256 bytes of shock and awe

[rain_storm]

http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=53816
top of the month over at  pouet just brings a tear to my eye. Rrrola is just the dogs bollucks when it comes to 256 byters. I think I found my personal icon.

[spitfire]

wow!

[Clyde]

The shading technique reminds me of amstrad and c64 gfx demos.
It is as you say very impressive.

[Shockwave]

I was gobsmacked when I saw it too.

I am debating what to give my next CDC to, it's between two products, this is one I am considering.

[benny!]

Yup. Thats is indeed a great piece of work.

[Jim]

Crikey!

Jim

[Voltage]

So how does this work?  What is the rendering technique?

From the source, which I barely understand:
"raycasting using unbounded binary search"

[ferris]

It's basically raymarching, like the stuff we're all doing in 1k->4k intros now but on the cpu with a smaller screen space.

[Voltage]

ok, so

1) point a ray at the screen
2) Start with a small step
3) Check if we are inside an object
4) if not double to step and goto 3
5) if we are inside an object then half the step
6) If number of steps for this ray > max steps Process results

Something like that?

Is it bad form to be asking how this thing works?

[Jim]

No!  Inquiring minds want to know

Jim

[rain_storm]

Windows version is available here :

http://rrrola.wz.cz/files/puls_win.zip

Also I found a link where someone has been putting some effort in to recreate the effect. Not exactly tiny but it is the same. But with unobfuscated source code included (java) :

http://meatfighter.com/puls/

[Way.net]

That is stunning Rain_storm thanks for the windows version

[benny!]

Can you access the java version
It seems to be down for me ?

[Shockwave]

me too

[Voltage]

It's back up!

Wow... ask a question and the universe answers.  Looks like I wasn't the only one wanting to know how this works.

Great article.  Nice find rain_storm.

[rain_storm]

Yeah thats quite an intro and it deserves every bit of attention it gets. Oh and yeah the java versions are accessible.

[benny!]

Yup. Java version is back online. Its a nice read.
Thanks for pointing out the link!