SuperSlide - Official Home Page

SUPERSLIDE

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SuperSlide v1.00 [ 265 kb - June 19, 2009 ] [ Windows 2000, XP, Vista ]

SuperSlide is a small, fast, and free photo viewer designed to help you fully enjoy all of the memories captured in your digital photo collection. It can also use your GPU (graphics card) to accelerate responsiveness (when zooming, panning, etc.) and to enable slideshows with cool transition effects.

Among SuperSlide's notable features:

Hardware-accelerated - makes the most of your GPU, if you have one.
Cool transition effects between images.
Pre-loads images in the background, so they appear to load instantly.
Works great with multiple monitors.
Lets you open a folder recursively, so you'll see the images in that folder, as well as any sub-folders.
Quick and easy file move / copy / delete for organizing your files.
Lossless jpeg rotation - if you press L or R to rotate a jpeg, it automatically updates the file on disk (without recompression!), and even preserves the file time stamp.
Tiny - SuperSlide only takes up 500 kb of disk space, and it doesn't clutter your hard drive with a bunch of junk files.
Full Unicode support - handles filenames in any language!
Reads the popular JPG, PNG, TGA, and BMP image formats.
Attention to detail. We hope that all the 'little things' in this program are what you value most about it.

System Requirements: SuperSlide runs on Windows 2000, XP, or Vista. We recommend a video card (GPU) with support for DirectX 9 and Shader Model 2.0 or later (for transition effects), but it is not required.

Tutorial and Usage Tips [ view ] - a highly recommended read!

To start SuperSlide, just double-click an image file (if you associated it with image files during the install). Or, you can just launch SuperSlide yourself, and then hit o (lowercase letter o) to open a file.

Hit SPACEBAR to move on to the next image, or BACKSPACE to go back one. You can also just right-click the mouse to move forward one image, or left-click to go back one. You can browse through all of the images files in the same folder as the image you opened. If you want to skip the transitions, use H (Hard cut) instead of the spacebar.

To quickly fast-forward to later images, press and hold down the spacebar or H key; an info screen will pop up, telling you what image number you're on. As soon as you release the key, it will load whatever image it was on. You can do the same thing with the BACKSPACE key.

To start a slideshow, where the image automatically advances every few seconds, hit a. To pause or stop it, hit a again.

While viewing an image, you can click and drag the mouse to manipulate the image; click and drag to pan around, and right-click and drag to zoom in and out. You can also use the arrow keys to pan, and the +/- keys to zoom. CTRL + and CTRL - will zoom in double and half, respectively.

If you'd like to rotate the image right or left, hit R or L, respectively. SuperSlide will rotate the image, and if it's a JPEG image with an EXIF header (i.e. if it's a photo from a digital camera), it will also update the file header so that the next time you view it (in SuperSlide, or in any other properly-written application), the orientation will stick. (Note: by default, the file's timestamp will be preserved.)

To sort the images by Name, Date, siZe, or Shuffle, hit N, D, Z, or S, respectively. (By Name is the default, in this case.) You can reverse the sort by hitting v. For info about the current file, hit 'i' (info).

You can hit SHIFT+O (capital 'o') to open a folder recursively. That means that as you browse through files, you'll see all the files in that folder, as well as any subfolders. The default sort mode, in this case, is Random.

If you want to exclude any folders from the recursion, hit 'p' (preferences) and then enter the sub-folder name in the 'family filter' box. For example, put your racy honeymoon pictures in a subfolder called "private", and then specify "private" in the family filter.

If you opened a folder recursively, then, by default, all of the images in all sub-folders are treated, for sorting purposes, as if they were in one big pool. The default sort mode, in this case, is Shuffle, so you'll see all of the images in random order. If you sort by size, however, the images will be globally sorted by size - again, as if they were in one big pool.

However, if you'd prefer the images to be primarily grouped by sub- folder, and then by name/date/size/shuffled, just hit G (for 'Group by sub-folder'). Now, for example, if the sort is set to Shuffle, you'll be going through the images in each sub-folder, scrambled - then on to the images in the next folder, scrambled - and so on. You can then use CTRL+left or CTRL+right to jump around to the previous/next sub-folder, respectively.

