Riffer's Photonic Zone
(Or: Digital Acid Is Still Legal)
What's Here?
Just a bunch of links and thumbnails for a variety of "eye-candy" programs
on the net. Some of these are shareware (or even commercial) programs,
others are freeware or even public domain. Some of them are similar to
Cthugha and react to sound input, but many do
not. They are all quite cool and nifty programs to watch, though.
What's "Eye-Candy"?!
That's a relatively new term that refers to computer software that generates
graphical displays. Unlike many graphical programs that do static images
(such as ray-tracing or rendering programs, fractal displays, etc), these
programs produce animated, moving displays. Some of these programs take
sound as input and translate it into graphics, while others just produce
the displays randomly or via complex mathmatical manipulations.
Generally, eye-candy programs serve no other purpose than to produce
mesmerizing, hypnotizing, or just plain mellow displays to chill to.
I Have A Question...
Please don't ask me questions about these programs. I didn't write them,
I don't even archive them. I just link to the sites that host the software.
Ask the authors if you have problems.
If you have or know of a program that should be listed here, feel free
to send me e-mail about it. I will decide whether to include it or not,
with whatever additional information I may add in.
-
Pulsar -- Added 10/8/97
A shareware software package for the BeOS.
No limits or restrictions, costs only $10 to register. Advertised features
include real-time audio mixing, rotations, 3D objects, and other video
effects. Also has a special "plug-in" architecture to allow for addition
of other abilities and effects.
The BeOS is available for both the Be
computer architecture (now defunct) and the Apple
Macintosh commputer architecture.
-
Psychedelic Screen
Saver (by Synthesoft) -- Added 10/8/97
This is a popular Windows 95 application that acts as a fanciful screen
saver. It can be installed in conjunction with another product by the same
author called CD Audio Spectrum, allowing for the animated, dynamic displays
to be influenced by music from a CD in your CD-ROM drive.
-
Kaleidoscope (by Syntrillium)
-- Added 10/10/97
Shareware software available for Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, this program
comes with numerous pre-set kaleidoscope effects, and also responds to
sound from a CD (via the CD-ROM drive of course). Worth checking out.
-
ISIS - -- Added 10/10/97
This is a webpage for the program Aestesis as well as several other
tools and demos. Aestesis is a shareware program for DOS that does real-time
video effects and displays in response to sound played via the CD-ROM drive.
There's also a demo called Oriant, a Win95 demo of some Aestesis effects,
a couple of psychedelic screen blankers for Win95, and even a nifty Java
applet right on the webpage that does some simple though pleasant colorful
swirls.
-
Light Show Dino
-- Added 10/11/97
A simple freeware program (includes source code) that produces effects
very
similar to that of AcidWarp. Page hasn't been updated in a long time. However,
source code for the program is included.
-
Chromazone (by Gibson Research)
-- Added 10/11/97
This is an excellent, low-priced screen-saver for Windows 3.1 and Windows
95. It uses a unique, slick interface for all the controls and comes with
literally hundreds of pre-set configurations to try out for various displays.
You can make your own displays by adjusting the huge number of settings.
The images created are dynamic, palette animated images and with the software
written entirely in assembly, it's very fast. I definately recommend checking
out the demo version.
-
Elements
-- Added 10/11/97
Freeware DOS program that does real-time morphing and other effects.
-
Kaliedoplasma -- Added 10/11/97
Another free DOS program, this puppy generates plasma displays and
then uses techniques such as palette animation and mirroring to produce
nifty displays.
-
ScreenDance (by Madeira Software,
Inc.) -- Added 10/11/97
This is a commercial program that does colorful, dancing displays in
sync with CD music input. It comes with it's own CD and mixer controls
and supports various modules for the effects (including a dancing stick
figure). The software is DOS based but there's a Windows 95/NT version
in beta test right now. You can download a limited demo version of the
program from the webpage.
Other eye-candy and psychedelic animation programs can be found on the
Cthugha
Related Material's webpage.
Last Modified: October 15th, 1997
Jeff The Riffer aka Jeff Mercer / riffer@vaxer.net