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Programming isn't easy, and when it comes to designing your code to be as efficient as possible, it's even harder. Some coders don't care as much about their code as others though, and that can result in applications or games ending up with a larger file size. That doesn't matter much nowadays, but it shows true skill when you have a large application with a small footprint. Take Google's Chrome browser for example. Small footprint, but huge functionality.
But, some people take things far more seriously, and where coders are concerned, serious is programming an application or game to fit inside of 4KB. Nope, that's not a typo... 4 kilobytes... 4096 bytes. How's that even possible, you ask? Great question, and though there are explanations around the web, I'm still confused. There's a lot of trickery involved, and off-loading and executing various techniques on the CPU or GPU. What matters though, is that some of the results are amazing.
Take this one that a friend linked me to the other day. This is a video of one such 4k project which shows a fly-through of a fully-rendered mountain region, complete with high-altitude cliffs, rivers and not to mention music. As if that wasn't enough, there are beams of light that pulse in the sky to the sound of the music. Not impressed? Did you skip the part where I said all of this is done in 4,096 bytes? That's the equivalent of typing out the entire alphabet 157.5 times. The raw text of this post is equivalent to 2,028 bytes by itself! Not too many more and you can create something like this? Truly impressive.
exactly one year ago i made an executable procedural graphic and video called ixaleno, which i liked. people asked when such imagery would be realtime, and i was answering "today", as i have already seen terragen quality landscapes, completely procedural, in opengl. the point really was how good i could do _in 4 kilobytes_. i experimented and concluded i could so something similar to ixaleno without much problem, and so i stoped playing with it.
Source: Pouet.net
But, some people take things far more seriously, and where coders are concerned, serious is programming an application or game to fit inside of 4KB. Nope, that's not a typo... 4 kilobytes... 4096 bytes. How's that even possible, you ask? Great question, and though there are explanations around the web, I'm still confused. There's a lot of trickery involved, and off-loading and executing various techniques on the CPU or GPU. What matters though, is that some of the results are amazing.
Take this one that a friend linked me to the other day. This is a video of one such 4k project which shows a fly-through of a fully-rendered mountain region, complete with high-altitude cliffs, rivers and not to mention music. As if that wasn't enough, there are beams of light that pulse in the sky to the sound of the music. Not impressed? Did you skip the part where I said all of this is done in 4,096 bytes? That's the equivalent of typing out the entire alphabet 157.5 times. The raw text of this post is equivalent to 2,028 bytes by itself! Not too many more and you can create something like this? Truly impressive.
exactly one year ago i made an executable procedural graphic and video called ixaleno, which i liked. people asked when such imagery would be realtime, and i was answering "today", as i have already seen terragen quality landscapes, completely procedural, in opengl. the point really was how good i could do _in 4 kilobytes_. i experimented and concluded i could so something similar to ixaleno without much problem, and so i stoped playing with it.
Source: Pouet.net
