Spirits In The Sky

[LumenLux]

For any of you that can handle a 106 mb download, my first "production" with 5.0 Beta is available at

Spirits in the Sky

When I can make time I will try to reduce photo file sizes and repost. But don't hold your breath. As for now, I wanted to keep photos full size so as to not add an unknown variable in trying out the zoom and pan capabilities of PTE 5.0

Comments of course are welcome!

[Ken Cox]

Robert get rid of the jerkiness and you have a winner

always ceases to amaze me what has been accomplished in the world by manpower alone

ken

[LumenLux]

Jerkiness huh - and the first comment I received via email said "Very smooth". If you have opportunity to further "test" it, we might learn something. Also, are there identifiable slides where problem is pronounced? Or is the jerkiness due to my handling of the "commands"? Personally, I only ran it on my best pc, and it was perfectly smooth but for two hiccups - and I think they are of my own error. If I do get around to reducing photo file sizes, that would give us another factor to evaluate against the jerkiness you observed. But my guess is the photos that need to remain full size are likely the ones that are already causing the bumps as you view.

[Nettleton]

..... can't wait for my broadband modem to arrive .........!!

[ronwil]

I liked the presentation but I also experienced jerkiness on a number of occasions, sometimes almost imperceptible, but it would be difficult to pinpoint all the offending images. However, if it helps, the first came about 30/40 seconds in from the start of the music with a white cloud building up over a landscape.

I have yet to settle down and master the techniques. I envy you. Keep it up.

Ron [uK]

[nickles]

Hello Mr. Lumenlux:

Your 1st beta 5..hmmm

A darned excellent job. I liked the distortion effect at the start. But in general the show imagery flowed very well to me. Don't know exacly what it was..but at times I almost felt a 3D sensation...and no I haven't been nipping the bottle.

Of course what really made the show was your beautiful Peruvian images...where did you buy those....I'd like to get some too.

Mechanically it was very smooth all the way through on my XP system. This evening I'll put it through it's paces on my slower W2k machine and let you know how it went...but I must return back to the office now...yep, I'm still having to work some.

sincerely,

ken

[LumenLux]

Of course what really made the show was your beautiful Peruvian images...where did you buy those....I'd like to get some too.

Thank you Ken for enjoying. As I started out to "play" with the Beta I started to realize what a natural some of my Machu Picchu shots wih ever-changing weather, light, and perspective, might be. When I saw how well Igor's genius could work the clouds and zooms, I was quite excited. As for getting some of your own photos - just let me know when you want to go. I'v been privileged to visit Machu Picchu three times. All of these photos were from the same single day.

[Ken Cox]

Robert

the jerkiness starts with your first text/title 10 secs from time i clicked the exe and jerks with each zoom

guess i do not have the hp to run it the way you designed it

ken

[nickles]

Hello Lumenlux,

Well, well this is the deal. Tried to run Spirit in the Sky in my older 1.5ghz 648mb Pentium 4 with W2k..Service Pack 4...DirectX 9.0c...ATI Radeon 9200 AGP with 128mb memory.

and...this is what happened...the slide show ran beautifully and smooth up until the first mountain scene with cloud cover. The slide with half the clould cover immediaely appeared with no transition...then the screen went black. The screen went totally black but the music continued to play. Nice music but I got tired of waiting for an image to appear. So escaped and quit the show. Same thing when I repeated.

So far I've ran 12 Beta 5 shows that have been posted in an about the forum. Your's is the first to "mess up" on this machine. I guess you are just going to have to quit creating slide shows...I have nothing else to offer you as a solution.

Now...the show you made was pretty comprehensive...many slides with many new maneuvers. I've only made one show so far with Beta 5 and it consisted of one photo with a few zooms and pans. But I immediately noticed that one slide in Beta 5 is equivalent to many in PTE 4...as far as labor and thought processing to do it...exaggerated a wee bit...but you get my message? I'm going to really enjoy using PTE 5 and what I am saying is no reflection on Igor's brilliant work. I think his concepts in the visual editor are a work of software art. The point I guess I'm making is that with PTE 5 there are now so many possibilities that it boggles my rusty mind. A lot more decisons a slideshow creator must think through in creating his imagery..thus mucho more care and time.

