Inspiration... Hello! Where are you?

Written by Psychic Symphony

Sweet holidays my ass! Double the studying, half the computer, double coding, half support!

Although I have not studied one single second since I came home last friday, I have coded like a maniac, with no music for the demo and just some graphics. They are good but not numerous.

Coding all nights from 2200 to 0200 if no movie goes by, if so, from 0200 to 0400, then sleeping till 1400, eating, friend hangout, shower, eating and at 2200 again, back to coding...

I'm running out of inspiration and I've killed 20 bots in a row in Quake, what now? Tumtatum...

Oh yeah! The infofile for the demo... (10 minutes past)

There! The draft is done... Whee! I'll rewrite it at least a couple more times before the final version...

What a drag... What a shitty day, if I only had a modem... I went to check my e-mail today at a friend's house but the server was down! Damn schools. Now what? Nothing on the tuner also... (I can't believe I'm out of business.)

I could code some more... but what? I need the mod to start syncing and I need more gfx... It's already fully optimized at this stage! Maybe some new effects... nah! Low on inspiration. I need to lay of those fucking sines and cosines, using them too much... But what else, I could... nah! Tried this afternoon and didn't work...

Cloud generator, I still haven't coded that cloud generator I have been needing for a couple days... Time to think a bit...

Cloud generator, looking at a small intro called mandala from mandula (hi rod!)... But I've viewed it 10 times and I don't get inspired. Actually, rod said something about the source code being out somewhere but I'm not going to check it out... First because I wouldn't understand it and second because I want to do a 100% PS production...

Think... Think... It isn't just random 4 pixel dots, they wouldn't shape like a cloud... Maybe a probability cloud... No! That works the other way around, I give some numbers and I get a line, no, I give a line and get some numbers...

Maybe a fractal? Nah... no similarities between clouds, some 4 dots some 80 dots... How the hell...

Think... Think...

How the hell am I doing a cloud generator, I need a way to get some dots very close to each other... Maybe looking at the whole process...

Why do clouds exist?

High and low pressures, where pressure is higher with some cold or something like that clouds assemble... hum... If I could do a chart and then depending on the number of each cut, random dots... hum... maybe...

But still... how am I doing a random pressure chart? Some random points and then smoothing a lot?!?! But how am I going to store that in a variable?

I would need a 3d array and that takes a lot of mem... maybe a small one... no... I want bigger than screen clouds... If it was a one screen only I would save a pcx and store the data to an image pointer...

Hum... I've seen in DragonBall Z (genecyst rulez) some clouds too...

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Nothing new...

Clouds don't look generated... Looks like they have drawn 2 or 3 and then just put them out here and there... Damn!

I have seen mandala once again, still no clue how it's done...

Damn!

How the hell can I randomly generate something that looks like it isn't random?!?! Maybe that's it... we give some dots with some colours and then accordingly to the proximity there is more chance to be in that zone...

Actually I believe mandala's clouds aren't randomly ganerated too, they are always the same... hum... Now it's even worse... How can I randomly generate something that is NOT randomly generated? Hum...

I'm going nuts with this cloud biz...

Think... Think...

Hum... Nothing... Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Think damn it!

Think...

You stupid idiot... You can put 3D dots, switch to interlaced mode, do some fake flares, fix all those bloody fonts, do bob fidling with every effect known to man and can't draw some random clouds??? Come on...

Think...

They are clouds...

Just clouds... Some dots close to each other... Clouds damn it... Not realtime hicolor voxel landscape... Clouds... Even you can draw some clouds... Just draw them and save them as an image pointer... No! Mem... Damn it! I NEED SOME CLOUDS... grr...

Take a time out...

Go read a diskmag...

That's it... That's what I did yesterday and I need the bloody demo finished... This is personal... Damn it! YOU BLOODY CLOUD! YOU GONNA GET RANDOMLY GENERATED AND THAT'S IT! NO ARGUE! JUST CODE. I can't! Damn it...

What about elektronics from Doomsday, there we have some 3d clouds moving there... Was it an animation? Damn, if I only had a modem... DAMN IT!

I give up... I'm gonna drink some coke and eat some buiscuits... NO! LET ME SEE ELEKTRONICS AGAIN... I'll THINK OF SOMETHING...

Nope! Shit! Anyone has any clue how it's done? It's already too late to put them in my demo, but tell me anyway...

- Psychic Symphony, apr.98