Igor

Ok, We decided to add new Visual editor right to v5.00, because it could be strange to mix new graphical engine of v5.00 and old Visual editor with old objects. So new Visual editor will allow: - Scalable objects (same proportions at any screen resolution). But also you can add images without scaling (as now). - Animation (Pan/Zoom/Rotate) of every object. - Resizing of objects. - A motion of objects using several key points (including complex motion on a curve) And etc. Same 1,5 MB of PTE v5.00 and small EXE file with slide-show. In the nearest time, we'll publish a little demonstration (EXE with several slides) to show new Pan/Zoom/Rotate effects. p.s. we found many difficulties with Matrox video cards (G400, G550). Unfortunately they have terrible drivers for work in DirectX (but all know their excellent 2D graphics). Of course, we've solved these problems. But it required additional days.

Thank you, Brian. I just sent a request to Invision about this moment. I'll write here about the result.

Brian, Please try to create a new test topic (I'll delete it later) and look at your new count of posting. I just tried and it increases this number of my posting.

Bill, So EXE slide-shows play OK, but without music? How WinAmp or Media Player play music? And how work 3D games? As you said about problems with hard drive, maybe you didn't install all necessary drivers (especially for motherboard, for sound card)? On CD disc to your motherboard should be drivers which necessary to install. As another variant - ask your computer seller to help you with correct installing of all drivers.

Only new graphical engine can give highly precision scaling of objects. This long development because there are a lot of linked features. One new thing requires to add another one and etc.

I hope that v5.00 already will able to scale objects to keep same proportions in any screen resolution.

I a little bit updated PTE - v4.44 http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr.zip (1.4 MB) * Fixed problem with error message during in Preview mode with some JPEG images which have incorrect EXIF fields.

centreofengland What email address did you try to enter? andysavage...@.... ? Invision wrote me that your profile and "Andy S" had one email address. I think it's a mistake after upgrading of the forum. If you want, please reply me to int_support@

Ray I just sent you an email. Please read it and let me know how it will work now. You can write me to int_support@.............wnsoft.com p.s. I was unable to reach your email address (raydchilds@......) please write to my email address and I'll send you the new password. centreofengland Invision wrote me that they solved this problem. Please visit your member profile and re-enter again your email address.

I'm sorry for the delay with my answer! I just sent a request to Invision and I hope that they will solve this problem soon.

Barry, Yes, we plan to increase price when v5.00 will arrive (maybe $47 for Business license), but, of course, no additional payments for buyers of old versions of PTE. Maybe our pricing is not suitable for larger companies, but we find it optimal for PTE. Also many people help us with advices and beta-testing of PicturesToExe. p.s. please wait a little more for v5.00 beta. It's a difficult and long work and we want to show reliable product. Just so serious step in development of PTE required to write a lot of new code, keeping in the mind future features of v5.00 and next versions. All next versions will be released much faster than v5.00 because we've wrote now the new base/foundation.

There is a good and well known InnoSetup free ulitity which creates such package. See www.innosetup.com.

Yes, no additional upgrades or fees.

Please let me know what version of PicturesToExe you used to create these slide-shows? And what CPU in your PC?

The good idea, but the most difficult technical problem - how to mix two different images with differect color profiles in one limited sRGB screen in slide-show? Teoretically it's possible, but in this case we will need to mix images in back buffer with 16-bit per channel (48-bit). Only modern video card supports it. And officially Microsoft doesn't support this feature in DirectX. However personally I think that there is no serious benefits to use color management in slide-show. The difference is small (after convertation in Photoshop from Adobe RGB to sRGB) and especially not noticeable in compressed JPEG images with 200-500 KB of file size.

Of course, there is only one v4.43

1) Not synchronized slide-show 2) 0 sec. and 1 ms. for all slides (Project options -> Main tab) 3) Push effect with 3000 ms. 4) "Fit to screen" option in Screen tab 5) Images with aspect ratio 4:3 (1024x768 or 1280x960, or etc.)

It should works fine in PTE v4.43 I just created small example: www.wnsoft.com/test/Project1_vid1.avi (900 KB)

If you plan to use Pan/Zoom/Rotate effects in the next PicturesToExe v5.00, I highly recommend you to buy a laptop with a good NVIDIA or ATI video card.

In v5.00 you can animate main picture of a slide only. In the next v5.10 we'll write new Visual editor fo rmore complex effects, including text effects.

In all versions of PTE, file name of an added image shown with bold font (under thumbnails)

Yes, panorama looks terrifically smooth even with slow speed. Far better than current Push effect in 4.xx Of course, all Pan/Zoom/Rotate effects can be combined together.

Brian, I fully understand and agree with you! I thought thousand times about all these questions. Because of this we wrote 2 different graphical engines in v5,00 - one which uses power of video cards and second - CPU based as earlier. If you plan to create slide-shows without Pan/Zoom you will able to turn on second engine - it reliable as earlier, because it doesn't use video acceleration - only CPU. After first beta, which will be ready soon, please say us about all moments. However concerning reliability of new graphical engine which uses DirectX. We've used minimum of functions and spent a half of year to write, I believe reliable code. Currently I can say that after past 4 months of testing of this new engine on various 9 PCs, it NEVER crashed or freezed up Windows. So even not ready earlier code with possible errors always worked fine everywhere. p.s. thanks, Maureen. I missed to describe this moment

Please vote what video card installed in your main PC where you work with PicturesToExe. For ideally smooth Pan/Zoom/Rotate motion effects in 1280x1024 PicturesToExe will require something like NVIDIA Geforce 3/4 or ATI Radeon 8500/9000/9200 with 64 MB of video memory. CPU doesn't matter at all. Only good video card for fine Pan/Zoom/Rotate. If you create usual slide-show without Pan/Zoom/Rotate effects, it should works fine even on Geforce 1 or 2 or ATI Radeon with 32 MB video memory and with any CPU, as I today tested. Additionally we plan to write special code for old video cards, so we think that PTE slide-shows without motion effect will work fine on any PC as earlier. Brian, in another topic you suggested to keep v4.43 on the site as alternate version. Yes, we will keep it on the web site. But we also will try to make v5.00 suitable for wide range of PCs. (Maybe only except of Pentium II/III 400-500 MHz and earlier.) We're trying to keep PTE as simple and reliable product. v5.00 will look exactly as earlier, same 1,5 MB, very small EXE slide-show engine (even smaller than earlier) and fast work. It's very important for us to hear your opinion concerning any changes in PicturesToExe and we open and ready for discussion (and add some changes, if it necessary). p.s. when we added Fade effect 4,5 year ago, it worked ideally only on top-end PCs (Pentium III 1000-1500 Hz). Now almost every slide-show uses this effect and it works fine.

I grateful to Ken and to you for letting me about all past problems with the forum!