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Text File | 1995-04-26 | 18.5 KB | 433 lines

Tumble-ST v2.09 Another Adventure in Kinetic Art Copyright (c) 1988-90 by Dan Rhea, All rights reserved This program may be copied and freely distributed but it may not be sold WARNING! This program should not be operated by or in proximity of any persons suffering from Eplipsy. The strobing and hypnotic effects created by Tumble-ST could quite possibly trigger an Epliptic seisure in those persons sensitive to flashing light. This warning is not ment to be taken lightly. If you have Eplipsy DO NOT VIEW THIS PROGRAM! Tumble - What is it... Tumble is simply a program that takes two points on the screen and moves them each in one of eight directions (N, NW, W...), and then draws a line between the two points. What makes it entertaining is that this can leave interesting patterns on the screen. By altering the distance each point moves each time you can create moire patterns. It it's current form, any time a point reaches the edge of the screen or goes a randomly predefined distance new directions are picked, maybe a new color for the line and the number of spaces the point moves in it's assigned direction. This is the frame work on which I built Tumble-ST. Tumble - Some history... Tumble first made it's appearance in the early 1980s as an Atari Basic program to show off the GTIA chip. A couple of years later I discovered the language Action! and the first Public Domain version of the program appeared. Now with the advent of GFA Basic and it's extremely short development cycle I decided it was time for Tumble to move to the ST. Tumble-ST v2.09 - How to use it... All of Tumble's functions are controlled by the mouse buttons and a selection of Alert Boxes. The following describes each one and it's function. The newest version adds Function keys for all of you die-hard button pushers. The mouse... The mouse provides three basic functions (other than Alert box selections), to control the operation of Tumble-ST. 1. The left button will freeze the current image on the screen. Releasing the button allows the display to continue. 2. The right button will clear the screen of the current image. Releasing the button allows a new display to be started. 3. Pressing both buttons will break out of the display mode and allow you to quit or re-run the program with a new set of parameters. The Alert Boxes... Intro... The intro Alert box displays the copyright information, version number and my name. It will allow the following options... Great This option simply bypasses the Help Alert box and allows you to go on with the configuration. Help This option will bring up the Help Alert box. Quit This does just what it says. It lets you quit in case you started the program and didn't want to. Help... This Alert box will remind you of the Mouse functions (Freeze, Clear and Quit). Auto-Switch... Auto-Switch is a new feature that was added in version 2.04 to allow the program to automaticly alter it's basic operating parameters on it's own after 25 or 150 "events". An event is when the current tumble changes (or tries to change) it's direction, step or other random parameter. This is usefull if you want to leave tumble running in a sort of "Demo" mode. The selections you have are... 1 No Auto-Switch. The program will continue to run with the parameters you have selected for it. 2 Auto-Switch after 25 events. All run parametes but Auto- Switch may be randomly changed. This will repeat every 50 events. 3 Auto-Switch after 150 events. All run parameters but Auto- Switch may be randomly changed. This will repeat every 250 events. Step... This alert box allows you to vary the maximum distance one of the points can jump at a given time. The actual jump will be between 0 and the following selection. NOTE: The program makes sure that no more than one point can have a zero setting. The options are... 1 Short jump (0 to 1). This keeps the moire patterns to a minimum and is most useful with the "Rainbow" type display mode. 2 Medium jump (0 to 2). This allows a nice mix of solid and moire patterns. It works well with all display modes. 3 Long jump (0 to 3). This mode is used to create displays that are heavy in moire patterns. It is very useful in the 4 and 2 color display modes since there is little in the way of color mixing to observe. Line Style... This option allows you to use either a dashed or dotted line in place of the solid one normally use. The effects caused by this are a little unexpected. It doesn't perfectly mirror the left and right sides of the screen. This is because the ST always draws lines from left to right even if you tell it otherwise (i.e. draw 0,1 to 0,100 goes from 1 to 100. draw 0,100 to 0,1 goes from 1 to 100 not 100 to 1). It is a little odd but I left it in because it still makes pretty interesting patterns. Line This is the standard solid line. Dash This is a dashed line. Dot This is a dotted line (pretty obvious huh?) Direction Control... The direction control was added to version 2.03 of Tumble-ST to give a little more subtle control over the patterns generated. Basicly the endpoints of the line that is the basis of Tumble-ST can usually move in one of 8 directions (in degrees 0, 45, 90 and so on). This feature allows you to inhibit movement in the vertical/horizontial directions (0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees) or the diagonal directions (45, 135, 220, and 310 degrees). The options you can select are... 1 Normal or all 8 directions. 