Lin Evans

Hi Mick, Yes, the difficulty of doing it like Dom and I did was that one needs to adjust the moving color at various points, especially, as you say, if the road is twisty. That method could be combined with a mask to confine the appearance only at the specific point in the route. The mask could be easily made just as the cut-out by painting the route white and making every other thing black. Then by moving the mask as the parent of the color jpg some of the difficulty of unwanted appearance of the colored jpg could be eliminated because the color couldn't show except at the position of the unveiling of the mask. Best regards, Lin

The way Dominique (theDom) and I did the first ones with PTE was a little different. We took a copy jpg of the map into Photoshop and pasted it on a transparency. Then we used a brush the diameter of the line representing the route and erased the highway route leaving transparency in place of the highway and saved as a PNG. Then we took the original jpg map and placed it in PTE with the copy of the cut-out on top. This appeared then exactly as the original jpg but what was actually seen as the highway route was the underlying jpg showing through the cut-out in the PNG layer on top. Next we took a colored jpg (solid color such as red) and sandwiched it between the PNG and the jpg in yet a third layer on PTE and we moved it, thus replacing the original route with the moving red line, etc., to represent the route as traveled in real time. Lin Quick and VERY unsophisticated example: http://www.lin-evans.org/pte8/mapdemo.mp4

I made nine megapixel exe slideshows for clients with PTE many years ago which ran perfectly on nine megapixel IBM and Viewsonic displays. The systems and dual video cards were not suitable for animation at that resolution but simple fades and incredibly detailed images ran perfectly. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Perhaps by the time hardware averages catch up to 4K video things will run smoothly for most. I still can't even run 1080p at 30 fps smoothly over the web because of download speed bottleneck - I think that decent spooling caches (preload) should be developed before the industry gets carried away with super high resolution video.... Best regards, Lin

Hi John, You have plenty of resources to run that - can you link to the actual GIF file and I'll try to sort it for you. The zoom is very easy - just a couple keyframes so I'll make you a sample and you can modify as needed. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, A lot depends on the amount of resources you have in your system and with an animated GIF how large the file is. If you can post the amount of RAM on your video card and the size of the GIF perhaps I can make some suggestions. It may be that you need to export your GIF from Xara in a smaller pixel size. I'm assuming that you are running a Windows operating system. If so, you can get the specifications of your GPU (video card) by "Start" "Run" then type in DXDIAG then press Enter. Then read out the video and system resources and post here. Best regards, Lin

Hi Judy, 1. No - a blur can't be applied to a mask. 2. In Slide Options - Main Tab - Slide Duration - Use "Loop This Slide" Set your slide time to about the same duration as the cube rotation then loop the slide. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, The proper procedure is stabilize the video as it comes from your camera, etc., in Mercali then convert the stabilized video in PTE. When Mercali stabilized a video the video is re-rendered so it you are adding an unnecessary step by converting before stabilizing. PTE sets a number of parameters which allow the smooth play in even less than optimal systems. Much of what it does is decompression and when you run Mercali it recompresses. It has little to do with bitrate and much to do with compression levels. So if you just do the stabilization then convert you should have optimal performance. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dawn, It's possible to make about any type animation with PicturesToExe that you might want. Sometimes even no animation might be preferable. With a good collection of images from the family - I'm certain that you can make a beautiful and memorable show which can show the life of the deceased in a way fitting for the family and friends. I did this for my own mother's funeral and the show began with her childhood pictures and took the viewer through her entire long, varied and interesting life. When coupled with meaningful text and in some cases perhaps voice - and appropriate soft background music, this type show can be a joy to watch. What you may want to consider is watching various PTE shows to see the different types of motion and perhaps watching some tutorials which can help you learn how to effectively use the timeline with keyframes to perform pans, zooms and rotates as well as blurs, focus changes and such. Also judicious use of borders and multiple simultaneous images both in motion as well as stills all might be useful. There is not a single format which would be always appropriate and the more that you watch and learn, the easier it will be for you to chose the appropriate type to best present the deceased to your audience. Visit our tutorials page here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/topic/17659-alphabetic-index-of-articles-and-tutorials/ and you might find a number of possibilities. Then go here and check both regular shows as well as the demos pages: http://www.slideshowclub.com/files/category/1-slideshows/ http://www.slideshowclub.com/files/category/2-demos/ Best regards, Lin

