cVA alpha 0.3

　


1 Structure of cVA

1-1 Concept


cVA is based on MIDI protocol.

The first constructor is "Cell". Cell is like a MIDI track.

MIDI channel will be asigned to a cell.

Each cell contains "Gene", a data generator, and "Reactor", a set of effects.

"Gene" manages data source, images, models, etc.
"Reactor" has "Gene"s for data source and generates output images.


　

concept description

Cell

 A capsule  for data source and effects. (like a MIDI track)

Gene

 data generator

Reactor

 The set of effects.

　

　

　
　

1 -2 Directry Structure

Directory structure of cVA execution environment follows:

exe-
　　　　　　　　 |-　　 cva.exe
　　　　　　　　 |-　　 glut.dll( GLUT3.7 DLL)
　　　　　　　　 |-　　 key.db
　　　　　　　　 |-　　 modules.db
　　　　　　　　 |-　　　 imgs* (　Texture Image folder. This is the unit of a texture set.)
　　　　　　　　 |-　　 Models ( Alias|Wavefront obj models)
　　　　　　　　 |-　　　 Reactors(　effect folder)

The order of textures and reactors is undefined.

　

１−３　How to run

cVA is a console application. You can execute cVA by doouble clicking the icon or typing the command from DOS console.

　
If you add a command line option, you can run cVA with full screen mode.
full screen

>> cva -f

window mode

>> cva
or
double click


cvafull.exe is full-screen only binary. cvafull.exe will change the display mode to 640x480_32(bit) mode.

2 Control

　

2-1 Global Function

key

 function

F1-F12

Specify current reactor(track).

End

MIDI　on/off

PageDown

game controller ON/OFF(Currently disabled)
Up/Down arrow

 Reactor change
Left/Right arrow

 Texture set change

Home

Cursor  Show/Hide
　

2-2 Reactor List
reactorname

 Function

waver

Wave like effects

Tunnel

Tunnel effects

Cloud

cloud effects

Particles

 particle effect

MetaReactor

 Metaball effect

ObjViewer

Alias|Wavefront obj model viewer

　

2-3 basics of effect control

The basic method of changing the effect parameter is "Drag mouse with pressing a key".

You can control  two parameters at a time for each key.
The number of cVA Reactor control parameters is 32.
'1' to '0' keys and 'q','w','e','r','t','y' keys are used with mouse pointer movement.


　

2-4 Common Reactor Paramters

Every effect has few basic common functions.
　
　

key and mouse direction

　Control parameter

q

Rotation of 3D models

w

x-dir　 :Roll
y-dir　 :Distance from Eye point

e

x-y translation of 3D Models

r           

change texture translation

t

 change texture scale

y

 texture rotation

6

x-dir :change the effect

9

x-dir(upper half of display) : choose texture
x-dir(lower half of display) : specify texture animation speed

　
　

2-5 Waver reactor

Waver reactor has two effects, wave and flo.
In adittion to common controls, few wave reactor specific controls are provided. 　　

key

 description

1


Wave：　The position of a water drop.
　　　　(Random drop will be generated by positioning the pointer at left most side.)

Flo : Change the rotion speed  and speed of flow.

6

ｘ-di : change the current effect

　

2ー6 Tunnel reactor

。
Tunnel reactor has three tunnel like effects, Cone, Plane, Phoenix. 　
　

key

 description

８

 Change the axis of tunnel.

6

x-dir :Change effect

　

2-7 Cloud reactor

Alpha blending of multiple textured quads.
　

key

 description

1

ｘ-dir：change the translation speed.
ｙ-dir：change the distance between two quads.

6

ｘ-dir：change the texture scale.
　
ｙ-dir：change the number of quads.

　

2-8 Particle reactor

　

key

description

1

Position of the origine of particle

3

寿命のばらつきと、発生の同期をとります。
ｘ方向画面左側にポインタを持っていくと強制的にパーティクルを殺します。
そして左側半分のいちに移動すると、飛び散ります。

ｙ方向に移動すると、各パーティクルの寿命にばらつきが出ます。したがって爆発でなく連続的に発生するようになります。

5


x-dir : change gravity
y-dir : change air dump

6

change the area of the origine of particles

7

change the speed and direction at the origine

8

change the polygon size of each particle

　

2-9 Metaball reactor

This reactor generates the iso surface  specified by metaballs.
The control of the metaball action is the same as that of "Particle reactor".

　

2-10 Model viewer

common control only.

