alrobin Posted October 15, 2003 Report Share Posted October 15, 2003 Igor,A long time ago I suggested that the capability to have a new transition start part-way through one already in progress be considered. (i.e. have several independent tracks, each one representing a separate "projector".) I can do this with my crude self-designed and built pc-controlled analogue 4-projector controller, so with all the flexibility in digital design, it should be a "piece of cake" to provide it for a much larger number of "virtual projectors" in digital!!?? If you can provide this feature in PTE, even with only two or three independent "tracks", then you will have a program even further ahead of any competition, and the excellent program that it is will be made even better. Of course this is not a small add-in, as the whole GUI for PTE would have to be re-thought and re-designed. But, I think it is worth considering, especially before becoming more "locked-in" to the present design through the addition of some of the new features being contemplated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guru Posted October 15, 2003 Report Share Posted October 15, 2003 Dear Al, this would be a dream for all "old" enthusiasts of AV shows ("diaporamas" in French)... and mine too. Actually, PTE cannot reproduce all effects we were able to create with two (or more) projectors.But I think this feature, even if theoretically possible, is not suitable nor convenient to WnSoft. Here are the reasons, in my opinion:1. How many users can be interested in this? Thirty, sixty, hundred in all the world? Maybe even two or three hundreds... Is it worth while to a software house?2. It would be a really hard work, because it means to rewrite all the code. PTE now works as one projector, with a little "memory" to make transitions.3. To manage two projectors it is necessary a much more complex program, and even its use would become more difficult. Reading this forum, we can see that PTE is already not so easy for many people. We too are using it since several years, but sometimes we forget something...In conclusion I think such a software should be a software for very few people, and also rather difficult to write. It would be necessary to be an enthusiastic creator of AV shows, and at the same time a great "open source" programmer. Only under these conditions I think this software could arise.Don't you agree? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alrobin Posted October 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2003 Guido,I appreciate what you are saying, but I'm not sure I agree with you. People are asking for video capabilities, and zoom in and out, and panning, etc., all of which are very processor-intensive, and not really in the realm of slide-projection. Without a multi-projector simulation, our shows will continue to be somewhat "stilted", as is the case when we have to leave half a second before starting a new transition. Multi-projector capability would smooth out these transitions so that they would blend in more pleasingly with each other. For instance, I tried to set up a transition to an intermediate image in order to smooth out the dissolve from the first to the third slide, but I had to give it up as the dissolve between only two slides was smoother and more natural due to having to have a slight pause after each transition.This capability would also lead to some interesting effects due to the combining of two or more transitions (e.g. a vertical wipe combined with a horizontal one, and involving 3 or 4 images, or a dissolve half-way to a second image, and then back to the first one, or cycling through several images instead of having to do this linearly.)All of the processing for this wouldn't have to be done "on the fly" but could be set up in the "create" process, like a sort of "rendering".I find it strange to believe that it is possible to control up to 4 projectors by cycling quickly through each one in turn, and calculating and controlling the phase of the power to each such that each one cuts off at exactly the right time, according to how intense its lamp is supposed to be at the time, in only 4Kb of RAM, but it is not possible to simulate this digitally with at least 32,000 times the amount of RAM, and a processor at least 10,000 times as powerful. I do agree with you that the ideal solution to this problem, as well as to the provision of many of the new features we are asking of Igor, lies in the use of some other specially-adapted custom OS other than Windows, but maybe there is a happy medium through clever adaptation of the Windows OS, too. Igor has provided us with the best-looking dissolve on the market, so I'm sure he and others could come up with some clever algorithms to handle these more sophisiticated effects just as ingeniously if they applied themselves to it.Maybe all this is just wishful thinking, but sometimes it doesn't hurt to wish and dream a little, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
think(box) Posted October 16, 2003 Report Share Posted October 16, 2003 I agree with Al. Igor is taking all reasonable steps to make PTE have the most sophisticated, professional quality effects. Al's request is totally within reason and it may not have such a minority usage once all of the pro- and semi-pro level developers get their hands on it.I also respectfully disagree with Guido regarding the performance demands for many such effects, although I do agree that not all multi-projector effects will be achievable. To blend three images in an effect instead of two requires some additional memory and an incremental increase in processor speed demand. Given only a modest increase in P2E effects generation efficiency the performance cost of a three-way blend could be mostly absorbed and thus have minimal effect on the minimum speed system for a given slideshow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcarthur Posted October 17, 2003 Report Share Posted October 17, 2003 Dear Al, this would be a dream for all "old" enthusiasts of AV shows ("diaporamas" in French)... and mine too. Actually, PTE cannot reproduce all effects we were able to create with two (or more) projectors.But I think this feature, even if theoretically possible, is not suitable nor convenient to WnSoft. Here are the reasons, in my opinion:1. How many users can be interested in this? Thirty, sixty, hundred in all the world? Maybe even two or three hundreds... Is it worth while to a software house?2. It would be a really hard work, because it means to rewrite all the code. PTE now works as one projector, with a little "memory" to make transitions.3. To manage two projectors it is necessary a much more complex program, and even its use would become more difficult. Reading this forum, we can see that PTE is already not so easy for many people. We too are using it since several years, but sometimes we forget something...In conclusion I think such a software should be a software for very few people, and also rather difficult to write. It would be necessary to be an enthusiastic creator of AV shows, and at the same time a great "open source" programmer. Only under these conditions I think this software could arise.Don't you agree? I'll remind people that there is software which can do this - GlobFX. I believe lots of people are interested as well. Again (sorry to bore), I love the workflow and flexibility of GlobFX, and the smooth transitions, openness and user community of PTE. I just wish the two could easily be combined!Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADB Posted October 17, 2003 Report Share Posted October 17, 2003 GlobeFX did offer this functionality and it is very sad they have not updated their program. I have emailed them several times but with no positive response. However I am now looking forward to PTE's ability to output to AVI I then plan to import that AVI into something like Vegas Video and "add in" the extra's.The big advantage of those Video programs like Vegas and Premier etc etc is that you have almost unlimited numbers of transitions going on at once it may take the PC a while to render it but once it does the Video Output will play on any DVD player or PC. The big draw back is that you have huge files and it is out of the Question for sharing on the internet. PTE's strength lies in its high quality transitions, synchronisation and speed of producing a show, when used with a Video Package you will be able to create ANYTHING!! and reasonably quickly.Roll on AVI output!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gérard de Lux Posted October 17, 2003 Report Share Posted October 17, 2003 I fully agree with Al and Bill (ThinkBox).PTE is fantastic and I love it. But it behaves as a traditional 2-projectors show. This is why it would be so nice to have at least one extra image track or one more virtual projector for image overlapping effects as is the case with 3-projectors shows. Of course, not being a programmer I have no idea of the changes/work that would be necessary, but it would be a real major improvement.And if this is not possible, too bad, and I'll still be happy to use PTE the way it is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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