False Dimension by Pers' Wastaiset Produktiot [web]
PWP presents in 2012: "FALSE DIMENSION" A 2286-byte demo for the C-64. Code, music & design by Viznut. The 155 pictures in this demo are generated by a chaotic process based on adding pseudorandom "inkblots" into a byte table. As the pseudorandom seeds are only 2 bytes long, I could easily have put in like 1000 pictures while still keeping it under 4 KB. However, there wasn't enough variety in the search space, so a considerably larger number of pictures would have made the show quite boring. An outline of the algorithm: 1. Initialize the random number generator with a 16-bit seed. 2. Get two random ranges for random numbers. Fill the upper half of the 64x32-byte table with random numbers from the first range and the lower half with numbers from the second range. 3. Add a randomized amount (8..72) of random-sized, random-intensity blots into random positions (probability function prefers the center of the framebuffer). 4. Render the bytetable into the final framebuffer (40x25) by interpreting the bytes as intensity values. 5. Repeat steps 2 and 3. 6. Render the bytetable into the final framebuffer by turning the pixel black where the bytetable value is >=128. 7. Smooth down the edges between black and non-black with a set of 16 neighbor-sensitive blocks. In order to find good pictures, I just rendered the whole search space (65536 pictures) into 256 thumbnail pages. In subsequent excursions into the potential of pseudorandom, especially with longer seeds, there will be need for a specialized interactive tool with powerful search and sort functionality (especially with the option to search for pictures that are nearly similar to another picture or an arbitrary model).
[ back to the prod ]