Particle Field

runewake2 · 09-15-2011, 06:32 AM

Download:
CCGame Onle V1.0
Full Package V1.0 (Includes CCGame and Source)
CCGame Only V0.95 (!Outdated!)
Full Package V0.95 (!Outdated!)
Source V0.8 (!Outdated!)

Preview Video:

You Tube

NOTE: This video was created using the Windows Phone 7 Emulator. As such a few things are different and some features are not shown. This shows the basic ideas of the app and how it works. For a full list of what the Zune app contains see the features list below.

Concept video:

You Tube

This App creates Particles. A lot of them (3000 to be exact). You can control these particles with Gravity and with your fingers. Tilting your Zune will alter the applications gravity and the particles will fall down. Thus setting your zune on a flat table will remove gravity and holding it vertical will give you the most gravity.

You may use as many fingers as you want to manipulate the particles, however, any more than 1 will cause lag.

Particles will constantly change colors depending if you are playing music or not. If you have your music paused or not playing the particles will fade to an angry red. I was going to have it only do this if you were playing a Lady Gaga song but that was too much work.

Colors will slowly fade from one to another throughout the programs runtime.

Added in Version 1:
- Fine tuned Gravity and Friction.
- Added special (motion blur) effect.
- Added Herobrine.
- Added Icon.
- Paused music no longer causes the particles to fade to red. Instead they simply stop changing colors. This allows you to stay at a certain color scheme if you like it.
- Slight optimizations.

Added in Version 0.95:
-Locked Particles To the Screen: This extra step forces particles to remain onscreen removing the annoying falling of the screen bug if you let the application run to long.
-Color Changing: The Top and Bottom Part of the Screen each have a unique color that will change over time. Particles blend between the top and bottom color as they move.
-Dynamic Gravity: The gravity now uses your Zunes Accelerometer to determine gravity.
-Multitouch: You can use more than one finger. Or your forehead and finger. Or your toes! They all work now (toes and head not recommended).
-Minor Optimizations: Attempted to reduce memory load by moving things around. Slightly effective.
-Reduced Particles: I know, I know, its bad. However, with the changing colors the way they are, I had to. That was why I spend some time Optimizing (see above).

This is 100% Open Source, feel free to use the code for my particles etc in any other project you see fit. I don't really care. A link back would be nice, but not required.

Ahh... I'm falling!

Let me know what you think.

Quick Note: If you want to change how fast (or slow) particles fade out, you can do this by downloading the source and changing the background.png file. The more transparent you make the image the longer it will take for the particles to fade out, the less transparent the background the faster the particles will fade out. Feel free to play with this as you want.

Donation's optional, but appreciated.

boohbah11 · 09-15-2011, 08:31 PM

Awesome! I can't wait to get this on my Zune

dooglehead · 09-15-2011, 08:57 PM

Looks cool, although that PC version looks even cooler because it has much more particles (which I know isn't possible on the Zune).

I took some screenshots for you.

keymasta · 09-15-2011, 08:58 PM

Cool!
This would be an awesome time waster (no offense... if anything, a compliment!)
Ill be getting this!

boohbah11 · 09-16-2011, 05:59 AM

Wait, isn't there an app like this with much fewer particles, and a little globe in the center?

SilentWalrus · 09-16-2011, 06:31 AM

That's pretty cute.
I'd enjoy that if I had an HD.

runewake2 · 09-16-2011, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilentWalrus

That's pretty cute.
I'd enjoy that if I had an HD.

You can have and modify the source all you want, I would imagine that you could get this onto the older Zune's with only a little modification. You might have to lower the number of particles as well. I don't have "The Block" zunes so I can't make it for you.

SilentWalrus · 09-16-2011, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by runewake2

You can have and modify the source all you want, I would imagine that you could get this onto the older Zune's with only a little modification. You might have to lower the number of particles as well. I don't have "The Block" zunes so I can't make it for you.

