6 ms·

The Old-School Fire Effect and Bare-Metal Programming

154 points by zmodem 9y ago

zellyn 9y ago
Sad that the author didn't run across Denthor's tutorials… http://textfiles.com/programming/astrainer.txt http://textfiles.com/programming/astrainer.txt Discussed a few years ago on hn: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8837545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8837545
- zmodem 9y ago
  Thanks! I hadn't seen those.
- yoodenvranx 9y ago
  Thanks, that brings back soooo many good memories! I wish there would still an easy way for kids to do similar graphics programming on modern PCs. Back then it was very easy to bring pixels to the screen, you just needed a few lines of code to switch to the correct mode. But nowadays with Direct X / Open GL you have layers and layers of abstractions between you and the pixels. And "setting up"Turbo pascal is still way easier than a modern Visual Studio. I wish there would be some sort of modern Turbo Pascal which lets you do similar programming by faking / emulating the whole VESA stuff.
  - reificator 9y ago
    Canvas doesn't need more than a browser. It's not the same thing of course, but it's easy to get into, you can do cool things quickly, and it's a useful skill to have now anyway. (I know Chrome even comes with an editor built in.)
  - userbinator 9y ago
    If you're running 32-bit Windows, it will still run the oldschool 16-bit .com and .exe formats; and from there, an A000 framebuffer and graphical mode is only an int 10h away. If you're running a 64-bit OS, then DOSBox will work nicely too.
  - bunderbunder 9y ago
    Processing (https://processing.org/ https://processing.org/) is a decent option, though it doesn't replicate the same low-level experience.
  - stmw 9y ago
    I think the larger problem is that back then, those demos were indistinguishable from magic -- they looked more amazing than anything else you saw on that computer screen. Now, with 60-120fps HD video on your screen, writing assembler to produce some "ugly CGI" is just not attractive.
  - exlurker 9y ago
    You could try Shadertoy, which looks to be in the same spirit: https://www.shadertoy.com https://www.shadertoy.com
- myth_drannon 9y ago
  These were the best. I was looking for them but couldn't remember the guy's name.
- CodeMage 9y ago
  Holy smoke! Denthor of Asphyxia, now that brings back memories. My two most valuable sources of knowledge back then were PCGPE (PC Game Programmer's Encyclopedia) and Ralph Brown's Interrupt List. Thanks for the stroll down the memory lane!
azeirah 9y ago
Ha, I remember being in high school and messing with my TI-84, I ran across a tutorial on running assembly on the TI-84. I was seriously impressed by the fact that I could run a semi-realistic fire simulation on that device with only two lines of assembly code. Thanks omnimaga forums!
chocolatebunny 9y ago
holy cow. I remember doing this on Turbo Pascal back in the 90s.
- xab9 9y ago
  Yep, with a little bit of assembly. Back then I had a 286 and all of my pas programs compiled in seconds... now I have a core i7 with 16gb ram and changing a line in a js file makes webpack compile it for 20 seconds :D
mattnewport 9y ago
My favorite version of the old school fire effect was Hugo Elias' version that added a feedback driven warping effect: https://web.archive.org/web/20160418004150/http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/models/m_fire.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20160418004150/http://freespace....
- DiThi 9y ago
  Quick capture of that version https://i.imgur.com/FVaDDRF.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/FVaDDRF.mp4
- taneq 9y ago
  Oh wow, "The good-looking textured light-sourced bouncy fun smart and stretchy page". That takes me back... he had so much good stuff on there. My favourite was the cloud cover demo: https://web.archive.org/web/20160604173317/http://freespace.virgin.net:80/hugo.elias/models/m_clouds.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20160604173317/http://freespace....
bananaboy 9y ago
Awesome! I love this effect. Here's a size-optimised version I wrote in assembly a long time ago: http://www.humbug.net/projects/download/demos/js-fire7.zip http://www.humbug.net/projects/download/demos/js-fire7.zip It's 173 bytes in size. I wasn't going for the tiniest possible fire effect, but rather the tiniest but still decent looking version.
Jare 9y ago
This post and his fixes to the Javascript version made me so happy last week. Amazing that something I wrote 24 years ago can still be of interest to anyone.
- bananaboy 9y ago
  Your fire effect was the first demo effect I ever wrote! Iguana demos were one of the things that got me into the demoscene (btw I loved the Blastersound bbstro!).
- TuringNYC 9y ago
  Demos in the early/mid 1990s inspired me to become a developer! I remember them so fondly, I used to college them from various BBSs.
mysterydip 9y ago
Ironically, the first fire effects I saw were on QBasic, found via various webrings in the mid to late 90s, like this one: http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tutorials/fire.txt http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tutorials/fire...
jbverschoor 9y ago
Ahh. Good times
TuringNYC 9y ago
Thank you for sharing this, this brings back such fond memories of the 90s! I was in middle school and the best I ever achieved were the scrolling pipes effect using Basic. Bonus points two with multi-colored scrolling pipes with proper overlap :-)
midnightclubbed 9y ago
Such a simple but effective effect. Came in super useful for the N64 port of Killer Instinct 2 (couldn't afford the memory for the pre-rendered fire that the arcade machine used, Jare to the rescue). Thanks for saving a junior programmers ass! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8fph9nhq4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8fph9nhq4k
- Jare 9y ago
  That is amazing, I never knew that!
- scott_s 9y ago
  To be clear: you worked on the N64 port of Killer Instinct 2?
  - midnightclubbed 9y ago
    Yeah. Killer Instinct: Gold but it was based on the KI2 arcade machine code (with N64 cartridge friendly assets).

