Database Users

Starting a new project - Need help and feedback

Intro:
Hi, my name is bart and im a dj / producer
When im traveling i get alot of inspiration. So i would love to be able to make music on my pocket pc. I searched for software like drumsequencer/samplers for pocket pc. ?I found some very basic/not interesting freeware progs. And 1 over the top not realy functional wav sampler wich costs money btw. btw excuse me for my grammar as i am dutch i will likely make some major grammar faults.
So i decided i need to make one my own. and make it good and then release it to the public for free.
The Concept:
Maybe some of you know this program some dont (look it up on google then) but do you remember the program called Rebirth? it is a piece of software by "propellorhead" wich is actualy a digital clone of a oldskool 808 and 909 drumcomputer and 2 303 synths. It also includes 4 basic effects: Delay, Distortion, enveloped cutoff/resonance and a compressor.
Wich are basicaly mathematical formulas wich change the sound produced by one of these drumpcomputers/synths. One of those effects cqan be used for one sound source only.
ok so i basically want to get about thew same specs as that program. Only with less cpu intense graphics, just 1 drum and 1 synth and compatibilaty with atleast the mda vario aka qtek 9100 but i prefer compatibilaty with almost all pocketpc's.
here is a basic list:
1 drumsequencer (with maybe 4 samplekits?)
1 synth (soundgenerator using 4 different wave shapes)
1 cuttof/resonance filter
1 distortion filter
1 delay
1 internal mixer ( each channel will have a own volume knob i guess)
Read this before continueing
Ok so now is the question if you are interested in all this. If you want a program like this read on. If you are good in programming even better.
If you know a lot about music or music in combination with pc software you can definately help me out.
I know almost nothing about programming. Ok i know some oldskool basic, i can do some html and php, but thats it. Tho im not stupid and i learn quick. I also think that this project may be a good excuse to start learning to program. So basically i first need to determine some important facts before i start this project:
Wich programming language is required for this project
How much programming skill will this project need (basic, medium, expert)
What about the soundchips in ppc's and how to communicate with them
Use sound sampling based techniques or sound generating techniques
Are there people to support me, can they help write code, can they help answer questions
And the list go's on... if you think you can answer one of these questions dont hesitade and start to support this project
ok nuf said... lets get back to bussines:
Main functions
Ok so i guess i need some main functions wich would be the core of the program. There needs to be a timecode aka bpm (beats per minute)
This means a play button and a stop button. There needs to be a visiualisation of the drumcomp, synth and effects. I would also like to note that im not planning to use the function of a pattern playlist yet ( a playlist tells the sequencer to play different patterns from a database of patterns).
To keep things simple i want to keep this version just playing this 16 step pattern as a loop. Very important is that all sequencers (synth, drums, delay effect) go as fast as the timecode aka bpm.
The Drumcomputer aka Sequencer:
The idea is to make a 16 step sequencer. For those who dont know what that means plz look it up on google. i would like to implement the feature to use different samplekits from a list. i als am wondering wich format whould be best to use to compress these samples... wav, aif, 8 bit 16 bit 22khz ???!!??
The synth aka soundgenerator:
I want the following functions on this soundgenerator.
It is triggered by a sequencer
You can change pitch of each note
sound can be modified by cuttof resonance
you can choose 4 waveshapes: sinus, square, triangle, noize.
very similar to the 303 in rebirth do it doesnt have to have the same sound just the functions.
The effects:
Need to find the mathematical formulas for these effects and check how to convert them to this program.
Internal:
Ok first i want to tell what ISNT needed. I dont need save to be implemented yet as a wont be using playlist and mulitple patterns anyway.
All sound sources (drums, synth effects) have a own volume knob wich indicates the volume. I want to make a internal mixer wich mixes the drum, synth and effects together according to the volume set by these volume knobs.
ok im done typing for some time... i will do some adjustements to this post later on: and if it gets some serious i will make a good decent, main thread, with the name of the project in the title etc.
Thnx for reading all this and i hope to get some nice feedback... or questions.
greetz bart.

