Lin Evans

Hi Keith, A bit off the main topic, but if you want to save some money on "coasters and reflectors" - LOL, why not buy a few rewritable DVD's? I find that the initial cost of the rewritable (about four times the cost of regular media here in the U.S.) is very quickly amortized when testing new technology and ideas with DVD The media is good for hundreds or more rewrites so after the first four I figure I'm saving money... Best regards, Lin

Hi Gerdi, Version 5 has not been released, it's still in beta. More features are being introduced with each beta. There will be at least one or more betas before version 5 is released. Best regards, Lin

You can easily do the fade out by setting a keypoint where you want the fade to begin with 100% opacity. Set another keypoint at the end of the timeline for the slide with opacity at zero. Just reverse the process to fade in a PNG text object. Set the opacity at zero at the start of the slide, set another one also at zero where you want the fade in to begin, finally set the third keypoint at 100% where you want the text to be seen completely. If you want to then fade it out, set another keypoint with opacity at zero. The essence is that when you go from zero (or anything less than 100% opacity) to 100% this will happen between two keypoints. For example, if you start with zero opacity and your slide is set to display for 20 seconds and you have a keypoint at 20 seconds with the opacity set for 100%, the image will gradually appear over the full time. So if you want it to begin somewhere other than at the start, you need an additional keypoint also set to zero so between the start time of the slide and start time for the animation (fade in or out, etc.) the image will stay either on or off depending on the opacity setting. How fast it fades in or out depends on how closely you set the timing on the second two keypoints. Lin

Use the freeware Audacity - Link Below: http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/ Lin

Hi Mark, For not exceeding the total RAM on the video card, the jpeg size in bytes is important. For example, if you have a 32 meg video card and you have a show which simultaneously has 30 images on screen and each has a file size of 2 megabytes, then the total RAM requirement would be 64 meg and your have greatly exceeded the capability of the video card. The above is an unlikely scenario, but I managed to do this some time ago when I created my "puzzle.exe" file with 30 puzzle pieces and a couple other images which totaled over 128 meg! I had 30 puzzle pieces in simultaneous movement and each file consisted of a full screen PNG but only a tiny part of the PNG was not transparent. This small part consisted on the puzzle piece and the rest of the file was transparent. Visually transparent but certainly not RAM transparent - LOL. The reason I made the show in that manner was that having the complete PNG file made it very easy to place the puzzle pieces at the end of the show by simply setting the zoom to zero. Everything fell into place. The show wouldn't play on any but very strong graphics environments. I modified the show so that each puzzle piece consisted of a PNG file not much larger than a single puzzle piece and the show would play on virtually any PC smoothly. Guess what? The compressed size for the zip file and for the executables were virtually identical. But remember a jpeg file expands to its uncompressed size in memory when played on a computer. The second part of the issue is even more important as Jean Pierre describes. That concerns the "dimensions" in pixels displayed on the screen at any given time. So if your graphics card is set to display at 1200x960 and the native file size in pixels is 1600x1200 it will take more graphics power than if your graphics card were set to 1024x768 and you played the same 1600x1200 image. In other words the file size in pixel dimensions in the "visual" portion of the screen is important in the calculations or number crunching ability of the card. By changing your own images to a smaller dimension, you both decreased the RAM requirements and the calculation requirements. So either a dfferent graphics display size or a different native file pixel count impact the smoothness. I hope this explanation isn't too convoluted... LOL Best regards, Lin

--> QUOTE(Mr B @ Jan 1 2007, 10:36 AM) ← I to have a NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 and get jerky transitions from the Forum members shows in PTE5. I understand the need for more processing power but how does this help when producing a show that is played on a lower spec machine? Will I have to produce a show thinking of what the users machine has as a graphics card? As Jean-Pierre says, the answer right now is "yes". In the U.S. there are many high powered computers with powerful graphics cards but in many places in the world there are a number of less powerful computers still being sold and even larger numbers still in use which have less than optimal graphics power. With the coming of Windows Vista operating system comes the requirement for a high powered graphics environment. In a couple years all new computers will easily run the most complex and video demanding shows, but right now there are a sizeable number of even new computers, especially laptop models, which can't handle heavy video calculations done via the graphics chip. On the other hand, since you see jerkyness in many of the shows created by forum members, a show which does run smoothly on your own computer will probably run smoothly on the majority of computers because your own graphics engine is challenged by what can be created and run smoothly on more powerful graphics machines. When I created my Christmas show, Jean-Pierre couldn't see it on his computer. All except one of the people I sent links to in the U.S. could see it fine, but it didn't always play smoothly. One person I sent the link to couldn't see it at all and his business laptop (he works for a major electronics company in the U.S.) is less than six months old, so there are computers being sold in the US right now which can't handle heavy graphics loads. The best way to be sure everyone can see your show is to pay attention to the points Jean-Pierre has made and be aware that everyone may not have the video power to view your show. Best regards, Lin