SuperSlide is fairly portable - you can just throw SuperSlide.exe on a flash drive if you want, and it will work. It has no data files, other than the documentation file (SuperSlide.html), which is not required.

You can also drag-and-drop files or folders onto both the SuperSlide icon, and the running program itself. If you drop one file, you can then browse the whole directory; if you drop several files, you can browse through just those files; and if you drop a folder, it will recursively open it.

And finally, an artistic tip: try slowing the transitions way down (from the preferences screen), so each one takes around 5 seconds. It's not something you'd normally want to do, but it's perfect when showing a real slideshow to an audience; the effect is very artistic and cinematic.

Troubleshooting [ view ]

If SuperSlide Crashes -- Over 95% of the time, the easiest fix is to simply Disable Hardware Acceleration. Hit p to access the preferences screen, and then uncheck the box by that name. Restart SuperSlide, and your problem is very likely to be solved. The bummer, though, is that you lose the benefits of hardware acceleration, which include cool transition effects and a highly responsive user interface.

However, if you want to dig deeper and try to resolve the problem with your video card or, more likely, your video driver -- read on. In 90% of cases, installing a newer (or, sometimes, older!) video driver will fix the problem. However, let's try a few other little tests before going to all that trouble...

First, bring up the preferences screen again, turn Hardware Acceleration back on, and put a check next to the Disable Transition Effects option. Restart SuperSlide, and see if this fixes your problem. This option cuts the required video memory footprint roughly in half, which could solve the problem.

Another thing to try: check if it's only very large images that are crashing the program. If so, it's very likely that your video driver is incorrectly reporting back on the largest images it can handle. To manually throttle this, hit 'p' to go to the prefs screen, and then set the 'Maximum Image Size (in megapixels)' to something like 1. Then try to load your large image. If it works, you know that that was the problem. You can slowly try increasing this (2, 2.5, 3, 5, etc.) and testing, and you can find the highest limit that still works.

If your crashes don't seem related to the image size, or if your images just don't look right, or come out black or scrambled, then the chances are overwhelmingly good that there is a bug in your video driver, which is the software that tells your computer how to talk to your particular video card. Video drivers tend to be extremely buggy. If the images don't look right, try to find a better video driver.

If a driver is WHQL-certified (certified by Windows Hardware Quality Labs), then it is much more likely to function properly. Non-WHQL drivers tend to have more bugs. (However, even WHQL drivers are chock full of bugs.)

For desktop machines, there are typically three sources for video drivers - they are listed here, BEST FIRST:
1. those from the *chip* manufacturer's website (usually nvidia.com or ati.com) (best source)
2. those from the card manufacturer's website (LeadTEK, PNY, EVGA, etc.)
3. those that shipped with Windows (yuck)

For laptops:
1. the driver from the *laptop* manufacturer
2. (maybe) the driver from the graphics chip manufacturer (ATI, Nvidia, etc) - however, it's fairly common to find that the laptop will NOT let you install a regular driver, and requires a custom driver packaged by the laptop manufacturer.
3. the driver that shipped with Windows (yuck) (this will never work, don't even try it)

You might have to try several drivers to find a good one. Try the WHQL ones first, of course. And keep in mind, new bugs are introduced all the time - using a driver that was released in the past year is generally a good idea, but it's not uncommon for a driver that's 4 months older than the newest release to actually be far better.

Here is a list of some common card/chip manufacturers and where to get their drivers. Don't forget to try the WHQL-certified drivers first!

[ NVIDIA driver ]
Card manufacturers using NVIDIA (GeForce) graphics chips:
(note - most of these just link you to the nvidia driver above)
[ XFX ]
[ EVGA ]
[ BFG ]
[ PNY ]
[ ATI driver ]
Card manufacturers using ATI (Radeon) graphics chips:
[ VisionTek ]
[ Diamond ]
[ Intel ] - then click 'graphics' on the left
[ SiS ] - agree, then select 'graphics drivers'
[ S3 ] - then click 'drivers'
[ VIA ]
[ Matrox ]
[ Creative Labs ]

For others - or in general - if your graphics chip is made by Trident,
for example, then try a google search for:

Trident graphics driver

Then click on "support", then "drivers" (or "downloads"), then
"graphics driver", and so on.