I can barely code Visual Basic, let alone C#.

boohbah11 · 09-17-2011, 12:23 PM

A couple suggestions and some bugs for you:
When you hold down in one spot (works best in the middle of the screen) the particles seem to join together into a single particle. I have no clue what causes this, but I imagine it does this at a slower speed the entire time you're playing this app.
In addition to this, when you first start the app (and a couple minutes in) there are several particles that gravitate to the top of the screen, and only come down when you touch a spot and call all the particles to your finger.

Now, if you feel like adding some to this app, I think it would be very cool if you added tilt controls to this, as well as having the colour change throughout the time your playing (or with two touches)

EDIT:
i went and did some tinkering with the source, adder more particles, made the particles finer, and increased the friction so they "stick" a bit more. heres some screenshots:

and heres the modified game: ParticleField.ccgame

runewake2 · 09-17-2011, 03:41 PM

Hmmm, in all my testing, making the particle sprite smaller had no effect on how many particles I could draw. My version does have multi touch support. The particles getting stuck is caused, I believe, by them getting caught outside the screen, they then get stuck switching their positions back and forth. These particles can be freed with an extended press, but it is annoying.

The blending particles can not be helped. Eventually they will occupy the same space as one another and, if they have the same speed, they essentially become the same particle (granted it will be a little brighter). The only solution I can think of would require slowing down the program by having a collision detection system for each particle. This would be really slow on a Zune (even a simple one).

I have been considering adding tilt support, though this would also slow down the program as I would have to do some Sin's and Cosines to get the new gravity directions.

Color changing is an interesting idea, I would like to tie it to the music you are listening to (you are listening to music while you do this, right?) similar to audio surf. That however, is beyond me. I can add a simple blending though. Check for an update by the end of the weekend (probably before that).

EDIT: Currently Complete (As of Tonight)
-Color Fading (Both the top and the bottom of the screen fade to separate colors. Particles linearly blend between them as they move up/down the screen.
-Multitouch, Not you can touch in two places and have the particles act differently (NOTE: Right now this causes significant lag)
-Tilt'o'Grav, Gravity is now effected by the Zunes Accelerometer. Laying it flat will cause the particles to just sit there.
-Particles actually stay in the screen now! Extended absence will not cause them to fall off it. This also fixes the bug of them getting stuck in the ceiling.

I'm not quiet ready to release what I have right now, I have a few other things I want to try first.

Some pictures though:

Update released: See first post.

boohbah11 · 09-17-2011, 04:48 PM

That looks about 80% cooler now!

keymasta · 09-17-2011, 05:38 PM

ooooh colorful...

runewake2 · 09-18-2011, 10:20 AM

Anything else anyone wants added to this?

runewake2 · 09-23-2011, 02:54 PM

Update!!! What do you think of that?

boohbah11 · 09-23-2011, 04:46 PM

Looks awesome, can't wait to deploy it to my Zune!

Prodigy · 09-23-2011, 06:05 PM

can't wait to try this out... screenshots look amazing

runewake2 · 11-28-2011, 08:03 PM

So, as an experiment with ZNA, I might be picking this up with the particles I am working on. It will include a menu with options for toggling gravity, colors and how the presses work, creating objects etc.

This should also be available on Windows Phone.

With that said, is their anything you want added to this? Anything you think will be awesome!

If you think of something, then let me know.

boohbah11 · 11-28-2011, 08:08 PM

Well, if you wanted to go into it a little more you could make it like the sands game, with several different particle attributes (flammable, explosive etc.), optional spawn points etc. That would really take this app to the next level.

runewake2 · 11-28-2011, 08:19 PM

I don' believe that the Zune has the power to run a Sand game.

It would take 130,000 objects to fill the entire screen. I can't optimize the app that much. At least, I don't think I can. Maybe if I had larger blocks I could get it managable... though it wouldn't look as good.

So... Sand, Gasoline, Napalm, Fire, Water etc?

I was planning on having it so you could emit particles but having them interact would be a nice touch. Perhaps I should add a tab bar at the top or something.

lipsybhaji · 04-21-2012, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by runewake2

With that said, is their anything you want added to this? Anything you think will be awesome!

If you think of something, then let me know.

how about if you have the particles MOVE according to the music, that would be EPIC. it'll be like a visualization. maybe a certain frequency could make the particles touching the bottom bounce.