Smear 1.0 for Sonique created by mykel and xplo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ About ----- We are back, and stronger than ever. You've wondered why there is no geiss for Sonique? You've seen starwave and thought "Hey cool! But It could do more :/"? Well it CAN do more and the vis that came out after mykel took a look at its core is Smear. After a few days of (painful) coding hours we're standing right in front of one of the probably biggest visual projects ever done for Sonique. Ok ok.. soo... what does it do? Well, it ships with a few "scripts" that we wrote for you. Smear now takes these Scripts, combines them and shows them to you in a way that will knock you out of your socks. :) Over the following days more and more details were added and new commands and possibilities were put into the script language. But enough of me talking and talking, go check out the vis! FAQ --- Q: How do I make new scripts myself? A: The best way to learn the script language is to read the stutter.txt, then look at existing scripts with a texteditor. Q: So, I've got a script, but I can't tell if it's working A: The first thing that you should do is move all the other scripts of the same type out of the directory that Smear is looking for them, so that your script is the only one it can use. I tend to make a directory under the current directory and move them there, as Smear does not descend into sub directories. Assuming that the script is grammatically correct, it will be loaded and run as the only possibility. If the script has an error in it, unfortunately, it won't be loaded, and a default script will be loaded instead, so you have to be sure that your script is grammatically correct. Q: So how do a debug simple errors in my script if Smear won't even load them? A: Usually when smear finds a script with an error it will silently skip it, however there is a configuration option in the VIS.INI file called "Debug Sciprts (True-False)". If this is set to True then a error box will pop up during the initialisation process for each script with an error. Q: What is the naming convension for scripts? A: Each type of script must not only be in the correct directory, but must also have the correct file extension in order to be used by Smear. All the script directories are directly below the directory that contains the actual smear visual plugin. There are four types of script Script Type Directory Extension --------------------------------------------------------- Move Map Moves .sms Color Map Color .scs Particle Script Particle .sps Waveform Script Waveform .sws Q: What are the configuration options? A: There are a number of configuration options that are settable in the sonique vis.ini file. They are as follows: Movemap Hold Time (1/10ths of seconds)=?? This is how long a particular move map will be used before a new one is displayed. Smear will not let you set the value very low, and it will only use the value you do set as a guide. Note: with this, as with all the time based configuration options, Smear will only use the figure given as a guide, the actual value will be +/- 50% each time it is used. Movemap Fade Time (1/10ths of seconds)=?? This is how long to spend fading between one move map and the next. Colormap Hold Time (1/10ths of seconds)=?? How long to use a specific colormap script. Colormap Fade Time (1/10ths of seconds)=?? How long to spend fading between the current color map and the next one. Waveform Hold Time (1/10ths of seconds)=?? How long to use a specific waveform script before chaning to another. Waveform Fade Time (1/10ths of seconds)=?? How long to spend 'fading' between one waveform script and the next one. Particle Hold Time (1/10ths of seconds)=?? How long to display a particle script for. Particle Fade Time (1/10ths of seconds)=?? How long to spend fading in or fading out a particular particle script. Particle Chance per Frame (0-100)=?? What chance there is, per second, of a new particle starting. For each particle that is currently running, this chance is reduced by a factor of itself (for example, if the base percentage is 10%, then there is a 1% chance of two running at once and a 0.1% chance of three). Of course probability being the fickle thing this is, you'll get 3 at once often enough. Letter Box Percentage (10-100)=?? The height will never exceed the width multiplied by the letterbox percentage. Values of around 35-50 give a good 'letterbox' look and allow for higher resolution or higher framerates when in full screen mode. Show Titles (True-False)=?? If true then whenever a new song is played the song title (and artist) is displayed. Q: Where are the questions? A: Once the final build is made i'll think of more... Credits ------- Mykel mykel@earthling.net xplo xplo@xplo.org Thanks to: Andy O'Meara, for creating G-Force, and being very inspiring. The Sonique Crew, for creating such a kickass player.