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Thread: CYGN-B

  1. #171
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    Bit of a damp squib to report. Starship and Laserock2 mon and pts roms have been reviewed. Both contain byte for byte the identical block of code I have been already working with, meaning the five previously discussed routines. Each rom also contains one small bit of code that feeds points to the 4 xy outputs, and the signed data 8 bits per point in twos complement, and a bunch of unused space. Starship has the earth, and the Starship logo. One of the Laserock2 graphics must be the car. I don't remember what the other one is.

    But, imagine a sad trumpet sound and view the attached emulator output. Compensation for scanner inertia and all. That is the blue SHIP part of the Starship logo, which may be seen in a photo posted previously by Ron. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

    Now there are a couple of peculiar things about that byte for byte identical block of code. Identical except that in all cases both the calls JSR RNDM and JSR RNDM2 (pseudo random value passed back in accumulator) have been replaced with the instruction LDA $0D00, which in the memory map from the documentation, is in the asterisked k2 and k3 banks. The asterisk resolves to "not used". The roms I have are k6 and k7 ($1800 to $1FFF). I'm probably talking to myself at this point, so I'll just yell rhetorically at the cosmos What's so special about $0D00 and where are the dogloids hiding?!
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails starship_blue_SHIP.png  


  2. #172
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    I remember the dogloids as being a Crystal Odyssey thing...
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  3. #173
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    In which case a show that came after Crystal Odyssey might have them. Good point, Brian. The Police show on first inspection does appear to have more code, and different. And there is a number from that show which has several images which look to me like the dogloids. Video is here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-x3T4QkaL0

    Stills from this video attached. One of them is the MOTION routine. The others are what I'm looking for.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails synchronicity_4.JPG  

    synchronicity_2.JPG  

    synchronicity_3.JPG  

    synchronicity_1.JPG  

    synchronicity_5.JPG  


  4. #174
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    Yes, those are dogloids in the video...

    The Police show was several years after I left.
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  5. #175
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    Greg,

    You got them! Those ARE the dogloids. Sorry that Scott went a bit too far with his enhancement of contrast and saturation when processing the video. The rotating box (the only way I can describe it) also has another wrinkle to it. Depending on when the dogloid is selected, that specific one can have various appearances with the top and bottom of the "box" sloped to varying degrees.

    Ron

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
    In which case a show that came after Crystal Odyssey might have them. Good point, Brian. The Police show on first inspection does appear to have more code, and different. And there is a number from that show which has several images which look to me like the dogloids. Video is here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-x3T4QkaL0

    Stills from this video attached. One of them is the MOTION routine. The others are what I'm looking for.

  6. #176
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    I've attached a zipped mp4 (this forum does not allow direct mp4 attachments...) of the section you pointed to below, without all the messing around with contrast and saturation. You may be able to see more of the scan subtleties that were lost in the youtube version. Excuse the 60Hz hum. These videos were from VHS training tapes and were never meant for public consumption.

    Ron


    Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
    In which case a show that came after Crystal Odyssey might have them. Good point, Brian. The Police show on first inspection does appear to have more code, and different. And there is a number from that show which has several images which look to me like the dogloids. Video is here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-x3T4QkaL0

    Stills from this video attached. One of them is the MOTION routine. The others are what I'm looking for.
    Attached Files Attached Files

  7. #177
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    Thank you for posting the clip, Ron! That looks SO much better that the version available on youtube. I would much rather hear scratches from the vinyl than digital aliasing on my classic rock. Do you have the training tape for the whole Police show? From what I have seen on line, that entire show is in my opinion exceptionally well choreographed and performed, and that number in particular goes through a lot of the capabilities of the projector that would be fun to try to identify. In case you think it would be a good idea to release any or all of the numbers from that (or any) show, I can offer a dropbox link and a youtube channel.

    Dogloids recovery update: Within the block of code from the Police show rom, some of the previously discussed routines are present, and also (Yay!) four routines that are almost certainly the dogloids. Three of these four routines index tables of data from memory outside the routines, which the 5 dynamic offset routines previously discussed didn't do.

    By the way, who here who has NOT worked for the company involved, knows why the word GIRAFFE appears in the data spec Ron posted a few days back?

  8. #178
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    I've always assumed there was a sine lookup table that was used to generate the dogloids. I was particularly impressed when using the dogloids to do beams.
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  9. #179
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    Greg,

    I suspect that Brian is correct in assuming that somewhere the dogloids are referencing a rough sine table. I can't imaging that it contained more than 32 or 64 values.