Talent is 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration - LOL... It will come as you play with the software and try new things. Best regards, Lin

LOL - I just got back from the hospital visiting Lisah - a total "white-out" for 12 miles... forecast is for snow every day for the next seven days and that's as far as the forecast goes. I think I may have to hook up Lisah's four Chihuahuas and old Honey dog to a sled to get back and forth... that could make an interesting slide show... Lin

Yes, I'm assuming you mean the "loop" function in slide styles, but I don' think the "LOOP" function is really a solution. The second way is useful, but wouldn't it be better to just modify the original style so that all six images get to the front at least one time? Playing with this brought up another possibility - wouldn't it be useful to have the option of modifying the background image in project options by addition of the blur feature? So when one chooses their own background image for the slides, they could also blur it as desired.... Just a thought... Best regards, Lin

Works great but how do you make it rotate all images through the front? It seems to stop in the same place regardless of the times set for side duration. When I adjust the "speed" the time changes automatically. When I adjust the time, the speed changes automatically? Best regards, Lin

Hi Geoff, You won't be able to display the system time/date, etc., but it is fairly easy to construct a clock which will keep accurate time and display that. Back in the stone age of PTE I demonstrated a "Road to Cimarron" slideshow which displayed a map and a real-time clock which had second, minute and hour hands. Essentially I took a fairly large image of a clock and saved the components as PNG files. There was a PNG second hand, PNG minute hand, PNG hour hand and then the clock with it's numbers minus the hands. The hands were stacked in three layers and between keyframes the proper increments of rotation were calculated for the desired display time and everything was as accurate as the system clock. You could build this clock, control its appearance with a mask and use the opacity feature to control when it displayed. It's not a real simple construct, but it would work as you have indicated. The only issue would be making certain that it was running in sync with the actual time your menu was displayed in real time. If it was only relative time (time of display) you need it would be easy but if your want accurate time of day you would have to regenerate the exe just before display time and set the clock accordingly. Tom was working on one which had great promise - you might want to read the following: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/topic/15346-pte-transparent-clock/?hl=%2Bclock+%2Bdisplay#entry101745 Best regards, Lin

Hi Bert, Here are the two captures on my system - virtually identical.... I would look at the GPU software settings as Igor suggested... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, I believe it's entirely possible for settings to change between driver updates. Though it would probably be wise for a manufacturer of software to be consistent in their defaults from iteration to iteration, sometimes they are not and at times questions or check boxes are presented during installation and the final result may depend on the response of the person conducting the installation. I haven't updated my nVidia drivers since I installed my latest GTX 750 Ti card because each driver update in the past year has only been related to features I can't access with my XT OS. On my development system which I maintain as more or less the "least common denominator" I see absolutely zero apparent differences between generated MP4's and executable colors. On my rather powerful display system which runs Win 8.1 with a near top-end nVidia video card and maximum possible resources, the situation is identical except my display itself (a 30" 2560x1600 LCD) oversaturates everything by default. Even with this, there is no perceptible difference between the generated MP4 and generated exe in saturation or hue. These issues, I believe, have nothing to do with PTE's generated code but are entirely the result of differences in the GPU settings applied to video. Only Igor can say but my take is that PTE from iteration to iteration is consistent. There has been some experimentation with possibly initiating colorspace awareness but this has not been realized in the present code AFAIK... Best regards, Lin

