ASCII SHADER TUTORIAL
=====================

In the asdf.us/ascii shaders, you write a little math function that executes on every
pixel on the selected area.  The shaders can affect either the brush, the selected region,
or the whole canvas.

Shaders can also be animated, so they update live.  With a shader applied to the brush,
the brush changes continuously as you draw.


THE LEX OBJECT
==============

Essentially you are writing a Javascript function that modifies this "lex" object, which
has four properties

1) lex.bg = this is the background color
2) lex.fg = this is the foreground color (text color)
3) lex.char = this is the letter that you see in the space
4) lex.opacity = this is whether the pixel actually draws or not
      - so like a circular brush is opacity 1 in the middle and opacity 0 on the corners


THE COLOR CODE NUMBERS
======================

With lex.bg and lex.fg, the goal is to have a number between 0 and 15, corresponding to
the color code values from mIRC.

If you shift-click on the color palette, you can cycle it around to the one which shows
the actual order of the mIRC colors.

The mIRC colors are the ones that go white, black, dark blue, green, red, dark red ...
and these correspond to the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ...


COLOR CYCLING
=============

Additionally there are some color functions that might help -
These functions make it easier to cycle through colors in a way that makes sense logically
(since the mIRC colors are in a weird order)

- hue(...) = this creates a cycle of colors in terms of their hue or color name,
             so you get a rainbow that goes from dark red through yellow, green, blue,
             purple, and back
- gray(...) = cycles through grayscale
- red(...) yellow(...) green(...) blue(...) purple(...) = use smaller palettes
- inv_hue(...) fire(...) dark_gray(...) = these are oddities i made for fun


VARIABLES
=========

Variables you have at your disposal are similar to the asdf.us/shader tool -

- x, y = the coordinates of the pixel
- mouse.x, mouse.y = the coordinate of the mouse as it hovers over the canvas
- t = the current time, in milliseconds

TIP: The time will increase very quickly - it's good to add t /= 1000 at the top of
your shader so it goes slowly (and won't cause a seizure).


FUNCTIONS
=========

Remember, this is Javascript.  You have the basic operators:

+ - / *

And the bitwise operators:

& | ^ ~

You can do if statements with the standard comparison operators:

< > == <= >=

You also have access to all the functions on the Math object:

floor, ceil, round
abs, sign, mod(n,m), xor
pow, exp, sqrt
cos, sin, tan
acos, asin, atan, atan2
random() rand(n) randint(n) randrange(a,b)
E, PI, PHI

And some utility functions which might help:

clamp(n,min,max)
mix(n,a,b) (lerp)
step(a,b)
smoothstep(min,max,n)
avg(m,n,a)
cosp, sinp (mapped to [0,1])
pixel(x,y) == 4*(y*w+h)
dist(x,y,a,b)
angle(x,y,a,b)
choice(array)
deg(radians), rad(degrees)


BEYOND BASIC COLORS
===================

Other weird effects are possible if you combine these color functions.

For instance, if you do hue(x+y) you'll get a rainbow.  But remember, this is just
outputting a number between 0 and 15.  So you can do hue(x+y) + 1 and get a different
cycle which does not really have anything to do with the rainbow, but looks cool.


HOW DRAWING WORKS IN THE ASCII TOOL
===================================

When you click and drag to draw a line, your mouse produces a series of points which
describe the line you tried to draw.  But these points do not necessarily make a
continuous line - more like a series of dots, which it then draw lines between to make
a "line" or "brush stroke".

A line between two points is made by stamping the brush at regular intervals between the
points which, with these brushes, ends up filling the space in between so it looks like
you drew a continuous line.

This is why when you draw a line with a big brush, it smears the outer edges.. The stamps
happen right next to each other, so you wind up seeing mostly brush edges.

You can visualize this effect with the following shader:

lex.bg = mouse.x + mouse.y

Drawing strokes quickly, or slowly.
Make sure to make it animate to brush.
Results could look like this:

http://i.asdf.us/im/f9/1458658781640-ascii-bamboo.png


SAMPLE SHADERS
==============

You can see a list of example shaders here:

http://asdf.us/ascii/doc/shaderz.txt

If you make a cool shader and want to see it on the list, please get in touch!
You can find me on irc.jollo.org:9999 (ssl) in #sally, making color codes with my friends.

Thanks and have fun!

~ Bamboo, 22 Marzo 2016