2 No diagonals. All endpoint movement in a diagonal direction is inhibted. This tends to create intresting halftone and plaid patterns on the screen. 3 No vertical or horizontal endpoint movement. This tends to create very intricate dimond shaped patterns with some rather interesting moire patterns within the diamonds. Glue... The glue option controls where the new set of points start when we select new parameters (after edge of screen collision). Basically it tells the program to start the new points where the old ones stopped. In effect, gluing the shapes one to the other. You can... Glue Stick the new shapes starting point where the previous shape finished. This is good for geometric shapes on the display. Random Stick the new set of points anywhere on the screen. This tends to make a rather chaotic looking screen but it can generate some startling moire patterns. It is also useful when using "Reflection" options. Order... This controls the sequence the program picks colors out of the color palette. It can enable or disable rainbow or shading effects. Selections are... Sequence The colors are used in the same order they are located in the color palette. This is useful for rainbow or shading effects. Random The colors are randomly selected from the palette. This will make for a more chaotic display but will increase the chances of interesting color mixes and moire patterns. Palette (Low & Med rez only)... This lets you choose from two predefined palettes or the default colors on the desktop. In any case, the default colors are restored before the program exits. Choices are... Desktop Uses the desktop colors exactly as they were set when the program started up. Rainbow Uses a 16 or 4 color predefined palette that is a semi-spectrum (semi since dosent have all the colors in it). The colors run from violet to red. Shade This is an 8 or 4 color grey scale from 000 to 777 to 000. It is used to create shading effects and can create some stunning moire patterns with a step of 3. Desktop or Random Palette This new feature adds a forth palette (pallete for you gurus), to Tumble by adding another alert boz (yes, another one), to allow you to specify the Desktop or a random palette. This only happens if you select Desktop from the previous alert box. Desktop Uses the desktop colors as set at program start Random Uses a completly random palette Display (Low & Med rez only)... This controls how the colors are displayed. They either change when an edge of screen collision happens or the cycle as the lines between the points are drawn. Each produces it's own variety of screen effects. The options are... Normal Change color only when we re-define a new set of shape parameters (i.e. screen edge collision). Rainbow The colors are cycled through as the shape is drawn. This creates rainbow and shading effects. Rainbow Range (Low & Med rez and Rainbow display only)... This controls how long each color "persists" when it is selected from the palette. This also balances solids to moire patterns and the degree of shading illusion is present. Selections are... 1 Short persistence (1). A new color is selected for every line drawn. Strong shading illusions but a bit too much for rainbow effects. 3 Medium persistence (3). A new color is picked every third line drawn. Very good for rainbow effects and still good for shading. 9 Long persistence (9). A new color is used every ninth line drawn. This lessens the shading effects but can create fantastic moire patterns. It is still rather effective for rainbow effects and color mixing. Color Rotation... Color rotation is normally only valid for the shade and rainbow palettes and then only in rainbow mode. Basicly rotate takes the second color in the palette and shifts all the colors beyond it down by 1 the second color saved before is now placed as the last color in the palette. This imparts the illusion of motion to the patterns on the screen. The first color of the palette is skipped since it is the background color and creates a very disturbing screen when the background is constantly strobing through the colors. In this version the restrictions have been pretty much removed for color rotation. It is only attractive in a few modes but that's no reason to disable it. No In this mode the colors in the palette are not rotated. Yes In this mode the colors of the palette will be rotated from the top of the palette to the bottom. The other direction is not supported since the effects it creates are not very interesting. Image Mode (Reflections)... This controls if the tumbled image is reflected or not and the degree to which it is reflected (2 or 4 way). These setting have the most dramatic effect on the appearance of the display. You can select... Mirror The image is reflected 180 degrees. The resultant image is somewhat abstract but will create interesting geometric effects. Two way reflection. Normal This mode generally creates a fairly abstract image but it is usually rather pleasing to watch. No Reflection. K-Scope Kaleidoscopic (we half way anyway), images are created with this mode. The image is reflected 4 ways and tends to create an image with lots of geometric shapes. Quit... This is where you need to decide if you want to quit and return to the mundane world of the GEM desktop or set new parameters and keep playing... Quit