Welcome to 3D Sensations For Presentations

3D Sensations For Presentations is an incredibly easy-to-use 3D software program that adds sophisticated television-style 3D transition effects to Microsoft® PowerPoint® 97 presentations.  Now, you can energize your presentations with the excitement of 3D – a sure way to impress an audience and keep their attention! .

Volume 1 "Classic Transitions" is a set of innovative 3D transition effects that includes: turning billboard, revolving doors and cubes, slab tilt, 2-panel turn, tumbling away, and more. And all the 3D effects come with synchronized sound effects that add further realism.

Key Features and Benefits:

It is easy to use! 3D Sensations For Presentations seamlessly installs as an add-in to MS PowerPoint 97.  Anyone who has used the Slide Transition tool in PowerPoint can readily use 3D Sensations. You simply select "Add 3D Transition" from the PowerPoint Slide Show menu or from a floating palette that displays in the PowerPoint window. As you will notice, this dialog is similar to PowerPoint’s Slide Transitions dialog, allowing you to preview each 3D transition effect, as well as change its directions, speed, and related sound effect. You can also select "Random" and "Apply to All", and the software will automatically apply a unique set of 3D transition effects between each slide. 3D Sensations-enhanced PowerPoint presentations are saved in the same file format as standard PowerPoint presentations (.ppt).  You can add 3D Sensations transitions to existing PowerPoint presentations, or mix standard (2D) transitions with 3D transitions, without sacrificing time or effort.  And, it’s really easy to transport 3D enhanced presentations for those conducting presentations "on-the-road".

It will energize your presentations! 3D Sensations For Presentations adds high-quality 3D transitions with synchronized sound effects between your PowerPoint slides. It does all this in real-time by taking advantage of  popular and inexpensive 3D-acceleration hardware. Studies show that the average audience’s minds will start to wander after only 5 to 7 minutes of a typical presentation. 3D Sensations For Presentations is a fantastic way to wake up those audiences and bring their attention back to your presentation, by using the magic of sensational 3D transitions with synchronized sound effects!

It is incredibly affordable!  In recent years, 3D animated transition effects have been widely used by television broadcasters to keep their audiences’ attention. The reason for this is simple. It works. In the world of television, where each minute can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenues, every second counts. So broadcasters have invested heavily in new technologies designed to keep their audiences’ attention. 3D Sensations For Presentations is the by-product of this investment. It is a third generation 3D effects product. Its original ancestor was a product first developed by CrystalGraphics in 1992 to create real-time 3D transition effects for broadcast television. The product that included those 3D transition effects sold for over $60,000 and won an Emmy Award in 1994. You are now able to benefit from this technology — and for less than $100!

System Requirements

Before installing 3D Sensations For Presentations, take a hardware inventory of your system to ensure that your setup can support the software.

Minimum Configuration Requirements

• 	Pentium™ or later CPU

• 	3D graphics accelerator (and a minimum of 4 MB video memory)

• 	Windows 95 with Direct3D 5.0 (or higher) and 32 MB of RAM

or Windows NT 4.0 with OpenGL and 48 MB RAM

• 	Microsoft PowerPoint 97 or higher

• 	Hard disk with at least 40 MB free disk space

How to Install 3D Sensations

In the 3D Sensations CD or folder, there is a file called Install.exe.  Double click on this file.  Install.exe will install the 3D Sensations files onto your local hard drive and will also automatically install it into PowerPoint. If you are running Windows 95 or 98 when you install 3D Sensations For Presentations, the software will be set up to use Direct3D. Likewise, if you are running Windows NT when you install 3D Sensations For Presentations, the software will be set up to use OpenGL. If you want to change from one Windows OS version to another, you can do so by running Setup.exe. (Note: In general, 3D Sensations For Presentations will perform better under Windows 95/98 than under NT, because under NT the 3D transition effects may lag a bit before starting up.)

How to Use 3D Sensations

To start with, try playing the demo.ppt PowerPoint Presentation included with the software. To play it, use the "View Show With 3D" command inside PowerPoint. That command appears on the floating palette, as well as in the PowerPoint Slide Show menu, the second item from the top. (If you press just "View Show" or "Slide Show", the presentation will play, but without the 3D transition effects.)

