FacadeSignage can grab the PowerPoint live output, and use it as a source for the projection mapping!
This is an unique feature that will allow you to use a single PC to create incredible presentations and shows without using external video-input hardware.
In order to use PowerPoint you must before disable its native hardware acceleration, therefore pease make sure to follow this guide before creating PowerPoint resources.
You can create a PowerPoint grabbing resource choosing it from the Resources panel.
PowerPoint Resource
A PowerPoint resource is a live grabber process of the application output window, so anything that happens in PowerPoint will be captured and sent to the Surface you assign the media to.
In order to do this, the PowerPoint application will be hidden, and only the icon will be visible in the taskbar.
File
The path to the PowerPoint file to be used (.ppt or .pptx extension)
Start a new Process
The PowerPoint application process will be started when the resource is created.
If this option is not enabled, the application must have been already started from the user.
Use PowerPoint Viewer
If checked the resource will use the PowerPoint viewer application instead of the official PowerPoint application.
This is an option that enables also to have multiple instances of powerpoint presentations running at once, but the viewer application has a lower performance and therefore is to be evaluated only if the PC does not have the Office suite installed.
When using the normal PowerPoint application, only one instance can be run at a time.
Close Process when destroyed
If checked will close the PowerPoint application when the resource is destroyed.
Scale source window
This setting will down-scale the PowerPoint output window by the chosen percentage.
Since PowerPoint will always start fullscreen (even if hidden), the software grabbing process could be slow on full-hd or higher screens.
Usually, mapped surfaces are just on a portion of the screen, therefore it is meaningful to reduce the input size of the window to have a faster capture and less CPU overhead.
How to control the PowerPoint presentation
Since the started application will create the output window in hidden mode, you have two ways to control the advancement of the slides.
- If you are using Office PowerPoint, you can start the presentation before FaçadeSignage and use the presenter mode.
In this way a single monitor will be used to show the presenter view of PowerPoint while the output will be sent to the very next monitor or projector.
FaçadeSignage panel will be on the first monitor (with the presenter view) and once started, the output window will be grabbed and mapped.
Using this method you can use all presentator controls, advance, pen writing and highlighting.
Remember to create the resource with Start New Process disabled. - The second method works both for the PowerPoint Viewer and application, without any presenter view.
Once started and grabbed, the application will be hidden and only the taskbar icon will be visible.
If you click on the taskbar icon the focus will be sent to the hidden PowerPoint window, therefore you can use the arrow keys to advance the presentation.
Note that presentation will end (and process too) if you step beyond the last slide.