It was explained earlier, I believe, that existing registered users could purchase the Deluxe version for the difference between the price of PicturesToExe and PicturesToExe Deluxe and as I recall that was $20 U.S. Lin

Hi Mark, That almost pins down the issue to resources. Possibly video RAM or not enough video power to crunch all the numbers but the more likely is video RAM. When the smaller files run smoothly and the larger ones don't the common difference is the file size (not dimensions but actual size in bytes). If you could check the difference in the file size between your smaller and larger files it might reveal where the cut-off point might be. Best regards, Lin

Strange weather indeed across the world. Hopefully you will be able to "make your own" now - LOL... best wishes from Colorado, Lin

Hi Nickolas, Happy New Year to you too! We are all looking forward to hearing more from you. best wishes for the coming year, Lin

Be sure you have the latest Direct X (9c). You can tell by clicking on Start, the Run then type in dxdiag and press ENTER. Use the tabs on the resultant popup to see which version you have installed. If you have the latest Direct X and still don't have smooth movement, then you graphical environment is probably too week for the hardware rendered shows. An updated graphics card will usually do the trick very well. While you are checking with dxdiag, see how much video RAM you have and which graphics card and which graphical adapter (probably an older one such as AGP or else you're using a notebook). If you look on the web you can find some very powerful graphics cards for the AGP bus such as the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro for under $100. These are extremely good cards and will run any graphics quite smoothly. Best regards, Lin

Forgive me if I'm boring everyone with demonstrations of snow making, but after the second blizzard in three days I think I'm obsessed with snow - I can't get away from it - HA! I realized that the 32 meg Christmas show was a bit large for easy download, especially for those with limited bandwidth so I thought a much smaller file might be appropriate for those interested in this procedure. This scene, from my backyard, shows a demonstration of the technique I describe in my PDF on snow making with P2E. The demonstration runs for two minutes and the snow begins as a very fine mist - almost like what we call "sleet." Over the two minute period, the consistency and volume of snow increases to a "white out" (which is how it's been around here lately). The thing of interest, I think, is that the entire snow effect is accomplished with a single PNG file created in Photoshop in just a few seconds as described in the PDF. By using the PFD file four times and simply varying the angle, speed and opacity of the animated PNG as well as the zoom, it's possible to create any snowfall effect from a light "sleet" to large wispy flakes. The more zoom, of course, the larger and softer the appearance of the flakes. The demo also uses the PNG masking effect to ameliorate or diminish the harshness of snow falling on an already snow packed earth. I purposely used a slightly different hue on the snow in the photo and the falling snow to make it easier to see the effect. In a real simulation, we would want to match the white tones very closely. Here is a link to the smaller demo file for those interested. Also a link to the PDF description and "how to do it" file. When I get the AV completed I will also furnish the pte file for this demo with the PNG, but it's more important, I think, for the reader to learn how to create the PNG file than simply to have one available to toss into a show. The PDF describes in detail how to create the PNG and part of the experience is learning how to create both the snow PNG as well as how to create PNG "masks". Link to PDF: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/snowforp2e.pdf Link to Snow Demo: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/snowdemo.zip Happy New Year ... Lin

Hi Howard, AVG has had issues with a number of false positives for quite a while now. Their operating philosophy seems to be that if they don't recognize something it's automatically suspect. Unfortunately that shotgun approach leads to any number of false positives including what you are seeing. I gave up on AVG a couple years ago and purchased a number of top-rated anti-threat, anti-spyware and anti-trojan/anti-worm programs including Nod32, AdAware, Trend Micro, Spyware Doctor and ParetoLogic. I run each of my executables as well as my entire system and peripherals with all the above. No singe program yet finds "every" possible variant, but this combination doesn't miss much. I've never experienced a single problem in 5 years with PicturesToExe executable files and I don't think there have been any in the past or any at the present time. Chalk it up to AVG's being overly cautious to the point of interfering with perfectly normal functioning executable files. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mark, There are several places where you can see PicturesToExe Presentations as well as demos of various techniques, tutorials, etc. Here are some links: http://beechbrook.com/ (click on PTE presentations) http://www.lin-evans.net (click on the slideshow demos link) http://thefreedom.free.fr/share/portal.php There are a number of others - but this will get you started. best regards, Lin

