home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
SPACE 1
/
SPACE - Library 1 - Volume 1.iso
/
demos
/
455
/
suprpoly
/
suprpoly.doc
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-11-30
|
12KB
|
237 lines
T H E S U P E R P O L Y S C O P E
===== ===========================
by Sterling K. Webb
Copyright 1990 by SKWare One and S. K. Webb
P. O. Box 277 --- Bunker Hill, Illinois 62014
I suppose the Superpolyscope is a distant descendant of the most
pre-historic of all screen ancestors: PONG! Ah, yes, sitting in the
Student Union playing just one more game of PONG compulsively after
another even though finals start in just two days... Sort of a
neanderthal of an algorithm: when you get to the edge of the screen (or
the paddle) BOUNCE off at an angle equal to the one you glided in at.
Unthought-of were the problems of multiple interception detection, missile
graphics, hardware sprites, bitplanes, and a host of other complexities
that lay ahead; for now, it was just GLIDE and BOUNCE across that fuzzy
little screen.
The Super Polyscope just bounces along, changing size, direction,
and color in a whirl of cyclic color animation --- you've probably seem
something like it, but the Super Polyscope gives you control of the
working variables so that you create a wide variety of effects on-screen.
You can alter the size of the step between each printing of the figure,
the way the figures are drawn, the animation palette, even create your
own!
So, SUPRPOLY.PRG turns your Atari into a $1000-dollar lava-lamp!
You can just run it, ignoring the dialog for now. Flashy, huh? After
you're finished being impressed, press the <Esc> key. The Super Polyscope
Dialog will come up, full of nifty GEM gadgets. The Dialog lets you set
the running characteristics of the Super Polyscope. And here they are:
The STEP data-button sets the pixel interval at which the Poly's
are printed to the screen.
The STAGGER Switch-Box being ON causes the Poly's to move at two
different angles, depending on whether they're getting bigger or smaller.
BORDER outlines each Poly with a black border which enhances the
geometricity of their pattern.
When RESET is ON, the screen is cleared (the position of the
Poly's is not changed, though) cyclically, after a delay of the number of
seconds specified in the SECONDS data-button.
The CLEAR Switch-Box, when ON, will clear the screen after exiting
from the dialog. (This resets the timer for the AUTO RESET is it's ON.)
Some combinations of values have unexpected results. For example,
setting the STEP to one (pixel) while BORDER is ON causes the Poly's to
erase themselves in one direction (since the black border is one pixel
wide also). Turning STAGGER ON will cause this erasure to be restricted
to only one combination of direction and sizing. Large values of STEP
print very rapidly, creating backgrounds for slower small-STEP detailing.
The Radio Buttons "A" through "E" refer to the choice of built-in
palettes. These palettes are not the only palettes available for the
Super Polyscope, though. There is also a user-definable palette. (See
below about the Palette Editor.)
You don't have to stop the action to change the variables of the
program, however; they can be changed "on the fly" from the keyboard.
Pressing the <Help> key while the Super Polyscope is running will call up
a Help Box which gives all the keyboard commands: the number keys
<1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9> set the STEP; the <S,s> keys toggle STAGGER on and
off; <A,a> toggles AUTO RESET; <B,b> toggles the BORDER; the Function keys
switch palettes; and <P,p> calls up the Palette Editor, where a User
Palette can be created. (When Auto Reset is ON, the time spent in the
dialog, help box, or palette editor is accounted for and the timer
adjusted accordingly.)
The User Palette can have up to 84 (that's 6 by 14 colors) colors
specified. The cyclical color animation only uses colors 1 through 14.
Color 0, the screen background, is always black, and color 15, the writing
color, is always white. If you input less than 84 colors, when you leave
the Palette Editor, the palette will be searched for an "empty" or 0-color
(black). You will be querried as to whether or not you want the palette
cut off at this point. (Usually, you do, otherwise all the "empty" colors
would be included in the color rotation and the screen would go blank for
a while!)
The User Palette can only be called up and enforced by pressing
the F10 key while the Super Polyscope is running! If you press the F10 key
before you have installed a User Palette, you will see a single color bar
(red) cycling through the animation; this is just a marker color. The
Palette Editor can be called up whether the User Palette is the active
palette for the Super Polyscope or not, so to use the palette you have
created, you must press the F10 key after exiting the Editor (or before
entering it).
The Palette Editor has data-buttons for the red, green, and blue
values of the color number given in the Color Selector data-button. The
color currently being altered is shown TO THE RIGHT of the Color Selector;
the color previous to it in the sequence of the palette is shown TO THE
LEFT of the Color Selector. Showing the previous color makes it easy to
input a long sequence of colors smoothly into a cyclical palette.
The data-buttons for the Color Selector and the RGB values are
modular. That is, clicking the arrow up from 7 returns you to 0, and
clicking down from 0 puts you at 7, so you're never more than four clicks
away from any RGB value. The Color Selector is modular to 84, but when
you select the highest color used out of the 84 colors possible, the bell
will sound, making it easy to find the end of a palette sequence.
