PhotoImpact XL Plug-ins Not Loading

[Vikki56]

I am trying to find a sparkle plug-in that will work with PI8.5. I understand from another board that none of the VM Natural plug-ins will work, so before I go further, does anyone know of one that will? I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to getting into system files and moving .dlls here and there, which was being discussed in the other forum.

I have found Axion Glow-n-Sparkle, which has not specifically been tested on any version of PI, but it states: "It should also work with any graphics program which conforms to the Adobe 3.04+ plug-in host architecture."

So, does PI8.5 conform or not?

Thanks for any help.

Vikki

[Vikki56]

I am trying to find a sparkle plug-in that will work with PI8.5. I understand from another board that none of the VM Natural plug-ins will work, so before I go further, does anyone know of one that will? I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to getting into system files and moving .dlls here and there, which was being discussed in the other forum.

I have found Axion Glow-n-Sparkle, which has not specifically been tested on any version of PI, but it states: "It should also work with any graphics program which conforms to the Adobe 3.04+ plug-in host architecture."

So, does PI8.5 conform or not?

Thanks for any help.

Vikki

[molucca]

I saw that msvcrt10.dll and plugin.dll are required in your Windows folder to get third party plugins to work. These DLLs are easy to find. You could do a search and see if you have them available. Rich

[Grafixman]

Do you really need that? PI has a sparkles effect that seems similar. It also has a lens flare and the glow effect has been around for ages. The effects can also be made from scratch, if you have the patience with objects, drop shadows and blend modes. Collecting plug-ins is pretty addicting, but the novelty wears off pretty fast. Don't get me wrong. Some plug-ins ARE wonderful. But most ends up gathering dust.

[Vikki56]

The way I stumbled onto the plug-in was through PI Board tutorials LOL. Evidently, the VM Naturals Sparkles plug-in worked fine in all previous versions of PI -- researching further I understand there is even a problem with it working in PSP8 when it worked in previous versions, so I don't know what the deal is with the newer programs.

Plug-in addiction is something I'm too new to even know about, other than I wanted to do some tuts that required this plug-in & I like this feature - it's a relatively "basic" visual that seems strange to be denied in the newest version of these softwares???

I'm not sure this Glow-n-Sparkle will duplicate the VM Natural plug-in.

I haven't seen any "sparkle" effect in PI8.5 - a "star", "light blulb", etc. but they don't do the full trick.

Puzzled....

Vikki

[Vikki56]

http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gifGERONIMO!!!

For anyone else having this problem, both files needed can be found here:

http://hem1.passagen.se/grafoman/plugtool/filtinst.html

The plugin.dll goes in WindowsSystem & the other goes in WindowsSystem32. System32 had a ton of subfiles, so I just extracted it to the main folder.

At any rate extracted both of these, rebooted and my VM Sparkle filter works like a charm.

Evidently, this plugin.dll file is hard to come by and it makes a difference as to date - it can't be the current one - has to be pre-1996. I cursed myself a few times for dumping that old PSP4 from my old unit!!!

I'm a happy camper!!!

Vikki

[molucca]

As a note: Photoshop filters were changed in version 6. I only know they are different. I have a set of 5.5 filters that work with some things. Not all work. My systems have the required DLLs, and I tried a plugin without a problem. Rich