Lin Evans

The first thing I would do is to dump all other programs running in the background through the task manager including any anti-virus programs and see if you still have the same problem. Next I would have a check done to determine if there is a possibility of some bad RAM. Some programs are bad about not releasing RAM back to the system after they run - I've actually had software which would, over time, pull down 2 gigabytes of RAM and cause crashes. The fact that the problem may be intermittant may have to do with which PTE programs you run first and how much RAM they require. If the system is low on user memory because of memory leak from badly behaved software or because of defective RAM chips, then it could explain why the program might hang rather than return to the menu which is actually the process of opening another executable file. Best regards, Lin

It's indeed a very nice player - I'm still trying to get the equalization to work, but other than probably something I'm doing wrong it's a very sophisticated player. The echo and reverb work perfectly and the interface, though a bit confusing to me at first, seems very intuitive once you understand the process for loading and playing selections. You certainly can't beat the price! LOL Thanks for the info and link!! Best regards, Lin

It works for me, but since there are only a couple transitions available now probably you might want to set something on the order of six seconds on the fade in (6000) to see it work. The defaut of 1.5 seconds (1500) is hardly long enough to realize that a transition is actually occuring. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, This may be the one on the coin you are looking for - fourth thread down on this link: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....l=morgan+dollar Lin

Hi Igor, I will try to find out which video card my friend has in each machine and which DirectX version. We tried to run a couple slideshows and on the one machine the sound had "clicking" on a regular basis and the video response was very slow so you could see almost a half second frame change. On the second none of my slideshow executables would load at all. He lives about 30 miles away but I will try to find out what's going on and perhaps we can get it corrected. I suspect it may be due to the version of DirectX. He is an engineer and uses both systems for only Autocad and earlier slideshows with 4.x run fine on both machines. Best regards, Lin

Hi Sheila, I'm a bit unclear. Are you having the same problem with the same error message on both the laptop and desktop, or only on the desktop? Windows 2000 is quirky and I've seen some cases where it won't play an executable file from P2E so there may be some as yet undiagnosed incompatibility but it definitely "should" run on Windows XP without issues. I have a friend who has Windows 2000 on two different computers. On one the slideshows from 5.0 beta 3 run but there is "clicking" in the sound and even though he has a decent video card, the performance is not up to par. On his other Windows 2000 machine the executables won't even load. Unfortunately there are not too many of us who have Windows 2000 so it's difficult to get good data, but there may be some incompatibilities between Windows 2000 and P2E Beta. Lin

Hi John, I think the particular transition you saw was an old Billy goat with a zoom in centered on his eye, then a transition to the following slide of his baby which began with a zoom in on the eye followed by a zoom out. I spent one day photographing a mountain goat family at 14,268 feet - there were twin kids, mom and pop and I thought it might be nice to "see" the child through the eye of the adult - just playing a bit with some "Hollywood" effects - LOL. I wish I could tone down the birds a bit, but they are recorded on the same tracks with the music and I can't separate them. Yes - the James Taylor authored piece "Fire and Rain" has a camp fire crackling and popping in the background - I could envision John Denver and friends sitting around a fire in the mountains above Aspen - wish I had taken some shots years ago when I met him in the Canadian Rockies - it would have made some nice footage to add to the show. Sure - help yourself - I suspect it will project nicely at 1024x768.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Ron, Thanks! It was a fun one to put together. Best regards, Lin LOL - you haven't met our Colorado Ice Frogs? HA! Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, I would like to slow it down, but it would have meant way more work than I have time for to get the sequencing and music correct again - LOL. Maybe some day I'll get a chance to re create the entire show and drop off a couple slides or add some to get the timing correct for a slower display of the text scroll. Best regards, Lin

Hi folks, This is a long one - about 132 megabytes on the download and a running time of a bit over 27 minutes.... Selected wildlife and nature photos from my 2005 work in Colorado. The show includes Elk in rut (fighting), Elk in snow, Mule Deer in deep powder, Coyotes, Pika (tiny Rock Rabbits), Rocky Mountain Big Horn ram, Rocky Mountain Goats at over 14,000 feet elevation, Chipmunk, Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel, Marmot, Wood Duck, Canadian Geese, Bald Eagle, Clark's Nutcracker, Magpie, Wood Duck, Stellar's Jay, American Bison (buffalo), Pronghorn Antelope, and lots of beautiful Colorado mountain scenery. http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/colorado.zip Best regards, Lin

Sorry, didn't work. After four hours of download via dial-up, the file was corrupted so I guess I'll have to give up until my broadband IP has reparired the problems. Best regards, Lin O.K., all fixed now - finally! Here's the link to the updated vger2.exe file with more legible text... http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/vger3.zip Lin

