ASCII Plasma

[Clyde]

Now this I've had quite a few headaches with, first one being that there's no Load / Set Font command like in Blitz. And I don't really know what the default font is or it's dimensions are. Im guess it's 8x8. Also, found that with certain calculations there's this annoying 'beep'. I presume it's linked to a certain Chr() number, but can't find the source of it. Also I've had to leave a 1 place border around the effect, due to getting odd results with having it as a full screen render. Probably due to the font not being a fixed width, and the Print Chr();

Also I've tried to make this as simple as possible due to time and life comitments, but I recon it's not turned out too badly. I could of course, cheated and loaded in and converted a fixed width font to use as the rendering, and do it in the old fashion of using a customized Bitmap Font lib, but I wanted to experiment with the standard printing. I've also opted for using GFXlib, as I found that the easiest way of going about it.

Hope it inspires people with their entries, and also hope it works on your systems.  And a big thanks to Optimus for inspiring the Plasma method.

Ok then here goes:

Code: [Select]

'
' ASCII Render Engine V1.01
' Credits: Code By Clyde
' Plasma Inspired By Optimus
'
Option Static
Option Explicit

Const XRES=640
Const YRES=480

Const PI = 3.14151693

Dim Shared Vel

Dim Shared ScreenNo

Dim Shared Pal(255)
Dim Shared Sin1(4095),Sin2(4095),Sin3(4095)

Declare Sub CreatePal(Â  Byval Val1 As Integer, Byval Val2 As Integer, Byval Val3 As Integer )

Declare Sub InitializeASCII()
Declare Sub RunASCII()
Declare Sub UpdateASCIIPlasma()

InitializeASCII()
RunASCII()


Sub CreatePal(Â  Byval Val1 As Integer, Byval Val2 As Integer, Byval Val3 As Integer )
  Â  
  Â  '
  Â  ' Local variables.
  Â  '
  Â  Dim As Integer a, m, r, g, b
  
  Â  For a=0 To 255
  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  m = a*( 360/255 )

  Â  Â  Â  r = Cos(( m+Val1 )*( PI/180 )) *127+127
  Â  Â  Â  g = Cos(( m+Val2 )*( PI/180 )) *127+127
  Â  Â  Â  b = Cos(( m+Val3 )*( PI/180 )) *127+127
  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Pal( a ) = ( r Shl 16 ) Or ( g Shl 8 ) Or ( b Shl 0 )
  Â  
  Â  Next

End Sub


Sub InitializeASCII()

  Â  ScreenRes XRES,YRES,32,3,1 : Screenset 1, 0 : SetMouse  Â ,,0
  Â  WindowTitle "ASCII Plasma!"
  Â  Randomize Timer()
  Â  
  Â  ScreenNo = 1
  Â  
  Â  Dim i
  Â
  Â  For i=0 To 4095
  Â  Â  Â  Sin1(i)=Sin(i/ 10)* 96+ 96
  Â  Â  Â  Sin2(i)=Sin(i/ 20)*112+112
  Â  Â  Â  Sin3(i)=Sin(i/ 70)*128+128
Next
  Â  
  Â  CreatePal( 10, 40, 120 )
  Â  
End Sub


Sub RunASCII()
  Â  
  Â  Dim Key As String
  Â  
  Â  While Key<>Chr(27)
  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Cls
  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Screencopy 2, ScreenNo
  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Vel=Timer()*10
  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  UpdateASCIIPlasma()
  
  Â  Â  Â  Screensync
  Â  Â  Â  ScreenNo Xor = 1
Screenset ScreenNo, ScreenNo xor 1
  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Key=Inkey()
  Â  
  Â  Wend
  Â  
End Sub


Sub UpdateASCIIPlasma()
  Â  
  Â  Dim x, y, c
  Â  Dim Vel1, Vel2
  Â  Dim Char, RChar, BChar, GChar
  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Vel1=  Vel
  Â  Vel2=6*Vel
  Â  
  Â  If Vel1>503 then Vel1=Vel1-(Vel1\503)*503
  Â  If Vel2>880 then Vel2=Vel2-(Vel2\880)*880
  Â  
  Â  For y=1 To (YRES\8)-1
  Â  Â  Â  For x=1 To (XRES\8)-1

