A good demo, like [Linus Akesson]’s Sum Ergo Demonstrato, looks like magic to the average hacker. To normies who don’t know the limitations of the RP2350, they don’t see the big deal. To anyone who has spent any time with the chip, though, it’s a series of tricks you cannot help but be amazed by. Fortuanately for us, [Linus] isn’t actually a magician, because while a magician never reveals his tricks, [Linus] has an hour-long video explaining exactly how his demo was accomplished. We’ve embedded both the demo and the explanation below.
Even if you aren’t into YouTube, you should check out the demo video, and again– remember this is all on a Pi Pico with only the extra passives required for video-out. Then you can watch [Linus] explain how he did it, which is really best heard in his own words. There are a couple of bleeding-edge tricks on the RISC V core and peripherals that we would hate to misrepresent– especially the clever hack with the interpolator that he uses for 3D acceleration.
If this sounds a bit familiar, it’s because we were equally impressed by his Kaleidoscopico demo last year. From demos like this to 3D engines on the ESP32, its amazing what you can do on modern micros if you’re willing to hit the limits of the hardware.
Thanks to [Stephen Walters] for the tip!
The Demo:
Technical video:
“Fortuanately” ?
Ah, the AIs are getting clever and inserting typos to make use think it’s written by a human :-)
I miss the days when copy had to get through a spell checker, an editor and a copy editor, when drafts came back with blue and red pencil marks.
naturally, a typo had to sneak its way into my comment :-)
Do you also miss having to wait a month or more for the magazine to come out and the money you had to pay for it, because you had no instant access to information?
Same with the actual name.
Very cool demo, love that it has everything, music, 2D, 3D, that fluid simulation like thing. I wonder if an actual game console with these beefy dual core ARM chips could be popular? I never really cared much for graphics, but really liked the older JRPGs. FF, DQ, etc, they were quite immersive and engaging, despite the simple sprite based graphics. The storylines were far more complex than I could appreciate as a child back then
The text and fonts in the demo reminded me of playing FF5 in ZSNES on my uncles’ old PC at grandparents house. Good times.
The main issue I have with this, and many things nowadays, is that they are done as a video..
I know why – if you put it up as a web site google scrape it and put it up as their ‘AI’ output – those no clicks to your web site- whereas a video you have to go to to see (even if it isn’t the best way of viewing information) and the person will get viewing numbers,
Of course, the real answer is for google (et all) to be prohibited from using anything on your website unless you give them permission.. Including ‘training’ their AI…
Just so. Exactly.
I might or might not be very interested in the details of how it is achieved.
I am prepared to spend 30-60 seconds determining whether I am interested.
I am not prepared to spend 60 minutes on the off-chance it might be interesting. My remaining life is too short.
I can speed read >>10* faster than people can speak (CGP Grey excepted :) ). Hence I look at written reports, and avoid talking head videos (usually full of “ums” and “ahs”).
lft has many, many writeups on his website already. But you release one video…
“How dare I get something for free that isn’t in my preferred format? How dare they put so much effort into something that targets someone other than myself? HOW DARE they find out how many people are interested in their content? Only I matter!”
this. People seem to have too little real problems. So there’s still time left to complain about projects presented in video format.
Which is btw <5min long and 3/4 of it show the visual effects and sounds he created!
I am one of those where the demo scene almost never was able to leave any impression. But such is the nature of unproductive art.
“unproductive art”
As opposed to the art you can send down the mines or clean your toilet?
This is an awsome demo and some vert creative hacks. Using a ‘debug’ register as a usful feature, awsome. I can see this being used in the real world as a way to do some basic sensor fusion in hardware in realtime.
His work has inspired me to get back into messing with the RP2350 and the 480×480 display I have connected. (see pimoroni’s presto display). His accelerated tri rasterer is very cleaver. I like the video, let me sat chill infront of the TV at the end of days work. And the detail on his website for more indepth information is excelent.
reminds me so much of the demos of the 80’s/90’s on the Commodore 64 and Amiga. Especially the music :-). But can it play Doom????
Doom required 4MB of RAM and 386DX at 20MHz minimum. So I think it might be possible, but you would need some major re-coding to work with nearly 88% less RAM.
“But can it play Doom????”
http://lmgtfy2.com/?q=rp2040+doom
Nice, watching the video now.
Also, sorry, RP2350 is Pico 2. Pico was RP2040 with ARM Cortex-M0+, its older slower cousin with less RAM and no choice of flipping CPUs into either RISC-V or ARM Cortex M33.
Having said that, there is absolutely awesome series of MIT lectures by Hunter Adams teaching one how to program either one (lecture focus on RP2040, tho).
it’s been 18 years since Craft and LFT is still bitbanging tech demos from microcontrollers. beyond skillful, the guy is commited.
That ‘ Kaleidoscopico’ one seems more complex and also looks nicer.
Seeing I understand it’s the same author I can at least say that without hurting feelings :)