Sound, Music & MIDI Collection 2/SMMVOL2.bin/DEMO/PRG/CTHUG53.ZIP/CTHUGHA.DOC

Text File | 1995-06-24 | 14.2 KB | 440 lines

                                 Cthugha V5.3
                          'An Oscilliscope on Acid'

                    by the Digital Aasvogel Group. 1993-1995
                            Revision V5.3 - 22Mar95 zaph/moles

                    DOCUMENTATION


WWW:  http://www.afn.org/~cthugha
FTP:   ftp://ftp.afn.org


"Cthugha has tuned in, turned on, and decidedly dropped out of the humdrum
 world of scientific analog-signal processing."
 - Wired 3.03, March 1995

"It gives credence to the phrase 'I can see music'...There is no real
 way to describe the patterns except as weird".
 - Australian PC Review Oct '94

Wavy Data
     Upon first observation, oscilloscopes seems a bit ho-hum. After all,
     devices that graphically represent electrical waveforms on a display
     screen tend to fall a bit short on the sex appeal scale. But if you
     spend some time exploring the ways high-end oscilloscopes can visualize
     data, you may start to think the machines are on drugs . . .
     Cthugha 5.1, an oscilloscope program for PC sound cards, has tuned in,
     turned on, and decidedly dropped out from the humdrum world of scientific
     analog signal processing. The product of Australian code jock Kevin
     "Zaph" Burfitt, Cthugha takes your sound card's CD, line, or microphone
     input and displays it as a swirling, hypnotic, 256-color confection for
     your eyes. Although Cthugha currently requires MS-DOS, a VGA monitor, and
     a Sound Blaster or Gravis UltraSound sound card, the complete C source
     code is part of the package, so you can port it, if you're so inclined.

                                                       HotWired - March 1995


                      What does this software do then ?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Audio input seeded image processing.
Cool.
Hook up your CD player to the input of your sound card,
or use your CD-ROM player (if you've got one).
Run Cthugha (DOS program)
Then play your coolest music.
- and wow, does your screen look like a 90's lava lamp or what ?

Cthugha 'listens' to your music, and changes the display dynamically
to the sound.

Ever looked at an oscilliscope of your voice or of music ?

Think of this as an oscilliscope on acid.



                       Who's this Cthugha dude anyway ?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Cthugha" is hard to pronounce (Kuth-ooo-Ga), and harder to spell.
The name is an ancient name from the occults.
The following is an extract from the texts that describe him (it) the best.

"Cthugha resembles an enormous burning mass continually varying in shape.
It dwells at or near the star Fomalhaut, from whence it may be called.
It is one of the most obscure and remote of all the Great Old Ones."
Call of Cthulhu - Chaosium

When Cthugha is summoned he is always accompanied by Fire Vampires.

'There appeared thousands of tiny points of light. ... The myriad points of
light were living entities of flame!  For wherever they touched, fire sprang
up.'
The dweller in Darkness, by August Derleth



                            Getting Started
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Try one of these DOS command lines to test Cthugha:

   No soundcard           :   CTHUGHA -x
   Soundblaster (Line In) :   CTHUGHA -L
   Soundblaster (CD In)   :   CTHUGHA -C
   Soundblaster (CD Play) :   CTHUGHA -c 1
   GUS (Line In)          :   CTHUGHA -G -L
   GUS (CD In)            :   CTHUGHA -G -c 1

Once Cthugha is running, try one of these keys to help you along:

   C  - Bring up the CD-Player
   F1 - Help Screen


                            Technical Stuff :
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sound Cards :

Tested with soundblaster Pro and 16
Tested with GUS
Base testing with a PAS

(Sorry - that's all we had, if you want other cards supported get in
touch, and we'll see what we can do.)

