[Feature request] Transparent default background (Default image background color)

Azaziah

Hi! Iv'e been using OpenLP with my church for a couple of years now and I love it! Heres the problem: I wish to start the program with full transparent background, but instead it shows default background color. (Advanced settings tab) This is bad because it overwrites everything on projector screen, for an example Powerpoint presentation. This can be easily dealt with by starting OpenLP first and then "Clearing" the "Live" with ESC key. But this is something that I feel shudn't be required on every startup for other programs to work. It is also highly confusing for the new team members. Solution: Transparent default image.

Many blessings to the project and all who are read this,

Olli Suutari Pentecostal Church of Lappeenranta, Finland.

raoul

Why don't you just blank to desktop when you close OpenLP? It will remember this and open up without showing the display screen. Also, OpenLP has PowerPoint integration, is there a particular reason you're not using it?

Azaziah

Hello Raoul and thank you for your answer!

We never use blank to features, it would be confusing to use them on startup/closing. This would bring a new set of questions… Do we actually remember to blank it every time and why are the lyrics not showing even when they are on the LIVE? With transparent theme we can just clear the startup background with esc to make it work like it is meant to, this seems easier solution for us.

Azaziah

//Body is 29436 characters too long. (This is part2 of the last message)

The PowerPoint addition is a great feature I think, but I feel like that PP offers better presentation view/controls. It is also not possible to exit presentation with Esc so usage of blank to features or sending something else to live is required. On my experiences on church PC PowerPoint import used to crash OpenLP with some advanced features or upon editing the slide. These features seemed work on my home pc, perhaps the client is more stable now days and we might start using it more, or then it could be the Office 2007 on church PC.

We also use PowerPoint for slideshows, because OpenLP crashes 100% of the times when trying to operate large amount of photos. / (Tested on 64 bit Win 8.1 this detail perhaps belongs to the bugs section)

Blessings to this week, thanking in advance,

Olli

raoul

You know, that crash information would be helpful... if we don't know about it, we can't fix it.

Azaziah

After a little thinking I realized using blank to desktop works better and is simpler than just clearing the LIVE, thanks for the tip! But it can still be highly confusing if in some case the blank to feature is not used on closing the program. Our desktop is always visible during the service so why would it blank to black on startup? Adding the feature, if possible would remove the need to explain this special situation. (Perhaps auto start with blank to desktop option enabled if transparent images are not possible) Photo slideshows just crashes the whole program "OpenLP.exe has stopped working". Is the feature tested to be working on other platforms/Windos on large amount of photos? Thank you and God bless

raoul

How many photos is "a large amount of photos"? Most of the crashes we have seen with regards to large numbers of photos are related to out of memory errors. In other words, there are so many images being loaded that your computer runs out of memory to load them. This error is not very specific to OpenLP, though some programs do handle ridiculously big memory requirements better than others. First, you need to disable Windows Error Reporting. A simple web search should find this information for you. Secondly, you need to send us a debug log file, as per the instructions on the user guide: http://manual.openlp.org/faq.html#i-ve-been-asked-to-email-a-debug-log-where-do-i-find-this

Azaziah

Sorry for taking so long to answer…This bug still remains in OpenLP 2.1.4 Release Candidate 1 Portable edition in Windows 8.1I ran test with 50 photos at about 2592x1944 pxls/each.It crashed the test 100% of times during the slideshow.Higher count of photos would results in instant crash.It would appear to me that OpenLP is not able to handle more than 1500 MB or so RAM propelly, my computer still had RAM remaining on all tests (PC 12 GB and Laptop 4 GB modules)I recorded some RAM usage statistics by OpenLP on crash momentLaptop at 1590,6 MB PC at 1638 MB PC at 1623,3  MB PC at 1617 MB Laptop at 1595,9 MB The slideshow would still run okay at around 1400 MB ram used.Laptop actually plays Slideshows longer since it takes longer to release RAM from 4GB than 12GB reservesHere is the log: http://pastebin.com/r6f6cbP7 E: I should have probably opened a new topic for this...

raoul

Hi Azaiah, just to clarify: when you say "photo sideshow" am I correct in understanding that you're talking about photos in PowerPoint?

Azaziah

Sorry for being unclear, we are talking about importing images directly to OpenLP and “Play Slides” in loop feature.   So Power Point is not involved.

RAM usage rises as the slides roll and crashes pretty much instantly when it crosses 1500 MB. <o:p></o:p>

Azaziah

I also tested this on church PC and imported some 700 summer camp photos.  As result the program would crash instantly whenever I tried to delete the imported photo group. (or perform any action with it) So I had to reset the images.sqlite / thumbnails in order to delete them… <o:p></o:p>The situation being what it is must I instruct others at my church to use PowerPoint slideshow creator instead of OpenLP since the unreliability problems with +40 photos. (Which is a shame since  the OpenLP plugin rocks!) <o:p></o:p>I wonder if this is Windows only problem or does it happen on all other platforms too?