Such a great example of what can be done in javascript/canvas. As it is, I was completely blown away by how little code it actually took to do that. My only gripe would be, why couldn't he have used descriptive variable names, so I can better go through and understand it? :-)
Notch trying jsFiddle
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Re: Notch trying jsFiddle
#22"Notch coding in JS" is a bit more descriptive than "trying jsfiddle", specially since it looks like code posted after the fact. A minecraft-like env rendered on canvas with it's own mini-3d-engine is amazing nonetheless :D
Re: Notch trying jsFiddle
#23Such a great example of what can be done in javascript/canvas. As it is, I was completely blown away by how little code it actually took to do that. My only gripe would be, why couldn't he have used descriptive variable names, so I can better go through and understand it? :-)
This code uses zero canvas / javascript specific functions. It is using basic trigonometric functions and is using canvas only to write RGB pixels. Canvas are much more powerful and high level than that, but this is not a good example as Notch just needed to set pixels.
Re: Notch trying jsFiddle
#24Can someone dissect this code and explain what it does?
Re: Notch trying jsFiddle
#25Such a great example of what can be done in javascript/canvas. As it is, I was completely blown away by how little code it actually took to do that. My only gripe would be, why couldn't he have used descriptive variable names, so I can better go through and understand it? :-)
This code uses zero canvas / javascript specific functions. It is using basic trigonometric functions and is using canvas only to write RGB pixels. Canvas are much more powerful and high level than that, but this is not a good example as Notch just needed to set pixels.
Having watched Notch write Prelude of the Chambered (which I then ported to JRuby) it seems he really loves this direct pixel manipulation style - as do I!
The sad part, though, is it doesn't particularly scale well with canvas (yet) and using sprites, shape primitives, or even WebGL is way to get full speed at a regular resolution. (Imagine a 640x480 pixel field of randomized colors, you can get hundreds of FPS for that in Java without a sweat. Not so in the browser and most certainly not in JRuby.. my PotC port struggled to hit 12fps with equivalent code.)
The title of "ChamberedTest" here makes me wonder if notch is planning to use JS and canvas in the forthcoming Ludum Dare 25 (the gamedev contest where he created Prelude of the Chambered). I hope so!
Re: Notch trying jsFiddle
#26Awesome implementation, actually no advanced feature is used, this code could easily ported even to assembler in any device where you can set pixels in RGB format. And indeed it is pretty impressive how fast the rendering happens given that the code operates at such lower level... Even selecting the color of every pixel requires non trivial work in the inner loop. AWESOME code.
Indeed, writing straightforward code with no dynamic memory allocations, and simple and predictable types, lets the VM do wonders with optimization and JITting. Good stuff.
Re: Notch trying jsFiddle
#27Can anyone explain how this works? I never have got to grips with 3D.
Update: Thanks for the repliers. You are absolutely right: this is a 3D rendering. What I meant to say is that it is using Canvas 2D, instead of Canvas 3D, also known as WebGl. Antirez gave a wonderful explanation above[1]: And indeed it is pretty impressive how fast the rendering happens given that the code operates at such lower level... Even selecting the color of every pixel requires non trivial work in the inner…
In that sense, all games are rendering in 2D, because screens are 2D. They just do it in a much more complicated way.
What I'm seeing in this demo is 3D in every sense, the code is basically a very simple 3D engine, and it requires knowledge of computer graphics to understand it, so the top-level commenter here asked a valid question.
Re: Notch trying jsFiddle
#28Such a great example of what can be done in javascript/canvas. As it is, I was completely blown away by how little code it actually took to do that. My only gripe would be, why couldn't he have used descriptive variable names, so I can better go through and understand it? :-)
This code uses zero canvas / javascript specific functions. It is using basic trigonometric functions and is using canvas only to write RGB pixels. Canvas are much more powerful and high level than that, but this is not a good example as Notch just needed to set pixels.
Notch gave a little more context[1]:
Spent most of today learning new stuff. Ported Minecraft4k. Code is awful due to the nature of the project, but here: http://jsdo.it/notch/dB1E
Re: Notch trying jsFiddle
#29Re: Notch trying jsFiddle
#30"Notch coding in JS" is a bit more descriptive than "trying jsfiddle", specially since it looks like code posted after the fact. A minecraft-like env rendered on canvas with it's own mini-3d-engine is amazing nonetheless :D
To be fair, that's the description notch used in his tweet: https://twitter.com/notch/status/275331530040160256 :)