It needs a fair bit of Base memory, somewhere around 550k I think,
and XMS/EMS would be handy - for TABs and PCX files

Oh yeah, it needs a 386 too :-)
And it *really* wants a 486 with a good-speed graphics card...
And it *flys* with a Pentium PCI machine :-)

DOS Command Line syntax:

Cthugha: Command line options
(These are Case sensitive commands)

  -L,-M,-C  : Use Line/Mic/CD as input
  -G,-S,-P  : Use GUS/SB/PAS (default: search)
  -O        : Use OLD SB code (useful for PAS or other cards that dont work)
  -s,-m     : Default to STEREO/MONO
  -i,-e     : Disable Inbuilt/External Palettes

  -T <num>  : Minimum frames before changing
  -R <num>  : extra random frames before changing
              time delay formula : delay = t + rand()%r

  -V <0-255>: Set input volume to <0-255>
  -v <rate> : VU bar sample rate (Default=4000)

  -Q <num>  : Number of frames before silence change <def:200>
  -f <num>  : Start with flame   #<num>
  -w <num>  : Start with wave    #<num>
  -p <num>  : Start with palette #<num>
  -l        : Lock to first wave/flame/palette

  -d        : Pause just before running (usually for debug)
  -x        : Debug mode (no sound source needed) - generate random noise
  -t <fname>: Load alternate Translation table file
  -q <fname>: Load alternate Quiet strings from a text file

  -X        : Disable PCX files

  -B <num>  : Set the beat volume level to #<num>                <def:220>
  -b <num>  : Set the number of beats to #<num> (0,-ve to disable) <def:16>
(Notes on BEATS):
  The BEAT flags allow the screen to try to change on a regular number of
  loud beats.  Usually this matches either a drum beat, or loud vocals.
  If you set the values too low, everything starts going crazy :-)
  (This would be better implemented as a frequency based system)


Keyboard Commands (While running) :

  - +     Drop/Increase the sample rate by 1000hz
  < >     Drop/Increase the noise threshold (blanking level)

  i       write current setting to INI file

  w       change wave function
  f       change flame function
  p       changes palette
  t       changes table (how it uses the palette)
  d       changes display function (up/down etc)
  m       massage the audio (figure that one out!!)
  L       Lock modes (No random switching)
  c       CD player interface
  <space> randomally changes something (maybe the same)
  *       Stereo/Mono toggle
  !       Toggle Translation Table
  s       Toggle FFT palette flashing code

  <esc>   Exit
  x       Exit






                            More Tech Stuff :
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Palette File Format :
The format is the same that FRACTINT uses.  If not all color indexes
are specified then they default to black.  The color values are
specified in RGB tupples (0-255), where 0 is black.  Easy !
The software scans the current directory for palette files (ext .MAP)
and uses up to the first 25 it finds.
Format -

255 255 255 comments index 0
... ... ...
255 255 255 comments color index 255

If you come up with a good palette file,
email it to [e-mail]






                              Translation Tables:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
These tables (TAB files) are used to design just about ANY effect,
without recompiling the source to Cthugha!!!

Here's how they work.
You generate a table, 320x204, of integers - the integer represents the
SOURCE pixel for this DESTINATION pixel.

e.g  in a small 3x3 world..
123
456
789    would do nothing

236
519
478    would rotate around the edge, and pop back to the center...

Read the source to GENTABLE.C to try to work out how it works, or send me
some email!

By default Cthugha loads all TAB files from the current directory.
Several tables are included with Cthugha, to load only a single TAB file
use the DOS command line option
CTHUGHA -t <fname>

The CTHUGHA.INI file can can specify specific TAB files

In the [general] area
table_file = FRED.TAB


The loading of TAB files can be disabled by specifying
in the [general] area
translate = no





                                 Quiet Strings:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
If everything goes quiet for a while, then Cthugha will pop up one of
19 strings to the screen
Each string can be up to 19 characters long, and can be read from a text
file with the following DOS command line parameter

CTHUGHA -q filename

The first 19 characters of each line are used for the string table.

Or in the [general] area of the CTHUGHA.INI file
string_file = filename




                         Contact/Shipping/legal things :
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CTHUGHA V5.3

Forward messages to Zaph
    Internet [e-mail]
    Torps Productions BBS [phone], [phone]
    FidoNet 3:634/386                   (FREQ CTHUGHA for the latest version)
    WWW:  http://www.afn.org/~cthugha

    or:

    Zaph
    PO Box 331
    Richmond 3121
    Victoria, Australia


SHAREWARE  (PostcardWare/CDWare)
Free for non-commercial use  -  Send a Postcard to show your appreciation
If you have more money than you know what to do with, then send me a CD
of something you like listening to with Cthugha on the screen...