Hello Bart!
First of all, I'd like to say that you are off to a good start by making a detailed project outline.
Although I never done any programing involving audio manipulation I believe I can answer some of the questions you posted here:
1. There are 3 main stream languages to program pocket PCs:
.NET Visual Basic and C#, and native C++ (eVC++)
Unless you can fined .NET objects dedicated to functions you described it will probably be better to use C++ as it will make access to windows API easier.
Also for VB and C# you will need to by Visual Studio 2005, but eVC 4 can be downloaded for free from Microsoft.
2. I estimate this project will take medium to expert programming skill depending on how cooperative windows CE will be with your goals. Hopefully you wont have to access the audio chip directly. Alternatively there may be a .NET component that will make your life very easy try Google.
If you know the mathematics behind the effects you got half the job done and I am sure you will find people to help you with the coding.
So good luck, and remember - people like free software so this project can't be a bad idea!

Ok, with your answers in the back of my mind i did some googling
and i noticed that there is quite some sourcecodes and info for audio programming in c++
check this link for example: http://www.harmony-central.com/Computer/Programming/
Tho in my search i stumbled on another thing... what about java? maybe it wil be a lot easyer in java? and maybe also more compatible? i dunno just guessing here...
anywayz as for the c++ side: i noticed i can download many synths, effects examples/sourcecodes and they are all copyright free. it will be a task of exploring this sources and binding it all together or something similar. is there anyone out there with the c++ guru powers it requires that can guide me in this jungle of data?
edit: o btw does wm5 support DSP ? guess not but worth asking

[03/29/08] Perptual v0.3 with image viewer

Perpetual is a simple image zooming demo.
You can zoom on any of the 200 images, and the pixels will turn into other images to zoom, perpetually.
What is it for ?
Nothing ! It's just a proof of concept and a demo I made...
If you have any images to submit to add into the demo, feel free to post in the forum and we'll update as soon as possible ! I'm looking for images that have nice colors and an overall dominant one (that'll be used for the color detection) Thanks for helping support this useless project !
Download Perpetual​
Also available :
Perpetual Image Maker
Sexy Image Pack
Kaiser47's DeviantART selection (really awesome pack !)
SaintSeya pack
Zen nature pack
v0.3 (03/29/08)
- New prp format (old ones should still work though) with additionnal data : author, icon, etc...
- New menu using the new prp format data, looks much better !
- Now saves viewed purcentage !
- Now works with Smartphones !
- Fixed menu bug if you had too many packs
- Much higher image quality while zooming
v0.2
- Fixed image bug when you have more than 256 images (that was stupid)
- Fixed potential crash when moving around too much
- Fixed surface bug when you moved around
- PerpetualMaker updated, smaller exe
- Improved performance
- New image viewer to select start image
- Now over 300 images !
- New Image Pack maker : just put in any directory, and it'll take all the images from images/ (still requires 240x240 jpeg images) and do a pack (.prp file)
- New splash screen, with possibility to select pack to display !
- Fixed random crash when changing speed while in auto mode
- Speed button : x0.5, 1, or 2
- Auto button for lazy people
- Surface button to come back to the unzoomed image
A video is available on that page if you want to see what it looks like without downloading/installing
Thanks for the feedback, suggestions, and images !

