Although 3D graphics acceleration hardware is not required to use PowerPlugs: Transitions and PowerPlugs: 3D Titles, it is very useful for speeding up the effects creation process. There are a couple different ways to determine whether your computer has 3D acceleration hardware and appropriate drivers for the graphics adapter (that support Direct 3D graphics language).

One quick and easy way to tell is to install the current trial version or paid for version of PowerPlugs: Transitions or 3D Titles. Then create a simple "test" slide presentation (made up of 2 or 3 slides with differing text on each slide), and use PowerPlugs' "Add 3D Transition" command (located on a floating tool palette of your PowerPoint work area or within PowerPoint's SlideShow menu) to assign 'Random" style effects (from any selected volume), then click "Apply to All."
You may see the following dialog display:
In order to view the 3D effects applied to your presentation, select the "View Show with Effects" tool.
Thereafter, select "View Show with Effects" from the floating tool palette or from within PowerPoint's Slide Show menu.
The first time you select “View Show with Effects,” the PowerPlugs Player for Transitions and 3D Titles will run a brief test on your computer to determine the presence and performance of your computer’s 3D acceleration hardware and supporting software.

When you click on “Begin Test,” a brief diagnostic test program will check for the suitability of 3D graphics acceleration hardware and software on your computer to generate Transitions’ 3D effects in real time. If 3D acceleration hardware is detected, a brief two slide 3D effects-enhanced PowerPoint presentation will be displayed as a test of speed and visible output. This test is automatic, requiring no action on your part. When adequate 3D acceleration hardware is found on your computer system, a dialog box will display the satisfactory results.

In the “Renderer Status” section of the 3D Performance Results dialog box, “Usable resolution” reports the resolution at which PowerPlugs: Transitions 3D effects can be displayed on your system. If there is not enough video memory to operate at the current screen resolution, then the Transitions software will automatically change the screen resolution to the specified usable resolution when you click on “View Show with Effects.” The section of the dialog box labeled “3D acceleration API” reports which 3D acceleration application program interface (API) – DirectX or OpenGL, is operating, if any.

If no 3D acceleration hardware is detected in your system, or if it doesn’t support the required 3D features, or if your version of DirectX or OpenGL is missing or out of date, or if the 3D board software’s driver is missing or obsolete, or if the brief 3D effects-enhanced PowerPoint presentation test performs poorly, then the a dialog box explaining 3D performance problems will display.

In some cases, the 3D performance test may not be able to complete its tasks, perhaps if the screen display resolution is set at a high setting with inadequate video memory to accommodate the high display setting during the 3D effects operation. Try re-setting the screen display to a lower resolution to see if the 3D performance test can then complete its task. To do this, go to the Windows Start menu>Settings>Control Panel>Display>Settings tab, and adjust the screen display area to a lower resolution. A general rule of thumb is that the higher the screen resolution, the more video RAM will be required. For example, when your display is set to 640x480x16 or 800x600x16, the 3D effects of Transitions can generally be rendered with 4 MB of video RAM, whereas 1024x768x16 will require 8 MB of video RAM. And, a display setting of 1024x768x32 will require 16MB of video RAM. When you configure your screen settings to even higher display resolutions, the video RAM necessary grows considerably. Here's a brief explanation on how the amount of video memory necessary is calculated.