    As to the "Giraffe" nomenclature; The "giraffe glass" and the "giraffe wheel" were made from lenticular material like you find on those 3D (or picture-changing) postcards. You know the stuff I mean - basically a card covered by long parallel cylindrical lenses. The story goes that the first such material used by Laser Images was extracted from just such a postcard which had a picture of a giraffe, hence "giraffe glass". They just peeled off the photographic cardboard part of the postcard, leaving only the plastic lens material. A laser passing through this material was refracted into a line. In later evolutions, I believe that Richard Goulet made castings of this material and made the glasses and wheels with casting resin - easier to duplicate. Related optics were multi-axis lenticular filters made (no longer I'm afraid) by Cokin used as scan-glasses. Cokin still makes some useful optics. Examples of the giraffe effect below.

    Ron


    Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
    Thank you for posting the clip, Ron! That looks SO much better that the version available on youtube. I would much rather hear scratches from the vinyl than digital aliasing on my classic rock. Do you have the training tape for the whole Police show? From what I have seen on line, that entire show is in my opinion exceptionally well choreographed and performed, and that number in particular goes through a lot of the capabilities of the projector that would be fun to try to identify. In case you think it would be a good idea to release any or all of the numbers from that (or any) show, I can offer a dropbox link and a youtube channel.

    Dogloids recovery update: Within the block of code from the Police show rom, some of the previously discussed routines are present, and also (Yay!) four routines that are almost certainly the dogloids. Three of these four routines index tables of data from memory outside the routines, which the 5 dynamic offset routines previously discussed didn't do.

    By the way, who here who has NOT worked for the company involved, knows why the word GIRAFFE appears in the data spec Ron posted a few days back?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 100009.jpg  

    100251.jpg  

    lenticulaire.jpg  


  10. #180
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    Mar 2010
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    $1CD0:
    00000000000101010202020303040404050506070808090A0B 0C0D0E0F1011121314151617191A1B1C1E1F20222325262729 2A2C2D2F3032333537383A3B3D3E404143454648494B4C4E4F 5152545557585A5B5D5E5F61626365666768696B6C6D6E6F70 71727374757576777879797A7A7B7C7C7C7D7D7E7E7E7E7F7F 7F7F7F

    That's the rough sine table. As placeholders, I've labeled the four dogloid routines MYSTRY, MYSTR2, MYSTR3, and MYSTR4.

    MYSTRY is probably the spinning boxes one. It takes two inputs which I have to guess at. (1) It loads a value from $EE which is not documented or used anywhere else. It also performs a BIT instruction on $07FF which maps to the end of the P7 BLU DAC, according to the memory map in the documentation. By externally sweeping the $EE input 0 through 255 and roll, the output produces a sinusoid on one axis. Maybe the BIT test is used to read a pulse train, as that input appears to switch the output between one of two offsets on the other axis. These inputs must relate somehow to Ron's comment about the time the routine was entered serving as parameter.

    MYSTR2 and MYSTR4 both do something funny with what appear to be dynamically generated addresses accessing data through indexed indirection on zero page, which isn't an easy thing to make work on the C64 because of the different memory map. I'll look more closely at what is going on and try to come up with a strategy.

    MYSTRY3 is either an upgraded or bug fixed version of the MOTION routine. It is the same motion, but much more of it, and it kind of looks like it could have been used as a star field effect where points closer to the edge move toward the edge faster.

    That is pretty much the legend I heard regarding the giraffe effect material. I remember Cracker Jacks being mentioned, which in the 1970s had animal pictures using that material. Ron's data format 2 posted previously says H.S.GIRAFFE (High Speed). I think this was two giraffe wheels spinning at high speed, and was used at the end of stairway to heaven. The effect produced lissajous figures in a snowflakey way. I walked in to Active Surplus about twenty years ago and exclaimed "Giraffe glass!" when I saw this huge wheel of it sitting there (Photo attached.) Were the high speed effects belt driven? I remember operating them with the controls above the faders on the upper right of the console.

    This other attached photo from Kilo Engineering is all I could find about the mounting of the ten turn pots on the panel. Anyone know how that tool that is not the allen wrench is used?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails effect_wheel_1.jpg  

    effect_wheel_2.jpg  

    exploded_dial.jpg  


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