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aleyan 20 hours ago [-]
If you want to get into fixed-width character art, I highly recommend doing it in the browser like OP did rather than trying to old school it in the terminal. I have done a little ascii[0] and unicode[1] graphics, and the browser is such a better tool. You can set fonts and proportions and know exactly how things will render for the user. Mouse input, performance profiling and a bunch of other things are just better in the browser. Both of my projects work in the terminal but were browser first.
It is kind of shocking to me how TUIs are enjoying a bit of dev tool renaissance right now when the browser is such a capable platform.
(the homepage is ai generated, the real work is in the ssh server)
k7peak 44 minutes ago [-]
This is awesome. I did the same, sshwars.com [NSFW]. Mine is def not as graphic cool as yours but different game play.
OP: Amazing ascii world! I love old school terminal style everything.
mspreij 5 hours ago [-]
Uh.. that looks freakin' awesome. How?!
thomasfromcdnjs 4 hours ago [-]
aha i've been hacking away at the terminal graphics over ssh for ages for months, the repo is fully open source.
the sprites aren't all the same size or as good as they could be but already spent too much $$ on sprites.
the sprites are just passed through algorithms that optimize for what text characters at different aspects would make them look good.
mspreij 3 hours ago [-]
I was pretty proud of my Game of Life & Wireworld implementations for the terminal, with half-character resolution o.o;
Guess I'll have to up my game and start work on Twin Cobra and Dune ][ clones.. now that I've seen it's possible..
Using sprites is clever :-) then I guess that's how these older games worked too.
thomasfromcdnjs 2 hours ago [-]
would love to see what you build. i am working a ssh mmorpg, about to start working on the lore
slowin 17 hours ago [-]
> It is kind of shocking to me how TUIs are enjoying a bit of dev tool renaissance right now when the browser is such a capable platform.
Command line tools (and by extension TUIs) can be used over SSH and don't require messing around with HTTPS certificates. They also have the benefit of having the context of your CWD.
echoangle 6 minutes ago [-]
> don't require messing around with HTTPS certificates.
Which also means there’s no real defense against MITM attacks… at least I don’t think anyone seriously checks the host key on first connection.
slowin 3 minutes ago [-]
You get notified if the server key changes though. I don't think it's fair to say there's no defense against MITM.
agys 19 hours ago [-]
A couple of years ago I wrote extensive benchmarks on three browser-based rendering techniques: text in the DOM, 2D canvas, and WebGL canvas.
The DOM approach is the purest, as it uses a font, and it can achieve very good performance. The only noticeable slowdown at 60 FPS occurs when the character color changes frequently within each line: each new character needs to be wrapped in a span. 2D canvas is a bit more flexible but not necessarily faster.
WebGL is obviously the fastest, at 1000+ FPS, and pixel fonts can be rendered ultra-crisp as well.
Below is the DOM test for frequent vertical color changes.
Press and hold the cursor over the ASCII output to change the orientation (notice the FPS drop at the top left).
I suspect DOM is probably fast enough for most usecases. For me, DOM only started chugging because every tile (2 half-width characters in hexwalker) was a react element and those would get garbage collected en-masse and cause studder.
saintfire 19 hours ago [-]
Popping into a TUI from an existing terminal session to quickly do something without lifting my hand is the only reason I use and prefer a TUI.
If I have to open a browser which has, frankly mediocre, kb nav, then I'd rather it just be a GUI.
I guess I'm a browser detractor, though, because unless its a webserver used for quick configs then I dread using them.
holsta 20 hours ago [-]
> It is kind of shocking to me how TUIs are enjoying a bit of dev tool renaissance right now
For me, it's because I can SSH from my wimpy laptop to systems with hundreds of CPU cores and TBs of RAM - and use the same tools and workflows that I am used to.
larme 8 hours ago [-]
because modern browsers are monsters that a lot of us want to avoid
butlike 19 hours ago [-]
In hexwalker, what does the AU/A0 button do? Also is there anything to "do" or is it more of a wanderlust simulator? I found a cave with a coffin but so far no items underfoot to use.
aleyan 17 hours ago [-]
AU/AO are auto explore underworld and overworld and A0 is to stop auto explore. You can click on them in the top menu.
> Also is there anything to "do" or is it more of a wanderlust simulator?