To assign a 3D transition effect (in this presentation or any other), use the "Add 3D Transition" command. That command appears on the floating palette, as well as in the PowerPoint Slide Show menu, below the (2D) Slide Transition command.  The Add 3D Transition command is similar to the Slide Transition command with which you are probably already familiar:

The Add 3D Transitions dialog allows you to choose the Volume (the set of 3D transition effects) and a given Style in that volume. The Preview window will display the effect that you have chosen. You can modify the playing speed (Slow, Medium or Fast) and the direction of the effect using the small arrows around the preview window.

Apply will install the currently selected transition effect between the previous slide and the current slide. Apply to All will install the currently selected transition between all the slides of your PowerPoint presentation. If the "Random" style is selected,  the program will assign a variety of 3D transition effects (and corresponding sound effects) between each slide in your PowerPoint presentation. Cancel will revert to the previously installed transition(s), if any.

Help pops up a menu listing this help file, plus useful links, an option to download or order more effects from CrystalGraphics’Web page, and the about box.

The Advance panel has the same options as in the Slide Show dialog. It allows you to choose to move from one slide to the other on mouse click, or after a given amount of time.

The Sound options are also identical to the Slide Transition except that, when you select a transition effect’style, the corresponding sound is automatically selected for you by default. But, actually, any WAV file can be used as a sound effect.

You can put 2D effects on some slides and 3D effects on other slides.  Simply select the Add 3D Transition command when you want to add a 3D transition between slides, and, select the Slide Transition command when you want to add a standard (2D) transition between slides.  (Note: Choosing "Random" in either of these commands applies a random selection of the corresponding 2D or 3D transitions effects — but not a random mixture of both 3D and 2D.)

To play the Slide Show with the 3D effects, use the "View Show With 3D" command which appears on the floating palette.  That command is also located in the PowerPoint Slide Show menu, the second item from the top.  (If you press just "View Show" or "Slide Show", the presentation will play, but without the 3D transition effects.)

You can Pack and Go. The Pack 3D Show is similar in nature to the Pack and Go feature of PowerPoint. It will collect all the files and resources that you will need to play a 3D show on another computer. The main differences are:

-	You need to have PowerPoint installed on the other computer (the PowerPoint reader is not enough) to play the 3D show,

-	The presentation you want to pack has to be loaded in PowerPoint when the tool is used,

-	The Pack 3D Show dialog is a lot simpler,

-	The Pack 3D Show only packs up the 3D-related items. So, if your presentation includes AVI files, images, Truetype fonts or other similar external files, you will need to first run Pack and Go (which will compress these files), then Pack 3D Show. On the other end, you will need first to unpack the PowerPoint files (.ppz file), and then make sure that the .3dp file is in the same folder as the presentation.

To pack your show, you can select "Pack 3D Show" in the File Menu or "Pack 3D Show" in the 3D Sensations palette. From there, you can:

-	Include or not the sound files (usually bigger than the visual transition effect files),

-	Include or not the 3D Sensations player. You will need to have the player if 3D Sensations is not installed on the destination computer,

-	Select your destination folder. The default destination will be the folder where the current presentation is located

Upon clicking "OK", 3D Sensations will create a .3dp file, with the name of your presentation as root. It will also add (if you requested it) the player as 3DSPlay.exe.

To play your presentation on the destination computer, you just run the 3DSPlay.exe application, which will ask for the presentation to play and automatically run PowerPoint (therefore, you MUST have the full version of PowerPoint installed on that computer. Again, just the PowerPoint player is not enough).

How to Uninstall 3D Sensations

1.	Exit PowerPoint.  Go to the 3D Sensations folder and run Setup.exe.

2.	Click on "Remove from PowerPoint" button.  This will remove the 3D Sensations interface from the PowerPoint.  Then click "OK" to exit Setup.

3.	Click on the Windows Start menu and go to the Windows Control Panel.  Select the "Add/Remove Programs." Select the 3D Sensations program to uninstall the files from your hard drive.

4.	If you wish to re-install 3D Sensations once you have uninstalled it from your hard drive, follow the steps outlined in "How to Install 3D Sensations" (see above).


Frequently Asked Questions

How large is the 3D Sensations program?

