Propeller-Powered WoW Display (Grommash Hellscream)
JonnyMac
Posts: 9,105
World Of Warcraft fans have no doubt seen the barrage of commercials from Blizzard for a new release of the game (forgive my ignorance, I don't play).
My friends at Alliance Studio build displays for Blizzard, and Grommash is the latest that debuted at BlizzCon over the weekend. The display uses three Propellers in the form of the EFX-TEK HC-8+ controller, two of which are linked via RS-485. The programming in this display is actually very simple. The blood ponds are animated using a slow version of my flame algorithm, and the eye on the conquered beast (don't know what it's called) blinks randomly. The reason for all the wires is that brightness control of every output was critical to create the effect Blizzard was looking for. Steve Wang and I spent about three hours just fine-tuning lighting levels and eye-blink timing. Luckily, the mutli-core nature of the Propeller meant that my blood pools animation -- which Steve was already happy with -- was protected from other fine-tuning.
Yep, it's just controlling LEDs, but in context, they're really cool.
It takes a lot of people a long time (about 4 months) to build a display like this. I'm always happy to work with these incredibly talented artists.
Here's a little BTS video for those interested in how much goes into a display like this, especailly form a company like Blizzard with a game as iconic as WoW.
My friends at Alliance Studio build displays for Blizzard, and Grommash is the latest that debuted at BlizzCon over the weekend. The display uses three Propellers in the form of the EFX-TEK HC-8+ controller, two of which are linked via RS-485. The programming in this display is actually very simple. The blood ponds are animated using a slow version of my flame algorithm, and the eye on the conquered beast (don't know what it's called) blinks randomly. The reason for all the wires is that brightness control of every output was critical to create the effect Blizzard was looking for. Steve Wang and I spent about three hours just fine-tuning lighting levels and eye-blink timing. Luckily, the mutli-core nature of the Propeller meant that my blood pools animation -- which Steve was already happy with -- was protected from other fine-tuning.
Yep, it's just controlling LEDs, but in context, they're really cool.
It takes a lot of people a long time (about 4 months) to build a display like this. I'm always happy to work with these incredibly talented artists.
Here's a little BTS video for those interested in how much goes into a display like this, especailly form a company like Blizzard with a game as iconic as WoW.
640 x 960 - 107K
640 x 960 - 133K
640 x 960 - 119K
1024 x 683 - 117K
1024 x 683 - 102K
1024 x 591 - 104K
Comments
I'll say! Very very cool!
It's always fun to see the projects you're involved with. Thanks for posting.
Sure, some could say it was overkill, but you won't hear that from me. The right tool, with the right craftsman for the job. You comment about setting up the look/animation of one element and then leaving it alone to work in another core is exactly why I love the propeller. Create a driver, animation, routine, what ever it is and dedicate it to one core and it should behave exactly the same time and time again while working in another core for the next step of the process.
I'm not a WoW fan either but I love all applications of the Propeller in entertainment and theming.
From microcontroller perspective it's fun how the humble "hello world" equivalent first microcontroller program can evolve...
Thanks Jon for sharing.
Massimo