Developpement version page

 Events

The development cycle for the new 2.1 version start now.
For this new version there are :
  • a big modification of the engine (inclusion of ressources in the .ffd files)
  • a big modification of the system for the translation
    • Now translations are no longer included in the installation packages.
    • When ffDiaporama starts the first time, it downloads translations from the web site. On start following, it checks on the web site if a new version of the translations are ready and then it downloads them from the web site.
  • 2 new objects was integrated:
    • image from clipboard
      • It allows to paste image directly without using a file
      • From the main window -> it creates a slide with the image
      • From the slide dialog -> it creates a block with the image
    • Google Maps map
      • To produce maps using Google Maps
      • For the moment, it's only available on the slide dialog -> it creates a block with the image
      • In the future, we plan to create new slide models containing maps and add localization in ffDiaporama project settings
There are lot of things to do again. Not all is finished: for example, markers are not yet managed for maps
After much difficulty focusing, this version 2.0 ffDiaporama is being finalized.
This new beta contains a lot of bug fixes as well as finalizing the optimisations needed to manage large projects (several thousand slides).
I hope many of you will test it.
As you probably noticed, there were several unfruitful beta for version 1.7. Clearly, we did not come out!
 
All problems are related to libav/ffmpeg couple.
 
Reminder:
  • libav/ffmpeg is cross-platform library that allows encoding and decoding of music and video files.
  • There are still a few years, there were only ffmpeg, then for some reasons, the ffmpeg community has exploded and a part of this community founded the libav fork.
  • Both libraries have a common history, they work the same way for a long time and they were almost interchangeable.
Until recently, in the ffDiaporama source code, it is easily to adapte to the differences between these two libraries. But, more these two libraries grew more they move away from each other. Now becoming frankly different. The problems found in 1.7 ffDiaporama come from these differences.
 
It was therefore necessary to review the problem completely and adapt differently to these differences.
The work that has been done has generated many changes in the source code andthese changes justify the abandonment of version 1.7 and the transition to a new major version: Version 2.0
 
Now ffDiaporama correctly recognizes the two libraries in the following versions:
  • ffmpeg 1.2.x composed by LIBAVUTIL 52,18,100, LIBAVCODEC 54,92,100, LIBAVFORMAT 54,63,104, LIBAVDEVICE 54,3,103, LIBAVFILTER 3,42,103, LIBSWSCALE 2,2,100 and LIBSWRESAMPLE 0,17,102
    • This version is fully supported by ffDiaporama 2.0
    • This version is used by many Linux distributions, often old
    • This version now represents about 5% of ffDiaporama users
  • ffmpeg 2.0.x composed by LIBAVUTIL 52,38,100, LIBAVCODEC 55,18,102, LIBAVFORMAT 55,12,100, LIBAVDEVICE 55,3,100, LIBAVFILTER 3,79,101, LIBSWSCALE 2,3,100 and LIBSWRESAMPLE 0,17,102
    • This version is fully supported by ffDiaporama 2.0
    • This is the version that we provide in the Windows packages and is also used by most recent Linux distributions (except debian and derivatives)
    • This version now represents about 75% of ffDiaporama users
  • libav 0.8.x composed by LIBAVUTIL 51.22.1, LIBAVCODEC 53.35.0, LIBAVFORMAT 53.21.1, LIBAVDEVICE 53.2.0, LIBAVFILTER 2.15.0 and LIBSWSCALE 2.1.0
    • This version is fully supported by ffDiaporama 2.0
    • This version is used by many Linux distributions, often those based on Debian (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc …)
    • This version now represents about 20% of ffDiaporama users
  • libav 9.x composed by LIBAVUTIL 52.3.0, LIBAVCODEC 54.35.0, LIBAVFORMAT 54.20.3, LIBAVDEVICE 53.2.0, LIBAVFILTER 3.3.0, LIBSWSCALE 2.1.1 and LIBAVRESAMPLE 1.0.1
    • This version is partially supported by ffDiaporama 2.0 (work is underway to take over completely)
    • This version is only used by some Linux distributions and most often in the form of an option (eg Gentoo)
    • Most distributions based on Debian have announced that their next versions will use libav 9.x (Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 16, etc …) so we have therefore a little time to finish the support
In addition to these developments of the support of libraries libav/ffmpeg, one another important development appears in version 2.0.
This change is the addition of a SQLite3 database in the user profile to store any kind of information.
Concretely, this database will allow:
  • to store much less thing in memory and thus help manage projects much bigger.
    • Until version 1.6, it was possible to manage projects with 250 to 300 slides on a 32-bit system and up to 500 or 600 slides on a 64 bit system
    • This limit should go through this database. The objective is to manage projects of at least 10,000 slides both in 32 and 64 bit systems
  • to enable new features that require large amounts of storage. For example:
    • Allow to paste images directly from the clipboard without having to save them to files
    • Allow to show waveform for music, videos and slides
    • etc…
  • to speed the interface, when
    • navigating through directories, storing analyzes multimedia files in the database to avoid having to redo it every time you open the same directory
    • the reopening of the project, which is essential for projects of several thousand slides
Currently work on this database are in progress and some of these innovations will be included in version 2.0
Following the numerous problems with the evolution of the threads introduced in beta 2, I now offer this 5th beta that included two major bug fixes+one minor bug correction.
  • Fix bug on ken burns effect [regression beta 2]
  • Fix the reading bug of some videos (removes Backtracking) [regression beta 2]
  • Fix the bug of updates the directory tree when renaming a directory from the files table
PS:
  • Regarding the problem with h264 on Ubuntu a fix was posted on 25/10/2013. More info here.
  • Currently we have a little problem with disk quota on Tuxfamilly prevents us to update the SVN and therefore to update the PPA for Ubuntu. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be resolved. Otherwise, the other packages are already available on the download page.
Fourth and (hopefully) latest beta for this version 1.7
The last two bugs are now fixed:
  • Fix a rendering error using MJPEG format with ffmpeg 2.x
  • Fix memory leak when rendering static images
If no new bugs are open during the week, the stable version will be released next weekend (October 26th or 27th)
 
PS: If like me you are spent on Ubuntu 13.10, you will find there is a problem with the h264. This problem is not due to ffDiaporama. The following bugg is open: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libav/+bug/1241777
Sorry, but the beta 2 released this morning has many problems.
The files of this version have been removed.
A beta 3 is being published with the following corrections:
  • Fix computation of textscalling which was incorrect on Windows when changing fonts PPP in control panel
  • Fix display of accent for message log in dos box under Windows
  • Fix encoding error with AVI format and ffmpeg 2.x (use av_write_frame instead of av_interleaved_write_frame)
  • Fix a memory leak and no image display occurring when moving "with hand" the slider of the preview window [regression beta 2]
  • Fix slide selection error [regression beta 2]
This new beta also includes a correction for Spanish translations and end translations for German