It is mostly just a technology demonstrator for having a hexagonal grid map in the terminal. There is nothing to do. I am prototyping some gameplay features around interacting with the environment, but I expect the end result will be very light weight gameplay that more "A Short Hike" than nethack.
qsera 11 hours ago [-]
>when the browser is such a capable platform
Seriously? Why would you want to open a memory heavy browser tab to run a TUI? This attitude is how we got Electron.
Browser as an app platform, should be used as a last resort.
Hugsbox 3 hours ago [-]
Says it's in one HTML file... well, where? Why post a video if you could just link to it? I don't see a link to it anywhere, and I'm not watching a youtube video to look at an HTML file.
goatking 3 hours ago [-]
There is a link in the video description.
You have to pay for the demo...
Hugsbox 3 hours ago [-]
Ah yes, let me just whip out my wallet real quick and pay for a demo of an HTML file. I'll _definitely_ be doing that.
rkagerer 13 hours ago [-]
It's beautiful, but when I went to try it out myself it seems it's pay to play?
Note that's "Prototype 1", and I gather the more developed v2 (featured in the update video) isn't available yet.
ramoz 12 hours ago [-]
I bought the game so I could study the code. Unfortunately it is wasm & obfuscated. I'm gonna see what my handy dandy big giant brain buddies can do with it.
naet 20 hours ago [-]
It looks really good in the video uploaded, but when I tried it myself it didn't look the same and was hard to tell what was going on. Not sure what the issue is.
fv3y 19 hours ago [-]
The poster has conflated two different projects with a similar goal I believe.
The videos seem to come from a closed source project made by an outlet called Grow Now Games.
Same here. The video looks cool, but what I see is much messier and hard to identify shapes and objects. Tried on latest Brave and Firefox on Arch Linux.
jayturley 19 hours ago [-]
The video showcases his new version. The live version is his old version.
rpdillon 49 minutes ago [-]
Rhys is the developer of the video version, a person named Miguel wrote the version that was linked with source code. The CONTRACT.md in Miguel's version suggests AI usage, as does commit history (I'm not a zealot about this, but I do note it). I think Rhys's version is more handcrafted, but also much less accessible, being pay-to-play and being delivered in obfuscated WASM.
kodoman 6 hours ago [-]
I love the way this looks very interesting and impressive. One does wonder if as you keep making it more realistic, does it begin to lose it's ASCII nature a bit and become more like a normal rendered game to look at. I think it looks beautiful as it is at the moment and can not wait to see more of this.
This was really impressive. Looking at the comments, I didn't realize there was a whole ASCII art underground. I don't want to sound negative at all, but it would have been nice to seem some recognizable letters to drive home that it's ASCII.
teddyh 6 hours ago [-]
This is an ad. Furthemore, what is being sold, for money, is a simple prototype of a basic 3D renderer.
nom 4 hours ago [-]
wtf are you talking about
throwaway613746 1 hours ago [-]
[dead]
andsoitis 5 hours ago [-]
Where’s said HTML page?
postalcoder 18 hours ago [-]
This makes me deeply nostalgic. Starlight Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog is my favorite game level of all time and the aesthetic of this city is basically like stepping into the background of Starlight Zone.
Seriously impressive browser tech pushing what's possible in one HTML file. The ASCII art and walking mechanic are brilliant.
Sorrel47 11 hours ago [-]
Reminds me of old MUDs, but elevated with a proper walkable city. Super clever use of pure HTML for this whole experience.
pan_lid 12 hours ago [-]
Reminds me of classic DOS text adventures, but with a modern cyberpunk twist. Love the aesthetic and the clever single-file packaging.
felineflock 21 hours ago [-]
Wouldn't it be better to use blocks (219 in ASCII) as the main paint unit and use some other half-block and "hashed" characters (ASCII 220, 223, 176-178) to implement dithering?
Everything above 127 would be extended ASCII instead of strict ASCII, if that matters.
recursive 20 hours ago [-]
There are multiple extensions to ASCII. "Extended ASCII" isn't a single thing, but a category of single-byte character encodings which are supersets of ASCII.
jeffgreco 20 hours ago [-]
Is the GitHub project the same as the videos? Seems like no.
Glad to see HN visitors finally see it on the front page :)
ChrisArchitect 19 hours ago [-]
Welcome. Not a dupe if no discussion after a period of time. Sometimes things just don't get traction. Resubmit is ok.
rvz 19 hours ago [-]
> Sometimes things just don't get traction. Resubmit is ok.
More like it was resubmitted a hundred times already.
