Ray tracer in a boot sector (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

210 pointsblizdiddy2y ago21 comments

21 comments

20 comments · 9 top-level

My first thought at seeing something pretty in so few bytes was: “perhaps you could just run through every value in each of those 484 bytes and find other gems in there too” then I did the math - or tried to… :)

tromp2y ago

You don't need to go anywhere near 400 bytes to find inscrutable programs, if your programming language is concise enough. Even 8 bytes, or 64 bits to be precise, offers plenty unchartered territory for finding new gems in lambda calculus [1], one such recent discovery being a 49 bit program whose output exceeds Graham's number.

[1] https://oeis.org/A333479

jakeogh2y ago

From the oeis link: https://tromp.github.io/blog/2023/11/24/largest-number

1 more reply

zarathustreal2y ago

Honestly why bother with actual bytes? Why not just take Wolfram’s approach of looking through programs encoded as cellular automata?

dahart2y ago

Check out the BBC micro version in 432 chars (443 bytes). https://bbcmic.ro/?t=9ctpk ... That cuts your problem down by a factor of ~5.5e98. ;) Or even a lot more if you limit to readable ascii. I'd be curious if you did that how many of the tries would result in a valid runnable program.

grishka2y ago

Just a reminder that most of the modern cryptography uses keys that are at most 32 bytes.

Zeetah2y ago· 3 in thread

Unbelievable!

I'd be very grateful for an explanation for how the first three lines in the Atari basic version that have only numbers and no alphabet work?

I just can't remember what Atari basic does, how that data is presented to be read into the array...

Thanks!

shdon2y ago

Those first two lines are just column number indicators for easy reference... 01 to 80 - to show that it's 80 columns wide.

mypalmike2y ago

I think you're referring to just the column numbers (01, 02... 80) which aren't part of the program listing (?)

Zeetah2y ago

Thank you both!

itvision2y ago· 1 in thread

If you like it, you definitely want to visit these two websites:

https://www.shadertoy.com/

https://www.pouet.net/

The last demo party was this one: https://www.pouet.net/party.php?which=1550&when=2024

And this is 64K: https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=96589

Something out of this world.

userbinator2y ago

And this is 128 bytes: https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=63518

It appeared on HN too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7940212

peignoir2y ago· 1 in thread

mov al,0x13 brings back memories :)

sitzkrieg2y ago

mode 13h in tasm while pretending to understand line algos takes me back

mysterydip2y ago· 1 in thread

I love these little projects, and the efficiency of the resulting code. I wish I was skilled enough to turn it into a game or something, though.

AlexeyBrin2y ago

The author has two books about writing small games that can run in the boot sector. First book also has a quick course in 8086 Assembly:

Programming Boot Sector Games

More Boot Sector Games

rajnathani2y ago

Another masterpiece from Oscar Toledo. Context about him and the Toledo family: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

nhatcher2y ago

> Thanks to Peter Ferrie for helping me to save 23 bytes

That's the spirit!

punk-coder2y ago

I have the authors Programming Atari 2600 Games and really enjoyed it. I started my professional programming career programming in Assembler on an OS/360 mainframe back in the mid 90s and it really helped me starting out at such a low level. It was enjoyable revisiting Assembler while going through his book.

datameta2y ago

Unreal codegolfing!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse