Performance Tips
As with any software, LiquidMedia’s performance depends on the speed of your machine, the
amount of memory it has, and the number of other programs that are running at the same time.
The type of graphics card that is used is also a big issue. To get the maximum smoothness
and speed out of Liquid Media, there are certain factors to bear in mind. Here is a list of things
that can help achieve the best output:

• Use a fast processor, combined with a fast motherboard. These days, 266 and 333 mhz motherboards are becoming more common and do make a big difference to the speed of the computer.

• Install a fast graphics card with plenty of video memory. There are a lot of good graphics cards on the market, but there are also cheap brands that have very little or no hardware acceleration. Make sure your graphics card has good hardware acceleration as this is vital for Liquid Media.

• Use fast hard drives.
If you plan to play a lot of “media” files (e.g. video clips in .avi or .mpg formats) in your
presentations at the same time, ensure that you either have a very fast hard drive, or that
you use several hard drives and that you disperse the media files over them all.
(Of course, there’s no substitute for a nice ultra-fast-and-wide SCSI RAID Array!)

• Have plenty of RAM. 128 Mb or more is recommended, but Memory has come down a lot in price in recent
times so if you can afford 256 Mb or more, Go For It!

• Avoid running other programs in the background.
Programs take up CPU time, and resources.

• Make sure Virus-Checkers don’t check every file when opened.
Such programs can cause Presentations to slow down to a crawl.
Now, while we’d never advocate not running Virus-Checking programs, it can sometimes
be advantageous to disable such during your big Presentation to the Board... just
remember to re-enable it again afterwards!


Older, Slower Machines
There are also things that can be done to increase the smoothness of Liquid Media on older
machines:
• Run your Desktop in 16-bit mode. 24 or 32-bit mode can really drain your system.
Also, make sure you run Liquid Media in 16-bit mode when in Full Screen.

• Don’t make the LM window too big. Screen Sizes of 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 are probably the two most commonly supported resolutions. If you intend to distribute your presentations, keep this in mind. Projector devices typically work best in these two resolutions as well. Creating presentations at 1600 x 1200 in 32-bit mode not only makes Liquid Media and your hardware work overtime, it also excludes much of your potential audience.

• Turn off the Grid-Drawing if editing is slow.

• Turn off the Paths’ Shadows, Ticks and Time Tips.

• Ensure all the Alpha options in the Preferences are turned off.