Hi John, I was not happy with the text either and re-worked the opening credits (I didn't change the text on the last image). The file is uploading right now, but will take about four hours. My broadband is not working correctly and corrupts the files on upload or download and I'm forced to use the dial-up connect. The 35 megabyte file is moving at "snail-speed" of 2.4 kbps, but at least it's not being distroyed packet by packet - LOL. Perhaps in another three or four hours it will be uploaded and I'll place a link to the new zipped executable. I think you'll find the text much easier to read on the opening credit though I didn't change the timing since it would affect the entire show if I did. Being easier to read should make it also easier to read quickly. Best regards, Lin

To see just the individual slide you are working with from the Objects and Animations screen, click on the icon between "Preview" and "Project Options" rather than using the Preview. Preview will always start from the beginning of the show but the icon between preview and project options will start with the transition to the individual slide then play the slide you are on and continue from that position. Sound will be in the proper sync for that position. Yes, there are a number of features not yet implemented in beta. I'm not certain what you mean by "mini-viewer" window? Do you mean from the Timeline for music sync window? You should see the PZR from either Preview or from the icon between Preview and Project Options but at least right now only the changes in slides are shown from the music sync Timeline view. Whether it will be feasible to see the actual animations from here is still an open question. Best regards, Lin

I can tell you how I deal with this. Whenever I have such an issue, I save the slideshow and close P2E. I then make necessary changes to the file and copy the altered file to the folder where I'm working from but using the identical name as the old file, then reopen p2e and all timings, etc., are preserved just as they were. If I decide to change an image or substitute an image in a particular position, I usually change to file name of the image to be substituted to the name of the image which will be removed and do the file swap with P2E closed. The issue is that file information in the .pte file is maintained by file name not by position in the slide list. There may be an option to keep the same timings, etc., in terms of position, but I don't think there is because the pt2 file is regenerated whenever you save your work and since the information for a given image is saved and associated with that image name in the .pte template, I find it easier, especially with a long slideshow containing many images if I just substitute names. I rarely assign timings or effects until after I have finalized the order of the slides. It's not a simple thing to go back and re-set everything in a length show with many slides so I usually name my slides for a show by number such as 01.jpg, 02,jpg, etc. I use IrfanView to batch process and this makes it very easy to rename if I decide to change positions, etc., without messing up the file associated timings, animations, etc. Best regards, Lin

Hi Beth, I should have been more explicit. The large IP hosts have 24/7 live technical support (iPower, for example) and there is rarely, if ever down time with maintenance (I've never had this problem with iPower). However, there are all types and sizes of internet providers so it's incumbent upon the subscriber to carefully check out the potential company they plan to have host their site because smaller IP hosts may indeed have limited hours for live technical support or not have live support at all and, as you say, may be out of service just when you need them while they run maintenance. Best regards, Lin

Hi Al, Yes, it's difficult to keep up with all the changes in the global ISP market. Storage is much less expensive today than only a year ago so many companies compete on that basis and it's absolutely true that one's needs versus the features and benefits offered must be considered. For personal purposes and uploading a few hundred images on a website even 1 gigabyte of storage is a lot and for some professional purposes 10 gigabytes is way too little - LOL. For some time I had my own server which was very convenient but rather expensive. At that time my ISP was only about 15 miles from my office so I could do my own on-site server maintenance when necessary and my ISP was very cooperative, but when I cut back my operations and tried to retire (fat chance!) I ended up needing more storage and bandwidth than my contract provided for and the penalty costs were becoming prohibitive so I went looking for the best deals around. At that time there were several Canadian based (at least their offices were in Canada) companies which were just getting started and who offered very competitive rates and excellent services. That's when I signed on with iPower. I renewed my 3 year subscription a few days ago and were quite surprised to find that they no longer had any Canadian offices and that their servers were now in California and offices and support were in Arizona. As you say, it's become a global thing these days. My wife was recently working remote in Colorado for a California based software corporation who had their servers and ISP in Texas. They pay $5000 per month and thought it was a fantastic deal. When I checked into what they actually had in terms of storage, servers, maintenance agreements and features I found that they could duplicate it for about $200 per month! It's amazing how many of these ISP's can hijack corporations for thousands of dollars and how little knowledge there is in many corporations, even those with reasonably savvy IT professionals about true costs. I guess it's almost a full-time job just trying to stay informed these days..... Best regards, Lin

Hi Al, iPower had their offices in Canada when I signed on with them several years ago, but their servers are located in California and their central offices are now in Arizona so they are not really a Canadian company per-se. I get 10 gigabytes of storage, 250 gigabytes per month of bandwidth for downloads, domain registration is included and this costs me a total of $214 for three years of all the above which is pretty hard to beat. Real time toll-free telephone technical support, SSL / CGI / PHP / MySQL - E-Commerce Enabled all included. It's really hard to beat their combination of services and prices. Best regards, Lin

