Artem

Dave, First situation is not a problem at all. You see, transition name and file are different things. If you want to change a name of custom transition, there is edit box "transition name" for that. Second situation is rather strange. Could you send me source files of this project? Artem

Hi Dave(dgd), I've downloaded your project, but I see no problem on my PC. Please tell more details about your system configuration. CPU, graphic card, screen resolution, amount of RAM, amount of video memory, etc. It is possible the problem is caused by outdated video card drivers. Make sure you have latest drivers installed. Also, try changing screen resolution. Does the problem appear in any screen resolution, or only in particular one? Artem

Xaver, Thanks, I confirm this bug. We will try to fix it in the next patch. Why you didn't find all these problems during beta testing? Artem

Xaver, I found this bug today and already fixed it! Thanks anyway. Artem

Dave, You can do crop, then move the object anywhere you want via PanX/PanY, right? If custom transition is 16:9 then yes, it is always 1280:720. But it doesn't matter, since custom transition will adjust to the size of project it used in. Artem

Dave, Thanks! Impressive! I just wonder, is it possible to do the same without masks, via Canvas Size parameter, as Igor suggested? Artem

Good point. We will add a visible option for 'Save as' in the next version. Artem

Marcel, To create a backup of custom transition, go to Project Options->Transitions, select your custom transition and click 'Pack resources in ZIP'. This will create a Zip archive including not only transition itself, but also all resources used in that transition. See User Guide, page 27. Dave, To change aspect ratio of custom transition, in Effect Editor click 'Customize' button. You can also choose between 'Cover' and 'Fit Into' modes. In a case aspect ratio of project and transition used in it don't match, transition will either fit into screen or cover it. Besides, it seems your 'Slices' example does not have any custom transitions. A mistake? Artem

Xaver, I know that! In fact, this is the way early betas worked. The bug which prevented warning from appearing and lead to assertion error, was added in one of the late betas. I already fixed it. So, thanks for finding this problem and wait for next patch. Artem

Xaver, To save custom effect under a new name, press Ctrl+S. Custom aspect ratio for effects - interesting idea. May be in the next version. Artem

Xaver, Thanks, I confirm this bug. We try to fix it for the next patch.

Xaver, Aspect ratio of custom transition is not always 4:3, you can change it if you want. In Effect Editor, click Customize button (bottom-left corner of the screen). See also User Guide, page 26. Of course, if your project has one aspect ratio and custom transition has some other aspect ratio, the result will not look good. You must edit this transition and change its aspect ratio so it matches aspect ratio of the project.

Jose, Do not worry, my previous post is not an answer to freezing, crashing and other bugs. It was just a suggestion how to make your slideshow faster. I didn't know your final goal is mp4 file, not exe; in this case my suggestion might be irrelevant. Regarding those bugs, as I said, we're working on them. Artem

Jose, I've noticed you have a lot of independent (not linked) video clips inside one slide, but the source file for them is the same. Are you aware of 'link video clip' option? It can greatly increase performance in such cases. For more details, see User Guide, pages 48-49. Anyway, having tens of video clips inside one slide will make your slideshow really slow. Try separating them into several slides. Artem

Hi Jose, I've downloaded your project and was able to reproduce the unhandled exception problem. We are now working on it. Thank you for your help and patience. Regards, Artem P.S. For those who are curious, drive D in exception message is related to Wnsoft computer, not user's computer.

John, Tom, Stu, Peter, "Run Slideshow" and "Run Slideshow With Return" commands doesn't work properly in Mac Executables created in PicturesToExe 7.0. It was a bug of version 7.0. We fixed it in version 7.5 beta.

Ray, Probably you have an old video card. PicturesToExe requires video card with shaders 2.0 or higher to render video in full color; otherwise it would be monochrome.

Xaver, I see your point now. Thanks for the idea. Programming it would be rather easy, technically. But I have one concern. Mask is already fairly complicated feature, even advanced users of PicturesToExe might not fully understand all its aspects. This is the reason I started this topic, to explain how masks work. Wouldn't adding more options confuse users? Are these options absolutely necessary? If more people request such options for mask, I will add your idea to my TODO list.

Xaver, I don't think these options are really needed. You can create any image file in editors such as Photoshop, and use them as mask. For alpha-channel mask, use black-and-white image. It will be converted inside PTE automatically (white to transparent, black to opaque). I am not sure what you mean by "R channel acting as mask". What only R channel will determine the degree of transparency (R=255 - transparent, R=0 - opaque)? Wouldn't it be the same as alpha-channel mask? For grayscale mask, that's a bit tricky. If you use grayscale image file as mask (R, G and B channels equal in every pixel), it will be converted into alpha-channel mask. To avoid this, make these channels unequal at least in one pixel.

Peter, Try turning off "Edge Antialiasing" option of video clip

Colored Masks Since version 7.0, it is possible to use colored masks in PicturesToExe. A quote from What’s New of version 7.0: “Mask object can use color 32-bit PNG image file with alpha channel for special visual effects”. Perhaps not all PicturesToExe users quite understand what exactly this means. Here’s a little illustration: This is PicturesToExe project opened in version 6.5 This is the same project opened in version 7.0 Here’s the original file of mask, for comparison: Source project + Exe: http://wnsoft.com/files/test/color_masks.zip Since version 7.0 you can use almost any image file (BMP, JPG, PNG) as mask: 32bit or 24bit, black and white or colored one. The only exception are GIF files – using them as mask can lead to visual defects. If versions 6.5 and older, however, there was a limitation: if you use a colored image file as mask, only alpha-channel of it will be used; while r,g and b channels were ignored. This is no longer the case in version 7.0. Note: as far as I know, most PicturesToExe users (of those who use masks) have black-and-white images for masks; pre-built masks (Rectangular and Circular) which you can create right in PicturesToExe, are also black-and-white. Algorithm regarding those black-and-white masks has not changed. Changes only affect colored masks, i.e. there r,g and b channels are not equal. If you have any questions about masks, feel free to ask.