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PyroTechnics v1.4

PyroTechnics is an OpenGL-based firework simulator that runs under Linux (and other *nix platforms) and win32.

Features

a bunch of nifty kinds of fireworks
the ability to choreograph firework displays
a texture-mapped water surface
reflections in the water
fogging
a moving camera
the ability to save screenshots

System Requirements

PyroTechnics requires:

an OpenGL implementation
the GLUT library
the libjpeg library (compiled into PyroTechnics under win32)

3D Hardware acceleration (such as a 3Dfx card) is strongly recommended.

Running PyroTechnics

Usage: pyro [-r] [-d <displayfile>] [-w <numworks>] [-p <workprob>]

[-c <camdist>]

  -h                 Display usage
  -r                 Display random sequence (ignore display file)
  -d <displayfile>   Read display sequence from <displayfile>
  -w <numworks>      Maximum of <numworks> fireworks at a time
  -p <workprob>      New firework with probability <workprob> per second
  -c <camdist>       Rotate camera <camdist> units from center of display
                     (value should be less than 70.0)

Help is available in the demo by typing 'h'. Screenshots are saved in PPM format.

*** IMPORTANT! ***

If you have trouble pyro, or it is slow, read the "Common Questions" section. Most of the questions people email me are answered here.

*** IMPORTANT ***

Choreographed Displays

Firework display information is read from the file "pyro.dsp". The format of this file is:

#<text> -- comment

<name> [ (<x>,<y>,<z>) [ (<dx>,<dy>,<dz>) ] ]

                 -- launch firework <name> from position (<x>,<y>,<z>)
                    with velocity relative to (<x>,<y>,<z>)

 wait <val>      -- wait <val> seconds

repeat <val>
... -- repeat the given commands <val> times done

loop -- loop back to the beginning of the display

Currently the available firework names are:

white -- basic white firework
purple -- basic purple firework
cyan -- basic cyan firework
yellow -- basic yellow firework
rednwhite -- white and red particles
innout -- a center of green with a surround of yellow
spray -- a spray of purple particles
xzwobble -- an explosion of blue particles that turn white wiggle down
rg -- particles with full blue component, but varying red and green
rb -- particles with full green component, but varying red and blue
lilyel -- small yellow firework
ring -- red sphere with a cyan ring around it
yellgrn -- particles whose color turns from yellow to green
purpblue -- particles whose color turns from purple to blue
cross -- white sphere with a blue cross along x,y,z axes
whitespark, goldenspark, rgspark, rbspark -- sparkling streamers
vertring -- a cyan-colored vertical ring

OpenGL Notes

You must have OpenGL and Glut installed on your system. On *nix machines, you can either use a native OpenGL implementation, or use Mesa. On win32, you can use Microsoft's software OpenGL implementation (slow!), 3Dfx OpenGL (if you have a 3Dfx card) or Mesa (although I've had some problems with Mesa under windows). Here are locations where you can find some of the OpenGL implementations:

Mesa: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~brianp/Mesa.html
3Dfx OpenGL: http://www.3dfx.com/docs/opengl_beta/opengl_beta.html
Microsoft OpenGL: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/opengl95.exe
GLUT for Windows: http://reality.sgi.com/opengl/glut3/glutdlls.zip

Windows Notes

Pyro seems to be more jerky under windows than it is under Linux on the same hardware. Perhaps the wait for video synch isn't enabled by default under windows?

None of the windows OpenGL implementations seems to support fogging. It just doesn't do anything under Microsoft OpenGL and 3Dfx OpenGL, and crashes Mesa. Mesa also crashes if textures are used.

If you've got any ideas about how to solve the above problems, drop me a line.

Compiling

PyroTechnics was developed on a Linux system using Mesa v3.0 and a 3Dfx Voodoo card. It should work with minimal modification on other OpenGL implementations. If you successfully compile PyroTechnics on another platform, please let us know.

To compile PyroTechnics using Mesa, first edit the Makefile to ensure that MESADIR is set to point to the directory that contains your Mesa include files. If you aren't using Mesa on a 3Dfx card, remove the "-DXMESA" from CFLAGS. Then type 'make' and PyroTechnics should compile.

The parsing code requires a YACC compatible parser generator such as GNU bison. "parser.c" (the output of running bison on "parser.y") is included, in case you do not have a compatible parser generator.

Makefiles for Solaris, SGI machines (courtesy of Brian Paul), OS2 (courtesy of Doug LaRue) and HP machines (courtesy of Matt Taggart) are included.

Customizing the code

The implementation of fireworks is designed to be easily extensible. Both firework types and the particles that they use can be customized. Have a look at the code and play with it. If you come up with any interesting firework types, send them to us.

Common Questions

Q: I am only getting a few frames-per-second. This sucks! What gives?

A1: You're probably running Mesa in software mode. You should read the

     "README.3Dfx" file in the Mesa distro. Specifically, you need to
      "setenv MESA_GLX_FX fullscreen"

A2: You don't have a 3D graphics card. Go buy one!

Q: When I run pyro, it just dumps core. That's not the kind of

pyrotechnics I was looking for!

If you are using a 3Dfx card, make sure you are running xmame.xgl as root. Root priviledges are required to access the 3Dfx hardware

TODO

Things we think would be cool to add to Pyrotechnics:

more kinds of fireworks
sound
better frame-rate independence
velocity modulation (to do things like pinwheels)
particle generation (fireworks that spark as they go, particles that shoot off other particles)

Acknowledgments

Thanks go to:

Brian Paul and all the others working on Mesa
Mark Kilgard for the GLUT library
David Bucciarelli, for the Mesa 3Dfx driver, and for 3Dfx example code
The Independent JPEG Group
Raul Alonso, for ssystem -- cool program, and useful as example code
Eric Plante for help on saving a screenshot

---
Mike Oliphant (oliphant@ling.ed.ac.uk)
Rob Clark (robert@cstr.ed.ac.u)

http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~oliphant/pyro