Difference between revisions of "4K Intro"
| Line 15: | Line 15: | ||
* Optional: Local/Online GLSL Shader editing environment (e.g. Shadertoy, Kodelife, bonzo, etc.) | * Optional: Local/Online GLSL Shader editing environment (e.g. Shadertoy, Kodelife, bonzo, etc.) | ||
| − | === Setup == | + | |
| − | + | == Intro design == | |
| + | When designing a 4k intro, it is best practice to consider each of the following aspects seperately: | ||
| + | |||
| + | * How much size budget do you want to allocate to render pipeline, sound, scene building, (post)shading, progression? | ||
| + | * Abstract vs scene-buildin | ||
| + | * Ray-Intersections or Ray Marching | ||
| + | * What kind of softsynth to use | ||
| + | * Render pipeline - Single or multi (post)shader, | ||
| + | * Text - Do you want to include text and if so: Are you using WindowsGlyphs texture or SDF | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | == Setup == | ||
| + | A 4k framework / intro can be setup in either C or Assembler, or a combination of both. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
=== Graphics === | === Graphics === | ||
Revision as of 14:32, 13 April 2024
Contents
Introduction
This category is dedicated to 4K Intros for Windows Win32
Windows 4K Intros can be setup in C or Assembler, or a combination of both, with only the few windows calls that are used being linked in. In general writing everything in assembler should give you a little more freedom in pushing/popping your function arguments and register usage, but in the past quality intros have been written in both languages.
Graphics are usualy done using OpenGL / GLSL, but there are 4K intros out there that have used D3D/DX11 instead.
Tools
There are a couple of options for tools, but generally these tools are often used
- Visual Studio / Vscode / GCC Compiler
- Crinkler or other external packer for compression
- Shader minifier
- Optional / Alternatively: NASM Assembler
- Optional: Local/Online GLSL Shader editing environment (e.g. Shadertoy, Kodelife, bonzo, etc.)
Intro design
When designing a 4k intro, it is best practice to consider each of the following aspects seperately:
- How much size budget do you want to allocate to render pipeline, sound, scene building, (post)shading, progression?
- Abstract vs scene-buildin
- Ray-Intersections or Ray Marching
- What kind of softsynth to use
- Render pipeline - Single or multi (post)shader,
- Text - Do you want to include text and if so: Are you using WindowsGlyphs texture or SDF
Setup
A 4k framework / intro can be setup in either C or Assembler, or a combination of both.
Graphics
- Setting up a OpenGL Window
- Initialising GLSL Shader
Sound
- Softsynth - Sointu ( https://github.com/vsariola/sointu/ )
- Softsynth - 4klang ( http://4klang.untergrund.net/ )
- Softsynth - Oidos ( https://github.com/askeksa/Oidos )
- Softsynth - Clinkster ( https://demozoo.org/productions/96592/ )
- GLSL Softsynth
- Win32 MIDI
Compression
Crinkler is the most commonly used compression at the moment for 4K intros. It maximizes compression by taking over the linking process, setting up the windows header for you and if needed re-arrange the different segments of the code.
Crinkler reports
When using the /REPORT:intro_report.html feature, crinkler will generate a report and heatmap for your intro binary.
This is helpful to see how well your (shader)code compresses and where you can maybe gain a few more bytes.
Word about the resulting executable
Please note that when using crinkler in TINYHEADER mode, the resulting windows header will most likely trigger virus scanners / Microsoft Defender and mark it as suspicious content, which is a side-effect in recent years. Just exclude your work directory from this scan during development. Compo machines will run without these scanners too, but it is good practice to include a (slightly larger) safe version too in the final archive.
Frameworks
- Leviathan 2.0
- IQ's 1k/4k frameworks
- Psycho's 1k/4k framework
- Compofiller studio
- Minimal gl framework
4K intros for Windows