That's a cool effect Luc !, You may also want to change the order for the two curtains so that they fall behind the main stage. That way the security curtain (at the top) doesn't show through when you go to 70% opacity. Just move them each back so they appear above the stage in the objects order. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, There are any number of internet providers out there and some of the least expensive I've found are in Canada. It really doesn't matter where they are physically located, you just need to determine how much storage space you need and sign up. Prices vary depending on the services you need - for example it's more if you want to sell products, etc., but for just posting images and such it can be very reasonable. There are places such as PBase, where you can post images free, but frankly I think you would be happier over all if you had your own provider. Here's a link to the one I use (IPowerWeb) which I've found to be very reasonable and reliable. Their prices begin at about $8.00 per month and that us usually payable in advance for a year. You will also need to register a name such as "johnE.net" - they will help with that as well. They also have a free service which helps you quickly build a very basic website. http://www.ipowerweb.com/ Best regards, Lin

Hi Bruce, Yes, that puzzle was compiled to an executable on an earlier beta version. There is a delay with a blank screen with the music playing for about 7 seconds before the puzzle pieces begin. The puzzle pieces all move at their own speeds - some very fast, some slowly and it does end as you discovered with an uncut image. This version loads 147 megabytes at the same time into Video RAM so that even powerful 128 meg RAM video cards are challenged. If it runs fairly smoothly then you know that almost anything created with PicturesToExe will run very well on that computer because no one would normally create something with this type of requirement. When I first created it, it ran very well on my ATI RADEON 9800 Pro - which is one of the more powerful cards available. There was a bit of "jitter" with the piece which is rotating in the very front but this is because the show is pushing the very limits. Once I heard back from several people who tried it and found it to be rather "jerky" I did another (puzzlesmallRAM) which had a relatively tiny RAM load and runs well even on older video cards. The issue is that when files are compressed they show only their compressed sizes when you look at them in Windows but once they load in memory on the computer they expand to their true size. Even though the zipped file size of puzzlesmallRAM.zip and puzzle.zip are very close, the expanded sizes are quite different. The puzzlesmallRAM version should run smoothly on nearly any system, and it loads much quicker so there is only about a 2.5 second delay before the images appear. Either of these would load much quicker were they compiled with the latest beta which loads 30% faster than the older betas. Best regards, Lin

There have been numerous questions over the last few months about various video cards and how they perform with RAM loads. I created two 30 piece puzzle slideshows (very brief) which are virtually identical in practical appearance but which differ greatly in their use of video RAM. Each uses 30 layers with 30 puzzle pieces each of which are PNG files but one will run on low RAM systems very smoothly while the other taxes even the very best video cards. Below are links.... http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzlesmallRAM.zip http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzle.zip The first link is to the low RAM version which runs smoothly on almost all systems. The second link is to the RAM challenging version which even challenges the Radeon 9800 Pro. Put these two versions on a Flash media card and take them with you when you shop for a notebook computer. If the computer runs the high RAM version half-way smoothly, it has a decent video card. Best regards, Lin

One of our forum members, Henn, was kink enough to send me a link to a picture of La Fenice in Venitia, which though of low resolution was already correct in perspective and made, I think, a better source for the stage curtain effects. So I added another spot to Dom's addition, added a stage curtain lighting effect, some minor changes and some more slides just to get a feel for how it might be used.... Zipped file containing all elements plus executable for anyone wanting to play.... Best regards, Lin http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/stage3.zip

Hey Ken, LOL - you're dating yourself dude - wasn't that a 1971 Stanley Kubrick film? Wow 35 years since you went to a movie - you've got to get out more Yes, I just checked my email - it's been up and down lately - some issues with my server I think, and I found the links - some great stuff there, thanks!!. I'm not sure if it will be possible to emulate some of what was done because of the different technology requiring actual video, but if Igor gets the video drop in working for the release - all this will become rather moot I think because a video sequence can be then inserted with absolute realism. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, That's a neat effect, but isn't it rather "backwards" in that when unweighted curtains are quickly drawn the compression is first at the top? In other words they would first be in a "V" shape rather than an inverted V?? Of course on large theatrical stages, the stage curtains all have heavy weight in the hems on the bottom to prevent this so that they generally compress more evenly with drawn though they do tend to compress more (pleats are tighter) at the opening edge than at the back, so in that sense your example is visually correct and would work well if we could implement it. It could be done by actually using four curtains rather than two. The back ones would be compressed less and the front ones (the ones creating the opening edge) could be compressed more and shifted from the horizontal slightly. There are lots of interesting possibilities. Best regards, Lin

Hi Martin, I'll try to answer both question here. If you have a web site, you can post the zipped file into a folder on the server at that site then provide a link here by simply putting the path. For example. I created a slideshow called puzzlesmallRAM. I zipped this file via the method explained earlier then I had a file called puzzlesmallRAM.zip which contains all the images used to create the show as well as the file puzzlesmallRAM.pte. This file was then uploaded to my website in a folder called p2e. My website is accessed by typing: http://www.lin-evans.net The file, being in a folder called "p2e" then is accessed by providing that path: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzlesmallRAM.zip If you don't have a website, then there some places where you can still post images and files such as pbase, etc., but in order for someone to download your file to test it, it needs to be placed on a server on the internet. Best regards, Lin