Just curious if you have any thoughts after making such a show.

ken

[Nathan]

For any of you that can handle a 106 mb download, my first "production" with 5.0 Beta is available at

Spirits in the Sky

When I can make time I will try to reduce photo file sizes and repost. But don't hold your breath. As for now, I wanted to keep photos full size so as to not add an unknown variable in trying out the zoom and pan capabilities of PTE 5.0

Comments of course are welcome!

I ran the show on my 1.2Ghz AMD Duron 5.12MB RAM. From the very first frame it jerked throughout. Tonight, taking it our local computer club, on a very high spec machine it was perfect, an excellent show. Tried again on a lower spec machine similar to mine and the show would not run at all other than the audio.

I expressed concern as to whether version 5 was for me other than toddle off to buy a power PC after this experience. The resident 'expert', assured me, if this particular show had been made using 1024x768 there would have been no problem, he'd recognised the higher quality of pictures which I had not. That's certainly eased my mind for the future.

Hope these comments are acceptable to you, no offence was intended, I thoroughyl enjoyed the show.

[nickles]

I expressed concern as to whether version 5 was for me other than toddle off to buy a power PC after this experience. The resident 'expert', assured me, if this particular show had been made using 1024x768 there would have been no problem, he'd recognised the higher quality of pictures which I had not. That's certainly eased my mind for the future.

Nathan,

The problem I see with running a 1024x768 original image size is that if you are designing the show for that screen size...then you have nothing to zoom or pan too. Of course you could zoom in and pan but then the image would start looking pixelized. Does that make sense?

sincerely,

ken

[Nathan]

Nathan,

The problem I see with running a 1024x768 original image size is that if you are designing the show for that screen size...then you have nothing to zoom or pan too. Of course you could zoom in and pan but then the image would start looking pixelized. Does that make sense?

sincerely,

ken

Yes it makes sense, but, if my machine can't handle the larger size as with 'Spirits' then I'll have to think twice about the zoom feature when using version 5. I use a 1024x768 black background with the pictures sized to the TV Zone as friends and family prefer to view via DVD in comfort rather than crowded round a computer. I'm waiting for the full version 5 being available then we'll see what happens, if the zoom doesn't work for me then so be it, PtoE still has lots of options.

[alrobin]

Nathan,

As you will have seen in the posts in the thread on video cards, this is really what is the determining factor with the special v5.0 effects. What card are you using, and how much video RAM does it have?

You may well be able to run v 5.0 with slightly larger images than 1024x768, and use the zoom and pan very sparingly, just to give a sense of motion. Are you able to run Igor's demo entitled "Flowers"? It just uses a very slow "zoom" with images only 12% larger than 1024x768.

[Nathan]

Nathan,

As you will have seen in the posts in the thread on video cards, this is really what is the determining factor with the special v5.0 effects. What card are you using, and how much video RAM does it have?

You may well be able to run v 5.0 with slightly larger images than 1024x768, and use the zoom and pan very sparingly, just to give a sense of motion. Are you able to run Igor's demo entitled "Flowers"? It just uses a very slow "zoom" with images only 12% larger than 1024x768.

Al, all I can see in System details is 'Display Adapter - Trident Video Accelerater Blade 3D/pro media.' if that is what your are seeking. As for Video RAM there's no detail other than 512RAM overall.This machine is 4 years old so I'm well behind the times.

Flowers runs ok for me, as you say the zoom effect is short and sweet, not really enough for me to become excited about for the future.

Thanks for your advice, it's appreciated.

[alrobin]

Nathan,

I don't know this particular model, but it sounds like it is one of those chip-based video controllers on the motherboard. It probably has only a minimal amount of video RAM, not enough to run the new DirectX-based programs satisfactorily.

