often use these photos in my internal beta-testing.

Peter, It's a special Mask object available in future v5.6. You can use any form of Mask not only circle. I think Dominique will much better use Masks than me Beta should be ready in a month.

It's a demonstration of some new effects in future version 5.6: http://www.wnsoft.com/test/RollEffect.exe (2.5 MB) 1) Fully reworked "Curling of page" effect which works in real 3D space now. In this demo not fully optimized. 2) Mask object (on last slide).

Peter, There is a trick which will help to reach the desired result. Choose custom speed for Rotation and set range 1-100 (instead 0-100 by default). It will look practically as a linear speed and PicturesToExe will take rotate values from first and last keyframes ignoring Rotate values from intermediate keyframes (between first and last ones) - exactly what you need.

No doubt that Windows works incorrectly after system restore on your PC. It's necessary to re-install drivers for your video card. If it doesn't help please also re-install DirectX from Microsoft's website.

Probably you've noticed a window which appeared when you try to open any topic which contained a post of Bart. It happened because his signature contained a link to an image from his website http://www.multimediaenthusiasts.com This website doesn't work at all now and you see same window when you try to open it. So I had to edit Bart's signature to fix this problem.

Jean-Pierre, It seems that we've found a good alternative for "Original size" mode. Maybe even better. And it is almost as your "Cale" method.

These owls catch mice on white garden alleys.

Please update drivers of video card. In v5.5 we use more hardware acceleration in main window of PicturesToExe. Probably it reveals hidden earlier the problem with drivers.

"Late Summer at the Garden" All photos from our garden. Owls, too. http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/show/Late_Summer_at_the_Garden.zip (12 MB)

Some DVD player don't play RW rewritable discs. Please burn R disc - DVD-R or DVD+R.

Jean-Pierre, It seems I've understood your method now. You use "Original size" mode for intermediate steps and resulting slide scalable (not fixed size). Am I right? So even if we add "Fixed size of slide" option, it will not be useful for you because you don't produce fixed sized slide. Please could you publish an one slide's project with minimal number of objects which maximally well illustrates your method. I'd like to better understand it.

"Slide size" as a replacement for "Original size" mode Barry, We'll think how to add customization for non-slide area ("black strips"/"borders") to be able choose a color or texture image. Beta 1 will be at the end of September, I think. We didn't change "Original size" mode yet at this moment. It's in stage of idea and discussing. Jean-Pierre, While not, but we'll think about it. Yes. Also you can change opacity to Mask to change common opacity of all embedded objects associated with this mask. There will be "Container" which contains "Mask" image and other objects. So you can create any combinations of movements.Complexity/simplicity of PicturesToExe. We'll try keep simple the base inteface. And hide new professional features under "Advanced" buttons, for example. Brian, Thanks for your advices! I need more time to think. John, It wouldn't be good solution, because we won't issue new v4.4x versions (too old code - difficult to continue improvements) and v5.5 has many advantages in base interface (DVD-Video output, mini-player, scalable objects).I'm grateful to all who have wrote here on raised questions and problems! It helps us better understand the situation.

Thanks for your responses! The battery drains on 15% per day even when laptop is completely turned off. I just returned it to the shop. They should do money back in 10 days.

Thank you for your thoughts and opinions! I'm reading all posts right now and will reply step by step. Now I'd like to reply on the question regarding complexity of PicturesToExe. We will take in attention all seriousness of this problem. Probably I didn't think enough about it before. Please wait for results. I'll add new features carefully trying keep simple the base interface. Thanks, Brian, for the idea. V5.5 still small enough, works fast and reliable. Yes, v5.0 has bring a lot of changes, but after - in v5.1, v5.5 we didn't complicate PicturesToExe. Opposite it became more simple in use due to the integrated timeline and added mini-player. I know it's necessary to think now use or don't use hardware acceleratation, problem with incorrect colors on ATI video cards with adjusted desktop gamma, slow work of slideshows on very old video cards. v4.49 was more simple, yes. But almost all have seen terrific and impressive slideshows/AVs with smart usage of Pan/Zoom effects. So it's necessary. To provide Pan/Zoom effects with high quality sharpness of picture and smoothness we have to use hardware acceleration. No other variants. Payment for this is slow playback some old video cards (more rare with every year). Additionally we've added a special option and it's possible to uncheck "Hardware acceleration". And you can create v4.49's like slideshows with same speed and quality (excluding only Mosaic effect). p.s. I've renamed this topic to more actual name because of various raised questions.

Peter, This problem will never occur again in v5.6 and no old background files in a project file. Haver, I think it's a specific bug and difficult to reproduce. If it will be requiered to release updated v5.5 I'll include this fix.