974K views · Apr 12, 2009 · 3:36 · 7 HN recommenders · 12 mentions · discussed 2009–2025
Elevated is a 4 kilobyte PC demo by RGBA and TBC from Breakpoint 2009. It fly-throughs a realistic procedurally generated landscape with synthesized music and post-processing, all from a tiny executable.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN repeatedly holds it up as the benchmark for what procedural generation and size-coding can achieve in 4K.
“you'll have a hard time believing it if you haven't seen it yet”HN comment, 2014
“you'll have a hard time believing it if you haven't seen it yet”
A 4K demo that is hard to believe until seen
In a different style, the "Elevated" demo, coded in 4K (you'll have a hard time believing it if you haven't seen it yet): this video
“fly-through of a realistic looking procedurally generated terrain model with music and some fancy post processing effects”
Fly-through of procedural terrain with music in a 4KB executable
Check out 'Elevated' - winner of the 4k PC demo category at Breakpoint 2009. It's a fly-through of a realistic looking procedurally generated terrain model with music and some fancy post processing effects all squeezed into a <4096 bytes executable. Even my moderately high-end PC can't run it (I suspect because it shoves an overwhelmingly huge triangle mesh at the GPU) but there's a video here: this video
“is a great example of what people can do in 4K”
Great example of what can be done in 4K
Two more by Farbrausch the.popular.demo link and Candytron (64K) link For some newer releases blunderbuss by Fairlight link is very different is style but still very cool and two post about the particle system behind the demo link link Elevated by Rgba & TBC this video is a great example of what people can do in 4K, and they even have a presentation about the technical details link and State of the Art by Spaceballs link is a highpoint of the amiga scene (edited to add, which I should have clicked on the link to see it had already been embedded)
“my favourite 4k demo is still Elevated, which is much less obviously procedural.”
Commenter's favourite 4k demo, not obviously procedural
Cool, but I think my favourite 4k demo is still Elevated, which is much less obviously procedural. ( this video )
“Quite realistic terrain generated by a 4 kilobyte binary, along with music”
Level of awesome to aim for in procedural terrain
Indeed, keep going, and you may reach this level of awesome: this video (Quite realistic terrain generated by a 4 kilobyte binary, along with music . Source code and its discussion here: link )
“Those of us like myself who only take a passing interest from afar are still blown away by how amazing results of demos like”
Amazing 2009 demo results; commenter wishes for in-depth teardowns
I know that a huge part of the demoscene culture is keeping your trade secrets close, but I'd love to see a YouTube playlist where authors or people with significant graphics experience do in-depth teardowns. Those of us like myself who only take a passing interest from afar are still blown away by how amazing results of demos like "elevated" from 2009 [1]. I've heard Iñigo Quílez, but I am curious if there are people interested in doing teardowns of winners moreso than elementary concepts (although of course the latter is much more applciable outside of the demo scene). 1= this video
Still-impressive 4k intro
It's 12 years old now, but I am still extremely impressed by this 64k intro link and also by this 4k intro this video :) And overall this website is extremely interesting with tutorials and code and great explanations link
“For the impatient or people without sufficient hardware, a YouTube recording is here”
Video recording of the 4K demo for those without hardware
For the impatient or people without sufficient hardware, a YouTube recording is here: this video One of the guys who created this little gem gave a presentation about the technology behind it; slides are here: link
“In this kind of intros almost everything is generated procedurally, not only meshes, but also textures and sound.”
Example of a 4K intro generating meshes, textures and sound procedurally
> For doing data compression has anyone ever heard about using these techniques to generate other things besides 3D game levels? These techniques are routinely used in the demoscene for making 4Kb/64Kb intros. In this kind of intros almost everything is generated procedurally, not only meshes, but also textures and sound. If you are interested you can watch one of these examples: - Elevated (4K intro) Binary: link Youtube video: this video - .kkrieger (96K game) Binary: link Gameplay video: link
“Including the music, sound effects, textures, everything, it's only 4k...”
Shows a whole demo with music and textures in only 4k
> The article's tone implies that these were the 'good old days' when compilers were small and fast. That's reading a lot into two short paragraphs. Tone doesn't come across well in text, and the shorter the text is, the harder it is to figure out tone. I don't hear nostalgia for the 'good old days' in the article, what I hear is, "Wow! What a feat of engineering to fit an IDE and compiler into 40k!" We get the same kick out of watching demo competitions. Have you seen the "Elevated" demo? Including the music, sound effects, textures, everything, it's only 4k... this video
“pretty good looking terrain + animation + sound in a 4 kilobyte executable”
Terrain, animation and sound in a 4 kilobyte executable
Reminds me of this - pretty good looking terrain + animation + sound in a 4 kilobyte executable: this video How it was done: link
“A couple of other famous short demos”
Listed as a famous short demo
A couple of other famous short demos: this video ("Elevated", 4k) link ("One of those days", 8k)
