Slide Transition Fade quality vs. Object Animation Fades

[nhaims]

Is it just me or are the cusom object animation fades silky smooth,
while the fade transitions between slides are jerky and rough? I've
worked on many different PCs and the slide transition fades are never
smooth, so I have stopped using them. The only time I've seen smooth
slide transition fades is on a Mac.

If anyone has had luck with genuinely smooth slide transition fades,
what kind of system are you on?

I need to buy a new PC and am also curious as to what kind of
processor, chip and video card would give me the best animation...

 

[Adam Crowley]

The slide transition fade will be better on systems with more memory on the
graphics card (64MB +) and can be improved by reducing the screen's colour
depth from 24 bit to 16 bit.
It's likely, though, that you're running your show without hardware
acceleration (which is how PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 is set by default). Try
Slideshow>Set up show and check the box that says Use hardware acceleration.
The only problem I usually find is that the transition doesn't happen
immediately when you advance. Be aware that using hardware acceleration can
occasionally cause problems with video playback etc. but if it works for you
then it will probably improve transitions.

 

[villem teder]

In addition to Adam's suggestion, I think CPU speed will also make a
difference. On my ancient 300 Mhz Win98SE with PPTXP, the animation
fades are smooth but the transition fades are useless. Under PPT2K on
the same machine, fades were fine (except for the speeds issue) but
you had to be in 256 colour mode, which is okay for text, but useless
with pictures.

On a recent project, the manager used his new notebook, around 2 Ghz,
and the fade transitions looked smooth. When he tried to use something
around 800 Mhz, to avoid dragging his laptop to the shows, the fades
went back to horrible. We didn't get a chance to compare video specs.

Also, as well as reducing colour depth, try reducing your image size
to the lowest usable size. On another recent project, since the PPT
was being converted to composite video to cut into the rest of the
program, 640 X 480 was smooth enough to satisfy the producer. You may
find you might have to set the show reolution under the show setup
menu, as opposed to setting the video card to the desired resolution.

Villem Teder

 

[nhaims]

Thank you! Hardware acceleration fixed the problem. Video doesn't seem
to be affected, but I'll watch out for it.


- Nolan