154 points by zmodem 9y ago

Sad that the author didn't run across Denthor's tutorials… http://textfiles.com/programming/astrainer.txt http://textfiles.com/programming/astrainer.txt Discussed a few years ago on hn: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8837545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8837545

zmodem 9y ago
Thanks! I hadn't seen those.
yoodenvranx 9y ago
Thanks, that brings back soooo many good memories! I wish there would still an easy way for kids to do similar graphics programming on modern PCs. Back then it was very easy to bring pixels to the screen, you just needed a few lines of code to switch to the correct mode. But nowadays with Direct X / Open GL you have layers and layers of abstractions between you and the pixels. And "setting up"Turbo pascal is still way easier than a modern Visual Studio. I wish there would be some sort of modern Turbo Pascal which lets you do similar programming by faking / emulating the whole VESA stuff.
- reificator 9y ago
  Canvas doesn't need more than a browser. It's not the same thing of course, but it's easy to get into, you can do cool things quickly, and it's a useful skill to have now anyway. (I know Chrome even comes with an editor built in.)
- userbinator 9y ago
  If you're running 32-bit Windows, it will still run the oldschool 16-bit .com and .exe formats; and from there, an A000 framebuffer and graphical mode is only an int 10h away. If you're running a 64-bit OS, then DOSBox will work nicely too.
- bunderbunder 9y ago
  Processing (https://processing.org/ https://processing.org/) is a decent option, though it doesn't replicate the same low-level experience.
- stmw 9y ago
  I think the larger problem is that back then, those demos were indistinguishable from magic -- they looked more amazing than anything else you saw on that computer screen. Now, with 60-120fps HD video on your screen, writing assembler to produce some "ugly CGI" is just not attractive.
- exlurker 9y ago
  You could try Shadertoy, which looks to be in the same spirit: https://www.shadertoy.com https://www.shadertoy.com
myth_drannon 9y ago
These were the best. I was looking for them but couldn't remember the guy's name.
CodeMage 9y ago
Holy smoke! Denthor of Asphyxia, now that brings back memories. My two most valuable sources of knowledge back then were PCGPE (PC Game Programmer's Encyclopedia) and Ralph Brown's Interrupt List. Thanks for the stroll down the memory lane!

azeirah 9y ago

Ha, I remember being in high school and messing with my TI-84, I ran across a tutorial on running assembly on the TI-84. I was seriously impressed by the fact that I could run a semi-realistic fire simulation on that device with only two lines of assembly code. Thanks omnimaga forums!

chocolatebunny 9y ago

holy cow. I remember doing this on Turbo Pascal back in the 90s.

xab9 9y ago
Yep, with a little bit of assembly. Back then I had a 286 and all of my pas programs compiled in seconds... now I have a core i7 with 16gb ram and changing a line in a js file makes webpack compile it for 20 seconds :D

mattnewport 9y ago

My favorite version of the old school fire effect was Hugo Elias' version that added a feedback driven warping effect: https://web.archive.org/web/20160418004150/http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/models/m_fire.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20160418004150/http://freespace....

DiThi 9y ago
Quick capture of that version https://i.imgur.com/FVaDDRF.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/FVaDDRF.mp4
taneq 9y ago
Oh wow, "The good-looking textured light-sourced bouncy fun smart and stretchy page". That takes me back... he had so much good stuff on there. My favourite was the cloud cover demo: https://web.archive.org/web/20160604173317/http://freespace.virgin.net:80/hugo.elias/models/m_clouds.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20160604173317/http://freespace....

bananaboy 9y ago

Awesome! I love this effect. Here's a size-optimised version I wrote in assembly a long time ago: http://www.humbug.net/projects/download/demos/js-fire7.zip http://www.humbug.net/projects/download/demos/js-fire7.zip It's 173 bytes in size. I wasn't going for the tiniest possible fire effect, but rather the tiniest but still decent looking version.

Jare 9y ago

This post and his fixes to the Javascript version made me so happy last week. Amazing that something I wrote 24 years ago can still be of interest to anyone.

bananaboy 9y ago
Your fire effect was the first demo effect I ever wrote! Iguana demos were one of the things that got me into the demoscene (btw I loved the Blastersound bbstro!).
TuringNYC 9y ago
Demos in the early/mid 1990s inspired me to become a developer! I remember them so fondly, I used to college them from various BBSs.

mysterydip 9y ago

Ironically, the first fire effects I saw were on QBasic, found via various webrings in the mid to late 90s, like this one: http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tutorials/fire.txt http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tutorials/fire...

jbverschoor 9y ago

Ahh. Good times

TuringNYC 9y ago

Thank you for sharing this, this brings back such fond memories of the 90s! I was in middle school and the best I ever achieved were the scrolling pipes effect using Basic. Bonus points two with multi-colored scrolling pipes with proper overlap :-)

midnightclubbed 9y ago

Such a simple but effective effect. Came in super useful for the N64 port of Killer Instinct 2 (couldn't afford the memory for the pre-rendered fire that the arcade machine used, Jare to the rescue). Thanks for saving a junior programmers ass! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8fph9nhq4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8fph9nhq4k

Jare 9y ago
That is amazing, I never knew that!
scott_s 9y ago
To be clear: you worked on the N64 port of Killer Instinct 2?
- midnightclubbed 9y ago
  Yeah. Killer Instinct: Gold but it was based on the KI2 arcade machine code (with N64 cartridge friendly assets).