Talk:Remarks: Processing Mazes

From Maze

[This section is about porting the 10 Print program to a current programming software/hardware environment. What does it mean to take the algorithm out of the C64 and to generalize it for a modern processor and display? This section will be heavily illustrated. Feedback is of course very welcome. -- Casey]

[I like this idea of separating the algorithm from the platform. Very similar to your Processing version of 10 PRINT, I think this thought/practical experiment can help us figure out what's unique about the C64 version, versus, say, a manual coin-toss version or a processing version. I think I ran through some of these differences in an email last summer: the speed and color of the maze stood out as two defining aesthetic features of the C64 version. I just put some of those notes on the Discussion Page -- Mark S.]

From my email notes about the Processing version of the 10 PRINT maze:

What I really like is the adjustable thickness of the "walls." It turns out this variable is truly transformative. Increase it enough, and the background becomes the foreground and the black becomes the walls instead of the field. Also, somewhere around 6, the design seems to be more evocative of a tartan or plaid than a "maze."

Comparing the b&w Processing maze to a version that matches matches the C64, you realize that the colors are in integral part of the program's effect. We haven't talked much about the colors (other than to confirm that we all saw the light blue as walls and the blue as the paths). And granted, the colors are using the C64's default text mode color set. But still, I think the color combination is worth noting. It's not a high contrast maze, as black and white would be, and it seems somehow more subtle than other possible variations.

--MarkSample 18:31, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Patsy's Edits

1. Does this read correctly? I took some liberties with the paragraph that was there and want to be sure not to have altered any meanings: " The first Processing version of 10 PRINT was written to take advantage of the increased resolution of contemporary screens. It does this by making the thickness and ends of the lines into variables that can be changed while the program runs. The lines of the maze can range from 0.5- to 10-pixels wide, and the lines can terminate with a rounded or square end. Like 10 PRINT, this Processing version of 10 PRINT maintains the grid of lines at 40 x 25 units, but, unlike 10 PRINT, it doesn't add each grid unit in sequence from left to right and top to bottom. In the new high-resolution version, the entire maze is refreshed at once. Using the default Processing colors to create white lines and a black background confers a mood similar to that of the original lower-contrast blues of the C64 (See figures ?? to ??).