Fascinating software - it works perfectly in portrait, its a bit slow and landscape, and it doesn't handle the change from portrait to landscape well.
Thanks for making my Kaiser much cooler however.
Any way the process could be automated, to make it into a semi-interactive screensaver?
Surur

Well, technically, it's automated on my PC (there's no way to add all the needed data for the colors of the 200 images alone ^^) : I just have a folder with the images, launch my .Net app, and it scans through all the images, sorts by color, and outputs both miniature views (to avoid overloading the memory) and a huge array with the number of the image to use for every 16bit color ^^
It takes a while to run on my PC, so it's unlikely to work on in realtime, would have way too much loading time. I have just thought of an alternative method to build the color array, it could work much faster, but would only be available for real-time if you have only a few images... and if you don't have many images, well... It won't work to well ^^ You need to have at least 50 or 100 photos, ranging in pretty much all the possible colors (my PC app outputs which colors are overpopulated and which aren't populated enough, to know which images to remove and what colors to search for) ^^

While it would be cool to use my own pictures, it would be nice to see it zoom through the stock images without me having to touch the screen with the stylus too, independently.
Surur

Well, this is a first release, I just wanted to have a quick proof of concept and that's it ^^
The future stuff that could be added :
- "Surface" button (to move back up)
- Auto button (could be nice to for lazy people ^^)
Anything else ?

A zooming back feature would be cool

sercio said:
A zooming back feature would be cool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would that be for the skin-tone pictures ?
Surur

yeah
Btw there should be alot more pictures kind of ^^

This looks really cool I will have to try this on my Hermes. Does it work for VGA and Qvga?
*Edit* Only Qvga any plans for VGA? *Edit*

Alkhal said:
*Edit* Only Qvga any plans for VGA? *Edit*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it should work on VGA, just that it's upscaled. I tested on emulator and the performance was good.
In theory, a 100% VGA version could be done. But the program is already 5MB, uses a lot of ram for all the images, and a full VGA version would just use 4 times more ram :s
Btw there should be alot more pictures kind of ^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Feel free to post some images (or send them by mail/PM) and I'll add them ^^

*Edit*
Ok here are some random Pictures i found and had on ma system! I extra made them 240x240 so you dont have any work rescaling them
Btw i would like if the "zooming" effect could be more smoother and slower if its possible...
Hope you like ma pics!
Regards

Thanks, let me check that out.
As for zooming, the speed can be changed, not a problem I didn't actually test on hardware, just on emulator, so it might not be optimal yet...
TODO list (note to myself) :
- Auto-zoom
- Back button
- Speed button
edit : hey, nice set of pics I'll definately include most of them in the next release (either as additional pictures or as a remplacement. like flickr-color-picker.jpg which will be perfect to replace a sort of crappy image I had in the same style ^^) Thanks !
edit2 :
Better not or are you willing to made a "special" adult version ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be fun if you know where to find nice pics (IE, with nice and different colors, won't be as simple)
edit3 (last one, I promise !) :
Still looking for a good theme for the icon and the viewer, if anyone has an idea, please share !

I found few random pics... hope you can use them

Yay, those are awesome !
I'm currently finishing a set of 50 sexy photos, then I'll see if it works good enough with those

Cool and amazing app! Works perfectly on WM2003! Keep working
I think that you should make other app like that: http://www.mazaika.com/mazdownload.html for ppc (WM 2003 support for sure! ).
Nice work!

Thanks for the link. That one seems nice too, but the images are in 64x64, whereas I use nice and big 240x240 images ^^ I'm thinking of modifying my PC .Net exe and redistributing it... It could produce a file like myimages.prp which would contain all the data needed, and could be copied on the PPC to open it...
As for SexyPerpetual, tested, it works pretty well ! The images aren't the best as I used the first image pack I could download on bittorrent. Not sure what the forum policy is for the kind of stuff, so I will not post a link to download it. Just send over a quick PM requesting the link and I'll answer back
As for the video, if you want to take a look, here the link for the normal version's video : http://www.palib.info/blog/flvplayer.swf?file=http://www.xflib.net/Games/Perpetual/Perpetual.flv
Just keep replace the name by the sexy version's name and you should be able to view it (if the admins don't want this posted, please just tell me and I'll remove it !)

yes it woudl be cool if you can provide a tool that we can use to compile "our" versions with our pictures. it would be simpler than having to make special requests to you and sending many pics ?
but also if you really want pics, perhaps we can all send some to you ? public ftp or classic sharing sites like rapidshare ?