You could probably have a new video card installed, with a minimum of 128 Mb of video RAM, for a reasonable price. Even a second-hand video board discarded by a young video "gamer", might be able to handle PTE more readily. Shouldn't be too expensive.

[Nathan]

Nathan,

I don't know this particular model, but it sounds like it is one of those chip-based video controllers on the motherboard. It probably has only a minimal amount of video RAM, not enough to run the new DirectX-based programs satisfactorily.

You could probably have a new video card installed, with a minimum of 128 Mb of video RAM, for a reasonable price. Even a second-hand video board discarded by a young video "gamer", might be able to handle PTE more readily. Shouldn't be too expensive.

Thanks Al, food for thought there. I've been giving some thought to upgrading to a new computer later in the year for a while now but it may be an idea to upgrade as you advise, if there's a cheapie video board to be had. My idea is to keep this oldie in use for storage when the new day arrives.

Thanks again.

[jinjagoliath]

LumenLux,

Love the presentation - gave me loads of ideas.

In particular the very first picture slide (road & trees) was astounding - it almost had a 3D effect.

Was this intentional? Very exciting illusion.

You are to be congratulated

J G

[LumenLux]

Now...the show you made was pretty comprehensive...many slides with many new maneuvers. I've only made one show so far with Beta 5 and it consisted of one photo with a few zooms and pans. But I immediately noticed that one slide in Beta 5 is equivalent to many in PTE 4...as far as labor and thought processing to do it...exaggerated a wee bit...but you get my message? I'm going to really enjoy using PTE 5 and what I am saying is no reflection on Igor's brilliant work. I think his concepts in the visual editor are a work of software art. The point I guess I'm making is that with PTE 5 there are now so many possibilities that it boggles my rusty mind. A lot more decisons a slideshow creator must think through in creating his imagery..thus mucho more care and time.

Just curious if you have any thoughts after making such a show.

ken

Very important question you ask! I do have lots of thoughts on the subject. I don't know whether my thoughts are predominantly ideas or questions. Sorry I have waited so long to attempt an answer. But I have now answered some of the above over in the topic about my more recent effort, Strange Land. I hope you will continue your input there, but if there is something that pertains more to this topic here, let me know. I will say specific to Spirits in the Sky, it was a very compelling experience working on it. Like every stone I turned over had a new treasure. And each treasure called out like a Genie offering me many wishes. Sort of amazing really.

LumenLux,

Love the presentation - gave me loads of ideas.

In particular the very first picture slide (road & trees) was astounding - it almost had a 3D effect.

Was this intentional? Very exciting illusion.

You are to be congratulated

J G

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed. Yes, the road & trees effect was intentional, but I did sort of stumble on to it as I was experimenting. It was somewhat a catalyst that stimulated my eagerness to make the rest of the show.

Is "jinja" the operative part of your name? What type of use do you make of PTE?

[jinjagoliath]

Is "jinja" the operative part of your name? What type of use do you make of PTE?

Jinja is actually the second largest town in Uganda. Also the "source of the Nile" a very beautiful yet deserving place. You could say my life changed there .. that's another story!

I tend to use P2E for presentations syncronised to popular music. Obviously for copyright reasons they cannot be readily shown or distributed, but we pull them together as part of a larger dramatic presentation to a live audience.

They tend to be quite fast paced and for that reason timings are hugely important.

I am not photographer, so I utilise Royalty Free images under licence from other suppliers that suit our particular purpose or theme. They usually reflect the lyric content of the song, as part of the evening's theme which ties in with other LIVE music and drama, video clips etc.

For example, our most recent evening covered the new film 'The Da Vinci Code' which was hugely challenging and interesting, particularly with respect to the controversy. Next month, we are working on the theme 'Revolution of Kindness' and I will be experimenting with P2E Beta 5.00 for the first time!