Unlike the screenshot from my previous post, this mode uses a solid mesh, not individual lines. I hope to submit it to the store some time next week.

Why Soundscape 2?

I didn’t set out to write Soundscape 2; I actually just wanted to do a Soundscape update. But in the process of that update I:

• Removed OpenFrameworks
• Refactored from C++ to Objective C
• Switched from OpenGL ES 1 to OpenGL ES 2.0

In other words, it turned out to be a complete rewrite. Even then, I still wanted to stay with a plain update. But as I ran the old and new code side by side, I realised that the new code created subtle differences in the visuals that I couldn’t seem to remove. Maybe that’s a testimony of incompetence, or perhaps it’s a statement of where I’m at at the moment psychologically. I don’t know. But it was obvious that where Soundscape was a “yin” app, Soundscape 2 was much more “yang”. Soundscape 2 quite likes some fast paced tracks thrown at it – whereas Soundscape was always a more mellow creature.

So rather than lose the delicacy of Soundscape, I thought it best to leave it alone and move on to an entirely new release. So it wasn’t a crass exercise in money grubbing. Promise!

And don’t worry – Soundscape 2 differences are not just an under-the-bonnet. It now has 9 visualisation modes, it responds to music played through your headphones, has a great UI, and more. It really is an evolution in the concept and deserves to stand alone.

Despite the rugged surrounds, the air is still and the sea almost calm. The sun is neither too hot nor cool and the sky is a clear blue with only a few clouds in the distance – a perfect balmy day. I look up at the cliff face and spy a ledge about 60 metres up. Very much in control, I effortlessly fly up to the ledge.

The ledge is a clear, flat space of rock just large enough to do a sun salutation without danger. Above me, the cliff continues up another 30 metres or so. I feel the space, the air around me, the thrill of being awake in my dreamspace and realise that this is the perfect opportunity and the perfect place to fulfil my desire to meditate in a lucid dream.

So I sit down into my customary half lotus and stare out over the ocean. I am very much alone in this beautiful wilderness – there is nothing human in sight. I feel light and wonderful. I slowly close my eyes. The scene goes dark – my mind swirls, wavers, loses focus, loses its grip on the dream and I wake up laughing.

[Edit: it is possible - and wonderful - to meditate in a lucid dream but for me at least, the dream eyes must remain open.]

CHA CHIB NAS NON TICE TINK ZINE ZINES

I’ll update the 3-letter word list page accordingly.

The biggest change is that I’ve removed the in-app purchase and instead moved the app to a Tier 3 purchase, rather than being a free download.

Why did I do that?

Well I think it’s obvious at this point that Double Quotes isn’t for everyone. I’d guess that only 1 in 10 of those downloading the free game were actually playing more than a few moves. Which is frustrating for the rest of us. So I decided we’d all be better off if there was some kind of filter in place to weed out the disinterested. And so that filter is now the price tag. Hopefully now anyone new who starts a game will actually want to finish it.

• Ambient noise levels. Play your music in an otherwise quiet space. The quieter the better.
• Music type. Some music tracks are much, much friendlier to sound spectrum analysis than others. What you are looking for is songs with plenty of “space” – quiet areas, punctuated by sudden increases in volume. Slow hand clapping in a silent room is the ideal scenario – so think a slow, clear drum beat with plenty of aural space in between. The faster the beat and the more crowded the sound spectrum, the worse the results will be. Rock music, in which all instruments plus vocals blend into a continuous haze of noise just leaves the music response algorithm baffled. For best results, look instead at

• Microphone sensitivity. Unless you are in super-quiet conditions, lower is often better. I start with the microphone at near-zero levels and slowly work my way up until the main beat of the song starts to reveal itself.

• Music volume. Even slow jazz can swamp the microphone and make a hash out of the sound spectrum if it’s loud enough.

Q: But I don’t like mellow music – how am I supposed to party to that?

The advantage of this method is of course that you can play any music you please, as loud as you please. The disadvantage is that you need a skilled player to sit down with the iPad2 and make it all happen.

A screenshot from the iPhone4S

Out of the colours, a scene begins to form. Completely of its own accord. It is outside. A green, open, lightly wooded area. Still a little pixellated and rather vague. As I gently interpret the scene, its focus increases. Interestingly, a tree in my right field of vision is flip-flopping – constantly inverting along its vertical axis – as though it were a bug in an OpenGL scene.

I (again) gently, and here’s where the meditation part comes in, focus on slowing down the axis flip – of slowing down everything in the scene. Slowing the scene, slowing the mind. Once more the reality of the images before me intensifies and the next moment I am sitting quietly in meditation before a vast lake in the wilderness. Perfect clarity. As real as your most real experience. It is night and filtered light through the thinning clouds gently warps off the lake’s still surface. It is peaceful, quiet, and sublimely beautiful. Into this stillness, my soul sense soars out into that ever-cascading bliss that marks this type of experience as “spiritual”.

I give myself up to the bliss and my consciousness disappears into it.

These experiences are precisely why I give such import to our sleeping selves. Sleeping isn’t the simply gap between waking moments. It is a mind-space that offers up a tremendous diversity of experiences and one of the few times in which we can witness our true creativity at work – unbounded and effortless.

tranceNdance isn’t a half-bad desktop wallpaper generator as well – whether it be for iPhone, iPad or mac (they upscale nicely). More examples:

A short video of a couple of display modes in Portal of Light, my app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Great for gaze based meditation and gentle trip outs.

music sourced from: here