RabidHaMsTeR.Org

Some thoughts and ramble...

I think the complexity of the variables and language hinder the growth of an R4 Visual Development Community. Since you practically have to be a C++ programmer to fully understand the .R4 s functionality, might I suggest a few things that will promote the "R4 community" to start making alot more visuals? Thus making this great product market itself even more (look at the direction UK website for Milkdrop for example)...same could happen here...hundreds of quality vis a month!!! I can dream....

What we (as I am a basic C++, or "script kiddie") need is simply more variety of examples to hack through and learn. And then just some time...

I think some of the best work will be vis with a combo background (picture or live feed) and an object that is beat responsive (like in Sketch). Being able to give "flash pics" and set the Network to perform things like text (drink specials, etc) to time (like evey 15-30 minutes) would be good...

I am just getting frustrated when I try to combine features that I see in one vis with another...it's tough and I am learning as fast as I can.

BTW....The visuals BOTH OF YOU HAVE PUT OUT ARE GREAT!!! They are a small demonstration of what this great R4 engine can do!!!

I hope I can start creating professional R4 vis for the community soon!

-Hardcore

"Since you practically have to be a C++ programmer to fully understand the .R4 s functionality, "

No no you have to be a mind reader to understand all of rabidhamsters functions as they not not full documentated. (Sorry Gordon I could not resist that one :p)

Seriously there is no real difference in complexity from R4 and any of the other programmable vises (MilkDrop, AVS, G-FOrce, etc) out there if you do not want to.

If you want to learn take a scene like a tunnel and first play with aparameters like radius, colours, textures, etc.

Yeah....the job for Gordon's Mind Reader may be open...

But in the mean time, I have been hacking the scenes to learn them.

A strong point I was trying to suggest is that there is a need for a "Download" section that has say Monthly R4 presets...

I see the docs grow, and the community getting more familiar with this engine and it's language. I know I am going and learning as fast as I can...

Thanks to both of you for pushing out as many starting scenes as possible!

-Hardcore

Yes. i know its a bit of a pain - if you ask me a question about it i'll try and get it sorted as soon as i can but i'm pretty busy at the moment. I will try a tutorial soon, and if anyone wants to write one feel free

I've tried to gradually document the r4/dll/*.r4 files, but i understand this is of very little use if you're just starting off.

Well, i shall try and make it easier, and i'll make a point of adding comments to the new presets i do. I generally don't make them available seperately now - i just include them in the distro for the new R4.

I may have a go at a tutorial for milkdrop users on how to make a milkdrop-like scene, and try and show people the few things they need to change. I believe the conversion of simple milkdrop scenes may be easy enough that i could write a small program to convert milkdrop to R4.