To view the demos, double click one of the applications. They have no
interface so don't bother looking for one. When you want to quit, just
click. A green number will appear in the upper left hand corner after
you click, which is the average Frames Per Second that the flame was
being rendered at. For best results of the FPS count, leave the
application running for at least 20 seconds.
The three applications featured in this folder each display thier own
size of the flame. They are 240X480, 240X320, and 100X300
versions.I've comiled each version using different averaging
techniques to get a more realistic effect for that particular size, so
the speed increase in the smaller version is not as great as it would
normaly be.
For reference.. our PowerMac7100/66Mhz (no L2 cache) does these
speeds:
* 100X300 at 90FPS
* 240X320 at 85FPS
* 240X480 at 55FPS
How does Camp Fire work? I simply must know!
This is a very simple program. "How simple is it?" you ask. It is so
simple that it produces an animated flame by simply drawing some
simple random colors at the bottom of the image and then simply
averaging the colors of every pixle in the image in this simply simple
fashion:
*T*
*P*
PPP
Where pixles marked "P" are averaged together and the result is stored
in the current pixle (or Target pixle) which is marked "T". For a
final touch, a number, usually between 1 and 5, is subtracted from
pixel "T"'s color to keep the flame down. Also, the pixels of the
image are shifted Up three or more pixles to move the flame up faster,
and make it more believable.
Now wasn't that simple?
I'm always looking for ways to speed up this algorithm. There are
several obvious methods, and some not-so-obvious ones. But, for all my
effort, I couldn't get the frame rate above 18 FPS for a 320x240x8-bit
flame. Not only that, but the darn thing took up to 5 Megs of RAM to
run. Then I realized what a fool I've been, and re-coded the program
to shoot the frame rate up to 28+ frames per second and dropped the
RAM requirements down to only 400K
Needless to say I was completely disgusted with my self for not seeing
the solution sooner.
I was disgusted with my self, even more so, when I realized that I
could shoot the frame rate up to 60+ frames per second with very
little loss in quality from the previous version. The program now
pushes a very nice 640x480x8-bit flame at 22 FPS on my 7100-66
PowerMac.
DL #1 CampFire 68k/PPC
Compatibility
Architecture: 68k PPC
The Think Pascal version runs on any 256-color capable Mac, though it
is rather slow on some (tested on LC and PB 180c, around 10 fps on
both). The CodeWarrior version is PowerMac only, though it isn't hard
to recompile for 68k.
