1MB Raytrace Demo running in real Atari 800xl

[@ideationnation467]

It's fucking amazing how this is happening on something soo old, it actually gives me the chills thinking about it

[@HPPalmtopTube]

it's just an animation pre-rendered on a PC that fits into the system's 1mb ram expansion, a modern add-on.

[@DD-jk3nf]

Raytracing is also nothing new.

[@SerBallister]

@@DD-jk3nf Doing it in real-time is.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

@@HPPalmtopTube a modern memory add-on that doesn't demand hardware modifications. The great thing about this 8bit architecture is that it can be easily expanded with external/internal, old /new add-ons while while remaining compatible with current software library. This is something that other popular machines of the era can't really do (i.e. C128).

[@HPPalmtopTube]

@@nickolasgaspar9660 Any system can be expanded with infinite memory provided it's paged/indexed in a custom way, and that the software supporting it can use it via this custom indexing system itself by mapping in/out of the pages to read/write data. And that will, off course, not interfere with old software running on the PC while the memory add-on is in place as it's simply ignored. So I don't see your point... I dunno much about these atari systems, it might have some functionality to do this easier, but it's possible on all computers...

[@arcifric969]

OMG . . . its amazing . . . I remember that we had an old ATARI 800XL at home (long time ago), and I would never have dreamed that someone would still work with it today. . . I admire you

[@dyscotopia]

As the scroller says, it's rendered on PC and they didn't have time to compress it. It's just been reduced to 4 colors to keep it just under a meg, an amount of memory that would have been far beyond imagination in the 80s. It's cool, but I expected more with all the wait time.

[@Technoid_Mutant]

In 1986 or 87 I installed the Scott Peterson 320k and then the 576k 130xe upgrades. A half-meg of ram wasn't beyond my reach financially, and I did the work myself. I did these upgrades for others as well. In fact, I started my first tech job by visiting my future workplace to buy 41256 drams. That was in '92.

[@CrocTV42]

my right ear loved that

[@groenevinger3893]

Yes, Those stereo Pokey's really did there job! 🙄

[@weust2672]

@@groenevinger3893 Glad I'm not the only one noticing that. My right ear bleeds from the loading parts.

[@deadsi]

I loved my right ear, m from Nantucket btw

[@sa3270]

Amazing what you can do with a lot of memory and pre-rendered graphics.

[@amyhund3786]

Der echte Atari 800xl hat 64 KB und ist mit 1,79 MHz getaktet. Die vorgerenderte Demo läuft auf modifizierter moderner Hardware im Atari Gehäuse.

[@AnOfficialAndrewFloyd]

I remember Antic publishing a ray tracing program. It took forever to render a screen. This demo is just page flipping the screens.

[@Technoid_Mutant]

There was a cad program for the Atari from Antic, "Solid States". It was written by a fellow who went on to write Degas, which did well, and some autocad-related code as well. atariage.com/forums/topic/303299-solid-states-3d-studio-precursor/

[@Atari8man2011]

Very nice Jeff

[@Clancydaenlightened]

4:14 bunch of ppl rite now prolly shittin a few bricks

[@alanmacmillan6957]

I like it. yeah its pre-calculated but then many 8-bit and 16-bit demos were , and ray tracing in real time is a never-a-gonna-happen really in those days .... 6502 at 1.79mhz in the Atari would pump out 0.75 mips if you were lucky. even the stock ST and Amiga were only around 1.x mips. we need some perspective in that the latest i7 would be 221,720 MIPS at 5.0 GHz - hundreds of thousands of times the processing power. even a modest mobile phone nowadays is thousands to tens of thousands of times faster than what we had back in the in early 1980's by a factor of several orders of magnitude. the custom hardware was really where the real magic happened - display list interrupts on the Atari 8-bit or Copper on the Amiga, etc.

[@r4dius]

Just playing an animation like playing a gif, not rendering anything

[@Technoid_Mutant]

Fair estimation. Still, it is a whole buncha frames being flipped and a little computer doing it.

[@timmyt1232]

This is a really nice program. Who made it?

[@cirouk]

Music sounds like zybx

[@digimikeh]

and screen text like Ninja Comando..

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

From the game: Mountain Bike racer.

[@SmakoszPilat]

👏🕪🔊Good job👍

[@anneschmitt8461]

I ve got that memory 320kb about- real on atari hardware. will that run?

[@Technoid_Mutant]

This is one of the only demos you can't run. It needs a full meg of ram. It might be the only piece of software for the Atari 8 that actually requires a full meg of ram.

[@adamKa27]

Its just simple animation runing from the expanded memory. No real raytracing there and visually nothing special. If you want some real 3D calculation, on the fly without precalc check out these Atari demos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3_Uloiwq82Fn9k kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4iooWiPq5p_qdE

[@obvioustruth]

Why the music is only in right ear??? Terrible!

[@Technoid_Mutant]

My fault. The Atari is only monaural, but I should have split the audio into both speakers for fuller sound. I'll see what I can do in future posts.

[@obvioustruth]

@@Technoid_Mutant Thanks :)

[@MMRYPRDX]

@@Technoid_Mutant What is the name of the song?

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

@@MMRYPRDX Mountain Bike racer.

[@bjbell52]

too much text - graphics don't start until around the 4 1/2 minute mark.

[@FatheredPuma81]

Press "M", dislike the video, and thank me later.