So now that I’ve got the 3D functions working beautifully - abstracted into a proper generic system, and basically standalone - I think I’ll work on a particle system. They’re visually interesting, and open up all sorts of effects for #MatrixClock.
I mentioned it before, but there is an existing Arduino Particle system - but it doesn’t seem to be updated, nor does it work on anything larger than an 8x8 properly. So I’m going to work out a more flexible system that should allow for an arbitrary matrix size. I’ve found some Processing-centric tutorials in an online book at http://natureofcode.com, and that should give me a place to start.
Besides, it’s fun basically starting from scratch on this sort of thing. I’ve learned so much about OOP and pointers and references and stuff just from hammering away at the Object3d class. I might just break that off into its own separate GitHub project, so it can be more easily used.
I got the arduino particle system working on my SmartMatrix, but it doesn’t seem to look as good, and I haven’t gotten it to switch between multiple particle patterns. I’ll try to get my changes up on github soon.
My bad. I should have mentioned I’m using the modified SmartMatrix library along with the FastLED 2.1 beta. Changing the code should be simple. The library itself doesn’t rely on any graphics library, it’s just the example that does…