Hi Bert, Which exact build of PTE are you using? I'm using 8.0.11 and I see absolutely zero difference in saturation between my exe and mp4 on a single image test as linked below: http://www.lin-evans.org/colortest/colortest.zip (exe) http://www.lin-evans.org/colortest/colortestmp4.zip (mp4) See how your player reacts to this mp4 versus the exe. On all my systems they are identical. Hopefully we can find the cause... Best regards, Lin

Hi Sam, There is some confusion here. First, Proshow Producer executable output can only be run on a Windows based computer or on a MacIntosh running Windows. Proshow has no ability to create native MacIntosh executable code like PicturesToExe can. So if a MacIntosh computer is running a Proshow creation, it's either a video created by Proshow or the MacIntosh system is actually running Windows. I think Dave is correct - it's the fact that a video is subject to both the volume controls. In this case, and if a MacIntosh is being used to play the show, my suggestion would be to output your shows in both Video and Native MacIntosh executable format. That might open the eyes of the "experts" who appear to be deluded in their bias. You might also explain to the "experts" that PicturesToExe has the ability to also output a "digitally signed" executable file. Proshow does not have that ability either. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, Well, the good news is that we can assume that it's indeed some sort of resource issue. I suspect the reason it works for someone using a regular Windows system versus the Mac with a portion dedicated to Windows is related to a differential in the timing of the availability of RAM. The only other potential place where I can see a possibility for an issue is that perhaps something in the original PNG file isn't tolerated in the same fashion by the Mac hardware. If you were to remake the original PNG in exactly the same way I'm betting it might work. I long ago gave up trying to understand all the intricacies of the lives of electrons. They seem at times to have a mind of their own. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, It would appear that the issue has to do with the construction phase during the executable build. This can be deduced because the exe I created from your zipped file runs - but you couldn't create it on your system. This could be because all resources of your system are not available such as insufficient RAM from the GPU, or it could be that insufficient resources are simultaneously available. Igor probably could confirm but in order to find out what is causing the problem some experimentation must be done. The first thing I would do is begin manipulating the variables. Since the problem is evident at the preview stage, the first thing I would do is substitute a different PNG file - it really doesn't matter that it is even a similar thing, just a PNG which you can determine is functioning. Don't change the keyframes at all, just choose a different PNG and make it a much smaller one which doesn't occupy the entire 1920x1080 pixel dimension. If this one works, then the problem can be localized to either GPU or CPU RAM possibly not being addressed or insufficient. If the file still will not build in the preview - then substitute a much smaller parent file leaving all your keyframes as they are. See if that will build in the preview. By doing this you will be able to possibly localize which, if either file is creating the road-block and Igor can investigate further. The fact that you lost the ability to access your DVD is a clue and perhaps by localizing the problem now apparent, both issues might be resolved or at least sussed out... Best regards, Lin

Hi John, it works normally on my system in both the mini-viewer and the normal preview. I'm wondering if you might be running into a resource issue of some type because of the size of the file... I'm going to create an exe and post the link below and let's see if the exe works properly on your system... http://www.lin-evans.org/john/preview.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Al, It's been a while - welcome back!! You didn't do anything "wrong" but if you're wondering why your reply ended up in a bracket with numbers it's possibly because you clicked on "Quote" or "MultiQuote" .... doesn't matter - Hope things are going well... Bests regards, Lin

Hi Roger, Temporarily disable the anti-virus and try again - lately there have been several anti-virus programs which give false positives. Nod 32 is an excellent anti-virus but it may be interfering with the executable code. Best regards, Lin

Hi Roger, If you could zip up your PTE project (File - Create Backup in Zip) and post a link we can have a look and see if there is any obvious issue. Also could you say whether you have recently changed or updated your anti-virus software and which, if any, you are using. It would also help to know the operating system version and resouces of your computer. Also, please try to make an exe file with no specific animation and see if the exe creates normally. Best regards, Lin

Way to go Mark!! Congratulations! Best regards, Lin