A graphics display adapter with 3D acceleration hardware needs 3 times the amount of video RAM it would take to hold a picture buffer once Direct 3D bumps up the size of the buffer to the next highest power of 2. (This is a limitation of Direct 3D.) For example, if you have your screen area (resolution) set to 1024 x 768 x 32, the graphics hardware would have to hold a Direct 3D buffer that is 1024 x 1024 in size (2 to the power of 10). Then the 3D hardware video memory has to hold that space 3 times, once for the image you are seeing, once for the image you are rendering, and once for the z-buffer which stores all the depth information of the picture you are rendering. Each of those 1024 x 1024 x 32 bit buffers would be 4MB in size. That times 3 would be 12 MB. So, your 3D hardware would require 12 MB of video memory. A screen area display of 1152 x 864, on the other hand, would require video memory buffers of 2048 x 2048 (2 to the power of 11). Each of those 2048 x 2048 x 32 bit buffers would be 16 MB in size. That times 3 would be 48 MB. So, your 3D hardware would require 48MB of video memory. In summary, when adequate 3D acceleration hardware and software is present in your computer graphics system configuration, the PowerPlugs Player for Transitions and 3D Titles is able to generate real-time 3D effects in your presentation when the “View Show with Effects” command is selected. However, if inadequate or no 3D acceleration hardware is detected, or if the necessary 3D acceleration API and driver software is not detected, then the PowerPlugs Player for Transitions and 3D Titles may not be able to generate the 3D effects to display in real-time. In this case, the presentation will display non-3D graphical elements and advance from slide to slide, however, the playback of the 3D effects will likely not display.

Note: Many graphics display adapters that support Direct 3D can make use of available system memory (system RAM) on the computer to generate the 3D effects. The time required to render and display these effects may lag slightly compared to playing back the effects on systems with dedicated video RAM. But, if your computer is configured with a generous amount of system RAM and a fast CPU, and, the display resolution of your system is set at 1024x768 or 800x600, the playback of the 3D effects using system RAM can be just as smooth and played back in "real time" as if there is "dedicated" video RAM available. Generally speaking, if you set higher value(s) in the first two factors listed above, this will result in longer rendering times. However, in some cases, the output quality may be noticeably better. Of course, rendering your 3D effects on a fast CPU with enough system RAM can definitely reduce the rendering time.

If you believe the graphics display adapter in your computer should be able to display the 3D effects in your presentation in real-time, check the hardware compatibility information below.

Hardware Compatibility List
for PowerPlugs: Transitions and PowerPlugs: 3D Titles

Below is a list of video card manufacturers and models that PowerPlugs users have reported work well with these two programs.
Note: CrystalGraphics has not tested PowerPlugs with each and every video adapter listed below.So, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided below..

What is "DirectX"? "Direct 3D"? “OpenGL”?
DirectX is a software application program interface (“API”) developed and freely distributed by Microsoft. The API controls a set of low-level functions that access the hardware or provide emulation of the hardware if the hardware does not exist. These functions include support for 2D and 3D graphics acceleration and other various device, sound, and multimedia formats. The DirectX API enables PowerPlugs: Transitions to interact [through Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, and XP] with 3D acceleration hardware in your computer, and thus, allows the playback of 3D transition effects. Transitions supports DirectX v5.0 or higher. You may download a current version of the DirectX API from Microsoft by visiting the Microsoft web site located at www.microsoft.com/directx (Be sure to download the DirectX for end users.)

Direct 3D is a complete set of real-time 3D graphics routines that deliver fast rendering action by making use of 3D graphics hardware acceleration.
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) API operates similar to DirectX in the Windows NT operating environment.

Enable or Disable 3D graphics acceleration:

A standard function of Windows allows users to turn video card acceleration On or Off.
You can use this feature to resolve problems with your video card's ability to handle 3D acceleration.

To enable or disable 3D graphics accleration, please follow the instructions below:

1. Click the right mouse button in a "free space area" on your Windows desktop. Select "Properties," then select the Settings tab.
2. Click the "Advanced" button, then select the tab labeled 'Troubleshoot.' Either slide the acceleration to FULL, or NONE, whatever is the opposite setting from the default (to determine if setting the opposite value helps resolve 3D performnce problems.

Hardware Incompatibility List
for PowerPlugs: Transitions and PowerPlugs: 3D Titles

PowerPlugs:Transitions and 3D Titles run well on nearly every 3D graphics chip and board manufactured today. There are however, certain legacy boards and even some graphics boards still being manufactured that aren't capable of handling 3D graphics in real time. The following is a list of 3D graphics accelerator chips that are known to cause problems when using PowerPlugs: Transitions and 3D Titles based on our testing and customer feedback.

If any of the solutions below fail to fix the problem with your system, please contact technical support.

Windows 2000 and XP Systems:

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