Version History [ view ]


    1.00 - 19 June 2009
       -Deleted files now go to the recycle bin.  (Before, they were 
          permanently deleted - oops.)
       -Enabled PNG support for most users, after several requests -- 
          however, it is currently available only when Hardware 
          Acceleration is enabled.
       
    0.99 - 7 November 2008
       -Added some cool new morphing, impressionistic transitions.
       -Removed registration stuff.
       
    0.98 - 31 August 2008
       -Added support for multiple monitors.  SuperSlide now remembers 
          your window position from the last run, so if you like to
          keep the window on a second monitor, it should pop up there 
          every time you run it.  It will also check to make sure that 
          area is valid, though, and if not, it will put the window in 
          a valid spot.  Note that if you open SuperSlide by double-
          clicking an image, the window size will be auto-fitted to 
          the image (the program has always behaved this way) - 
          however, it should always appear on the same monitor you 
          were using last time.
       - You can now access the menu in fullscreen mode - just hit 
          'ALT'.
       - Fixed bug in index.html/superslide.html that was killing the 
          wordwrap on IE browsers.
       - Fixed bug with "set wallpaper" function when used on machines 
          with video cards that  
          don't support NP2 textures.
       - If you have the option set to *start* in fullscreen mode, 
          then hitting ESC now exits you completely from the program.  
          (This is great in combination with running it on a second 
          monitor!)
       - Fixed bug where software rendering would sometimes leave the 
          last scanline unpainted.

       -(KNOWN BUG: browse-for-FILE pops up on wrong screen, if you 
          move the window to another monitor after starting SuperSlide.)
    
    0.97 - 23 August 2008
       -you can now choose whether you want SuperSlide to open 
          multiple instances (when it's already open, and you double-
          click a file in windows), or if you'd rather it stick to 
          just one instance.
       -bkg file scan thread now runs at normal priority (instead of 
          ABOVE_NORMAL)
       -fixed filtering warning for NP2-incapable video cards 
          (...it was showing when you turned filtering ON, rather than 
          when you turned it OFF).
       -fixed bug where coming out of fullscreen mode would have the 
          window stuck as topmost.
       -fixed bug where coming out of fullscreen mode, in SW emulation 
          mode, sometimes left the other windows on the desktop 
          unpainted (black).
       -added F11 key as an additional key that takes you in or out of 
          fullscreen mode.
       -fixed help screen type-o: contrast is t/T, not c/C
       -fixed bug where opening a filename with non-ASCII characters 
          in it, from explorer, would fail.
       -switched the mouse left-click and right-click.  Now left-click 
          (index finger) moves to next slide, and right-click goes back.
       -fixed broken image links in html doc file [now paths are 
          hardwired to geisswerks.com]
       -changed terminology from "automatic viewing" to "start/stop 
          slideshow".
       -improved program icon.
  