Really, there's no point sending me a cheque for $20-$30, because its going
to cost to get it cashed anyway, and I'd probably go out and buy a CD with
the money, so - if you want to send more than a postcard,  why not just send
a CD instead ??

Commercial users register for 2 CD's  (anything)

    Kevin Burfitt
    PO Box 331
    Richmond 3121
    Victoria, Australia


If you can't afford to register send a video tape (PAL preferably) of
public performance or send a postcard :-)

If you forward this program on to friends, make it available on a
BBS, etc please include this document (un-adulterated).

If you run a shareware house/store, the disk you sell this program on
is not allowed to be sold for more than US$20.

DISCLAIMER : this software is provided 'as is' without waranty
of any kind implied or expressed.

If it works, great.
If it doesn't, then that's your bad luck - send us some mail and we will try
to fix it.





                                  Thanks to:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coders:

[e-mail]       (Kevin Burfitt)   Thats me :-)

[e-mail]      (Myles Abbott)    Documentation/Ideas
[e-mail]          (Daniel Sachs)    SBpro/SB16 Stereo Support,
                                                CD stuff, Borland support
[e-mail]      (Jochen Quante)   GUS support
[e-mail]       (Ofer Faigon)     Table generation programs

General:

Dean Scully                             Convinced me to release the beast...
[e-mail] (Neal Millen)           First person to email me with ideas!
[e-mail] (Bryan Lewis)      Said nice things about Cthugha
[e-mail] (Paul Gray)               Convinced me to release this version
[e-mail]             Offered his site for FTP access
[e-mail]                       For the Cthugha FTP site

ID software                             For DOOM :-)



Good CD's to watch:  (With comments from the net!)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cure:
Dire Straits:     Brothers in Arms
Ella Fitzgerald:  (really!!, the 20's songs - [e-mail])
Enigma:
Enya:             (Excellent with all white palettes - [e-mail])
Nine Inch Nails:
Peter Gabriel:
Pink Floyd:       The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd:       Momentary lapse of reason
Pink Floyd:       (actually, anything by Pink Floyd will do...)
Orbital:
Smashing Pumpkins:
Metallica:        Orion - use the crawling worms mode :-)
Metallica:        Use Lightning for most tracks
Hendrix:
Manic Depression:
Pete Namlook:
Klaus Schulze:
Kraftwerk:
Aphex Twin:
The Church:
Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
Violent Femmes
Metallica:        And Justice for all
10,000 Maniacs:   Our time in Eden
Eagles:           Hotel California
Ice Cube:         The Predator
Dr Atmo and the Basalt Boys: The Whole Traffic
Frank Zappa:      Guitar I, II and III
Amorphus Androginous
Yello:            Essential Yello


SOURCE CODE:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Source code to V5.3 is shipped in a seperate archive.  If you cannot
find it, email me at:  [e-mail]

If you are interested in contributing to the source, contact me via the
Internet  [e-mail]



TroubleShooting                                         TroubleShooting
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Why isnt there native support for my <xxx> card ?
A: Because I need someone like you to write it for me!!
   For now, try the -S option...

Q: How can I register Cthugha ?
A: You can send me a postcard, its all I ask...  if you have too much money
   and don't know what to do with it, then send me a CD of something that
   looks cool with Cthugha!
   (You could send more, but I don't ask for it... so far I've been sent
   60 or 70 postcards, a couple of long letters, some 3d glasses,
   and about 10 CDs)



TIPS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I can't remember how to spell CTHUGHA,

Well here's how I remember :
1. It starts with a     'C'
2. It's got the word     'THUG' in it
3. Followed by         'HA'
4. Easy, really (You'd be surprised how many permutations we get)



InterNet MAILING List
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you wish to joing the discussion group (using, programming, bugs etc)

Send E-Mail to [e-mail]
with
JOIN CTHUGHA
in the *message* text (it ignores _subject_ text)


if you wish to know when the new versions are out
Send E-Mail to [e-mail]
with
JOIN CTHUGHA-ANNOUNCE
in the *message* text (it ignores _subject_ text)




-EOF-