SexyPerpetual is very nice But insert "more naked photos" xD
BTW: I like kaiser47s idea

Kaiser47, feel free to use any method to send of photos
Yeah, I know, the sexy version misses a few naked photos ^^ But I just took a pack found on bittorrent, and used the ones with the most colors (because if I use only naked women on a white background, the transitions will be crappy, so I needed to have blue, red, etc....). If you have a pack with nice naked photos, I'll add them to the pack
I'm currently modifying the PC part of the code to generate a special file which could be distributed and read by the PPC app, that way anyone can do an image pack

Cool idea
I do not have ones so I will w8 for new versions xD

[App] [Updated 02-NOV-2008] Diamond Cubes

Here is a small OpenGL based program that allows you to use your Diamond as a "Dice Shaker". It is a simple program and it was written to learn how to use OpenGL together with C# on my Diamond.
There are still some bugs in the collision detection code, but I think it is a good example of what can be done with this lovely PDA/Phone.
I apologize for the bad interface, there is not much else you can do then shake it and exit from the program.
The dices are 3D objects and tumble across your screen. I still think there should some better "randomness" and there is an annoying bug, which I short-fused in a very ugly way
Anyway have fun and if I find the time, I will certainly try to improve it.
Done:
- Add sound effects/ buzzer triggering - thanks to gerDiamond to fix the "bugs" in the collision detection and surur for the sound and background file. Also thanks to simplifight to clean up some of the code.
- Better graphics - I think I finally understand OpenGL lighting
- Menu choice for the number of dices - You can choose 1 till 7 dices
- Ticking on the screen is the same as shaking the device.
Still todo
- Different faces for different types of games (for example the dice colors needed for "Cities3D" ?) - Basic setup for this is done, just need to find the time to create the images
- Nicer graphics for the playboard. Again I have the graphics understood and made some code changes with regard to the rendering of the dices.
- 3D tilting. Have a look at my "Paper Plane" app, which shows a 3D F16, which you can look at from all sides.
Lower priority todo
- Zoom in or out ??
- Change size of play-field ???
Any suggestions are welcome.
I will post the latest sources again, but it could take a few days, since they sort of are a mess for the moment.
Dice can be parked by clicking on them. Clicking on them when parked, they will go back to the "field".
Help needed
I could still use some help in the dice rotation algorithm. Currently there is a tendency to favor some numbers, but I need to randomize it better. One solution is perhaps to randomly choose between turning around the x or y-axis ?
Graphics are welcome.
I also could use some help or guidance in using a "3DS" loader or something similar, so that people can design their own dice textures.
If you have nice pictures of dices, preferable JPG or PNG with square sides, I will try to use them. Usable sizes are 64x64, 128x128 or 512x512

got the sofa!!
Hi there!! It looks great for fun with your friends!!!
I will try it right away !!

I just tested this first version.
The animation is great, perhaps de Gsensor sensitivity could be enhanced to be more realistic the "shake" to trow the cubes.
Great job my friend!

Wow.. very nice
This looks great... A little more programming and it will be perfect...
some sound... and interaction with the cubes.. ( now they can land ontop on eachother)
Looking forward to see the next version

nice job!
how about adding another 3 dice so i can play yatzee?

Great app, but it doesn't work for me. I'm using 1.93 NL official rom.
I allso found an iPhone dice app so here is the link for inspiration for further developement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugoq8M2XxVE
I'm also willing to make the dice so they look more beutifull but i don't know how this is done with mobile phone apps. Will a Cinema 4D or 3DSMAX render do?

