Additional preset variables?

[Rovastar]

Ryan,

I am getting involved in the presets for MD and what I believe that I need is a counter for the time/frames elapsed since the current preset has started running. This I believe is different from the time/frames counter that shows the time since MD has started.

I thought of:

starttime = Time
presettime = (time - starttime)
....
if presettime = 1 etc,etc

but I obliviously do not want the program to calculate the starttime every frame.

I want this because I want a slowly build up from the start of my preset until a hit a predefined maximum by me and then reduced.

Also (or even better) what would be nice is if MD could tell me how many frames I have for this preset (e.g. running naturally MD assigns x amount of frames before it randomly changes to the next preset)

I understand this is a tall order but then the preset could then build up (slowly get more intense colour, etc) until it finishes and naturally moves onto the next.
eg
Decay = CurrentFrames / MaximumFrames
Or
Wave_R = (MaximumFrames – CurrentFrames) / MaximumFrames

Therefore the decay is directly proportional to amount of frames.

I have no idea what the outcome of this new variables would be but it may be interesting.

If what I am asking (that is if you can understand this) can be done in another way without additional presets then please let me know. Or if anyone else out there that as done a lot of work on preset can tell me.

If it cannot be done or you have better things to do with your life (drink, sleeping, etc) then please pop a reply in the forum so I can give up with this preset idea.

Hope you can help and keep up the brilliant work on MD.

Cheers,

John Baker

[geiss]

How does a variable called 'progress' sound, where at the beginning of the preset the value is 0.0, and as the preset nears the end of its lifespan, 'progress' moves toward 1.0?

I figured normalizing the range would be something you'd attempt to do next anyway, and it makes it a lot easier if it's built-in (especially because users can alter their preset sustain times).

I went ahead and coded this, actually, and it'll go in version 0.99e, which should be out in less that a week; just let me know if there are any other changes that might be useful.

Thanks for the suggestion-
Ryan

[Rovastar]

That sounds just the ticket. I look forward to 0.99e.

I will hopefully have many more useful suggestions the more I understand how the presets work.

Cheers,

John

[ryan]

WOW, Rova =D was this your first post?