a 4k exe-gfx entry released at NOVA 2020
[pouët]
This was my first proper exe-gfx entry. Up until this point, all of my entries have been real-time, meaning I always had to be careful with using system resources to ensure the entry runs at 60 fps in 1080p. So I decided I wanted to do something with tons of lines, rendered across multiple frames because I could.
The system I came up with initially would use one framebuffer to store the start and end position for millions of lines in the XY and ZW components of each pixel respectively, and a second shader would go through and render these onto the screen.
Here are some early results that I got with that approach.
The more I settled on this vector field effect, the more I realized my current approach is way more complicated than it has to be for this effect. All the lines are fairly short and distributed evenly across the image, so there is no need to compute the positions of all the lines ahead of time.
For each pixel, I can pick a starting point nearby, see in what direction the line needs to go using a noise texture, compute the end of the line, and see if the line intersects with the current pixel location. The shader only has to check starting points in a small radius around the pixel position.
Here are some results using this new method. For the second image, the search radius was too small, causing lines to be cut off early.
And that's how this entry was made.
Conclusion
In retrospect, this is probably one of my worst entries so far. Most of the WIP screenshots look a lot more interesting than the final render and I wish I just stopped working on it sooner.
Also, in case you're wondering why people are abnormally rude in the pouët comments: This entry was shown last during the compo. This spot is usually reserved for the organizer's favorite, so people felt my entry was getting more praise than it deserved. So naturally, they decided to fight back in the comments.