Digital Workshop

And the winner is Lar!

Attached one IMP with 6,400 on screen polygons. I cheated though. Couldn't be bothered trying to draw a Vector with 80 little squares - it's hard work. Just duplicated a 2x2 a lot of times and Opus didn't crash.

Mad as hatters all of us!

Mack

Hi,

Wow! Very interesting!

Kind Regards,

Cool, Mack.

Great that you were able to make it happen for Stephen. I'll have to have a go at your pub now and see it in action.
My guess is that polygons are objects which carry far fewer object properties -- less work for Opus to track.
[Lar EDIT]: Okay, I viewed the sample pub. I see you did the work of laying out the grid, and proving out that Opus could handle that size grid. I thought you had responded extremely fast!... to get a working model and action.

BTW, I detected a mistake in my above approach/code. I needed an integer value for an index, so var colX = 3457/80 needs to be reduced to an integer only. Could use parseInt, or var colX = Math.floor( 3457/80 ). I made correction to earlier post. What is the syntax for using parseInt?

Mack, next step... generating Mandelbrot fractals???

@Lar, there's a script on a previous IMP that will create noise using one effect. It's a simple job to create something similar by just adding the following script to the page:



I'll leave fractals for another day

Mack

Hi Mack,

I'm going to have a go at it today. But I'll need to try to build the grid using 8 X 8 black dots stacked horizontally and vertically (no space between).

So, I need to clarify precisely how to do this. Trying to get my brain around it.

(1) begin with a vector with multiple polygons inside (how many?--possibly 4?).
(2) before duplicating these, assure that each polygon has a separate name/number.
(3) keep duplicating until 80 dots across X 80 dots down.
(4) use Quickbuild to rename the Vectors with 1 to whatever (possibly 1600, if 4 polygons inside each).
(5) apply the script.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Hi stephen,

(1) begin with a vector with multiple polygons inside (how many?--possibly 4?).

I used 2x2 polygons

(2) before duplicating these, assure that each polygon has a separate name/number.

I actually used the Create Table (40x40) and when and had a cup of tea. Names are irrelevant.

(3) keep duplicating until 80 dots across X 80 dots down.

Irrelevant because of above.

(4) use Quickbuild to rename the Vectors with 1 to whatever (possibly 1600, if 4 polygons inside each).

Not really necessary. The script uses objects not names.

(5) apply the script.

Yes. If you have the vectors in a frame, you'll need to change the 'this' keyword to the name of the frame. And if you uses a different setup to 2x2 then 40x40, you'll need to change the random limits.

Mack

Hi Mack,

There must be a "trick" to creating multiple polygons inside a single vector. (Have never tried to do this before.)

When I try, I can't seem to get them to be truly 8 X 8 and stacked across or down inside a single vector(can't have space between). Once I try to change the "right" edge in the polygon, the value is grayed-out, and stays grayed-out.

I searched the forum but didn't find any suggestions on how to actually build a single multi-polygon vector where they are stacked.

Kind Regards,

Cheat. Draw it in something like Open Office and import the vector.

Mack

Hi Mack,

How do you import a vector and set it up with multi-polygons? (I'm assuming not as an image, like a png?)

You use any drawing application that will export as WMF. Just draw your squares and combine into a single object > export from application.

In Opus > Drawing > Import Vector.


Mack

Hi Mack,

OK, here's the first IMP testing the animation in Opus Pro (see attached file).

Running a little slow to meet the dynamic visual noise "standards" for speed. Also, starts up slowly with time needed for the animation window to first populate. But once running, looks good.

Needs to have a way to (1) start up quicker, and (2) speed up the dot changing. Maybe other tweaks. But start-up time and animation speed first.

The solution for other versions (for example in Visual Basic) was to add a random generator that randomly selects a specific (and far smaller) subset of the total (6400) dot pool (held in an array) for changing color every 100 milliseconds (100 ms), repeating every 100 ms. This seemed to replicate the speed and style that you were able to achieve in the Adobe Flex version in the sandbox.

So, I'm not sure how to achieve this or whether the slower speed is a result of over-taxing the machine's graphics. But my Win 7 X 64 test machine is fairly solid for processor (i7 Core, 2.8 Ghz), RAM (8Gb), graphics card (ATI Radeon 5770).

Great progress!

Kind Regards,

It is simple. There are two ways I use.

First method. Let's say you have a Vector01 object, eg. a triangle. Simply select that Vector object in the organizer tree or on the Page, and then Click on another drawing tool... for example to Draw a Square. Opus will join that Square Polygon to the Vector01, instead of creating a new Vector object.

Alternate method. Create a Triangle object and a Square object on the Page, as separate Vectors. Now in the Organizer Tree, select the Polygon child object under Vector02 and drag it to Vector01. I myself usually drag it with a Right-click, then I have the option to place it with the "Insert into" option. The Vector02 will disappear! And Vector01 will have two polygons now -- you can drag or move the Square Polygon on the Page to change its spatial relation to the Triangle.

Hi Larry,

Thanks for these additional methods to create the vectors.

I followed Mack's advice and ended up quickly building a single importable 16X16 vector with 4 8X8 black squares, in a drawing program.

Download and test the IMP that I posted in the previous forum entry above. For me, the challenges are start-up time (to first populate the animation frame) and animation speed (speed for changing dots--too slow to meet the dynamic visual noise "standard."

I'm not sure how to fix these?

But great progress!

Kind Regards,

Mackavi's script above uses a 10ms wait interval (wait(0.010)). So if you are using that code, simply use a Global variable or a Page variable, say 'speed1'.

wait(speed1/1000).

Use a Text Input box on the Page to enter various speeds (eg, 3, 5, 8, ...) until you attain the refresh rate you want.

Unverified: I think you could achieve much greater speed by structuring with some different grid dimensions. For example, 64 Vectors with 100 polygons each. It will work... however, that doesn't nicely fit your intended layout. So try the 80 by 80.

In Mack's code, you run through 1600 Vectors at 10ms each. But if you have 80 polygons per Vector, you would process 80 Vectors at 10ms each ( 0.8 sec. ...then you need another loop and wait state to give the 'static pause' (that loop can simply be to repeated call a function that contains the main logic). If you reduce the wait(0.01) to wait(0.005) for the 80 by 80, you might get closer to what you want.

Stephen,

Maybe I mis-stated my estimates of speed/timing above. I will relook at it.

For one thing, in the running -- we are only changing pattern for 400. So I think the logic needs to stop after 399.

However, as you are pointing out... the initial display is taking too much time. Again, I think the 80 by 80 will solve a part of that apparent delay -- when you are in fact initializing all 6400 points (if you need fully randomizing ONCE initially). The alternative is to start with a static checkerboard pattern.