  
    v0.96 - 20 July 2008
       -when you start SuperSlide it now automatically loads the 
          last "slide" (image) you were looking at, the last time 
          you ran it, as well as your previous sort method and the 
          shuffle order of the files.  Even if you were viewing a 
          large hierarchy of folders recursively, it will kick you 
          right back to the same spot, with the same file set, so 
          you can resume where you left off.  If you don't want 
          this feature, you can turn it off from the Preferences 
          screen.  Note that this feature will never auto-load any 
          images anywhere underneath a private folder (or whatever 
          your family filter specifies). 
       -removed some of the funky file formats (DIB, DDS, etc.) 
          because only hardware mode supported them, and that is 
          confusing - especially for setting up file associations.  
          Now we just support the basics: JPG, JPEG, TGA, BMP.
       -fixed aspect ratio of images when viewed on GPUs that 
          don't support non-power-of-2 textures
       -fixed bug where clicking on the image to exit the menu 
          would take you to the next image (as if it were a normal 
          click).
       -re-organized the config panel
       -reversed the mouse click buttons for next/prev image.
          Did so because, intuitively, the left means back and
          right means forward.
       -disabled double-click.  It used to toggle fullscreen;
          however, it would also sometimes inadvertently perceive
          a single-click, and move you to the next image.  Not
          seeing any easy around it, I just removed the feature.
          Hit ENTER instead.
       -you can now copy an image to the clipboard (CTRL+C) or 
          paste from clipboard, to view (CTRL+V)
       -fixed width, height info display for rotated images
       -now, if user doesn't have sufficient DX9 shader model
          support, it just warns them once, and permanently 
          kicks them into SW emulation mode.
       -added ability to turn off bilinear filtering (CTRL+F) for 
          both HW and SW modes, so you can see what the real 
          "pixels" look like.
       -refined SW image blitting so that image texels are aligned 
          perfectly, in both LQ and HQ bits.
       -panning speed is a little smarter now - based on how much 
          of the window the image is occupying.
       -added a few cool new transition effects
       -fixed spastic mouse-hiding bug
       -SW mode can now read BMP and TGA files (all formats except 
          BMPs with RLE-4)
       -fixed horrible evil bug that was preventing SW mode from 
          pre-loading next image
       -fixed bug where program would crash on exit, if you
          started it in Fullscreen mode.
       -if you double-click an image to load it, the window now 
          auto-sizes to fit the image [no matter what your regular 
          view settings were]
       -disabled page tearing - otherwise, fast
          GPUs are not framerate-limited, and the zoom/pan keys
          go nuts as the framerate changes wildly, based on 
          sudden changes in pixel fill and/or texture cache 
          thrashing.
             

    v0.95 - 7 July 2008
       -ADDED SOFTWARE EMULATION MODE, for users without a 
          hardware-accelerated video card, or who don't want 
          to download DX9.
       -oops - turned MMX code back on
       -fixed bug where clicking when file list was empty would 
          crash it
       -info screen ('i') now has 3 modes: no text, one line 
          (filename only), and full details.
       -changed font from 'comic sans serif' to 'arial'
       -removed shareware nag screen - will put it back in whenever 
          I get around to making the app fully-featured (copy/paste, 
          print, and save)                                          

    v0.94 - 29 June 2008
       -added mouse click (LMB) -> next image, and right-click 
         (RMB) -> prev image
       -any mouse buttondown/up, or mousemove during buttondown, 
         now resets the auto-next-image counter
       -fixed two critical section bugs (concerning the 
         background-scanned file list)
       -transitions are now weighted (~selection probability) by 
         non-equal weights - the fancier/cooler ones now occur 
         a little more often.
       -[ the rest are all mainly config panel changes... ]  
       -MaxMegaPixels now applies to both jpgs and D3DX-loaded 
         images (before, it applied to jpegs only)
       -default family filter is now "private" instead of empty string
         +also, when you change it, it auto-re-scans the current 
           folder to refresh the file hierarchy.
       -renamed the 'conserve video memory' option to 'my video 
         card sucks'.  also, it now prevents even trying to load 
         all those crazy transitions (uses the ps_1_1 path).
         +also added a warning, when you change this setting, that 
           it won't apply until the next time you start SuperSlide.
       -config panel: clicking 'Default Settings' button no longer 
         warns you (...was silly, because you can just click Cancel 
         and your settings come back anyway.)
         +the 'Default Settings' button now also resets your 
           file associations.  (that was left out before.)
       
    v0.93 - 28 June 2008
       - Initial release.

DirectX Downloads [ view ]


    If you are missing DirectX 9 (DX9), SuperSlide will link you 
    straight to the installer [below].  If you have Windows XP SP2 
    or Windows Vista, then you have DX9; on earlier systems, you 
    might or might not have it.[ DirectX 9.0 - 15 MB ]
    
    Some systems with DX9 installed will also need the following 
    optional DX9 component - again, SuperSlide will link you 
    straight to the download, if you need it.  If you installed 
    DX9 from the above link, however, you do NOT need this.
    [ D3DX - 2 MB ]
    
    DirectX 9 is designed by Microsoft, the same folks who 
    make Windows, and is used by over 90% of all 3D-accelerated 
    programs.

Coming Soon [ view ]
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