alrobin

Richard, You obviously have done your homework! That's a very clever application of the new PTE effects. I can see a video game done with PTE coming out next! I also enjoyed your time-lapse show. A few minor glitches on my machine, probably due to the anti-virus software, but overall it ran very smoothly.

Lin, It works OK for me. You have to have a keypoint highlighted before the arrow buttons will function. Sometimes when you first click on an object there is no keypoint highlighted until you click on one.

Hi, John, I won't profess to be able to answer all of your questions, but I have inserted a few comments as I see it: Once you have climbed the learning curve, I am sure that you and others will find that PTE v.5 has a goldmine of new capabilities, and although more technical, and more demanding in terms of computer horsepower, offers much more than before in terms of creative excitement. I see Jeff beat me to the punch, but I'll leave my comments here as well.

Very nice images, Lin. As Ken says, the shimmering on some of the zooming images actually enhances them. It's a characteristic that can be controlled to some extent, yet used to good advantage where desired.

John, You can delete slides without disturbing the relative timing of the O/A features as long as you keep their time intervals intact. However, if you change the timing between slides with O/A features, you risk changing the timing for the objects themselves as well. PTE can readily handle large numbers of slides. However, I imagine it could break down if there were too many objects being manipulated at once, especially if they were very large images as well. As Lin says, only Igor knows what the limits are .

Dave, These files would be too large even for v. 4.43 at 10 images/second. As Lin suggested, try cutting them down to 1024x768, at a jpeg quality of say 50%. When cycling rapidly through images it is not as necessary for them to be of maximum quality as it is when they are left on screen for longer times.

Hi, Dave, Welcome to the Forum! What version of PTE, and what image resolution are you using? I have a slideshow, with 1024x768 - pixel images transitioning at 1/10 sec intervals. You have to use the "cut" or "quick" transition at the bottom of the list. I presume you are using version 4, as version 5 does not allow for fast transitions yet as it is only in beta mode now.

Fried, A lot happens around the Forum in a year! The safest way to change images but retain the customization would be to substitute the old images with the new ones. However, you could do it by renaming them in the folder to be the same as the appropriate ones as last year, then direct the new project file to the new folder. It might be necessary to temporarily assign the old folder with a different name, so you don't lose it, and then change the name of the folder containing the new images (whose names have been changed to match the old ones) to the old name, and move the pte project file into it too. The previous customization would then be applied to the new images automatically.

Ligia, You're welcome - it is always a learning experience for those of us who try to help, as well. Now, all the best in the final stages of your show and best of luck in the final presentation. Let us know how it goes! And if there is anything more we can help you with before then, be sure to ask!

Ron, It must be time to get new glasses. All the images look like "jpg's" to me. Make sure you maximize the window with the image when it comes up

senns, Tell us more: What version of PTE are you using? What music type are you using? Try substituting another music number of the same length and running to see if it still aborts and in the same place as before. How large are your image files? Are you running directly from a CD? Is there anything unusual about this show, as compared to others you have done, other than the fact that it aborts?

I would just call it "Hide selection markers on Pan/Zoom/Rotate" . If this is too long, then "Hide selection on PZR" .

Ligia, Glad to hear you have finally ironed out the bugs on this one. It was a real mystery!

Igor, When we select an object which is behind other objects, (in "O/A"), and then click on one of the hot-points on the corners and sides of the dotted selection rectangle around the object to apply a PZR effect to it, the hot-points and the selection rectangle disappear. This makes it difficult to determine visually when to stop stretching or rotating the object. Would it be possible to have the selection rectangle remain visible while moving or resizing it with the mouse?

Igor, What plans do you have, if any, for enabling listening to the background music while "playing" the timeline in "Objects/Animations"?

Igor, I tried out the new rectangular "rectangle", and moving objects around from one level to another now works perfectly! Thank-you so much!

Igor, Thanks again - this application will be very useful. And also for the moving map route.

Jeff, "Transparent for click" is applied one object at a time just to get a large blocking object at the front out of the way so that the objects "behind" it can be selected with the mouse and PZR effects applied. "Ignore objects ..." is a global command for all of the objects on that main image so that PZR effects can be applied to any object, including the blocking object, by first selecting them in the object list. Igor, These commands work fine - just what we needed. Thank-you!

Ron, That's a great idea - thanks for sharing! There's no reason why we can't have the best of both PTE versions!

That's always possible, and it is probably the route I would go first. Is there any way you can test out the show on someone else's laptop? Are you by any chance running the shows from the CD player on your laptop rather than copying them over to the hard drive first? This can sometimes pose problems. Also, make sure there is nothing else running in the background. I have the feeling that the problem is more software-related than hardware, but everything is possible. Good luck!

Igor, I am sure you fulfilled a lot of people's dreams today! Thank-you so much for all the efforts by you and your team on this. I am sure we will be giving you lots of feedback over the days ahead. Hopefully it won't lead to a lot of extra work for you. Better take a break now!

Ligia, You're welcome - every time I help someone on the Forum I learn something myself. Too bad about the laptop. It could be that you don't have the latest drivers, or even the wrong drivers. Here is another web page with some useful information about your graphics chipset: intel.com There is one for the 950 graphics core too if you do a search in Google for it. This page helps you identify your chipset: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/ . According to it, the 945 is top of the line, so I don't se why it would be hindering proper operation of you shows, unless they provided the wrong software drivers. From these pages, it looks to me that the 945 is the name of the chipset, which contains the 950 Intel "graphics engine", so I suspect you do have what you ordered. Best of luck! Ligia, Here is another page describing the 945 in more detail, and the 950 is included in it. http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/945g/index.htm I think you may have hit on the answer - sounds like the activity in the background programs may be interfering with proper operation of the shows. Try closing down everything, including the antivirus software, email, web browser, and anything else that runs in the background. A handy program called "EndItAll" (do a search on the forum, as it was described on one of the other threads) is useful for quickly closing everything that is not essential to running of your shows.

Ligia, Just thought of something else. You don't have "Project Options / Screen / Show first transition from desktop" or "... to desktop" checked, by any chance, do you? If you do, try unckecking these options. Also, check the timeline to make sure there is a bit of "space" after the end of the last transition, before the music ends. Also, how up to date is your laptop? What processor, how much RAM, video RAM, etc.?

Ligia, It sounds like you are doing everything right. This should be a perfectly good way to link your shows. One thing you might try is to remove any pathname in the reference to the next show. Just type in the name of the show, and see if it moves to the next one without flashing the desktop. Make sure all your shows' "exe" files are in the same folder. When you transfer to the laptop, do you copy the shows from the dvd to the hard-drive? If not, try it and see if it helps. Your Project Options screenshots look OK. One thing, and I don't know if it makes a difference, you might try unchecking "Repeat music after playing" on the music tab. Speaking of music, are you using mp3's? Also, how large are your music files and also your image files?

I'll be in shortly for a beer!