No big story here - I'm a big fan of the bot rain.gif and wanted to make something in PICO-8 that would produce similar images. Is configured to loop seamlessly for 8-second gifs (PICO-8's default), but the parameter should be obvious and easy to change. Rain noise is implemented in a fairly basic form (the point of the cart is generating GIFs, not a full simulation) and disabled by default.
Currently has 16 palettes, all chosen to have reasonably good contrast ratio - should be clear how to edit those as well.
Edit 2023-03-08: Set gif duration to 16 seconds, matching new default gif length.
Edit 2019-12-15: Replaced green palettes, tweaked drop rendering, added more drop pattern randomization, added controls:
←/→ = change palette
[x]/[o] = reroll drops
The number that displays on the left is proportional to how many raindrops there are, the number that displays on the right is the palette index.
Edit 2020-01-18: Added some basic rain sounds with modes for light, medium, and heavy rain - option is stored in cart data and can be accessed via the menu when you first load or through the pause menu. Should be moderately quiet.
(9:29 p.m. UTC-05:00: Did a small tweak to the first-load menu to indicate how to change the setting.)
Edit 2020-01-22: Added granular volume control. ↑/↓ to adjust.
Edit 2020-04-06: Added pause menu items to (a) reroll both palette and rain pattern together and (b) automatically wait the loop length and save a GIF that will loop correctly.
Edit 2020-04-25: New graphical effect - raindrops now vary in length and in contrast with sky, which produces a bit of an illusion of depth.
Nice ! Rain effects was one of the first things I did in Pico on my Notepad release.
Ah, you updated it, @packbat. You might add lightning. What I did simply was flip the BLACK palette to white and back again, quickly twice about every 5-7 seconds.
Interesting thought!
...I could do that. Rather than flipping between black and white palettes, I might add a set of lightning palettes and use that for the lightning strikes.
I'll ponder that one.
Right - here's a version with a lightning effect. Photosensitive epilepsy warning on the lightning effect. ↑/↓ to toggle lightning on or off.
Thank you for the note about two quick flashes - I didn't realize that'd be critical but it seems to be.
Hi Packbat. Here is using the rain method from one of my earlier carts.
Look at the timing. Notice that when the lightning flashes you don't hear the thunder until a short time later. This is actually correct for storms.
You don't hear the thunder the moment lightning strikes (unless you're in a dangerous position). :)
No, normally you see the lightning flash and a few seconds after that, then you hear the thunder.
I don't want to be curt, but please stop trying to help. The purpose of this project was to make looping gifs of rain effects, and it doesn't need sound effects to do that, and while I am grateful for your comment about making a double flash for a lightning strike effect, it didn't need lightning effects to do what I built it for either. It has the CC license on it for anyone who wants to extend it, but I'm not interested in continuing work on this in the foreseeable future - it's done its purpose and I'm done with it.
Wow, sorry @packbat. Usually with me I get something in my head and I tend to take it to the limit. That's fine. Your cart is done. It's good. I'm still working here on something else so will leave you to it.
Absolutely, ChronoChill. Help yourself, and thanks for asking !
Here's hoping future Pico-8 allows for conversion of WAV to some compressed sound format. There was a Pico-8 cart that actually sang the words, "Never Gonna Give You Up" and did a marvelous job of it besides.
yeah wav to p8 would be nice. i screenshot the notes and their variables then manually type it into my cart haha. whatever works tho right? and great man! glad to hear your approval! it'll be for 'the d3mon within.'
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