Super Mario Bros. Movie (1993) apologist

@outrider

rock sleep repeat

he/him
slime.global/ektoutie

on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog

warning: will incessantly waffle at you about myst, kreator, and an array of fish bothering games

Super Mario Bros. Movie (1993) apologist @outrider3/20/2024, 4:48 PM

jae @jkap

jae @jkap3/20/2024, 4:44 PM

software development is like 90% weird compromises to work around the limitations of the tools you use. for example: hardcoded list of prime numbers. it's faster than computing them on the fly.

FAQ
Q. what are you using these for
A. artist alley. don't worry about it.

Q. what if you need to change these
A. if we somehow find new prime numbers between approximately 1k and 10k then updating this file will be the least of our concerns

Super Mario Bros. Movie (1993) apologist @outrider3/20/2024, 4:48 PM

see also: "random number generators" in NES/Gameboy and even later-gen games often just being "list of a couple hundred random numbers that we're gonna cycle through"

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @jkap's post:

tef @tef3/20/2024, 4:51 PM

in the bad old days, every database in production had a table of numbers, as it was the easiest way to number rows in the output

Temmie Nya @not-really-a-goddess3/20/2024, 5:12 PM

I may be misremembering but isnt this (hardcoded list of primes, or powers? cant remember) also used in mario 64... or doom.
EH, I guess in general software is always this funky hehe.

evie @ewie3/20/2024, 5:22 PM

calculating primes is slow and hard but looking numbers up is fast and easy. however it does make every software developer scream because it always feels unoptimal

Hunter Elenbaas @Hunter-JE4/12/2024, 9:27 PM

Honestly if I as a human wanted an arbitrary prime within a given range I'd probably look up a list of primes rather than calculating them de novo so don't at all blame a computer for preferring the same...

liffy 💜@lifning3/20/2024, 6:17 PM

many video games, especially older ones, use a look-up table like this for trig functions - and sometimes also for square root, division, etc. on platforms that don't have built-in cpu instructions for them

Silicone Valley @SiliconeValleyComic3/20/2024, 5:26 PM

I read it as "one-thousand-primates" and thought you were doing the whole "monkeys and typewriters" thing.

Tempest @sutempest3/20/2024, 6:15 PM

I am forever reminded of the reason why software development feels like arcane spells and magic instead of using machines in the name of order and reason

It's because the machines do not know order and reason, we have to force those into them

It's Dr.　　　　　　　　 Tim @wgwgsa3/20/2024, 8:33 PM

i'm sure i can find a new one. nobody has looked all that hard.

Misty @dog3/20/2024, 11:08 PM

you would not believe your eyes / if one thousand embedded primes

The Fru Fru Brigade~@Fru-Fru-Brigade4/12/2024, 9:26 PM

🐭Dances!