The software plus all the visual and sound effects included with 3D Sensations For Presentations Volume 1 ("Classic Transitions") require just over 6 MB of hard disk space when inactive. But, to make sure that you have enough Windows swap file space while you are running PowerPoint with 3D Sensations For Presentations, you’ll want at least 40MB of free disk space.

Does 3D Sensations run under Windows 98?

Yes.

Will 3D Sensations work with new versions of PowerPoint when they are released?

3D Sensations For Presentations works now with PowerPoint 97, which is the latest version now shipping. It is our plan to keep our product working with the latest versions of PowerPoint when they are released.

Can I use 3D Sensations without 3D acceleration hardware?

You can assign 3D transitions using the "Add 3D Transition" command within PowerPoint 97 without 3D acceleration hardware installed on your system.  And, you should be able to view an animated representation of a selected 3D transition within the Add 3D Transition dialog box.  However, to view your slide presentation full screen with real-time 3D transitions (using the "View Show With 3D" command), you must have 3D acceleration hardware present on your system.  If you attempt play your enhanced 3D presentation on a computer that does not have 3D acceleration hardware, the 3D visual effects may appear to be ignored, although you will still be able to hear the sound effects.

Which 3D APIs does 3D Sensations support?

3D Sensations supports the following industry standard 3D accelerated rendering APIs: Direct3D 5.0 and above and OpenGL.

How much video RAM does 3D Sensations require?

3D Sensations’ effects require a 3D graphics accelerator that has a minimum of 4 MB video memory onboard.  You may require more video RAM in your 3D graphics accelerator, depending on the display resolution you want to use.  A general rule of thumb is that the higher the screen resolution, the more video RAM will be required. For example, 640x480 and 800x600x16 can generally be rendered with 4 MB of video RAM, whereas 1024x768x16 will require 8 MB of video RAM.

Does 3D Sensations take advantage of AGP-based 3D acceleration hardware?

Yes.

Is my 3D enhanced presentation portable?

Yes. You can take your 3D enhanced presentation "on the road" or send it to some one else for viewing. Keep in mind that, in order to see the 3D effects, the viewer’s system must have 3D acceleration hardware and 3D Sensations For Presentations. To play your 3D enhanced presentation on another computer, simply transport your normal PowerPoint presentation file (name.ppt) from the computer on which the PowerPoint presentation with 3D transitions was created to the system on which the presentation will be played. Note: you can also play your 3D enhanced presentations on another system that doesn’t have 3D Sensations For Presentations and 3D acceleration hardware. In that case, you would use the View Show command to view your presentation. In this case, PowerPoint will simply ignore the 3D effects.

Can I display animated 3D artwork on my slide(s) while my 3D enhanced presentation is playing?

Yes. Using PowerPoint’s "Insert Movies and Sounds/Movie from File" command, you can insert animated artwork (for example, an AVI movie of animated 3D text created using Crystal 3D IMPACT!™ Pro software) as an object in your slide(s).

Can my 3D enhanced presentation play sound effects other than those that accompany the 3D transition effects?

Yes.

How can I purchase more 3D Sensations effects?

Please visit our web site (www.crystalgraphics.com) to take a look at some of the 3D transition effects that are available now. And more will be coming soon. You can order more effects in any of the following ways:

WEB SITE:	www.crystalgraphics.com

E-MAIL:	cgisales@crystalgraphics.com

PHONE:	(408) 496-6175

 (800) 394-0700 in the contiguous USA only

FAX:	(408) 496-0970

MAIL:	CrystalGraphics, Inc.

Sales Department

3350 Scott Blvd. Bldg. 14

Santa Clara, CA 95054

Troubleshooting

Note: If you are experiencing a problem, and you don’t see your problem listed here, or if the advice given below doesn’t solve your problem, we would suggest that you check the latest troubleshooting tips listed on our Web site. If you have an Internet connection, just click on the "Online Technical Support" in the "Useful Links" command under 3D Sensations’ Help menu for the latest troubleshooting tips. (Inside PowerPoint, go to the Slide Show menu, and then click on "Add 3D Transition" command, then on the Help button.)  If you don’t have an active browser on your PC, but you do have access to the Internet (through AOL or some other way), connect to the Internet and enter http://www.crystalgraphics.com/weblink.3D_Sensations.techfaq.html.

