MrMemo

14th August 2001 08:11 UTC

Great Idea For AVS Preset
Greetings. I'm new here & don't know a lot about exactly how to get presets to do what I want them to do. :confused: I know how they work, but I don't know the specifics to make them look good. I have a great idea for a preset, but I don't know how to put it in motion. Anyone who wants to help me must be good with movement parameters and/or superscopes. The basic idea has to do with the old Atari game Asteroids. Remember WAY back when? Anyway, there are many ways to contact me in my info box. I hope I'll get a few responses. Thanx.

AmpliDex

14th August 2001 16:35 UTC

Making Superscopes, Movements, Bumps, Dynamic Shifts, and Dynamic Movements requires algebraic equations and you can type in the input in the boxes! The Trans -- Movement has a dozen sample movements plus a user-defined selection! To make your own movements, click user-defined in the Movement menu and the variables that are primarily edited are d, r, x, and y, but you can choose any variable you want! If you're still stumped, look at the other preset collections, including my Insane AVS 1 - 2!

MrMemo

16th August 2001 09:35 UTC

Still Confused
Dude. Like I said, I know HOW they work (a.k.a. modifying variables), but I need help with them from someone who knows more than I do. I've made some presets, but this idea I had about the "Asteroids" thing would require more knowledge than I have. The sample movements don't give you the equations that made them, so that doesn't help me. I went into movement & stuck in something like "y = x^2 + 1" (or whatever the syntax is) but I don't get a parabola & I don't know why. :confused: There are also a few functions that I have no idea what they do (e.g. sigmoid). :confused: I need a lot of help in the Superscope field too. I've figured out how to get colors to go where I want them, but that's about it. There are 4 boxes & I still can't figure out what equations to put in what boxes. Using the WinAmp variables is a bit different than using regular variables. I know what the variables stand for (distance, radius, horizontal, & vertical), but I'm not sure how to modify them so they're useful to me. Basically, I need someone to get me started with these & I'll probably be able to figure it out once I'm started.

transfrmr

16th August 2001 14:42 UTC

actually,
r is rotation, not radius.

Check out the thread thorin okenshield started, napoleon gave some really good advice.

If you play with it for a while, you'll probably get it yourself..

Good luck !

LittleBuddy88

16th August 2001 15:55 UTC

There is a tutorial to most of the aspects in AVS, SSC's & movements on "communities.msn.com/avsociety". You need a hotmail account or similar to become a member and be able to download the file though.
By the way.
"Per pixel", that's where you modify the scope itself
"per frame", this is where you add variables, well i'll give you an example, t=t+1 here the "T" variable would increase by 1 on each frame.
"on beat"(or something) all that is in this box is executed only when there is a beat active.
"init", this is executed when the preset is started.
The variables avilible are.
X - this is the horizontal line
Y - the vertical one
V - example, y=v; x=i-0.5, it gives movement to sound, don't know how to explain :/
B - it is "1" on a beat, at all other times it is "0"
N - how many points your preset has
Red - red color(0-1)
Green - green color(0-1)
Blue - blue color(0-1)
That's all i can think of now.



Linus

AmpliDex

16th August 2001 17:42 UTC

Ok! For the movement :

d = centre variable
r = rotation or divider
x = x axis modifier
y = y axis modifier

You can also create variables such as f, sc, g, etc. in order to greatly enhance the movement! And you will probably find these variations usable :

cos
sin
tan
abs
log
log10

Just go to the expression help and it will give oyu the answers!

Kobold

16th August 2001 20:57 UTC

Could you please describe that Asteroids game?
(-)

MrMemo

19th August 2001 22:29 UTC

Thanx for ALL your help
Thanx for all your help. :) I think I'll check out everything you've told me. (Not today. I'm a bit busy. Soon, though.) I'm surpised to find someone who has never heard of "Asteroids." It was one of the first Atari games. Atari was the second video game system in existance and the first good one. (Collecovision was a big failure, I heard.) The object of "Asteroids" is to destroy the asteroids, which are moving about randomly on the screen. You have a little ship which can accelerate & turn in any direction & can fire. The sides of the screen join together, so if you fly off the right side, you come in on the left, & so on. If you fire at a big asteroid & hit it, it splits into 3 medium-sized asteroids. Hit a medium-sized one, & it splits into 3 little ones. Hit a little one & it dissappears. Hit all the little ones & the game goes to the next level. My plan is slightly different. What I want to do is have a little particle that grows on the beats (just like the moving particle render) instead of the ship. But instead of moving around the center, I want it to seek the closest asteroids. It won't fire anything, just crash through the asteroids. The idea is that it'll go towards the big asteroids & get them, then move onto the medium-sized ones, then the little ones. After they're all gone, the 3 big ones will appear again and the cycle will continue. Now for the asteroids themselves, I want them to be like the simple ring scope, but filled in instead of hollow. If anyone has any suggestions that help me, I'll be sure to take them. If you make a significant contribution to my preset, I'll be sure to include your name or screen name (whichever you prefer) and what you contributed in the credits. I hope I get some good suggestions.

P.S.: If this idea gets enough hype, I might just figure out how to make it a full-fledged Plug-In of its own right. If that happens, I'll probably turn it into an interactive game like Asteroids where you can control the thing & fire with it.

