Effect Set - AlbertGBarber/PixelSpork GitHub Wiki

See the Documentation Guide for help understanding each page section.

This utility allows you to group and manage a set of effects and/or utilities (calling updates, setting a run time, etc). Specifically, updating the utility updates all of the grouped effects and utilities, reducing the tediousness of updating them individually. Also integrates with the Effect Set Fader utility for streamlining effect transitions.

See the Effect Set code example for a working implementation of an effect set.

Say I have a Palette Blender utility and a Streamer (Seg Line) effect. Also say that I am using the Palette Blender's blended palette for the colors in the Streamer effect, so that the shift over time. I'd like to use an effect set to group the effect and utility so I can update them together.

To make things a little more complicated the Palette Blender and Streamer are created differently: The Palette Blender, named "PB", is created with a direct variable (not a pointer) like:

//<Before Arduino setup()>
//Create a palette blender instance named "PB".
PaletteBlenderPS PB(firePalBlue_PS, firePal_PS true, 30, 100);
//Note that the palette's I've picked don't matter, so I just used some pre-made ones

While the Streamer is created dynamically with a pointer (strem) using new (See Temporary Effects):

//<Before Arduino setup()>
//create a pointer for our streamer effect, we'll create the effect instance dynamically during runtime.
StreamerSL *strem; 

//<In Arduino loop()>
//<some logic to prevent the Streamer from being re-created every loop> (see example on Temporary Effects wiki page)
//Create the streamer instance dynamically using "new", using the blend palette as a input.
strem = new StreamerSL(mainSegments, PB.blendPalette, 1, 2, 0, 30, 20);

Before we can add the effect and utility to an effect set, we need to create an array to store them:

EffectBasePS *effArray[2] = {nullptr, nullptr};
//Note that the array is an array of pointers to effects/utils.

All effect sets require an effect array -- this is how the effects are grouped together. In the example above, the array is length 2; one space for the Palette Blender and the Streamer.

Note that the effect array is an array of pointers to effects. This mainly changes how you add effects to the array (as I'll show below), but is useful to know. Also note that we initialize the array with nullptr's, which is a safety measure to prevent crashes. The effect set is programmed to automatically skip over any nullptr array entries.

Now we need to add the Streamer and Palette Blender to the array:

//<<in the Arduino setup() function>>
//Because the Palette Blender is a direct variable, we add it to the array via its address (using "&"):
effArray[0] = &PB;

//Because the Streamer variable is already a pointer, we can add it to the array directly:
effArray[1] = strem;

Finally, with the array complete, we can create the effect set:

EffectSetPS effectSet(effectArr, SIZE(effectArr), 10000); //run time of 10000ms

That's it. Now whenever we call effectSet.update(), it will update the Streamer and Palette Blender. We can also change their run time by setting effectSet.runTime.

To update the utility's effects, call the effect set's update() function. Effects/utilities will be updated according to their order in the set's effect array (see "Creating an Effect Array" above). If you have multiple effects on one segment set, make sure the order is correct to prevent overwriting the wrong effect. The first time you call the update function, the "started" flag will be set, and a start time (ms) will be recorded.

You can set a fixed run time for the utility using runtime. After the run time is reached the effects/utilities will not be updated and the set's done flag will be set. So you can run effect(s) for a fixed time, and then stop, allowing you to switch in new effects, change the run time, reset, or do whatever.

You can also set the effects to run continuously either by setting the infinite setting to true, or by passing 0 as the runTime in the effect set constructor.

Suppose that for you want to use multiple effects in one section of code, but then only a single effect in another. To run the multiple effects, your set will have multiple entries, but you need to remove the extra effects when running the single effect. To do this, you can set the extra effect slots in the effect set to nullptr by calling setEffect( nullptr, <array number of effect you want to remove> ). Any effects in the set with a nullptr value will be ignored.

This section is for advanced users, and is only relevant if you are using any dynamically allocated effects. (You are only dynamically allocating effects if you use the new keyword when creating them).

Effect sets include functions for destructing dynamically allocated effects, freeing their memory. However, in many cases, only some of your effects will be dynamic. This is particularly true for utilities, which are often shared between multiple effects. Destructing an pre-allocated effect/utility will usually cause a crash, so it is critical to carefully manage what effects/utilities you are destructing.