Installation and Start-Up problems

What should I do if the Install program does not install 3D Sensations into PowerPoint?

Make sure there is adequate disk space available on your local hard. If you have enough disk space, check to see if the installer loaded the files onto your hard drive. If they were loaded, but the "View Show with 3D" and "Add 3D Transition" commands were not added into your PowerPoint's Slide Show menu, then try running the Setup.exe program in your 3D Sensations folder.

What should I do if 3D Sensations appears to install correctly, but the commands "Add 3D Transition" and "View Show with 3D" do nothing?

Do you have a presentation loaded? If you do, and you still don't get anything to happen when you click on Add 3D Transition and View Show With 3D, you may have accidentally installed the 3D Sensations software incorrectly. For example, the Installer defaults to C:\Program Files\3D Sensations. If you changed that path to simply D:, then all the folders will end up in the D drive root directory and Windows will not deal with that correctly. If this happened to you, then simply uninstall the software and reinstall it, being careful to use a good path for the software to be installed into.

General Application Problems

What should I do if the software crashes or gives you an error message when you try to "View Show with 3D"?

The amount of video RAM with your 3D graphics accelerator may be inadequate for the resolution and/or color bit depth settings at which you are playing back your 3D enhanced presentation. Try setting your display to a lower resolution. Also, try reducing the color depth setting. With 4 MB of video RAM in your graphics board, a resolution of 800x600 is the highest possible, with a 16-bit color depth. With 8 MB or more of video RAM, a resolution of 1024x768 may be possible. But even if you have enough RAM, these resolutions may not work well with your graphics board. If you are experiencing stability or quality problems, you should try using a resolution of 640x480x16 bits. You can lower your settings by going to the Start button in Windows, then click on the Settings command, then the Control Panel option, then the Display icon, then the Settings tab, then change the "Desktop area" settings and the "Color palette" settings.

It is also possible that you are using 3D Sensations For Presentations on a system that has an

incompatible 3D product that is also competing for the 3D graphics accelerator's limited resources. We

are working to do compatibility testing with other new 3D products as they are released, and you can

see the current list of compatible 3D graphics acceleration. When we find compatibility problems and fix

them, we will put new versions of 3D Sensations For Presentations on our Web site, which you may

download for free.

What should I do if the 3D transitions do not play back in my presentation?

Be sure you have the appropriate hardware (i.e. a 3D graphics accelerator) installed on your system. (Refer to the "Getting Started" document located in the 3D Sensations folder.) Once you have confirmed that the appropriate hardware is present, you should also check to make sure that DirectX 5.0 or above and/or OpenGL , and the software driver for your hardware is installed (see the documentation that came with your 3D graphics accelerator card for more information).

If you have verified that you have a working 3D graphics accelerator card, and if the problem persists, try reducing the resolution of your graphics screen display because there might not be enough video RAM available to support the play back. (See "If the software crashes" above, for more info.)

What should I do if it seems to take "too long" for a 3D transition to display?

Under Windows 95 there is usually about a 3-second setup time required by 3D Sensations version 1.1

to load the necessary data into your graphics board for each slide in your presentation. This setup process for that "next" 3D transition effect begins automatically as soon as the transition before it is completed. Once it is loaded, the 3D transition should be ready to start as soon as you click the mouse, or press the right arrow key or the spacebar.

Under Windows NT, the setup time may take two or three seconds longer. In addition, Windows NT is slower at starting the 3D transition once the setup time is completed, and the mouse is clicked, or the arrow key or spacebar is pressed. Our experience is that Windows NT may introduce a delay of up to 7 seconds to start the 3D transition. This delay can be reduced by making sure you have enough system RAM (at least 48 MB), and by making sure you have a fast PC, with no other applications running concurrently. Optimizing you hard drive may also help. Although undesirable, any delay can be anticipated, taken into account, and compensated for during your presentations.

How do I contact Technical Support?

Due to the high volume of free introductory offers, 3D Sensations For Presentations only includes technical support for paid product. If you have bought 3D Sensations For Presentations, you can contact technical support.

CrystalGraphics Technical Support

3D Sensations For Presentations users have unlimited access to Online Technical Support which lists the typical technical support problems that users encounter, along with our best information regarding their solutions. This service is available free of charge.