Kobold

21st August 2001 00:48 UTC

Thanks for decription
I think it is possible to make something like this. The asteroids may be just interlaced superscopes(1st frame-asteroid 1, 2-nd frame-asteroid 2) or there may be a static particle that gets tons of differently sized copies thru dynamic movement. The biggest problem is synchronizing that asteroid killer with the asteroids:confused:

MrMemo

21st August 2001 05:21 UTC

Getting it together
I've figured out that v = value of the scope. Our first priority is to get the Asteroids functioning. Then, we get the killer working. Then, we get them to work together (e.g. get the seek & destroy part on line & the splitting & dissappearing on line). Then, finally, we get the thing to look cool.

Lucid DM

21st August 2001 13:54 UTC

I'm not sure if you can get different superscopes to use the same variables. So that would make the seking bit quite hard. It's hard anywayhttp://www.mear.fsnet.co.uk/grinblue.gif (I've made something lik this in Flash).
I've made a superscope that has bouncing balls, I could modify that to make the asteroids bounce off the inside walls. Or do you want them to appear on the opposite wall like the ship?

Lucid DM

21st August 2001 14:15 UTC

You can't attach a file in an edit, so I'll make this new post.
I just whipped this up in ten minutes and I'm still working on making the asteroids solid.
Anyway: When you load the preset, they all randomly choose a starting position and speed. I made it so that they'll eventually sloooow down. I can get rid of that later if you want. They don't actually react to eachother yet. And I'll see if I can find out how to do that.
Anyway, have a look. See what you think.

[edit] Th only way I can think of having them work together (other than building it all into one (=hard) would be to not use random numbers, but instead a formula that produced semi random numbers, but would come out the same in every different thing. Did that make any sense to you? [/edit]

MrMemo

22nd August 2001 05:40 UTC

Asteroids
First off, for some unknown reason, I can't download the attachment that you posted, Lucid. Secondly, I've already made my own little particle & asteroids myself I'll include them in my next post. (My compy is acting up right now & I gotta restart.) I was thinking that when we start with the three big asteroids, one does the left speaker, one the right, & one the center. I thought that since each asteroid becomes three smaller ones, we could just turn each asteroid into a smaller version of the original somehow. Right now, I'm downloading the two packs that the two of you guys have in your signatures. I hope they give me some ideas. I know this project is going to be hard, but I believe it will look GREAT if we can get if finished. I may be a bit optimistic on this, but I don't think anyone else has EVEN attempted something like this, so whatever we get done will be new & innovative.

Kobold

22nd August 2001 09:28 UTC

Asteroids
The asteroids themselves may be just weird many-sided stars. This will allow them to pulsate with music and they will appear filled if the n will be about 100~200.
Example:
Init: n=101;p=3.14159265;s=0.2;rn=0.2;st=n/2;t=0
Frame: dx=sin(p*t)*0.8;dy=cos(3*t)*0.8;t=t+0.003;
Point: x=dx+cos(i*p*2*st)*s*(abs(v)+rn);
y=dy+sin(i*p*2*st)*s*(abs(v)+rn)

The size(s) and roundness(rn) may be controlled
Render mode should set line thickness to 2 and clear every frame should be set. Superscope's lines on. Setting low s and high rn may make object less "sharp"


When it comes to pre-determined paths for particles, the best is doing something like xpos=sin(t); ypos=cos(k*t);t=t+0.003, where k CAN CHANGE ON BEAT by a predetermined law. It will be synced and different every time

And one more thing. If I want to relese my avs preset pack, where can I get an installer for it?

LittleBuddy88

22nd August 2001 14:50 UTC

Try checking out this preset, it's an even earlier game, Pong.
as far as i know the only easy way is to put it all in one variable.
To do this use the command:
X=If(below(i,0.2),var1,x);
X=if(band(below(i,0.4),above(i,0.2)),var2,x), ect...
This would allow randomization to be used.


Linus

Kobold

25th August 2001 11:08 UTC

Another idea
The asteroids can become larger and larger from beat to beat and than BOOM!!! And many small pieces flying on screen, which do the same

MrMemo

2nd October 2001 10:02 UTC

My Stuff So Far
Sorry for being so late. I lost my Internet for a week, & when I got it back, I forgot about this forum until just now. Here's what I have so far. I have the "killer" and the asteroids. I also figured out how to make the asteroid move, but not in the directions I want it to. Hope I get some help with this. Thanx.

MrMemo

2nd October 2001 10:04 UTC

Whoops! :eek:
Sorry. Forgot to attach my stuff to the message. Here it is.

Scarface2k1

5th October 2001 01:14 UTC

asteriods

Init: n=101;p=3.14159265;s=0.2;rn=0.2;st=n/2;t=0 
Frame: dx=sin(p*t)*0.8;dy=cos(3*t)*0.8;t=t+0.003; 
Point: x=dx+cos(i*p*2*st)*s*(abs(v)+rn); 
y=dy+sin(i*p*2*st)*s*(abs(v)+rn) 

Dutchie

4th November 2001 06:47 UTC

Simple asteroid
A bit late in the day as this thread is months old but I've only just joined the forum.

I had a go at doing a moving asteroid that looks similar to the original game.

I hope this helps

Cheers
Dutchie