Random "Start, stop" type of app, available here

[Ktulu]

Another milovanian was asking if there was some kind of a "green light, red light" type of miniapplication with audio available. I decided to make one with AS3 (flash). Here it is:


RANDOMIZED STOP-STARTER

Download link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?zqal999lukdezph


Installation:

1. Download the package from the link above. It takes a couple of minutes to download on a 1 mbps connection.
2. Extract it in any destination.


Contents of the package:

The archive contains the randomizer, sound samples for it, pics for it and a configuration file. These all should be in a folder called "randStopStart". The flash itself is "project.swf", but you might no be able to open it directly. I recommend opening it through the file "bgfixproject.html" which will make you browser open the flash.


Using randStopStart

1. Running the randomizer: doubleclick "bgfixproject.html". Simple as that. But check the options below first!

2. Options: There's quite a few options you might want to change. The options are in a file called "conf.txt". You can open and save it with a regular text editor (notepad). The options are:

minTime=12
Minimal time for each interval (or the time between a "stop" and a "start") in seconds.

&maxTime=20
Maximal time for each interval in seconds. The flash randomly calculates each interval based on minTime and maxTime

&timeModifier=3
This number modifies the length of "start" and "stop" intervals. Positive numbers make "start" intervals longer and "stop" intervals shorter for the amount of seconds the value is. Negative numbers do the opposite.

&strokeTimeIncrement=0.2
Makes the "start" intervals get longer gradually (on average). In this example, each "start" is 0.2 second longer than the previous one

&stopTimeIncrement=0.1
Makes the "stop" intervals get longer gradually.

&minAmount=20
Minimal amount of intervals the flash can create. 20 would mean at least 10 starts and 10 stops.

&maxAmount=40
Maximal amount of intervals the flash can create. The flash will randomly calculate the amount of "pages" based on minAmount and maxAmount

&chance=0.5
Will you get to cum in the end? Well, this is your chance.
1 = yes,
0 = no,
0.5 = 50% yes / 50% no,
0.1 = 10% yes / 90% no
etc...

&startPic=1
From which pic in the "pics"-folder the flash will start to show you pics. 1 means "1.jpg", 5 means "5.jpg" etc.

&vol=0.5
Audio volume


3. You can also change the texts the flash will show from the conf file, but you might want to change the audio too if you do that. If you don't want any text, just but spaces on each of the texts.

4. Sounds: In the folder "sounds" will be the sounds that the project uses. You can change these if you like or change between "sounds_old" and "sounds" if you prefer. Don't change the filenames.

5. Pics: This folder contains the pics the flash will show. They must be named by integrers following eachother (like in the lovely set from OT that's included in the package) and sized about 600-700 (width) x 900-1000 (height).

6. Use fullscreen. Play <space> during the flash to enter fullscreen mode. THIS IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Makes the flash look so much better.


Known "issues":

1. The UK-ish voices might not be everyone's cup of tea. If you don't like them, just make your own sounds. Remember to match the texts in "conf.txt" to the sounds.

2. No errorhandling. Use it correctly (be sure that there will no be negative time values etc.) and it will work.

3. No automatic pic resize. Flash automatic pic scaling makes pictures look shit so that's why I won't use it. The pics will sometimes overlap with text because of this I might do something about this in the future.

4. Interface. Using additional textfile to control options pretty much sucks. I'll probably add options in the beginning of the flash when I'll have time.


Upcoming features:

(in addition to the ones mentioned above)
1. Metronome function, I'll add this next week probably.

2. Separate options for "start" and "stop" intervals.

Post feedback or request features here or by PM

[Chico]

Excellent, Excellent! really liked the model
Really appreciate the amount of work that has gone into this and I think that addition of the metronome will be the icing on the cake - can't wait

Chico

[Qwert]

Great program.

I think I like it almost as much as Nezhul "Denial" .

I don't know if only I have this problem but it cut some pictures in my computer.

Also if it is possible I would love to see random time modifier. Something like minmum and maximum start ,stop.

[zenlover]

Very nice work! Thanks for the effort, and for sharing.

[brian]

thanks a lot!

Will download it now

[Jaberwocky]

Nice program indeed!

When you make the seperate options for the start and stop intervals, you can perhaps make 4 settings for each interval, something like:
- stroke Interval (in seconds)
- stroke Interval Increment (in seconds)
- stroke randomize (in seconds)
- stroke randomizer Increment (in seconds)
Although something else that could work is to use a percentage as time-randomizer.

Something else that might be a good addition could be three types of intervals, like "stop", "stroke" and "only very slow strokes". You can either randomize between each type of interval, or still have the stop interval every other interval.

Anyway, I think you are doing a great job, hope to see future updates.

--- Edit ---
And perhaps two (or more) different picture folders. One for the stop-intervals and one for the start-intervals.

[Ktulu]

Hello again!

Sorry for taking this long to answer. After I read the feedback from you all (a couple of weeks ago), I started to implement new features right away in Flash. Unfortunately, the more I coded, the less convinced I became of AS3's capabilities.

I decided the project on hold until I can continue with C# language. And that's going to take some time because I still suck at coding with it :D But thanks for the feedback anyways! I'll look at it again when I start rewriting the programme in C#.

[janmb]

Brilliant app, looking forward to actually try it when allowed to stroke.

One feature that would be nice: Option of defining min and max time for stroking vs pause independently.

The factor covers this partially, but defining separate time limits would give more control and be easier to understand.

Looking forward to a future C# version too, but why C# anyway?

I'd warmly recommend C++ and Qt for this, considered writing similar software myself many times but never seem to find the time