  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  c=(sin1(x)+sin2(y+Vel1)+sin3(x+y+Vel2)) And 255
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Color Pal(c),0
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  RChar= ((Pal(c) shr 16) and &HFF )  
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  BChar= ((Pal(c) shr  8) And &HFF )
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  GChar= ((Pal(c) shr  0) and &HFF )
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Char = (RChar + BChar + GChar) \ 3
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  If Char<0  Â then Char=0
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  If Char>255 then Char=255
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Locate y,x : Print Chr(Char);
  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  
  Â  Â  Â  Next
Next
  Â  
End Sub

Cheers and all the best,
Clyde.

[Shockwave]

That's fucking great Clyde! I opened my IDE tonight to do exactly what you've done here and I just stared at it, I din't know where to start because I'm caught between two methods of doing it and I don't know which will be best, I guess that I'll have to experiment with both.

Your routine works nice and smooth , really It is nice, the colours are so good that I had to look twice to see the ascii chars making up the display!

Good job and have some good Karma for getting the ball rolling

[Clyde]

Thanks so very much dude.

[TinDragon]

Hmm must have not posted my earlier reply.

Anyway, nice effect clyde but I am not to keen on the letters cycling as well.

Change the line that print the character to

Code: [Select]

Locate y,x : Print Chr(177);and it looks more like one of those textmode demo's

Full listing below.

Code: [Select]

'
' ASCII Render Engine V1.01
' Credits: Code By Clyde
' Plasma Inspired By Optimus
' Butchered By TinDragon :P
'
Option Static
Option Explicit

Const XRES=640
Const YRES=480

Const PI = 3.14151693

Dim Shared Vel

Dim Shared ScreenNo

Dim Shared Pal(255)
Dim Shared Sin1(4095),Sin2(4095),Sin3(4095)

Declare Sub CreatePal(  Byval Val1 As Integer, Byval Val2 As Integer, Byval Val3 As Integer )

Declare Sub InitializeASCII()
Declare Sub RunASCII()
Declare Sub UpdateASCIIPlasma()

InitializeASCII()
RunASCII()


Sub CreatePal(  Byval Val1 As Integer, Byval Val2 As Integer, Byval Val3 As Integer )
   
    '
    ' Local variables.
    '
    Dim As Integer a, m, r, g, b
 
    For a=0 To 255
       
        m = a*( 360/255 )

        r = Cos(( m+Val1 )*( PI/180 )) *127+127
        g = Cos(( m+Val2 )*( PI/180 )) *127+127
        b = Cos(( m+Val3 )*( PI/180 )) *127+127
       
        Pal( a ) = ( r Shl 16 ) Or ( g Shl 8 ) Or ( b Shl 0 )
   
    Next

End Sub


Sub InitializeASCII()

    ScreenRes XRES,YRES,32,3,1 : Screenset 1, 0 : SetMouse   ,,0
    WindowTitle "ASCII Plasma!"
    Randomize Timer()
   
    ScreenNo = 1
   
    Dim i
   
    For i=0 To 4095
        Sin1(i)=Sin(i/ 10)* 96+ 96
        Sin2(i)=Sin(i/ 20)*112+112
        Sin3(i)=Sin(i/ 70)*128+128
Next
   
    CreatePal( 10, 40, 120 )
   
End Sub


Sub RunASCII()
   
    Dim Key As String
   
    While Key<>Chr(27)
       
        Cls
       
        Screencopy 2, ScreenNo
       
        Vel=Timer()*10
       
        UpdateASCIIPlasma()
 
        Screensync
        ScreenNo Xor = 1
Screenset ScreenNo, ScreenNo xor 1
       
        Key=Inkey()
   
    Wend
   
End Sub


Sub UpdateASCIIPlasma()
   
    Dim x, y, c
    Dim Vel1, Vel2
    Dim Char, RChar, BChar, GChar
       
    Vel1=  Vel
    Vel2=6*Vel
   
    If Vel1>503 then Vel1=Vel1-(Vel1\503)*503
    If Vel2>880 then Vel2=Vel2-(Vel2\880)*880
   
