Parametric Curves trap shape plug-in

[Morgen]

Hello there,

I've just uploaded mhb-test.ulb to the files section of the group, and
would love it if anybody wanted to try using it. This is my first
attempt at making a trap plug-in, and I really don't have much idea
what I'm doing, but so far it seems to be working.

Parametric Curves started life as a coloring method, but with the new
plug-in system in UF5, it made much more sense to turn it into a trap
shape instead. It has some similarities to a couple of existing
coloring methods, but I'm hoping that it's different enough to be a
useful addition.

The basic idea is that it uses lissajous and roulette curves as orbit
traps. It can either generate a series of points, or can join the
points with line segments to make a continuous curve. Small numbers of
dots, when joined, will make angled lines; larger numbers of points
can produce a smooth-looking curve, but will slow down the
calculation. I've also gotten some nice texture effects by using
reducing the number of points to make clouds of fairy-dust,
starfields, etc.

Any feedback would be welcome. Does it have a useful number of
options? If I wrote an official help file, what questions would need
to be answered? Do any combinations of settings/values do something
weird that needs to be fixed?

Thanks!
Morgen

[Ron Barnett]

Cool trap shape!

 

I do have a suggestion. To see the glory of the trap shape I usually need to decrease the Trap Threshold to some very small value, such as 0.001, from the default 0.25. I would recommend adding a parameter to control the size of the lines/dots independent of the trap threshold. One way to do this is shown in the following code snippets:

 

...

    r = (sqrt(r) * cabs(c2 - c1))*@size
    if ( r < rmin )
     rmin = r
    endif
...

 

and

 

...

    r = ((x[i] - real(pz)) * (x[i] - real(pz)) + (y[i] - imag(pz)) * (y[i] - imag(pz)))*@size
    if ( r < rmin )
     rmin = r
    endif
...

 

A default value for size of 50-100 seems t work fairly well. 

--
Ron Barnett
fracta...@gmail.com
http://hiddendimension.com
If life is a bowl of cherries why do I always get the pits?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Morgen]

Thanks for having a look!

Hm, I seem to remember that one of my earlier versions of the coloring
had a "Thickness" parameter. Can't remember now why I removed it, but
I'll put it back in.

Morgen

[Morgen]

Ok, the version with the thickness parameter has been uploaded.

[Ron Barnett]

Here is an image using the new version.

On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 4:50 PM, Morgen <locus.o...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ok, the version with the thickness parameter has been uploaded.

[Morgen Bell]

Hooray, it looks like it's working!

I also tried making some changes to my older non-object-oriented version
of the coloring, so that it would work like the plug-in, and have
uploaded it in mhb-test.ufm. It's slower, but has a couple of things
that I haven't been able to figure out how to implement using the new
system. The option called "angle to points" is the main difficulty; with
the plug-in, I don't know how to pass the right piece of information to
any of the existing angle-based coloring methods. However, if I've got
things working properly, it can be used on its own layer, given the same
parameter values as the plug-in, and everything should line up.

It can also be used by anyone who doesn't have UF5.

I've attached an image that uses both versions of the coloring.