The next three buttons are equally straight-forward. The RESTORE
button resets the entire User Palette to the values it had when the
Palette Editor was entered or to the values in force the last time the
UPDATE button was clicked. The CLEAR button voids all palette values and
starts you off with a clear slate. The UPDATE button sets the currently
established values as the RESTORE palette.
As you can see from the Palette Editor itself, once a User Palette
has been created, it can be SAVE'd to or LOAD'ed from disk. These Super
Polyscope palettes have a default extent of ".POL" You don't have to type
it in; it will be appended by the program if you leave the extent blank.
Most of the commands are documented in the program itself, but one
feature that is NOT is the ability to install one of the five inherent
palettes as the user palette. Then, it can be edited from the Palette
Editor! (The original palette, "A" through "E," remains the same; the copy
is installed under the F10 key.) From the Super Polyscope Dialog, select a
palette "A" through "E" while holding down the <Alt> key, and it will be
copied to the user palette. (Whatever values were in the user palette
previously will be erased.)
The screen can be cleared at any time simply by pressing any other
key than the valid keyboard commands (the space bar is handy). If the
AUTO RESET is ON when you clear the screen, its timer will be reset at the
same time. And lastly, you can exit the Super Polyscope (why would you
want to do that?) by pressing the <Return> or <Undo> key. You'll be given
a chance to relent or repent (or undo an accidental poke at the keyboard).
And, as always, enjoy... And, while you're enjoying all this neat
free programming, you might think about getting a copy of one of the best
perforance/price-ratio software bargains ever for the ST! Just in case you
haven't heard about it, here's your chance...
================= =====================
PRESS RELEASE SKWare One PO Box 277
August 30, 1990 Bunker Hill, IL 62014
================= =====================
ANNOUNCING A MAJOR UPGRADE OF THE POPULAR ATARI ST PAINT PROGRAM:
SEURAT VERSION 2.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* Create and Edit Degas, MacPaint and GEM IMG files (any size!) Largest
workspace onto IMG's of ANY program! (reqs. mono mon.) Now, you can
use the full resources of SEURAT to create and edit images for your
Desktop Publishing, using powerful raster tools and working in a fami-
liar Paint Program environment! Enjoy the best of both worlds!
* THE FASTEST Multi-Ratio Zoom (2X to 8X) there is for the ST! SEURAT
Vers. 2.0 is 121 times faster than Vers. 1.0 and TWICE as fast as Degas!
* System, Degas and GDOS fonts on-line for text (with no GDOS.PRG
required!) You can Scale, Style, Color and Rotate Text!
* Automatic Smooth-Curve Spline Drawing Tools! Let your ST draw for you!
* EIGHT Image Buffers available on a 1-Meg ST!
* SlowMouse! Variable-Speed mouse makes Drawing Easier!
* Anti-Alias (and it's goof-proof)! Powerful Palette Editor with video-
like color controls! Modify whole palettes with a single mouse stroke!
* Loads and Saves Compressed & Uncompressed Degas, MacPaint, and GEM
IMG files; IFF (Degas) and GFA blocks; fill, brush and palette files.
* There's also 11 block shapers & twisters to modify image blocks
(now full-screen, too); 92 color & mono fill patterns; 42 brushes
including user-defined and multi-colored; 4 graphic write modes &
21 block & mask write modes; circle, ellipse & filled disc in free,
repeat & concentric modes; round- & square-cornered rectangles &
solids; rays; airbrush; clear-circle & clear-box; vertical, horizon-
tal & free lines; polylines & polygons in line-edge or spline-curve;
area & seed fill; user-set clipping ("invisible windows"); color
remap; mirror; screen shift, flip, invert & rotate; fill editor;
brush editor; line editor; gobs of great disk utilities; and a
hundred or so other features there's no room to mention... whew!
* INDISPENSIBLE for GEM IMG graphics for your Desktop Publishing! More
graphic tools and operations for creating and editing .IMG files than
ANY OTHER PROGRAM (no matter how much it costs)!
* DON'T BE MISLED by SEURAT's low price! VERSION 2.0 is a POWER TOOL
that out-performs the "big-name" programs!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, for a limited time, you can purchase
SEURAT VERSION 2.0
at a special, pre-mass-distribution price
ONLY $25.00!
Two-disk set, with 30,000-word User's Manual on-disk;
includes BOTH Color AND Mono Programs!
(Requires 1-Meg ST with doublesided drive)
MasterCard/VISA accepted
How Can You Get a Copy of SEURAT Version 2.0?
The ONLY Way is to mail
Your Money Order, Check, or Credit Card Info to:
SKWare One / P. O. Box 277 / Bunker Hill, Illinois 62014
Order Yours Today!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you're interested in the GFA Basic source code for the SUPRPOLY.PRG, you'll
find it in the Languages/Programming Library as POLYCODE.LZH. And, if you want
to keep up with all the fabulous SKWare One Freebies, they will all be indexed
to the search terms "skware1" and "SEURAT" as well as by topic. Of course, if
you accumulate enough copies of the SEURAT blurb, you'll eventually experience
an overwhelming compulsion to order SEURAT Version 2.0! Gee, I hope so...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------