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Anyone tried version 9 and have comments about the new palette and memory features?

I just got the SNES version supporting all the features of version 9, including configuration and battery saving. blargg_litewall-9-snes.zip

EDIT: ... OK, shapes and background color change implemented in SNES version as well, so I think it now has all the features as the NES version.

Wow, these palette changes inspired by Neil's version are coming out really cool. I'm seeing the value of having several parameters you can adjust. Messing with the three rates on the spiral makes some really cool combinations. This really leaves room for individual styles using this, rather than everyone's VJing looking the same. The next update will have these, along with expanded documentation so you can better understand how the patterns work and how to tweak them.

@ui, this is about the maximum number of lights you can get, due to technical limitations.

New shapes and slightly smoother animation. Hold B and press Select to toggle which of the four the next B+U/D/L/R will be from. For example, to get the SMB brick after beginning, hold B and press Select, then Up (while still holding B).

blargg_litewall-8.zip

EDIT: just to be clear, that's four separate screenshots, not a single one. Though it might be neat to make a kaleidoscope pattern...

Rounded squares, I like that. I was thinking of also adding an optional dissolve between shapes. I just haven't figured out a decent algorithm to do that. For double-tap, I want to avoid having the first shape show first. I could have it wait a half-second after you press B+direction, so that it can tell whether it's a single or double-tap, but then you can't do single taps in time with the music. Maybe you could tap B, then hold it, and access the second four.

Similar to the above button interpretation, I was considering making presses of Start, Select, B, and A alone be configurable to do anything. Currently they don't do anything if you don't press them in combination with anything. We could even use A+B as modifiers, for even more. Perhaps A+B+U/D/L/R/Select/Start could all be configurable too. If the SNES version proves useful as an alternate version to some people, that of course has four extra buttons as well.

I also really like Neil's palette selection. I'm thinking I could have something like that selectable by Select+L/R (currently that just adjusts the background color when inversion is enabled).

I want to add lots more patterns, so many that you HAVE to pare them down in the config screen. This way you will choose the ones you like best, and customize your presentation more. I don't have to be as picky with them, so you'd get more to choose from. A lot of my patterns use tables, rather than code, so they're very easy to make.

neilbaldwin, please don't bow out. At this point, I am going to give you the basic engine and let you continue developing patterns. My idea is that you write them for the core engine, but not using my whole framework, so that you aren't limited to what it can do. I figure that using the core engine will allow me to port your work over to the framework easily enough. This way you can be much more flexible, yet still collaborate. Please do pass along your code, so I can get a better idea of your style and cater what I send to that. Anyway, I'm going to put together that and at least let you give it a try, no obligation. I'm hoping this is just the beginning pattern-wise. Now that the framework is really featured, we can add many more patterns and transitions, and shapes.

arfink, yeah, I changed it to MMC1, but, it will work fine with UNROM like before. I merely did this because many emulators and perhaps the PowerPak won't enable SRAM and won't battery-back it if it's UNROM. My devcart is only UNROM, and it works fine there. I specifically ensured it would work with UNROM because someone mentioned making it into a physical cart, and I wanted to be sure that wouldn't be hampered. If you lack battery-backed RAM, then it will of course start with the default pattern setup. You can hold any button and press reset to configure it. Pressing reset does NOT reset the pattern setup, so you can always adjust the setup with reset at any time.

Regarding the tempo tap feature. I've gotten it to sync really well with music. I've found that the best way to use it is to tap out the first 8 or so beats of music (more don't help), then say ten or so seconds later, tap a couple of beats (but not more than 4). Then ten or so seconds later, a couple more. After about a minute of this, it stays synced quite well without any help. The idea is to just tap a couple of fine-tune beats every once in a while, when you have a free moment. The way the algorithm works, it remembers the first beat of the 8-beat initial taps, and remembers how many beats there have been since then, so that it can divide the total time by the number of beats (which will be over a hundred after a minute), giving a very accurate internal BPM. If it's ever not getting the beat, or the tempo changed, you can always just start over and tap out 8 or so beats again to start with a fresh internal BPM. I'm pleased with how robust this algorithm has worked out in testing.

Also, it might not be evident, but the second configuration screen allows the list of patterns to be contracted in case you don't want some patterns to ever show, or expanded in case you want a pattern more than once in the sequence, or want it to be more likely to be selected by the random pattern function (A + Select).

The more I see neilbaldwin's new ideas, the more I think maybe we should keep our programs separate and merely share ideas (and perhaps some code, as I'm not sure how he's implemented some things like the snakes heh). We're each very familiar with our own code, and it differs, so that each offers different technical possibilities. It might help if we used my low-level engine for both, though, that way the effects would be easier to port to my framework.

BTW, to satisfy those who prefer an 8x8 grid, I'm thinking I can just have an option to black out the left and right columns. This would make it easy to handle 10x8 and 8x8 with virtually no extra coding hassle, and allow it to be changed via the controller.

Totally agree. That's why I've been reluctant for some of the changes to even the NES version, like having morphing shapes. The basic concept of a low-resolution grid of colors is a nice limitation. Doing all sorts of effects with the shapes themselves kind of breaks that. I'm thinking a few simple changes (square, circle, whatever) can have a good impact if done sparingly in a performance.

Doing lots of work on the framework, in preparation for configuration and getting closer to merging in neilbaldwin's patterns. Tempo tap is working really well. I didn't think I'd be able to get it this clean and stable. This will be totally optional; you will be able to adjust the rate manually as well.