If you should need additional technical support service, CrystalGraphics provides three technical support purchase options:

1)   You can buy technical support on a per incident basis. With the per incident option, you buy telephone-based technical support in 15 minute increments or per individual problem or incident when communicating electronically (i.e. fax and/or e-mail support) .

2)   You can buy a block of technical support time (or number of incidences). The minimum block of time you can purchase is two hours (or the equivalent of 8 incidences if communicating via electronic mechanisms, i.e. fax or e-mail). Technical support purchased in time blocks costs less than technical support purchased on a per incident basis. However, the block of time purchased must be used within a 12 month period.

3)   You can buy a 12-month technical support contract. The technical support contract provides you with unlimited telephone-based technical support or electronic incidences, and free software updates if any updates ship while your contract is active.

How to Register

There are more sensational 3D transition effects available now or coming soon!  Please visit our web site- www.crystalgraphics.com to take a look at some of the 3D transition effects that are available now. And more will be coming soon. So be sure to register so we can keep you informed about all the latest good stuff! You can register  in any of the following ways:

WEB SITE:	http://www.crystalgraphics.com/weblink.register.3d_sensations.html

E-MAIL:	cgisales@crystalgraphics.com

PHONE:	(408) 496-6175

 (800) 394-0700 in the contiguous USA only

FAX:	(408) 496-0970

MAIL:	CrystalGraphics, Inc.

Sales Department

3350 Scott Blvd. Bldg. 14

Santa Clara, CA 95054

Other Crystal Graphics Products

Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro

Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro is the world's easiest to use 3D animation software.  Now it's a snap for anyone to add the impact of impressive 3D titles, logos, objects, buttons, and pictures to presentations, web pages, banner ads, and videos.  Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro (Win95 and NT 4.0) sports many innovative features such as:

•	Visual Wizards A friendly AutoContent wizard guides you through the 5 steps of lighting, text entry, beveling, assigning materials and adding motion.

•	3D Objects Catalog Enhance your productions with over 145 royalty-free, highly-detailed, pre-built 3D clipart objects, organized in a customizable object gallery.

•	Automatic Highlights and Sparkles Placement With just a couple mouse clicks, you can easily and automatically create unique highlights and sparkles to your 3D objects.

•	Automatically Converts 2D Artwork Into 3D Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro is the only 3D program that can import images as 2D objects and automatically convert them to 3D with a single click.

•	Powerful Lighting Tools Create and manipulate light bulbs, spotlights, sunlight and ambient lighting.  You have complete control to achieve many kinds of lighting effects.

•	Soft-Edged Shadows Creates incredible looking drop shadows and object shadows with a shadow edge softness that you can select.

•	Object-to-Object Reflections Selectively adds realistic mirror effects to your 3D objects using automatically generated environment maps.

•	Ray-Traced Refractions Produces breathtaking glass effects by using true light-bending (ray-tracing) techniques. You can even control the amount of light bending to simulate anything from glass to diamonds.

•	Bump Mapping Dramatically simulates the bumpy effect of real-world surfaces, with a bump height that you control.

…And More!

"The awesome speed, quality, and power are the best I've seen in any product in its class."

-- Mark Wacholtz

Crystal 3D CD

The easy and inexpensive way to enhance your presentations, web sites, videos and animations!  With over 75 ready-to-load and ready-to-render 3D models, this is the first 3D model library designed specifically for Crystal 3D IMPACT! Pro users.

For More Information

For more detailed information and examples, please visit www.crystalgraphics.com. You can order product or contact us in any of the following ways:

WEB SITE:	www.crystalgraphics.com

E-MAIL:	cgisales@crystalgraphics.com

PHONE:	(408) 496-6175

(800) 394-0700 in the contiguous USA only

FAX:	(408) 496-0970

MAIL:	CrystalGraphics, Inc.

Sales Department

3350 Scott Blvd. Bldg. 14

Santa Clara, CA 95054

CrystalGraphics, 3D Sensations, and 3D IMPACT! are trademarks of CrystalGraphics, Inc.   Microsoft, PowerPoint, and Direct3D are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.  OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Pentium is a trademark of Intel Corporation.  All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Copyright © 1998 CrystalGraphics, Inc.  All rights reserved.