Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
creativeapplications.net
Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
1–10 of 78 posts
Re: Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
#2Easily forgotten, a lot of today's demos' complexity lies behind API calls to graphics drivers and OS system calls, whose implementations don't count to the byte limit.
Re: Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
#3Or ~4096 bytes of Kolmogorov complexity...
Re: Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
#4Easily forgotten, a lot of today's demos' complexity lies behind API calls to graphics drivers and OS system calls, whose implementations don't count to the byte limit.
Because Amiga demos never exploited the way low res CRT displays looked or used the SID chip right?
Re: Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
#5Cool, but I think my favourite 4k demo is still Elevated, which is much less obviously procedural. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YWMGuh15nE)
Re: Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
#6I was an intern at a game company last year. I showed the CEO some of the stuff that is going on in the demoscene. He got really worried and told me to not show that to any of his staff. He was afraid that it intimidates his highly paid coders and designers. I found that rather disturbing. How are you going to kill Hollywood if you are afraid of algorithms?
Re: Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
#7Easily forgotten, a lot of today's demos' complexity lies behind API calls to graphics drivers and OS system calls, whose implementations don't count to the byte limit.
Variations of this comment are made on just about any story about 4kB intros.
This is not a very interesting point to me because of how it forgets that in any case, software never exist into a vacuum, and hardware is needed for it. And that hardware does perform a great deal of duties.
The subtext often is that for some reason it's less noble or impressive to code against APIs. However hardware also is a sort of API of its own. Even on a ZX-81.
Re: Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
#8Easily forgotten, a lot of today's demos' complexity lies behind API calls to graphics drivers and OS system calls, whose implementations don't count to the byte limit.
Because Amiga demos never exploited the way low res CRT displays looked or used the SID chip right?
For the record, the SID chip was used in Commodore 64, while Amiga had the Paula chip for sound output.
Re: Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
#9If you are not familiar with 4k intros, you may wonder how things are organized at the executable level to achieve this kind of packing-performance. Probably the most important and essential aspect of 4k-64k intros is the compressor. Have a look here: http://code4k.blogspot.de/2010/12/crinkler-secrets-4k-intro-...
Re: Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
#10I was an intern at a game company last year. I showed the CEO some of the stuff that is going on in the demoscene. He got really worried and told me to not show that to any of his staff. He was afraid that it intimidates his highly paid coders and designers. I found that rather disturbing. How are you going to kill Hollywood if you are afraid of algorithms?
Any game coder worth his salt knows fractals. Many veterans from the demoscene ended up in the game industry at some point. In the 90s most wizkids dreamt of living off making games, and many demosceners made intros to cracked games.
Good game coders like Carmack have little to feel intimidated about.