.NET CF 3.5 needed
gebruikershaes said:
Great app, but it doesn't work for me. I'm using 1.93 NL official rom.
I allso found an iPhone dice app so here is the link for inspiration for further developement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugoq8M2XxVE
I'm also willing to make the dice so they look more beutifull but i don't know how this is done with mobile phone apps. Will a Cinema 4D or 3DSMAX render do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem 1: You might want to check if you have .NET CF 3.5 installed. I always use that because it is installed in my ROM.
The dice is created as a cube on which I render 6 different images. So I don't know if you can use Cinema 4D or 3DSMAX. Check the sources, maybe that it gives you a better idea ? Any way I appreciate any help I can get, I am still learning to use the OpenGL software, so I have not really a clue about all the possibilities. Sometimes it feels like I have managed to understand about 5%
Maybe some other people can help out here ?
My main reason to add the sources also was the hope that somebody would take the application and make it better, so that I can learn of it too.

Nice app!
A little laggy though, besides that it looks great!

Great idea. Should be called "Diamond Dice" though? sounds more appropriate ;-) And is the animation quite smooth for everybody else? not very smooth on my Diamond, but that might be due to the high memory usage I usually have

Greatttt ... thanks a lot...

Can you make a version for Yahtzee?

gebruikershaes said:
Great app, but it doesn't work for me. I'm using 1.93 NL official rom.
I allso found an iPhone dice app so here is the link for inspiration for further developement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugoq8M2XxVE
I'm also willing to make the dice so they look more beutifull but i don't know how this is done with mobile phone apps. Will a Cinema 4D or 3DSMAX render do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The graphics looks very realistic for the iphone...hope someone can do better for the diamond.
Would b great if can add in sound and slight vibrations when the dices hit the sides of diamond...

Very nice app. Just a little bit more tweaking. Thanks a lot.

I've tried looking into it but tbh i have no clue about how that stuff is done. But this might help you improving your opengl skills . http://nehe.gamedev.net/ on the left are lots of tutorials.

ykyong said:
The graphics looks very realistic for the iphone...hope someone can do better for the diamond.
Would b great if can add in sound and slight vibrations when the dices hit the sides of diamond...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I settle for "just as good". I hope someone here will take on the challenge to create a similar app. Diamond Cubes is a really good start!

Yeah this is cool to start with, heres hoping someon can expand this with sounds, better responses etc.

Wow.. very nice thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is there anyone working on this or is it forgotten? Hopefully not, I’d love to see a yatzy version ala Iphone style…

Hi, congratulations and thanks for the app!
after having seen this app i wondered if it is usable for playing table top role playing games like d&d
It would be very nice to have those features (first are most relevant):
- type of dice (4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 20 faces are standard dices)
- how many dices
- color one or more dices differently (in d&d you may be using one dice for fire damages and another one for ice damages for example)
- save and quick load presets like "2D8+1D6(fire)"
- if we have presets it would be nice to save fixed modifiers and calculate the final result, for example ""2D8+1D6(fire)+2" means you roll 2 8 faces dices, 1 red 6 faces dice and sum 2 to the final result.
- ok.. since maybe i am the only one who needs those features a simple and advanced selector at the startup would be nice for everybody
thanks!

Video of the app here.
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=1016
Surur

Video editing software for our Diamond ?

Hi all,
I used to be really enthused by the small video editing app included in my Sony Ericsson fans. It was very useful to edit video, make personal editing etc... to send via MMS. Assembling clips was made easy and intuitive.
I can't find such an app for pocket PC. I stumbled onto http://www.trakax.com/software/mobile. It's a useful editing software with cutting edge graphix, but not free and quite cumbersome to use...
Do you happen to know a complete video editing software for our beloved pocket pc? It SHOULD exist but I could'nt find anything out there...
THX a lot !

I found nothing.. I hope there will be some video editing software some day, i had a sony ericsson phone, and they have this simple video editing software called VideoDJ. So maybe there will be one to ppc too...

