• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes of shader code

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

ChryZ

Member
The demoscene never cease to amaze.

Worthy winner of the PC 4kB intro competition at Revision 2012 and latest example of the compact-coding tradition exercised within the demoscene, Hartverdrahtet by Akronyme Analogiker is a three minute long audio-visual trip into a procedural fractalverse, compressed into a minuscule piece of software. No bigger than 4069 bytes – less than an empty Word document, as demoscene activists like to point out – the executable file contains all the mathematics needed to generate the unfolding visual complexity and audible ambience upon a double-click. A solo effort by a talented coder who calls himself Demoscene Passivist, Hartverdrahtet reveals a mesmerizing cosmos observed through what could be an electron microscope – ethereal, greenish and a little eerie.

rRHEu.jpg


Wd1Oc.jpg


l3PWb.jpg


Courtesy of http://www.creativeapplications.net/windows/hartverdrahtet-infinite-complexity-in-4096-bytes/

The demo can be downloaded here: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=59086

It requires quite a bit of shader horse power, so here's also a youtube link:

Hartverdrahtet - Akronyme Analogiker | 4k Revision 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w_xEUoK79o
 
S

systemfehler

Member
I think those projects are great and an art form but their technological impact is getting smaller and smaller. I still watch 4/64k demos once in a while because I am really into the technology behind. Luckily Farbrausch finally opend their source code archives for some projects.
 
C

ChryZ

Member
Hartverdrahtet_Final_16to10_1920x1200.exe runs ~30fps on my GTX680, the super sampling ones choke it though.
 
R

Ryaaan14

Banned
Jesus, the whole time I felt like this thing was going to scroll onto the screen.

A818e.jpg


Needs less creepy electron microscope feel.
 
SpinningBirdKick

SpinningBirdKick

Banned
The repeating structures look like it has some Menger Sponge type recursion going on but the overall look is very organic and 3d Mandelbrot like.

Great stuff!
 
S

Shrike_Priest

Member
I am rarely impressed by abstract demoscene demos. However, stuff like Elevated, where they're actually producing something realistic looking, or .kkrieger which is actually a playable game, with enemy designs, weapons etc (sure, it's 24 times bigger, but it's actually functional).
 
Clear

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Raymarching/distance-field techniques are the new hotness in the scene, pretty good primer of the technique here, but obviously it won't mean much if you aren't a coder/mathematician.


And yeah, Elevated is still the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in 4k.
 
E

ElectricBlue187

Member
Shrike_Priest said:
I am rarely impressed by abstract demoscene demos. However, stuff like Elevated, where they're actually producing something realistic looking, or .kkrieger which is actually a playable game, with enemy designs, weapons etc (sure, it's 24 times bigger, but it's actually functional).
Click to expand...

I agree. Fractals are neat but I'd rather see an actual scene
 
M

Mama Robotnik

Member
This is astonishingly beautiful.

Also, running it on max settings was a mistake. My graphics card can run nearly anything top spec, but this killed it without mercy.
 
D

Dicer

Banned
I've loved the demoscene since back in my C=64 days, the fact that people keep pushing crazier and crazier stuff out of these machines never ceases to amaze me

Time to watch the AMIGA part of the comp
 
U

UncleSporky

Member
Am I correct in assuming that these 4096 bytes depend on existing megs of code contained in DirectX libraries and such? I won't say that doing this is easy or unimpressive, but it does seem a bit disingenuous.
 
Clear

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
The 4k limit is basically an arbitrary size-limit for a packed executable. The actual code and data-size is much, much bigger and can utilize any OS resources (fonts, libs, etc) that are installed on the compo target machine.

Basically the exe is heavily packed using a lossless algorithm, then a lengthy pre-calculation stage begins to create the data for the executable. The maximum duration of the pre-calc is usually stipulated in the compo rules, but its usually not quick!

Size limit stuff has its roots in the "cracktro" concept, where warez releasers on platforms like the Amiga often had minimal space to work with on the disc, yet still wanted to identify themselves in as showy a way as possible. Bbstros were similar in that they were included as standalone programs within warez archives (lzh., lha., etc) and identified the bbs's through which they had passed - again to avoid bloat and bandwidth wastage the impetus was to make them as small as possible.
 
TheMan

TheMan

Member
Clear said:
The 4k limit is basically an arbitrary size-limit for a packed executable. The actual code and data-size is much, much bigger and can utilize any OS resources (fonts, libs, etc) that are installed on the compo target machine.

Basically the exe is heavily packed using a lossless algorithm, then a lengthy pre-calculation stage begins to create the data for the executable. The maximum duration of the pre-calc is usually stipulated in the compo rules, but its usually not quick!

Size limit stuff has its roots in the "cracktro" concept, where warez releasers on platforms like the Amiga often had minimal space to work with on the disc, yet still wanted to identify themselves in as showy a way as possible. Bbstros were similar in that they were included as standalone programs within warez archives (lzh., lha., etc) and identified the bbs's through which they had passed - again to avoid bloat and bandwidth wastage the impetus was to make them as small as possible.
Click to expand...

good explanation, thanks
 
S

soultron

Banned
Some of the ignorance in the YT comments on demoscene videos is astounding. Well, it's not really surprising, but they probably have no idea the amount of math and wizardry that goes into these videos. They thought pre-calc was hard, I bet.

Awesome video. Remind me not to watch it under the influence of any substance. Haha.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom