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Cycler.md

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Notes on using the Cycler Sprite

The cycler is typically paired with a GPSPEED.

Cycler

  • lotag: pulse offset
  • hitag: optional channel to match switch

GPSpeed

  • lotag: pulse speed

Speed

Above 256, the docs say it switches to a flashing light effect instead of pulsing.

Experiments with a stopwatch and a single computer suggest that a speed of 135 is about one pulse per second. Its not perfect, but I was too lazy to find out more, or to look at the game code.

Some raw notes:

// 128 is just UNDER one pulse per second
// 132 is just a bit slower
// 134 gets slower after a while
// 135 is about one second
// 136 is a tiny bit faster
// 145 is a bit faster
// 160 definitely faster than one pulse per second

Periodicity (pulse offsets)

The offsets are used to make a "beam" of light travel a path. If you want that beam to go in a circle, then the offsets must be set just right.

You are building a circular arrangement of cyclers.

Definitions:

  • CYCLER_COUNT is the total number of cyclers in a circle
  • "pulse offset" is the lotag of the cycler sprite, which can be though of as a delay before it starts pulsing
  • "offset delta" is the difference between the offsets of two adjacent cyclers.

To make light "beams" that don't look funny, the total offset delta must be a multiple of 2048. (this does not mean you have a cycler with lotag 2048, because the 2048 one is the same as the 0 one...)

Beam counts:

  • 8 beams: offset delta = 16384 / CYCLER_COUNT
  • 4 beams: offset delta = 8192 / CYCLER_COUNT
  • 3 beams: offset delta = 6144 / CYCLER_COUNT
  • 2 beams: offset delta = 4096 / CYCLER_COUNT
  • 1 beams: offset delta = 2048 / CYCLER_COUNT
  • 1024 just gives a single beam that looks weird

Troubleshooting

Cyclers stuck "on"

Check the floor/ceiling tex. Maybe they are not shaded! This happened to me with one group. Turns out I used a blue carpet for the floor which was not shaded. The walls WERE shaded, but apparently because the floor/ceil were not, the cycler just made all of the walls bright.

See Also

  • CyclerMap.scala