Return to the GEM desktop or Shell. Rerun Jump back up to the "Step" alert for a new set of parameters. Improvements for version 2.05 Version 2.05 finally adds some features I've gotten requests for from users of the program. Basicly I've departed somewhat from my pure mouse interface and provided an alternate method for changing parameters that Tumble-ST uses to generate a screen. These are duplicates of those commands accessed through the mouse and alert boxes but are availavble with a simple press of a function key. Function keys 1 through 6 are supported in all modes and 7 through 10 are for low resolution only (where most of the special effects are available). Reguardless of the rezolution, all of the function keys will generate an alert box telling you just what changes you have caused by pressing the key. The alerts are all single choice so you can exit them by pressing Enter/Return or clicking the mouse on the "Ok" button. The following is a list of the function key commands... F1 Toggle tumble modes from normal to mirror (2 way reflection) to K-Scope (4 way reflection) and back again. F2 Toggle the step value from 2 to 3 to 4 and back. F3 Toggle the direction restrictions from no diagonals to no verticals to all directions and back. F4 Toggle the "glue" option on or off. F5 Toggle the color order from sequential to random and back. F6 Toggle between Line, Dashed and dot line styles. NEW F7 Toggle the color palette from desktop to rainbow to shaded to random and back. Low & Med rez only. F8 Toggle color rotation on or off. Low rez only. F9 Toggle rainbow mode off and on. Low & Med rez only. F10 Toggle the rainbow width from narrow to medium to wide and back. Low & Med rez only. For more detailed descriptions of the various modes mentioned read over the section describing the actions of the Alert boxes. The functions are the same but can be done "on the fly" unlike the Alert boxes. Also note that the function key method allows you to do some of the functions the Alert boxes inhibit (like color rotation of solid colors). Experiment if you like. You can always undo what you did by by pressing the appropriate function keys one or more times. Improvements for Version 2.08 The biggest change is that I have added line styles that tumble uses to draw with. This adds to it's special effects abilities. The next thing added was support for a fully random palette (so it's not that great an option... what can I say... creeping perfectionism strikes again!). Next added is a FAR improved rainbow palette. It actually covers the spectrum now and is a lot more vibrant. Finally, a lot of the internal and arbitrary rules covering when you can and can't use Rainbow mode and color rotation have been relaxed. This cleared up a LOT of strange little bugs that were bothering me. I hope you like it. Improvements for Version 2.09 The biggest reason for this version was that I FINALLY found and fixed some long standing bugs. The most noticable was when you toggled the rainbow width to narrow and it went into a non-rainbow mode that was a pain to get back into. A couple of new features have been added as well. The biggest is that medium res can now use all of the low rez color options other than color rotation (I tried it in medium, it's only good for inducing nausea). I also added code to make the odd line patterns a bit less common in the autoswitch mode. The autoswitch mode now switches at 25 and 150 instead of 50 and 250. The rest of the rainbow/rotation rules have been removed. This could produce some really jarring displays but you can always press the F9 key to calm things down a bit. I'll try to wait a few months before I introduce any new versions this time. F.Y.I... For your information (i.e. F.Y.I.). Tumble-ST is written completly in Michtron's GFA Basic and was then compiled using Michtron's GFA Basic compiler. The program does not use any special routines to achive it's performance but is the direct result of the power of the ST that GFA Basic makes available to everyone from the novice to the expert. If you are one of those who feels that Basic is a dead language, I strongly urge that you give GFA a try. I KNOW GFA will change you mind. Huh? Also for some unknown reason Tumble-ST seems to run much faster on an ST equiped with the "blitter" ROM set (without a blitter), than on a standard ROM equiped ST. If you know why, drop me a line via my CompuServe PPN or give my BBS a call. Acknowledgments My thanks to Robert M. Birmingham, Sean Puckett, Jeff Jones, Lee B. Weiss, Ken Cheek and Dave Groves. All of whom had a hand in Tumble-ST via ideas and/or suggestions. The possibility of a version 2.10 depends on feedback from them or you. Feel free to drop me a line. The bottom line... I am fully aware of the fact that this program is not a "useful" one in that it doesn't do anything but make nice patterns on the screen, but if you use it a lot and enjoy it. I ask that you send five dollars to... The American Cancer Society The American Diabetes Association National Leukemia Foundation This is in honor of my late brother and father who fell victim to these horrible illnesses. And to friends all over who are fighting the same. Tumble-ST v2.09 CareWare $5.00 by Dan Rhea Compuserve 76703,4364 BrowBeat Express BBS (305)435-8786 End, Fini, Done, Completed, No more, Stop here, Press Q, Stand on your head, Do not turn the page, Enos, Halt, Alto, Quit, Desist, End Trans....