FAQ Page

From SciPres

Frequently asked questions This page details frequently asked questions (FAQ) and their corresponding frequently-given responses. Please check here prior to asking for further help in the Forum.

Contents 1 General Questions 1.1 How do you pronounce it? 1.2 Should I use SciPres? 1.3 How much does it cost? 2 Troubleshooting 2.1 A terminal window pops up before my presentation is run on Windows 2.2 The function run() executes functions defined in my presentation 2.3 Rendered texts are ugly 3 Howtos 3.1 How do I speedup image loading? 3.2 How do I share images between plays? 3.3 How do I use my own fonts? 3.4 How do I move an object along a path? 3.5 How do I add drop shadow to an actor?

General Questions

How do you pronounce it?

Like the name of the tree: 'cypress'. Hence the logo.

Should I use SciPres?

How much does it cost?

Nothing. However, if you like it, you can contribute in different manners.

Troubleshooting

A terminal window pops up before my presentation is run on Windows

This is because Windows uses python.exe by default to run files that have the .py, and this program opens a console prior pythoning the file you double-clicked. To avoid this you can:

• (preferred) rename your file with .pyw extension, so it is run with pythonw.exe, which solves the problem (and it does not affect running the file under Linux)
• do not double click you file, but instead, do right click and choose Open with > pythonw

The function run() executes functions defined in my presentation

This is normal, this is how SciPres detects all the play in you presentation file. It executes all functions of no arguments and check if they return a play. The problem occur if you have defined helper functions of no arguments in you presentation. SciPres will not keep them as plays, but will have executed them to decide so! The solution is to prefix your function with the ignore descriptor (descriptors are a fantastic feature of Python!). For example:

def slide():
    start(800,600)
    # ... some code
    return finish()
 
@ignore
def helper_function():
    doSomethingPersonal()

Rendered texts are ugly

This is because you have not activated the multisampling capability of your graphic cards. Search the web on how to do this. On Linux with a NVidia graphic card, you can for example do:

setenv __GL_FSAA_MODE 4

with a tcsh shell, or:

export __GL_FSAA_MODE=4

with a bash shell. The value (4 in the example) to select are described in the /usr/share/doc/nvidia-glx-XXXX/README.txt file (the location of this file may depend of your Linux distribution).

Howtos

How do I speedup image loading?

See next howto.

How do I share images between plays?

Use the resource system of Qt. You will find more in the Miscelleanous#Resource management section of the reference manual.

How do I use my own fonts?

This question arises if you want to use your own font, let's say from a .ttf file. This can be very important for two reasons:

• you want to use a fancy font
• you want to guarantee that the font is available and not substituted when the presentation is run on someone else's machine

For the moment, this is not supported. SciPres relies on Qt for font management, and current version of Qt (4.1.4) used by SciPres does not offer this functionnality. However, this will be available in Qt 4.2 ([1]). Thus, this should be available in a quite near future, as soon as 4.2 is released and the corresponding PyQt is available.

How do I move an object along a path?

Use the handle mechanism with a slider along the path. See Examples:moving along path.

How do I add drop shadow to an actor?

Use the Shadow actor.