stuff/xmountaincolors/src

Xmountains is a X11 based fractal landscape generator. It generates
random fractal surfaces and displays them in a window. While the
program is running the fractal is continuously extended on the right
and the image is scrolled from right to left to expose the newly
generated area.

This distribution contains an Imakefile. If your X-window software has
been correctly installed a Makefile appropriate to your system can be
generated from this using the command "xmkmf". Once this has been done
the program is compiled with the command "make".

./xmountains: version 2.2
usage: ./xmountains -[bqgdPEmMrBZIASFTCapcevfRltxsXYH]
-b [false] use root window
-q [false] reset root window on exit
-g string window geometry
-d string display
-P filename write PID to file
-E [false] toggle explicit expose events
-m [false] print map
-M [false] implement reflections
-r int [20] # columns before scrolling
-B int [80] # shades in a colour band
-n int [245] # number of colours
-Z int [10] time to sleep before scrolling
-I float [40.000000] vertical angle of light
-A float [0.000000] horizontal angle of light
-S float [0.600000] vertical stretch
-T float [0.500000] vertical shift
-W float [0.000000] sealevel
-F int [1] reduce variation in the foreground
-G float [-1.000000] average foreground height
-C float [0.300000] contour parameter
-a float [2.500000] altitude of viewpoint
-p float [4.000000] distance of viewpoint
-c float [1.000000] contrast
-e float [0.300000] ambient light level
-v float [0.600000] vertical light level
Fractal options:
-f float [0.650000] fractal dimension
-R int [0] rng seed, read clock if 0
-l int [10] # levels of recursion
-t int [2] # non fractal iterations
-x [true] cross update
-s [1] smoothing (0-7)
-X float [0.000000] fraction of old value for rg2 & rg3
-Y float [0.000000] fraction of old value for rg1
-H print short description of algorithm.

This program works best on a colour display. It will work on monochrome
displays but the default parameter values are not optimal for this.


The program breaks down into three sections
1) Fractal generation (calcalt.c random.c crinkle.h) This code should be
fairly solid, It also contains some algorithmic tricks I had to
invent (though it is not inconceivable that somebody else has also
thought of them)
2) Image rendering & main program (artist.c global.c scroll.c global.h
paint.h) This code is a bit more sloppy but seems to work OK.
3) The X interface (X_graphics.c) The X interface was retro-fitted to an
earlier version of the program that was designed to use memory mapped
video hardware. As a result this code is a little crude. A more
experienced X hacker could do better but ...

PROBLEMS
All parameters are set on the command line.
The choice of colours looks strange on some hardware.
The program will not work with Xscreensaver or virtual window
managers. This can be fixed by including vroot.h in X_graphics.c (define
VROOT to cpp to do this) but I was a little wary of putting this in by default.

CHANGES from V2.1
Added a -n flag to set the number of colours. This changes the same
parameter as -B but you request total number of colours.

CHANGES from V1.4
The fractal generation code has been reworked. There algorithm has been
extended significantly and should be able to generate much better
looking surfaces. There may be a performance hit for some options though.

CHANGES from V1.3
1) There is now a flag to control the horizontal light angle.
2) negative values of the scroll parameter make the image scroll in the
opposite direction.
3) water reflections have been implemented.

CHANGES from V1.2
1) program now sleeps after a scroll rather than once per column.
2) added a -B flag to control the number of colours needed.
3) added a -q flag that clears the root window when the program exits.
4) fixed memory leak when in `map' mode.

CHANGES from V1.1
Several changes including:
1) There is now a secondary (vertical) light source to add some detail to
the shadows.
2) There is a -Z flag to reduce the CPU load, once the initial screen has
been generated the program will call sleep once for each column of
pixels.
3) Xmountains creates a pixmap containing the current state of the image.
This is now installed as the background pixmap of the window. This means
that root-window images will remain in place if the program is stopped.
The -E flag disables this feature and explicitly traps expose events
instead. There may be some delay in repainting the window if both the -E
and -Z flags are used at the same time.

If you have any comments/fixes etc for this program
Email me at
S.Booth@ed.ac.uk or
spb@epcc.ed.ac.uk

Copyright 1994 Stephen Booth, see copyright.h