4K Intro

Introduction

This category is dedicated to 4K Intros for Windows Win32

Windows 4K Intros can be setup in C or Assembler, or a combination of both, with only the few windows calls that are used being linked in. In general writing everything in assembler should give you a little more freedom in pushing/popping your function arguments and register usage, but in the past quality intros have been written in both languages.

Graphics are usualy done using OpenGL / GLSL, but there are 4K intros out there that have used D3D/DX11 instead.

Tools

There are a couple of options for tools, but generally these tools are often used

• Visual Studio / Vscode / GCC Compiler
• Crinkler or other external packer for compression
• Shader minifier
• Optional / Alternatively: NASM Assembler
• Optional: Local/Online GLSL Shader editing environment (e.g. Shadertoy, Kodelife, bonzo, etc.)

Setup

TBA

Graphics

• Setting up a OpenGL Window
• Initialising GLSL Shader

Sound

• Softsynth - Sointu ( https://github.com/vsariola/sointu/ )
• Softsynth - 4klang ( http://4klang.untergrund.net/ )
• Softsynth - Oidos ( https://github.com/askeksa/Oidos )
• Softsynth - Clinkster ( https://demozoo.org/productions/96592/ )
• GLSL Softsynth
• Win32 MIDI

Compression

Crinkler is the most commonly used compression at the moment for 4K intros. It maximizes compression by taking over the linking process, setting up the windows header for you and if needed re-arrange the different segments of the code.

Crinkler reports

When using the /REPORT:intro_report.html feature, crinkler will generate a report and heatmap for your intro binary. This is helpful to see how well your (shader)code compresses and where you can maybe gain a few more bytes.

Word about the resulting executable

Please note that when using crinkler in TINYHEADER mode, the resulting windows header will most likely trigger virus scanners / Microsoft Defender and mark it as suspicious content, which is a side-effect in recent years. Just exclude your work directory from this scan during development. Compo machines will run without these scanners too, but it is good practice to include a (slightly larger) safe version too in the final archive.

Frameworks

• Leviathan 2.0
• IQ's 1k/4k frameworks
• Psycho's 1k/4k framework
• Compofiller studio
• Minimal gl framework

4K intros for Windows

• TBA

Other Resources

• [1] Article about writing a 4k intro using Rust
• [2] Article about writing a softsynth