uncovering static (64k) by fairlight & alcatraz

[joaodfreire]

64k e realmente o suficiente para todo o mundo..

[wertstahl]

These are no longer Programs, these are Seeds already.

[hzdgopher]

the final version was released a few days ago. search for:

"uncovering static final"

[slitor]

MY CODE IS WEAK!!!

[tatarqa]

ray processing?

[Hkettinen]

how much memory did this demo consume while running?? it is seriously fucking awesome! what language used? cant find any useful info anywhere

[SLETelevision]

@Hkettinen It's very compact Assembler. look on Wikipedia: Demoscene

[hzdgopher]

@Hkettinen

The intro framework and render engine use C++ and DirectX9 with HLSL shaders.

The synth uses x86 assembler + some small C++ sound init and playback code in the framework.

About RAM usage while executing i dont remember exactly, but if you want to know check the memory column in the task manager while running the intro in windowed mode (i think it was around 400MB though)

[Hkettinen]

@hzdgopher

Thanks ! much appreciated.

awesome work, don´t have a winbox right now so can´t actually run the demo myself

[Slvrwlf]

I see many 'wtf's about the 64k... Well, here's some background info. The demo was actually 59k, since they had to rush it and didn't have time to add the last 5k :P (source: Assembly main screen during the event)

[devjock]

Is it actually all mandelcube iterations? Ray marching? I don't even O_o

Massive respect. MASSIVE.

[Dovakhan]

How the FUCK they manage to do that in 64 kbs????

[ciupenhauer]

ketamine trip!

[TechnoJon96]

Some of these graphics look fractal. That would explain the amazing quality: small amounts of data iterated. The "slime" parts are definitely fractals under a few iterations, I'd say. Some great math seems to go into these :-)

[johnwchadwick]

What the fuck? I can't even imagine programming this outside of 64kb. This is painful to watch...

[ZolyxUK]

All this, in the same amount of memory in a Commodore 64... completely mind-blowing :) Respect to Fairlight and Alcatraz for this. Breathtaking stuff.

[rhaguest999]

Wow - what a trip!

Really cool dream-scapes.

Love the Song.

Music and visuals are brilliantly married!

BRAVO!!!

[ThereseKarlander]

Fucking love it! Its so awesome! I almost cried first time. Fairlight has done it again.

[Nickmorama]

i don't see anything special, what's so cool about it??

[centigonal]

@Nickmorama Well, this entire video is packed in an executable file that is 64 kb big. That's like 2 seconds of your favorite song in mp3, or a quarter of your desktop wallpaper image.

The music synth for is really cool, for one. Synthesizing strings and piano is hard, let alone in 64 kilobytes.

[TechnoJon96]

@centigonal Yes, and these strings and piano are massively epic. 64kb strings sounds, like, a thousand times better than my professional-quality string synths!!!

[binbashLinuxAhole]

@centigonal Right amounts of sine wave saw give you the near realistic violin strings. Usually sceners use custom iterated music algorithms to generate 64k music, which also help the rest of coding teams easier to follow/track the note.

Here they must have used C/C++/OpenGL. If you want better sound quality I recommend you to use ASM or BASIC.

[hzdgopher]

@binbashLinuxAhole

any sound can be reproduced/synthesized with enough sines, but its generally not feasible in realtime. so you need a faster way to get good results.

in our case we used digital waveguides, so delays, filters and some flexible exitation input signal to simulate the bow.

also sound quality always depends more on the algorithms used to create the sound and not the language.

here the synth is written in asm for size reasons only, the rest is done with c++ and using direct3d

[NielloEd]

that is probably the most beautiful thing ill ever see.i wonder what demoscenes will look like 100 yrs later..

[jarppo386]

I quest Bill Gates was right then.

[Bp1033]

My mind is blown... Well done!

[PulseArc]

Fuck me sideways with a cattleprod. Fairlight, you're not allowed to be this awesome

[wh00pable]

How the hell did he achieve getting it to be only 64 kb.... that's impressive!

[2bebo]

The legendary mens returns ... ATZ

h33lr41s3r

[iFreeCarve]

Is the music original? It sounds familiar but I can't figure out what it reminds me of.

[sHaio0m]

Shut up and stop arguing.. just look and watch the AWESOME thing that IS DEMO! MAD RESPECT! I wishthat Canada was more active in demo's and the like.. *tisk* =( Such a beautiful scene ;)

[fcycles]

@sHaio0m I don't know from which part of Canada you are, but we have demoscene.mtl on facebook, which you can join!

[binbashLinuxAhole]

@fcycles Hackfest host demoscene for intros/demos/compos every year. It is within Ontario.

[NTnix]

I believe I am in love.

[ONNIHOLTTA]

This is freaking awesome!

Tää on valtavan mahtavaa!

[mikewyer33]

64k also happens to be the size of the "rm" command on my linux box. This is just incredible.

[OptimizEp34]

Just absolutely mind boggling synth! Stunning visuals as well :)

If you don't know what a 64k is, the whole thing with everything you see and hear is real time generated from a code consisting of no more than 65536 bytes. Let me put that in perspective: These days an _empty_ word document is about 22370 bytes. These guys are insane..

