Really cool visual FX
4.92/5 (110 votes)
Aug 21, 2001
2 min read
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A set of classes for doing stunning visual effects, including water, plasma and fire.
The Code Project is on FIRE!
This project has a set of 3 classes that will let you add some pretty cool looking effects (real-time) to images/dibs.
Again (as with my wave editor control) I pulled these out of my code archive, dusted them off, and made a little project that some people might find useful. ie: I did not document much at all.
After running the demo click on the 'Animate' button. Then move your mouse across the image, click, then play with the other settings. The sliders are used to change the alpha (transparency) of the plasma and fire effects. You have to release the slider for the alpha change to take effect.
You generally see these effects used in real-time demos, which is where I culled most of the source from and converted it into a more object oriented class design. I was originally going to use them as the basis for a series of VIS type plugins to be used in an audio application. As commonly happens that project sort of went to the wayside.
I included the CDibSectionLite class created by Chris Maunder in the project just so I had something
to render onto/with. The effects expect all data to be 32bit depth image data.
CWaterRoutine - Renders the real popular water effect
CFireRoutine - Renders simulated fire
CPlasmaRoutine - Renders real-time plasmas
By looking at the code for these effects you should notice they are all based around the idea of using a separate filter to achieve their results. If you have never looked at the water code (for example) you will be amazed at how such simple routines can create such a wonderful effect. Same goes with the plasma and the fire. Try playing around with some of the data members - you can do a LOT more than what my sample application allows.
The animation is achieved with a simple windows timer. The only notable thing about it is the way I chained the effects together, by rendering one on top of another.
You are free to use the code as you wish, just drop me an email if you use it in something interesting, extend it, want to complain about my lack of documentation (again), or just want to say "hey!".