Pygame Kaleidoscope — two flavors: Images & RTSP

https://irok84.itch.io/kaleidoscope-projection

Read images from files or a stream from your camera and make eye-candy Kaleidoscope effect.

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🍨 Variants

1) kaleidoscope.py — Images folder

• Loads still images from ./images/
• Saves snapshots to ./snapshots/ (auto-created)
• Great for artwork, textures, and pattern experiments

2) kaleidoscope_rtsp.py — RTSP streams

• Reads one or more RTSP camera streams
• Sources are defined in .env as numbered keys:
  RTSP_URL_1=..., RTSP_URL_2=..., etc.
• Full screen mode
• Snapshot to png files

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📦 Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• Common:
  • pygame
• RTSP version only:
  • opencv-python
  • (optional) python-dotenv (auto-load .env; manual loader included)

Install:

pip install pygame
# for RTSP version:
pip install opencv-python python-dotenv

📁 Folders & Files

.
├─ kaleidoscope.py           # images version
├─ kaleidoscope_rtsp.py      # RTSP version
├─ images/                   # put source images here (png/jpg/webp/...)
├─ snapshots/                # auto-created for saved PNG snapshots
├─ .env                      # RTSP config (not committed)
├─ .env.dist                 # example to copy
└─ README.md                 # this file

⚙️ Configuration

Images version (kaleidoscope.py)

Drop your images into ./images/.

Supported: .png .jpg .jpeg .bmp .gif .webp

Snapshots go to ./snapshots/ as snap_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.png.

RTSP version (kaleidoscope_rtsp.py)

Format of the .env file:

RTSP_URL_1=rtsp://login:password@ip_or_host.one/path
RTSP_URL_2=rtsp://login:password@ip_or_host.two/path
# RTSP_URL_3=...
# RTSP_URL_4=...

If .env is missing, the app shows:

Copy .env.dist to .env and tweak RTSP_URL_1, RTSP_URL_2, ...

Sample .env.dist:

# Copy to .env and edit:
RTSP_URL_1=rtsp://user:pass@192.168.0.10:554/stream1
RTSP_URL_2=rtsp://user:pass@192.168.0.11:554/stream2

▶️ Run

# Images variant
python kaleidoscope.py

# RTSP variant
python kaleidoscope_rtsp.py

On launch you’ll see a splash screen with controls. Press any key to start.

🎛️ Controls

Key	Action
ENTER	switch to next camera (RTSP version)
SPACE	next image or stream
A	pause, resume
up, down	slices
left, right	speed
F	full screen
P	snapshot
ESC, Q	quit

🔧 Tips

Fewer SLICES ⇒ faster rendering.

RTSP: ensure FFmpeg support in OpenCV; test URLs with VLC/ffplay.

📄 License

MIT

🙌 Credits

Built with Pygame and OpenCV. FFmpeg powers RTSP decoding.

🥷🏻Author

Jakub Krysakowski