Paul GrenfellMay 10, 2024

Boring Friday night in? Looking for some hot, esoteric programming challenges? Give my "Low-Rez Shadertoy: The Game" a go!

Write shaders in some made up assembly language, match your target, win prizes*

This is an alpha version and I'm looking for feedback. Please boost/share, thanks!

http://lrst-alpha.s3-website.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/

LRST

Show threadJosh GramsMay 10, 2024

@evilpaul_atebit It'd be cool if it showed you which level you're on while you're in the level? Unless that is somewhere and I'm missing it.

I only did the first 8 levels but doing World 2 level 4 in three instructions was very satisfying.

Show threadjcreedMay 11, 2024
@JoshGrams @evilpaul_atebit I went to bed thinking any fewer than 5 was obviously impossible and woke up and banged out the 3-instruction version in like 2 minutes. so satisfying, yes.
Show threadPaul GrenfellMay 11, 2024
@jcreed @JoshGrams Oh.. I didn't spot the 3 instruction solution to 2-4! I've got it now.. and wow.. that *was* satisfying :D Thanks for pointing out that it was possible.
Show threadjcreed
@evilpaul_atebit @JoshGrams I love the phenomenon (which has happened to me across this, TIS-100, Shenzhen, etc.) that someone saying something is possible magically makes it easier to find, somehow haha
May 11, 2024 at 5:49pmWeb
Show threadjcreedMay 11, 2024
@evilpaul_atebit if you're still looking for feature suggestions:
- puzzles that somehow encourage you to use more registers
- some interplay between the debugger and the renderings of your current progress and the solution --- somehow highlighting which pixel that you're debugging, and/or allow clicking to set x/y coords to debug?
- unlockable SIMD instructions??
but I don't want to come across as demanding, just suggesting! great game!
Show threadPaul GrenfellMay 11, 2024

@jcreed "Click on pixel -> debugger" and "highlight debugger pixel" are on my list for the next update.

Any suggestions for how to coax more register usage? And I like the idea of unlockable SIMD, but don't know how it would work. My only experience here is MMX 20+ years ago, where the application was more obvious to me.

Show threadjcreedMay 11, 2024
@evilpaul_atebit whereas my engineering experience is much more in fancy type theories and barely intersects high performance computing or graphics or anything (except I've played around with opengl from time to time) so take whatever I say with a huge grain of salt ha
Show threadjcreedMay 11, 2024
@evilpaul_atebit and yeah hmm I'm not sure how to specifically require more register usage, except for my simd suggestion. that's a meaty game design question. I think simply having more complicated images to imitate might naturally do it, though. dunno. just giving feedback that I didn't feel much register pressure while playing the levels that exist, feel free to do whatever with that information!
Show threadPaul GrenfellMay 11, 2024
@jcreed Yeah, I've never used all the registers. Well maybe I'll just consider being an evil game designer and cut the registers from 8 to 4 to give everyone some more register pressure... :D