    For y=1 To (YRES\8)-1
        For x=1 To (XRES\8)-1

            c=(sin1(x)+sin2(y+Vel1)+sin3(x+y+Vel2)) And 255
           
            Color Pal(c),0
           
            RChar= ((Pal(c) shr 16) and &HFF )
            BChar= ((Pal(c) shr  8) And &HFF )
            GChar= ((Pal(c) shr  0) and &HFF )
           
            'Char = (RChar + BChar + GChar) \ 3
           
            'If Char<0   then Char=0
            'If Char>255 then Char=255
           
            Locate y,x : Print Chr(177);
           
        Next
Next
   
End Sub


[Shockwave]

They look like two differnt effects, just the difference of one character but I love the style of Clydes version. Lots of Ascii demos have cycling characters and the best ones choose those characters carefully to achieve all sorts of stuff, even anti-aliasing of sorts.

The fuzzy block ascii character looks nice but I tend to favour the varied ascii character demos because the solid  chr$(177) ones fail to capture the true essence of the diverse ascii set and using the shapes contained in the characters to make a display.

I guess it's just a matter of personal preference.

[TinDragon]

Yep personal preferrance or taste is what makes us different. Dont get me wrong Clyde's effect is cool. Infact any char's used as just one for the effect makes a vary interesting take on it, not just the solid like block I picked. Shows just how easy it is to change an effects look with out much work.

Nice effect Clyde 


[Edit] I think one ascii value is used to make a beep Clyde, might be why your getting them, I had sound off when i tried code 

[Clyde]

Thanks for the suggestion Tin Dragon.

I was aiming for capturing the essence of the TMDC demos that I've seen; where each character represents a shade of colour; as Shockie has pointed out. If there was a loadfont command similar to BB I could generate my own custom shadetext string, and have a better choice of symbols to match up with; like I have done in an early attempt at ascii rendering with Blitz; but Text printing in Blitz is extremely slow. For a first shot at it in FB, I dont think it turned out too badly. And I'm going to do a few more effects using this method hopefully over the weekend. As with it, anything is possible. I might even make a fully fledged multipart demo with it.

Hope it inspires and thanks for viewing,
Cheers and all the very best to all that enter,
Clyde.

[Shockwave]

If there was a loadfont command similar to BB I could generate my own custom shadetext string, and have a better choice of symbols to match up with

You can still do that Clyde You don't need a loadfont command, just a more complicated renderer! Or you could do something in BB.

[Clyde]

Main reason Im sticking with FB, is that I can't use bass v2 or above with Blitz.
And FB is much quicker at quite alot of thing. For the compo, I dont want to get too technical with it all. Sole reason, this stupid back of mine.

[Jim]

Also, found that with certain calculations there's this annoying 'beep'. I presume it's linked to a certain Chr() number, but can't find the source of it

ASCII 7 or Chr(7) or Ctrl-G are all beep.  You probably need to avoid anything below 32 (space) to get consistent results, eg 8 is backspace, 9 is tab, 10 is line feed, etc. Check out the descriptions here http://www.lookuptables.com/.

Nice demos so far, Clyde, Relsoft, Tindragon, Shockwave - sadly I'm like Shockie, haven't an original idea in my head!

Jim

[Tetra]

Nice one Clyde great effect m8

[Shockwave]

Hehe, Well Jim, you are the master of fractals in my opinion, how about coding a textmode lorenz attractor or something?

[Clyde]

Thanks Jim And Cheers Tetra.

[Clyde]

Ok here's a little update with the info supplied by Jim which I didnt know about; also know full screen without a need for a border, as I was getting odd renderings before hand. Pretty much the same, but looks alot better this'll be my final entry of this effect.

Code: [Select]

'
' ASCII Render Engine V1.02
' Credits: Code By Clyde
' Plasma Inspired By Optimus
' Cheers Jim for the ASCII Chart.

