pixelated goodness
Author
Hi all,
I'm working with an LED matrix display, 8 LEDs high and 32 wide. I have a plot(x,y,boolON) function working, and now I'm creating some interesting patterns and animations. I have pong working, a bouncing line of changing length (really two bouncing balls with a connecting line), and text scrolling. I'm not the creative type, so I'm looking for some ideas for new patterns to create. Exciting is good (flashing lights! fireworks!). Technical or esoteric is bad (j conways game of life).
As general as you'd like (no code necessary...ideas are fine), what else would be a good animation to display on an 8x32 LED matrix?
Are these simple, single-color LEDs, or are they the newer multi-colored type? Do you have control over brightness, or is it an on-off thing?
If you've got color, a typical "plasma" demo type display would look nice -- you can get away with just brightness, but the effect isn't quite as nice in what is effectively grayscale.
A roto-zoomer would be a pretty cool effect too, though it may be hard to show off on such a narrow display.
If you've got color, a typical "plasma" demo type display would look nice -- you can get away with just brightness, but the effect isn't quite as nice in what is effectively grayscale.
A roto-zoomer would be a pretty cool effect too, though it may be hard to show off on such a narrow display.
I don't have any suggestions for particular effects. Instead I'll point out that, if you only have on/off control of the LEDs, then so long as you can switch them fast enough you can still achieve varying degrees of perceived brightness using pulse-width modulation. Perhaps you could use this fact to display more shades of color than one might otherwise expect such a display to be capable of.
Every led display has to have a pac-man like character moving across the display, followed by a ghost.
Graphical EQ are also good, and really cool if they actually represent music levels.
Graphical EQ are also good, and really cool if they actually represent music levels.
Author
Thanks for the suggestions!
They're only RED, with brightness adjustable to full, 2/3 or 1/3 (it's a cheap display). However, I'll try out the PWM to see what I can do with that.
The rotozoomer's a great idea. I'll see how it looks, if I can figure out how to implement one, that is.
As for a graphical EQ, I will have incoming analog audio, both the full spectrum and those below some cutoff freq. I highly doubt my chip can perform an FFT, but I might be able to simulate a "bass" gaussian and a bunch of randomly moving higher notes scaled by the overall beat.
Pacman is an awesome idea.
They're only RED, with brightness adjustable to full, 2/3 or 1/3 (it's a cheap display). However, I'll try out the PWM to see what I can do with that.
The rotozoomer's a great idea. I'll see how it looks, if I can figure out how to implement one, that is.
As for a graphical EQ, I will have incoming analog audio, both the full spectrum and those below some cutoff freq. I highly doubt my chip can perform an FFT, but I might be able to simulate a "bass" gaussian and a bunch of randomly moving higher notes scaled by the overall beat.
Pacman is an awesome idea.
How about rotating the display on its side and using it as a tall and narrow Tetris well? A horizontally scrolling starfield (different layers moving at different speeds) may look quite nice, too.
Given that I'm turning my display into a clock I don't think I should be trying to make exciting suggestions, though. [wink]
Given that I'm turning my display into a clock I don't think I should be trying to make exciting suggestions, though. [wink]
If you rotate it sideways you could probably get a cool little vertical scrolling shooter in there - full intensity for your ship and enemies, two thirds intensity for bullets and one third intensity for starfield and/or landscape. [grin]
There's those things that have text written into a single column of LEDs like a text scroller on a 1x10 display and if you turn your head or move your eyes sideways past the display you can read it, with a wider display you could just use a single column in the middle for the text but have something else moving from one end to the other that the eyes could follow to sync with the text.
So this violates your technical rule a little but it could be neat!
What if you took something like the Sierpinski triangle and zoomed into it continually (infinitely).
of course in the code you wouldn't be zooming in forever, you could probably find a point at which you could loop over and it would look like infinite zooming.
::shrug::
maybe you could do the "infinite zoom" type idea to make it look like you were traveling down a tunnel or road infinitely?
I know you have fairly low res so not sure if it's possible tho :/
How about an animated "fireplace" as pixelated as it might be hahaha
or how bout a scene of a puffy cloud or 2 and a mountain and maybe the sun? :P
Or what if you had several "static" images like a peace sign, the sun, a zodiac symbol, the yin and yang etc and you had it transition from one shape to another?
Transofmrations could be morphing from one to the other (ie moving dots around to the new locations) or maybe having the dots explode, bounce around and come to rest in the new shape, etc.
[Edited by - Atrix256 on October 13, 2009 6:19:44 PM]
What if you took something like the Sierpinski triangle and zoomed into it continually (infinitely).
of course in the code you wouldn't be zooming in forever, you could probably find a point at which you could loop over and it would look like infinite zooming.
::shrug::
maybe you could do the "infinite zoom" type idea to make it look like you were traveling down a tunnel or road infinitely?
I know you have fairly low res so not sure if it's possible tho :/
How about an animated "fireplace" as pixelated as it might be hahaha
or how bout a scene of a puffy cloud or 2 and a mountain and maybe the sun? :P
Or what if you had several "static" images like a peace sign, the sun, a zodiac symbol, the yin and yang etc and you had it transition from one shape to another?
Transofmrations could be morphing from one to the other (ie moving dots around to the new locations) or maybe having the dots explode, bounce around and come to rest in the new shape, etc.
[Edited by - Atrix256 on October 13, 2009 6:19:44 PM]
build a tetris!
I think I also don't have high imagination :P I built this circuit for a school project and I couldn't think anything besides tetris and sliding text
edit: oh also game of life =)
I think I also don't have high imagination :P I built this circuit for a school project and I couldn't think anything besides tetris and sliding text
edit: oh also game of life =)
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