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Hartverdrahtet - Akronyme Analogiker | 4k Revision 2012

3 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this demo2 months2012–2024 score 2.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited as a showcase of what fits in 4k, in discussions of code size limits and the demoscene.

Hartverdrahtet by Akronyme Analogiker, the winning PC 4k intro at Revision 2012. It is a realtime demo with music and fractal visuals in 4096 bytes.

“So then I'm going to post my favorite 4k [1], which even if you ignore the file size, is just a very cool use of fractals.” (HN, 2024)

1 strong recommendations · 1 recommendations · 4 citations · Demos

6 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@12_throw_away Jan 2024 Strongly recommends
on HN thread We made an animated movie in 8kB
So then I'm going to post my favorite 4k [1], which even if you ignore the file size, is just a very cool use of fractals. [1] [this video]
Favorite 4k demo, a cool use of fractals.
@xal Apr 2013 Recommends
on HN thread Hello from a libc-free world
Sadly, I don't have any of my own work anymore, although I'm sure I could write out a few procedural texture generators from top of my head. Luckily, the demo scene has collectively decided to go back and open source much of it's best work recently: [link] The most recent 4ks are nothing short of stunning: [this video]
Stunning recent 4k demoscene productions.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@sp332 May 2012 Cites it
on HN thread Infinite complexity in 4096 bytes
This one? [this video] It was uploaded in 2048x1526 resolution, so anything less than that will be downsampled by Youtube.
A 4k intro demo, uploaded in high resolution.
@userbinator May 2016 Cites it
on HN thread Rendering a Buddhabrot at 4K and Other Bad Ideas
I almost read the title as about rendering it in a 4KB binary - realtime fractal rendering is a pretty common effect in the demoscene and definitely doable in that size category. Here are some examples: [this video] [link] [link]
Example of realtime fractal rendering in a 4k demo.
@titzer Feb 2017 Cites it
on HN thread From Philosophy to Program Size (2003)
I understand your argument, but even then I don't think it's quite right; there is lots of room to improve on the size of a webpage vs its rendered pixels on the screen, even with the fancy fonts and gradients and animations. I still don't believe it's really megabytes. Have you seen 4k demo contests, btw? [this video]
Shows what fits in 4k, countering claims about megabyte pages.
@Bayart Feb 2022 Cites it
on HN thread MadMax: Analyzing the Out-of-Gas World of Smart Contracts (2020)
Related to that, people have started using old procedural generation tricks to store "large" amounts of data on-chain. For example, as far as I understand it, Aavegotchi [1] stores base layer SVGs, metadata and functions to use these and render the actual end-product at view-time. Blockchain constraints are eerily reminiscent of the demoscene [2][3][4] (just using the opportunity to share stuff I like, don't mind it). [1]: [link] [2]: [link] [3]: [link] [4]: [this video]
Demoscene as parallel to blockchain size constraints.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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