Option Static
Option Explicit

Const XRES=640
Const YRES=480

Const PI = 3.14151693

Dim Shared Vel

Dim Shared ScreenNo

Dim Shared Pal(255)
Dim Shared Sin1(4095),Sin2(4095),Sin3(4095)

Declare Sub CreatePal(  Byval Val1 As Integer, Byval Val2 As Integer, Byval Val3 As Integer )

Declare Sub InitializeASCII()
Declare Sub RunASCII()
Declare Sub UpdateASCIIPlasma()

InitializeASCII()
RunASCII()


Sub CreatePal(  Byval Val1 As Integer, Byval Val2 As Integer, Byval Val3 As Integer )
   
    '
    ' Local variables.
    '
    Dim As Integer a, m, r, g, b
 
    For a=0 To 255
       
        m = a*( 360/255 )

        r = Cos(( m+Val1 )*( PI/180 )) *127+127
        g = Cos(( m+Val2 )*( PI/180 )) *127+127
        b = Cos(( m+Val3 )*( PI/180 )) *127+127
       
        Pal( a ) = ( r Shl 16 ) Or ( g Shl 8 ) Or ( b Shl 0 )
   
    Next

End Sub


Sub InitializeASCII()

    ScreenRes XRES,YRES,32,3,1 : Screenset 1, 0 : SetMouse   ,,0
    WindowTitle "ASCII Plasma!"
    Randomize Timer()
   
    ScreenNo = 1
   
    Dim i
   
    For i=0 To 4095
        Sin1(i)=Sin(i/ 10)* 96+ 96
        Sin2(i)=Sin(i/ 20)*112+112
        Sin3(i)=Sin(i/ 70)*128+128
    Next
   
    CreatePal( 90, 40, 10 )
   
End Sub


Sub RunASCII()
   
    Dim Key As String
   
    While Key<>Chr(27)
       
        Screencopy 2, ScreenNo
       
        Vel=Timer()*10
       
        UpdateASCIIPlasma()
 
        Screensync()
       
        ScreenNo Xor = 1
        Screenset ScreenNo, ScreenNo xor 1
       
        Key=Inkey()
        Cls

    Wend
   
End Sub


Sub UpdateASCIIPlasma()
   
    Dim x, y, c
    Dim Vel1, Vel2
    Dim Char, RChar, BChar, GChar
       
    Vel1=  Vel
    Vel2=6*Vel
   
    If Vel1>503 then Vel1=Vel1-(Vel1\503)*503
    If Vel2>880 then Vel2=Vel2-(Vel2\880)*880
   
    For y=0 To (YRES\8)
        For x=0 To (XRES\8)

            c=(sin1(x)+sin2(y+Vel1)+sin3(x+y+Vel2)) And 255
           
            Color Pal(c),0
           
            RChar= ((Pal(c) shr 16) and &HFF )
            BChar= ((Pal(c) shr  8) And &HFF )
            GChar= ((Pal(c) shr  0) and &HFF )
           
            Char = (RChar + BChar + GChar) \ 3
           
            If Char<33  then Char=33
            If Char>255 then Char=255
           
            Locate y,x : Print Chr(Char);
           
        Next
    Next
   
End Sub


[Shockwave]

Looks good Clyde, well done

[Optimus]

It's a pitty I haven't seen all these ASCII/ANSI examples yet because I don't have blitzbasic installed. Is BB free or you have to pay for that? Maybe there is a demo version of it that can run these examples?

[Rbz]

Blitz3D cost $100 and BlitzPlus cost $60

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Products/_index_.php

There is a demo version, 30 day trial version I think.

Download it from here


Btw, nice plasma effect Clyde dude 

[Shockwave]

I'd only reccomend the Blitz demo Optimus, after using freebasic and devc everything else seems overpriced What I'll do is increase the upload limit here so that people can attach blitz exes.
So as from now you can upload 750kb in one go.

[Clyde]

Cheers Shock\Rbraz maties

@Optimus: The code I submitted is Freebasic mate.

[Optimus]

Oh sorry, how come didn't I noticed?
Ok, checked it now and looks cool. Well, I can enjoy it even more if I speed up that timer right there and use TinDragon's idea
Nice colors!