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the plasma effect involves manipulating color values over time and space, often using a gradient color palette that shifts to produce a dynamic, animated visual. By combining several sine waves across the x and y axes, the effect achieves a smooth and continuous look. In some implementations, color
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As there are many "hacked" approaches for implementing a plasma effect, this outline of an algorithm will just describe the theoretical basis for the effect. In order to achieve a sufficiently fast and good-looking real-time implementation (especially on the limited hardware available at the time
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feature of the software, can provide a result which resembles a typical plasma effect used in demos. The technical basis, however, is completely different, and a color cycling plasma is somewhat less dynamic than a demo plasma.
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This effect can be achieved programmatically by generating pixel values based on mathematical formulas. It is a popular technique in shaders and graphical effects to create visually appealing animations.
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this effect was at the height of its popularity in the 1990s), one would often do "non-correct" approximations to this algorithm. This, however, can often be done without noticeable visual differences.
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is a computer-based visual effect animated in real-time. It uses cycles of changing colours warped in various ways to give an illusion of liquid, organic movement.
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is the fractal used by the original Plasma demo, and is now often called the plasma fractal which was the name given to it in
Fractint.
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This algorithm is given in two dimensions, but could easily be adopted to any number of dimensions or any number of color channels.
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where it could be implemented very efficiently with its display hardware features. Plasma can also be implemented easily in
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where the effect was heavily used, especially in the early 1990s. The effect was particularly common on the
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to generate a 2D pattern, and then cycles the colors using hardware palette in its 256-color mode.
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palettes are used to shift the hue of the entire effect, creating a flowing and vibrant motion.
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also incorporates an algorithm known as "plasma", which, when combined with the
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Page explaining how the effect is built and including a JavaScript animation
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tends to increase the steepness of the color gradients in the image.
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graphics demo created by Bret Mulvey in 1988 and released on
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be a multi-frequency noise function of two variables (
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712:{\displaystyle \sin(f(x,y)*{\text{freq}}_{c})}
457:A still screenshot of a typical plasma effect.
523:Similar effects can be implemented on modern
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605:function). Let each color component
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163:The Gathering
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787:. Retrieved
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359:Please help
354:verification
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268:MilkyTracker
258:Jeskola Buzz
114:Commodore 64
486:demo coders
294:Demosceners
210:Scene World
194:Mod Archive
129:Amstrad CPC
124:ZX Spectrum
83:Module file
789:2024-09-09
766:References
488:for their
475:CompuServe
417:April 2010
387:newspapers
238:Protracker
692:∗
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500:by using
202:Magazines
189:Scene.org
68:Demogroup
58:Demoparty
20:Demoscene
816:Category
752:See also
551:library.
545:ANSI art
535:Synopsis
513:Fractint
224:Software
181:Websites
168:Revision
153:Assembly
137:Current
109:Atari ST
43:Chiptune
35:Concepts
547:by the
401:scholar
263:Renoise
233:OpenMPT
139:parties
88:Tracker
78:Diskmag
63:Effects
527:using
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278:SunVox
119:MS-DOS
549:AAlib
494:Amiga
490:demos
408:JSTOR
394:books
104:Amiga
73:Compo
53:Intro
729:freq
697:freq
601:, a
599:e.g.
562:Let
525:GPUs
504:and
439:The
380:news
215:Hugi
48:Demo
665:sin
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