I don't know about video editing for PPC (maybe there r some) , but I think You don't need such a program, you can
edit it by using PC (with many video editing programs) and export the file..

arix said:
I don't know about video editing for PPC (maybe there r some) , but I think You don't need such a program, you can
edit it by using PC (with many video editing programs) and export the file..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like those simple video editing software. Video editing wherever you go..

niikoo said:
I like those simple video editing software. Video editing wherever you go..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just hope you have electricity socket ready wherever u go

i used to use trackax mobile on my atom exec:
http://www.trakax.com/software/mobile/
edit:
missed that you found it already...reccomenned though

New Version of TrakAxPC for VGA devices
Hi Cormac here from TrakAxMobile.
Just a quick note to say we have released a new version of trakAxmobile for VGA devices.
Here is quick list of the improvements we have made.
1) We have improved the search function, allowing you to search your content by day/month/year. You can also highlight a number of days/months or years. This will allow you find the media on your device much quicker.
2) We have also improved the editing. We now decompress the file when you click on the edit button allowing you to access time positions in the file quicker and easier. When editing audio you can just highlight the area you wish to cut on the waveform with your stylus.
3) We now allow you to crop photos and you can add a ken burns effect to photos allowing you to Pan and Zoom into particular areas of the photo.
4) We have added a whole range of new transitions.
5) In the mixing screen, you can now control the tempo of the media by switching the slider function from volume to tempo. The slider now allows to slow down or speed up the clip. This is cool if you want a video clip to play in slow motion or wish to speed it up. The same applies to audio, you can speed it up or slow it down by adjusting the slider.
6) We now also allow you add themes and effects to videos or photos. You can also change the color of the text and add background colors to your credits.
You can check out the new features at our website -
http://www.trakax.com/software/mobile/trakaxmobile_vga_devices/
and there is a 7 day free trial available from the following link.
http://www.trakax.com/software/mobile/trial_version/
Check it out and if you have any question, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Best regards
Cormac

Been using trakAx for a while now - awesome app!!!
Just be patient when its rendering your clips as it can take a while - its got a lot of processing to do.
Output is only 640x480 though I think

Split Video with NDK for Android...

Hello,
I have to do a task, that is more specific than a pure android development. I have to create an android application with a core module written in C or C++ language, doesn't matter, to do some video processing stuff. For example, the scenario is as follows:
1. The Android application captures 10sec video clip from the camera of an Android device;
2. Pass the captured file to the core of the android application;
The core should do the following:
3. Waits for the file, gets the file and opens it;
4. Splits the file into frames - for example, if the camera captures 30fps for 10 seconds video - 300 pictures in png or jpg format;
5. Do some calculations - for example it makes a histogram of a single image and stores it somewhere (db or file, doesn't matter);
6. Returns the result to the Android Code/Java/ which will render it on the default output - e.g. Screen, Console, etc...
How can I do this? I have searched how to split the video file into frames on linux, and I found that it could be done with ffmpeg, but I never dealt with ffmpeg and video/image processing... Could you help me somehow? I don't know what to do and where to start from...
Thanks in advance!
Best Regards,
v4o4ev

Possibly OpenCV / JavaCV
i dont know the exact code but i am sure you can get histograms and stuff with it.
try looking here
http://code.google.com/p/javacv/
Pvy.

pvyParts said:
Possibly OpenCV / JavaCV
i dont know the exact code but i am sure you can get histograms and stuff with it.
try looking here
http://code.google.com/p/javacv/
Pvy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! The problem now is how to split the video into frames... I am searching about ffmpeg compatibilities, but for now I'm just researching... And one thing - I don't need the code, just the help to find some information about how to do it better and so on thank you so much for the reply - I will take a look now
Thanks!
Best Regards

v4o4ev said:
Thank you! The problem now is how to split the video into frames... I am searching about ffmpeg compatibilities, but for now I'm just researching... And one thing - I don't need the code, just the help to find some information about how to do it better and so on thank you so much for the reply - I will take a look now
Thanks!
Best Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In java I use the highgui classes, createframegrabber or something like that. I grab each frame and process it for item/motion detection. Then save a movie from it. Works well enough.
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