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Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

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21–30 of 78 posts

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#21
post #4

Crinkler, the compressing linker, is really interesting. This link inadvertently shows the file_id.diz for Crinkler rather than anything relevant to the rest of Elevated; but honestly I always found the Crinkler stuff to be fascinating. The project lives on today: https://github.com/runestubbe/Crinkler and http://crinkler.net/

Do you know if anyone has a good write up of some of the advanced techniques crinkler uses? I started reading the manual.txt file but it's pretty big!

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#22
post #12
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Demos of this caliber are like F1 cars from 60 years ago: a single genius, or small team, creating something totally beyond the reasonable expectations of everyone who is familiar with the technology in question. I really hope it continues to be possible for this art form to exist.

> I really hope it continues to be possible for this art form to exist. Hopefully AI doesn't one day ruin the demoscene as well. Seems like a Pandora's box for cheating and/or asymmetric resource advantages.

The same may have been said about most other technologies introduced. The fact that a Windows .exe can do a lot more because it has access to DirectX doesn't invalidate the effort made in a demo of the same size made for the C64. There simply are different categories.

I don't think they'll be much ruining going on. The people who make these demos use everything they can get their hands on, as long as it helps with cool visuals, a great soundtrack, and sandal executable size. In terms of how they get there everything seems to be allowed and even expected. And if one of those things is a trained network, so be it. Many groups have their own custom tools or even one-offs for only one demo.

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#23
post #20

Maybe the universe is a demo written by the gods in <4kb

The Mandelbrot set comes to mind.

It has a many aspects one would want from a good universe.

Infinite detail. But not "boring". The digits of PI have infinite detail too, but when you don't know the algorithm itself, they probably look just random. Which would be boring. But the Mandelbrot set exhibits many nice patterns one can learn and reason about.

The algorithm that creates the Mandelbrot set can probably be implemented in less than 400 bytes.

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#24
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would one even learn how to do something like this? I feel like I have a high level understanding of most parts of the stack, but graphics programming has eluded me thus far. Would writing a ray tracer be a good starter project? I know I've seen it recommended by several people before.

I'd recommend starting with javascript: https://thebookofshaders.com/ https://threejs.org/examples/#webgl_geometry_terrain_raycast

I appreciate the recommendation to start with JS, I'm actually trying to avoid targeting the browser as much as possible with my projects, with the exception of things actually returning hypertext or that I get for free via wasm or something else.

The Book of Shaders looks quite interesting however, thank you for the link!

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#25
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Demos of this caliber are like F1 cars from 60 years ago: a single genius, or small team, creating something totally beyond the reasonable expectations of everyone who is familiar with the technology in question. I really hope it continues to be possible for this art form to exist.

How would one even learn how to do something like this? I feel like I have a high level understanding of most parts of the stack, but graphics programming has eluded me thus far. Would writing a ray tracer be a good starter project? I know I've seen it recommended by several people before.

> Would writing a ray tracer be a good starter project?

Yes!

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#26
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would one even learn how to do something like this? I feel like I have a high level understanding of most parts of the stack, but graphics programming has eluded me thus far. Would writing a ray tracer be a good starter project? I know I've seen it recommended by several people before.

I fell the synth is overlooked. There's a lot going on there in a tiny amount of code.

Definitely true! I've played around with audio a little bit before, and am a little more comfortable there (though by no means proficient).

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#27
post #23
post #20

Maybe the universe is a demo written by the gods in <4kb

The Mandelbrot set comes to mind. It has a many aspects one would want from a good universe. Infinite detail. But not "boring". The digits of PI have infinite detail too, but when you don't know the algorithm itself, they probably look just random. Which would be boring. But the Mandelbrot set exhibits many nice patterns one can learn and reason about. The algorithm that creates the Mandelbrot set can probably be imp…

I can do you a 276 byte version using `dc`?

2k64sw32sh7sz[.]0:p[,]1:p[:]2:p[o]3:p[]4:p[O]5:p[@]6:p[ ]lz:p5lw/si4 lh/sj0 2-dsxsu0 2-dsysv[0 2-dsxsu[luSalvSblzdsnSq[lqSn0Sq]Sm[laddSoSs LoLslb2* SoSsLoLslbd-lu+Salv+Sbcladlbd+4lbd* +4 0sr[1sr]st>tLrln;pPlilu+ Sulu2>h]sh lhx[]pljlv+Svlv2>f]sflfx

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#28
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Mandelbrot set comes to mind. It has a many aspects one would want from a good universe. Infinite detail. But not "boring". The digits of PI have infinite detail too, but when you don't know the algorithm itself, they probably look just random. Which would be boring. But the Mandelbrot set exhibits many nice patterns one can learn and reason about. The algorithm that creates the Mandelbrot set can probably be imp…

I can do you a 276 byte version using `dc`? 2k64sw32sh7sz[.]0:p[,]1:p[:]2:p[o]3:p[ ]4:p[O]5:p[@]6:p[ ]lz:p5lw/si4 lh/sj0 2-dsxsu0 2-dsysv[0 2-dsxsu[luSalvSblzdsnSq[lqSn0Sq]Sm[ladd SoSs LoLslb2* SoSsLoLslbd -lu+Salv+Sbclad lbd +4 lbd* +4 0sr[1sr]st>tLrln;pPlilu+ Sulu2>h]sh lhx[]pljlv+Svlv2>f]sflfx

This thread is quite interesting, if the universe is that simple does that imply a complex runtime? Because DC itself should probably be taken as part of the universe here as well as the OS and the hardware it all runs on.

So then the question becomes what is the absolute minimal hardware and software configuration that you could use to generate a mandelbrot?

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#29
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Demos of this caliber are like F1 cars from 60 years ago: a single genius, or small team, creating something totally beyond the reasonable expectations of everyone who is familiar with the technology in question. I really hope it continues to be possible for this art form to exist.

How would one even learn how to do something like this? I feel like I have a high level understanding of most parts of the stack, but graphics programming has eluded me thus far. Would writing a ray tracer be a good starter project? I know I've seen it recommended by several people before.

A good starterpoint would be any old 8 bit machine with bitmapped memory and a copy of Newman and Sproull.

Re: Source code for 4kb demoscene production “Elevated” released (2016)

#30
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Demos of this caliber are like F1 cars from 60 years ago: a single genius, or small team, creating something totally beyond the reasonable expectations of everyone who is familiar with the technology in question. I really hope it continues to be possible for this art form to exist.

How would one even learn how to do something like this? I feel like I have a high level understanding of most parts of the stack, but graphics programming has eluded me thus far. Would writing a ray tracer be a good starter project? I know I've seen it recommended by several people before.

Specific to this demo, Inigo Quilez did a breakdown back in 2009 called 'behind elevated' for Function 2009 but I can't find it on his site today. Maybe it's there. But here's the archive link to the pdf.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120119015415if_/http://www.iqu...

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