Each year they use their computer skills to show off.
Some people may know this as a the demoscene.
At Breakpoint 2009 this year, I believe these guys won the 4KB competition.
If you don't know what 4KB is, look at your forum avatar, it's probably larger than 4KB (right click and view properties on the avatar).
elevated by Rgba [web] & TBC
Is a 4KB demo using procedural generated content.
I tested it on my system and it took like 2minutes to start (lots of stuff is generated).
Everything you see and hear in this was squeezed inside a executable that was less than 4096 bytes (4KB).
Here is the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YWMGuh15nE (advice: press the HQ button in the player)
PS! If the video is jerky it's the video/player's fault, the actual demo runs smoothly on my system.
All that in less than 4KB, heck my own avatar to the left is a whooping 6.29 KB (6439 bytes)
If you truly can't believe it still, then go and download it yourself.
Important! You need the latest DirectX 9 updates to get this to run.
You also need a Geforce 8800 GT or Radeon 4850 or better due to the heavy reliance on shaders and geometry stuff. You can probably run it on lesser hardware but the framerate will most likely suffer.
I'm amazingly impressed and can only hope more game developers start using technology like this, obviously this 4KB demo is an extreme. I believe that Spore was among the first games to use some form of procedural generated stuff. (they hired some guys from the demoscene I believe.
I'm still floored by how cool this is (not just the tiny 4KB size, but the look as well).
It truly looks like the peaks, valleys and fjords of Norway or a similar climate area, or something taken straight out of a scene in Lord of The Rings.
I was floored by the talent of the demoscene ages ago in the late 90's when I wet my feet in it by composing music for a demo, and today so many years later, the demoscene still manage to floor me with their talent.
Remember, everything you see and hear is squeezed inside 4KB, I can barely imagine how they squeezed the music (notes plus synth waveform math) inside 4KB, let alone all you see. Heck in a modern game, the camera path stuff alone would be more than 4KB. Mindboggling.