Hi Ray, Thanks! Actually I may have some time on my hands to work on it since we're getting another blizzard right now which has already dropped another 30 inches of white stuff in the foothills and it's expected to last throughout tomorrow and not subside until early Sunday morning. We can expect probably another 30 inches over tomorrow so if it doesn't change it may equal or exceed the all time Colorado worst blizzard of 1913 which dumped 86 inches on Georgetown and about 44 inches on Denver. All the shoveling I've done over the past three days has long since been covered in white and this one is heavy and wet so will be much more difficult to work with. I'll try to start on the AV tutorial tomorrow after I dig another trail to my barn to feed my old horse. Hope the New Year treats you and your family right - best wishes, Lin & Sherry

Hey Al, As soon as I rest up from shoveling the last ton, I'll fix that - LOL. Actually we have another blizzard going on right now - we've already had another 30 inches with probably that much more to go before the storm passes early Sunday morning. All my "shoveling" has dissapered under a new blanket of fresh powder. I'll probably add some more pictures tomorrow, but I did try to remedy the snow stopping issue and I "think" it's fixed now. Happy holidays and the best from snowy Colorado, Lin & Sherry

HI Ken, That's the latest one - if it "burps" on the sound at the start, it's most likely some incompatiblity concerning the bitrate I used. Higher bitrates on the MP3 give more acoustic quality but may not be 100% compatible with all sound cards in terms of how fast you can feed it. Using a lower bitrate such as 128kbps is "safer" for more compatibility but at some compromise in sound fidelity. Of course on this little demo with only acoustic music and no vocal track I probably could get by with the lower bitrate such as the one I used on the original conversion but since I was re-encoding anyway I decided to up the acoustic quality a bit and probably overdid it. It's like the bitrate we use in DVD creations. If we went too high (in the older beta versions) we lost sound in places on the burned DVD. That's been addressed in the latest version, but I suspect that we need to be mindful of the sound issues in terms of adding background music. I know that some MP3's in the past have been problematic. Thanks for testing this for me. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, The latest should be dated 12-28 and should be back to about 30 meg or so in size. I'm not hearing any problems but that doesn't mean other won't. There may be some sound compatibility issues with the bitrate I used with your sound system. I upped the bitrate between the first show with the clicking sounds which Igor found and these latest ones. That may account for the sound issue on your system and not on Ron's or mine, etc. - who really knows?? LOL Best regards, Lin

Hi Ron, Thanks much for the feedback! A very happy New Year to you and your family too, and best wishes for the coming year!! Lin & Sherry

Hi Ken, I reduced the size of one of the huge images in the show and recompiled and created yet another executable. This one brought the overall size back to about 32 meg. I can't hear any sound issues with this one, but am not sure if that's because it's not there or my hearing/sound system - LOL. thanks, Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, This morning I re-encoded the MP3 with a higher bitrate and created the executable again. Hopefully now the clicking sound is gone! The new zip is a few megabytes larger. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Thanks and happy holidays from Colorado. This gives me something to do between shoveling snow - HA! Lin Hi Igor, Thank you and Happy Holidays to all from Colorado. I will check the original MP3 and see, perhaps in the conversion it caused the "clicks" - I will try and convert it again. The slides can be much smaller than the originals I used so I'm going to resample and recreate the show. I think maybe I can get it down to about 10 megabytes so people witth less video card power can enjoy it as well. Best regards, Lin

Hi Folks For those of you who emailed me and expressed an interest in how to make and use snow-fall effects for P2E, I have completed a PDF Tutorial. It deals with using Photoshop to create the PNG file, how to get the best effects, how to use this file several ways in P2E, etc. Download Link Below: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/snowforp2e.pdf Links to a couple demos of these effects below: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/storm.zip http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/Christmas.zip Lin

Merry Christmas all from Colorado... There have been a few questions lately about (imagine that) creating S N O W for the season. This is just a quick Christmas demo to show, among other things, how a single PNG file can be used in various ways to create totally different snow effects with PicturesToExe. In the linked executable, a single PNG file was used in various ways to simulate snow. We had a huge blizzard in the two days just before Christmas which gave me some images from my windows to use for the demo. I apologize for the size of this zipped executable (32 meg), it can and will be made much smaller when I have time to resize the original images but since it's Christmas and I've been busy shoveling snow - I didn't have time to refine this. There are two techniques in this show. First the creation of the snow itself and then the use of PNG overlay files and layers to allow the snow effect through windows, etc. I plan to make an AV tutorial later this week to explain all in detail, but for right now just a quick demo. In the couple days before Christmas we had true blizzard conditions with blowing snow, high winds, huge drifts and all around bad weather, but Christmas morning dawned beautiful, crystal clear with blue skies and a warming trend.... the demo reflects this change. I hope all have a great holiday and look forward to many more wonderful days on the forum in the year to come. Best regards, Lin http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/Christmas.zip