So, to make it easy to avoid destructing your pre-allocated effect/utilities, I've added a limit to effect sets, effectDestLimit, and a helper function, destructEffsAftLim(). When calling the function, any effects/utilities AT and AFTER the limit in the set's effect array will be destructed. Any before the limit will be untouched. So you put all your pre-allocated effects and utilities at the beginning of the array, up to the limit, and use the rest of the array for your dynamically allocated effects.

For Example: If the effectDestLimit is 2 and the number of effects in the array is 5, ie {0, 1, 2, 3, 4}, then effects at indexes 2, 3, and 4 will be destructed, while those at 0 and 1 will not.

• To allow multiple effects to be held in the array, they all inherit from (and have the type of) EffectBasePS. So if you access any effects via the effect array, you'll only be able to access the variables listed in Effect Base.

  For example, if you effect has a fillBg setting you won't be able to access it through the effect array b/c fillBg" is not in EffectBasePS`.

  Instead you'll need a pointer of the same type as your effect. For example, if you have a Fireworks effect, to access it you'll need a pointer like FireworksPS *yourPointer, which you manage yourself.

• The length of the effect array is public so you can do shenanigans, like only having a single array for all your effects, but manipulating the length so that you only use part of it at one time. Ie if you sometimes have 5 effects, but mostly only have 2, you could make an array of length 5, but change the length in the set to 2 as needed.

• If you want to create an effect array on the fly do: effArray = new EffectBasePS*[<<numEffects>>]; You should initialize the array members to nullptr's after creation.

See "Creating an Effect Set" above for a full example.

EffectBasePS *effArray[2] = {nullptr, nullptr};

EffectSetPS effectSet(effectArr, SIZE(effectArr), 10000);
/*   Creates an effect set using the passed in effect array
     The run time for the set is 10000ms */
    
EffectSetPS effectSet(effectArr, SIZE(effectArr), 2, 0);
/*  Creates an effect set using the passed in effect array, with a destruct limit of 2
    The passed in run time is 0, this will tell the set to run indefinitely 
    (the "infinite" flag is set true if you pass a 0 as the run time) */

//Basic Constructor
EffectSetPS(EffectBasePS **EffectArr, uint8_t NumEffects, uint16_t RunTime);

//Constructor with an effect destruct limit (see "Destructing Dynamic Effects" above)
EffectSetPS(EffectBasePS **EffectArr, uint8_t NumEffects, uint8_t EffectDestLimit, uint16_t RunTime);

• EffectBasePS** effectArr -- The array of effect pointers for the set, see "Creating an Effect Set" above.

• uint8_t numEffects -- The length of the effect array, ie how many effects/utilities there are.

• uint8_t effectDestLimit (optional, default 0) -- The destruct starting index for the effect array (see "Destructing Effects" above).

• uint16_t runTime -- How long (ms) the effect set will run for. If 0 is passed in, the infinite flag will be set true.

• bool infinite (default false, unless set by constuctor) -- If true, the effect set will update forever, regardless of the runTime setting.

• void reset();

  Resets the time settings of the effect set (started and done), restarting it.

• void updateEffect( uint8_t effectNum ) ;

  Updates the effect in the effect array at the passed in index.

• void update();

  Updates the effect.

• void setNewSet( EffectBasePS **newEffectArr, uint8_t newNumEffects ); 

  Changes the effect array of the effect set to the passed in array.

• void setEffect( EffectBasePS *newEffect, uint8_t effectNum );

  Changes the effect pointer at the specified index of the set's effect array, essentially replacing the current effect.

• EffectBasePS* getEffectPtr( uint8_t effectNum );

  Returns the pointer to the effect in the effect array at the passed in index. Note that the return type will be an EffectBasePS.

• void destructEffsAftLim();

  Calls the destructor for all effects in the effect array AT AND AFTER the current effectDestLimit (see "Destructing Effects" above).

• void destructEffsAftLim( uint8_t limit );

  Calls the destructor for all effects in the effect array AT AND AFTER the passed in limit (see "Destructing Effects" above).

• void destructEffect( uint8_t effectNum );

  Calls the destructor for the effect in the effect array at the passed in index.

• void destructAllEffects();

  Calls the destructor for ALL effects and/or utilities, IGNORES the destruct limit.

• unsigned long startTime -- The time (ms) the first update() was called.

• unsigned long timeElapsed -- The time elapsed (ms), since the first update() was called.

• bool started -- Set true if the first update() for the set has been called (the startTime will be set).

• bool done (default false) -- Set true if the effect set has reached the run time. Prevents updating the set's effects.