　

２−１１　Global effect


MIDI channel 12 is reserved for global effects.
Pseud blur effect is supported.
　　
　

３．Data specification

    1. Texture

３．１．１ basic

Textures are provided by "Image Gene" to "Reactors". Each "Image Gene" has multiple of texture images as a set of textures.

３．１．２ specifications

item

specification

 notice

file format

SGI RGBA format

　

resolution

power of 2

2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512


Texture images in a same image set should have the same resolution.
The maximum number of textures

126 for each texture set

　

　

３．１．３ Hints

　There is plugin exporter for SGI RGB file format for Adobe Photoshop™ .

３．１．４ Setting

　1.create a folder, whose name starts "imgs".(imgsA,imgs1 etc.)
  2. put images into the folder.

Be careful to the image resolution. cVA is lazy, no error checking.

３．２　３D Model

３．２．１ basic


3D models are treated as images in cVA. Only one "model set" is supported.

３．２．２ specification

　

item

specification

restrictions

file format

Alias |Wavefront obj format

Only geometry data will be loaded.
The maximum number of files

126

　

　

４．MIDI

　Again, the number of control parameters is totally 32.

Parameters are specified with the combination of "Key" + "Mouse x-y dir".
16 Keys and two directions (x-y) yields 32 parameters.

MIDI message

CVA parameter

key mouse

標準設定

b0 7

7

Function Key(F1-F12)

Function Key
x-dir pointer movement

b0 16

16

CVA_BTN_0 x-dir

0　x-dir pointer movement

b0 17

17

CVA_BTN_1 x-dir

1　x-dir pointer movement

b0 18

18

CVA_BTN_2 x-dir

2　x-dir pointer movement

b0 19

19

CVA_BTN_3 x-dir

3　x-dir pointer movement

b0 20

20

CVA_BTN_4 x-dir

4　x-dir pointer movement

b0 21

21

CVA_BTN_5 x-dir

5　x-dir pointer movement

b0 22

22

CVA_BTN_6 x-dir

6　x-dir pointer movement

b0 23

23

CVA_BTN_7 x-dir

7　x-dir pointer movement

b0 24

24

CVA_BTN_8 x-dir

8　x-dir pointer movement

b0 25

25

CVA_BTN_9 x-dir

9　x-dir pointer movement

b0 26

26

CVA_BTN_10 x-dir

q　x-dir pointer movement

b0 27

27

CVA_BTN_11 x-dir

w　x-dir pointer movement

b0 28

28

CVA_BTN_12 x-dir

e　x-dir pointer movement

b0 29

29

CVA_BTN_13 x-dir

r　x-dir pointer movement

b0 30

30

CVA_BTN_14 x-dir

t　x-dir pointer movement

b0 31

31

CVA_BTN_15 x -dir

y　x-dir pointer movement

b0 72

48

CVA_BTN_0 y-dir

0　y-dir pointer movement

b0 73

73

CVA_BTN_1 y-dir

1　y-dir pointer movement

b0 74

74

CVA_BTN_2 y-dir

2　y-dir pointer movement

b0 75

75

CVA_BTN_3 y-dir

3　y-dir pointer movement

b0 76

76

CVA_BTN_4 y-dir

4　y-dir pointer movement

b0 77

77

CVA_BTN_5 y-dir

5　y-dir pointer movement

b0 78

78

CVA_BTN_6 y-dir

6　y-dir pointer movement

b0 79

79

CVA_BTN_7 y-dir

7　y-dir pointer movement

b0 80

80

CVA_BTN_8 y-dir

8　y-dir pointer movement

b0 81　

81

CVA_BTN_9 y-dir

9　y-dir pointer movement

b0 82

82

CVA_BTN_10 y-dir

q　y-dir pointer movement

b0 83　

83

CVA_BTN_11 y-dir

w　y-dir pointer movement

b0 84

84

CVA_BTN_12 y-dir

e　y-dir pointer movement

b0 85

85

CVA_BTN_13 y-dir

r　y-dir pointer movement

b0 86

86

CVA_BTN_14　 y-dir

t　y-dir pointer movement

b0 87

87

CVA_BTN_15 y-dir

y　y-dir pointer movement


　
Appendix Embironment

PC (AT-compatible)
Windows98
OpenGL

Hardware specification of the development environment
CPU
Celeron 450MHz
Memory　　　　　　　 128M
BM/B　　　　　　　　　　　 ASUS P2B-VM
Video　　　　　　　　　　　 DiamondMultimedia Viper V550(nVIDIA Riva TNT chip)

As of 1999 summer.