Transformanshen 20 hours ago [-]
Wow, that's interesting. It's a good start, and it would be interesting to see how the project develops.
lenikirilov 7 hours ago [-]
Another example when technology can be just used to do cool things, art, and not only be useful (besides beiing a learning experience by the author)
19 hours ago [-]
FpUser 14 hours ago [-]
love it. It has a mood
19 hours ago [-]
keithcarolus 15 days ago [-]
From the video description:
“I wanted to build a city that feels alive, but is made entirely from ASCII characters.
This is a small custom engine built with JavaScript and Canvas — no Unity, Unreal, 3D models, textures, or shaders. The world is a grid-based city with roads, buildings, trees, cars, and pedestrians.
Every frame, the engine raycasts from the camera to work out perspective, depth, collisions, and what should be visible, then draws it all using letters, numbers, and symbols.
In other words: it’s a tiny 3D city made from blocks, viewed through a screen of ASCII characters.
Still a work in progress, but I’m going to keep pushing the atmosphere, detail, and interaction further.”
seaman100 2 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
8 hours ago [-]
ryecrust 11 hours ago [-]
[dead]
klas_segeljakt 8 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
supermatt 15 days ago [-]
This is really nice! is it accessible somewhere to play with?
avidruntime 21 hours ago [-]
The OP's first link is a demo, their second link is the source.
It is kind of shocking to me how TUIs are enjoying a bit of dev tool renaissance right now when the browser is such a capable platform.
[0] https://aleyan.com/projects/ascii-side-of-the-moon/ [1] https://ytirnity.com/play/hexwalker
You have to zoom out to get more pixels for it to look good (and press v to switch rendering engine if it starts off poor)
> ssh sshfighter.com
And instructions on how to do it are here -> https://github.com/thomasdavis/sshfighter.com/blob/main/docs...
(the homepage is ai generated, the real work is in the ssh server)
OP: Amazing ascii world! I love old school terminal style everything.
the sprites aren't all the same size or as good as they could be but already spent too much $$ on sprites.
the sprites are just passed through algorithms that optimize for what text characters at different aspects would make them look good.
Using sprites is clever :-) then I guess that's how these older games worked too.
Command line tools (and by extension TUIs) can be used over SSH and don't require messing around with HTTPS certificates. They also have the benefit of having the context of your CWD.
Which also means there’s no real defense against MITM attacks… at least I don’t think anyone seriously checks the host key on first connection.
Below is the DOM test for frequent vertical color changes. Press and hold the cursor over the ASCII output to change the orientation (notice the FPS drop at the top left).
https://play.ertdfgcvb.xyz/#/src/basics/performance_test
If I have to open a browser which has, frankly mediocre, kb nav, then I'd rather it just be a GUI.
I guess I'm a browser detractor, though, because unless its a webserver used for quick configs then I dread using them.
For me, it's because I can SSH from my wimpy laptop to systems with hundreds of CPU cores and TBs of RAM - and use the same tools and workflows that I am used to.
> Also is there anything to "do" or is it more of a wanderlust simulator? It is mostly just a technology demonstrator for having a hexagonal grid map in the terminal. There is nothing to do. I am prototyping some gameplay features around interacting with the environment, but I expect the end result will be very light weight gameplay that more "A Short Hike" than nethack.
Seriously? Why would you want to open a memory heavy browser tab to run a TUI? This attitude is how we got Electron.
Browser as an app platform, should be used as a last resort.
You have to pay for the demo...
https://ko-fi.com/s/e1e0f91951
Note that's "Prototype 1", and I gather the more developed v2 (featured in the update video) isn't available yet.
The videos seem to come from a closed source project made by an outlet called Grow Now Games.
https://ko-fi.com/grownowgames/
https://www.grownowgames.com/
The other links were:
https://cybercity.carino.systems/
https://github.com/MiguelCarino/CyberCity
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZHR5OKDL81g
Glad to see HN visitors finally see it on the front page :)
More like it was resubmitted a hundred times already.
“I wanted to build a city that feels alive, but is made entirely from ASCII characters.
This is a small custom engine built with JavaScript and Canvas — no Unity, Unreal, 3D models, textures, or shaders. The world is a grid-based city with roads, buildings, trees, cars, and pedestrians.
Every frame, the engine raycasts from the camera to work out perspective, depth, collisions, and what should be visible, then draws it all using letters, numbers, and symbols.
In other words: it’s a tiny 3D city made from blocks, viewed through a screen of ASCII characters.
Still a work in progress, but I’m going to keep pushing the atmosphere, detail, and interaction further.”