[maiki60fps]

@OptimizEp34 so what... Atari 2600 guys normally deal with much less than 128 bytes... nothing special in the end

[dirtyroot]

@maiki60fps Show me a single demo Atari 2600 demo that's less than 128 bytes.. oh wait, you're talking bullshit. It may have had only 128 bytes of RAM but the demos are larger than that.

[OptimizEp34]

@maiki60fps Yes, that is smaller. Yes, they make cool stuff based on what they have at their disposal. No, it's not comparable at all. Yes, this is groundbraking and damn impressive. Yes, this is something special.

[nonseans]

@maiki60fps and how do they sound?

[Foggen]

@maiki60fps TROOOOOOOOOOLOLOLOOOOOO LOLOLOLOLOLOOOOOO

[Rancen123]

Great demo! There's a link to executable? Drum from 3:44 is synthesized as well? Sounds incredibly realistic.

[hzdgopher]

@Rancen123

executable can be found here: wwwDOTpouetDOTnet

unfortunately yt doesnt allow URLs specified here. so replace DOT with actual dot.

and best use the search option on that site and look for "uncovering static"

also yes, everything is synthesized. there are no stored samples used.

[OptimizEp34]

@hzdgopher You almost made me give up my attempts at 32k and 16k exe music. Not cool! (okay, it's pretty cool..)

[Einhanderkiller]

When you can make something like this, you have achieved god-level programmer status.

[nonseans]

yeah, visuals are fine, but the coded sound is incredible. Gopher, you have broke the sound systems status quo ;)

[abraxasnl]

Great work! One of the nicest 64k's I've ever seen.

[rulssie]

64k is always so incredible! too bad there wasn't more entries this year :((

[tubeacco]

Fantastic, Always loved 4k and 64k demos most and this was great!

[MsBickle76]

I don't understand... what is this? what does it do? why is this impressive or important?

Can somebody please explain what i just saw? what is 64k and this is a demo for what?

[postalshack]

@MsBickle76 64K is the file size; the raw core of this demo is 64 kilobytes or less. It's impressive because they're doing effects and visuals that, without the tricks they use, would consume dozens, if not hundreds, of megabytes. The demo is of their skill in making algorithms fill in so much detail.

[zcxhcrjvkbnpnm]

@MsBickle76 it might also be interesting to consider that 64 kb is roughly the size a single frame of this video would take (in jpg format), and that the music is also generated in real time.

[carthag]

@zcxhcrjvkbnpnm I know but this makes calls to DirectX or OpenGL right? I find shit like Spaceballs - State of the Art (Amiga 880k no AGA) way more impressive cause it's just coded directly to the chipset, no libraries, no bull. Mind you this is amazing as such, but it don't grab me you know? Maybe I'm just old.

[Dovakhan]

@carthag But as it's coded directly to the chipset (assembly?), it'll only work with that particular system, where actual demos can be run with any CPU/GPU. That's also impressive by itself IMO.

[AndrewLawrenceElie]

@Dovakhan

This is an actual demo. you can download it on pouet.

[rutzen21]

@zcxhcrjvkbnpnm BTW jsut for all you noobs out there NOTHING IS GENERATED IN REALTIME, but clsoe to it

[biotopian]

@MsBickle76 Wow, that has to be one of the best questions I've read on youtube ever. Thumbs up for you.

[bishoopdawhoop]

The fact that this is 64k actually HURTS my head.

[smashflt]

@lpasepok:

actually at least the synth is written in assembly .. :)

[moptim]

should have won, imho. somehow this is exceptionally beautiful

[piderman]

2 people only have 32k HD space.

[Recycler1993]

absolutely stunning

[polyopulis]

What is this music?

[map250r]

@polyopulis According to stackexchange (programmers stackexchange com questions 99120 how-can-this-all-fit-into-64kb­), the music is created by the program.

[nfwu]

@polyopulis @map250r If you're interested in music for demos, take a look at a synth like 4klang.

[nfwu]

@polyopulis @map250r Music was composed by Reed of fairlight. Synth by gopher of alcatraz.

[fgb00]

Ironically, the video of this probably uses up a lot more than 64K

[fcycles]

@fgb00 yup, but the tradeoff, is that decoding the video take less power than running the demo. My PC end up having alarm at middle of the demo bcoz the power supply fan stop running and start overheating. No joke!... (I should make a video otherwise it's sound unbelivable... myself I start thinking this could not happen?)

[Shamengoamusic]

awesome work in 64K.. 

[neoneye]

impressive

[paniq303]

voxels, marching cubes and raycasting?

[InfoPoet]

Awesome!

[lpasepok]

GAH!

This is amazing.

Just... I'm so blown away by this.

Holy shit, I can't believe someone did this in assembly! This is incredible.

[lordgraga]

@lpasepok It wasn't done in Assembly, it was made for the "Assembly Party" in Finland.

[lpasepok]

@lordgraga

Oh, good, now I feel really embarrassed. My cheeks are red as hell now.

[tbbw]

My favorite in ASM2011 :P

[dweezlzor]

Bravo.