Topic: Totally new drawing feature in LaserBoy !!!

[James]

Here are some words to wiki!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rhodonea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/epicycloid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/epitrochoid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hypocycloid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hypotrochoid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_curve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/harmonograph

So far I have added all of them but the harmonograph to LaserBoy.

There is a whole new menu under the 'm' key from main called "direct draw segments".

These are some of the more interesting curves that can be generated. All of these selections take parameters as input and generate complete closed curves (except for harmonograph, which is a kind of spiral).

I have found a few different parametric equations for the harmonograph, so I might include all of the variations. I also haven't decided yet how LaserBoy is going to know when it is done drawing. I'll probably look for when the difference between each vertex approaches zero.

I might also add some of the more classic mathematical spiral curves.

I will be releasing it soon. I need to test it some more.

You just gotta' love math! 

This takes me back to the good-old-days with my Commodore-64 ! 

James. 

[no-esc]

Cool,


I had a commodore 16 and a cassette drive...

[James]

I used to wait hours or even days for my Commodore-64 to finish a polar plot.

And then when it was done, I had no way to save it!

All I could do was marvel at it on the screen until I wiped it out and did another one!

James. 

[Fanny Pack]

I have a $20 sound activated laser projector with a red laser that shows those same patterns.  The sound activation makes it a little more interesting, though.  If you want to do something cool then make your application smart enough to do some side by side analysis between the laser portion of your WAV file with the audio portion of your WAV file (once they are combined, of course) and then use the audio portion to influence the frequency, amplitude, color, etc of those patterns so that when played back with sound they live within the music.

[James]

Dean's LaserWAVE does that sort of thing.

I just want to make LaserBoy as mathematically accurate as possible. I don't want to make up any new words for stuff that is already in the dictionary.

If I pursue concepts that are already an established part of math, then I know when I have succeeded.

If I present these concepts as-is, without dumbing them down, then people who use LaserBoy will see that they came from somewhere else and are also useful elsewhere.

My primary objective with LaserBoy is to make it a learning experience for anyone interested in pursuing it. I'm not interested in teaching the world about LaserBoy. I'm interested in using LaserBoy to teach the world (and myself) about 3D color laser vector art in general.

Providing a very good way to see the 3D short integer, 24-bit vector art universe is probably the most important thing LaserBoy can do. That made some things obvious, that I never would have imagined and has allowed me to explore and immediately realize the effects of my experimentation. It is very much a place for me to go!

It's kind-of like Linux. If you spend the time to learn about it, you will know a lot more about all of computer science.

Math is not invented. It already exists. It is discovered.

James. 

[Fanny Pack]

I thought that is what Matlab is for. 

[James]

Try shooting MatLab out a laser!

You can, you know.... with LaserBoy's text reader.

James. 

[James]

I keep trying to get LaserBoy ready for another release and I keep finding code to condence and clean up. 

Oh well.

Pretty soon! 

James. 

[James]

Here it is!

http://akrobiz.com/laserboy/code/LaserBoy_2009_11_24.zip

It's a bit rough right now. There is no bounds checking, so if you put in numbers that would draw beyond -32767 to +32767 you'll get a busted image.

It's asking for actual coordinate values from -32767 to +32767 for X, Y and Z and length or distance values relative to that space.

If you look up each curve type, you can get a better understanding of what to input at the prompts.

The color of the drawn segment is whatever you pick from the palette or the target palette if the image is set to 24-bit.

Check it out!

Have fun!

If something doesn't work the way you think it should let me know!

Yeah, I know....... There's no harmonograph..... yet.

James.   

[BlinkenLights]

text is to big there buddy

[James]

That's because you have it saved that way in LaserBoy.wtf.

Go into the [Tab] system value settings menu and chooose option 'i'. Set it to 1 and save LaserBoy.wtf again.

What resolution do you have set in LaserBoy.bat?

James. 

[James]

Oh yeah!

I forgot to mention that [Tab] system value settings 'b' rendered arc step in degrees effects all of the new segment curves. If you want more vertices for a smoother curve, set this number to a lower value. It is a double float, so you can set it to less than 1.

James. 

[BlinkenLights]

no its 2 is default in YOUR wtf thats packaged with it silly

[James]

That's funny! 

WTF?

Looks like the Large Hadron Collider is online again.

Just in time for 2012.

James. 

[meandean]

text is to big there buddy

 Yeah, I ran into that problem, too- I think there's a difference between older and newer WTF's so I deleted the old
one and let the new ver create its own.