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ASCII fluid dynamics -- IOCCC2012 endoh1.c

Yusuke Endoh3 HN recommenders · 2018–2025
1.7M views · demo · evergreen · Uploaded 2013-11-24

A 3-minute demo of a tiny IOCCC 2012 winning C program that simulates fluid dynamics in an 80x25 terminal, using any text (including its own source) as input. The video shows the simulation running to Handel's Water Music.

Commenters repeatedly point to it as an astonishing, beautiful piece of obfuscated-C code golf.

Creative coding & generative artC, C++, Rust, Go & systems languagesComputer graphics & rendering

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6 comments from Hacker News

@bewuethr2018 · in “Asciinema – Record and share your terminal sessions”

These remind me of the ASCII fluid submission [0] at IOCCC 2012 [1] by Yusuke Endoh. The source [2] itself can be used as an input to the program (see video [3]), and he also made a colour version [4]. [0]: [LINK] [1]: [LINK] [2]: [LINK] [3]: [VIDEO] [4]: [LINK]

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@yung_steezy2022 · in “An uroboros program with 100 programming languages”

Yusuke Endoh is a god amongst men. His C program which creates an approximation of fluid dynamics from any text input is insane - [VIDEO]

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@daptaq2022 · in “A Ruby program that generates itself through a 128-language quine loop”

This was written by Yusuke Endoh, who also wrote this submission to the IOCCC that I remember being arguably more astonished when I saw it for the first time: [VIDEO] (ASCII fluid dynamics).

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@6502nerdface2023 · in “2D Liquid Simulator with Cellular Automaton”

My favorite 2D liquid simulator is this IOCCC2012 submission [1]... simply astonishing. That is the source file shown at the beginning of the video... it compiles without warnings, runs a full blown fluid dynamics sim with surface tension and everything, can take itself as its own input... truly a work of art. [1] [VIDEO]

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@tromp2024 · in “Fast real time fluid simulator based on MPM algorithm”

The IOCCC also featured a very concise fluid simulator [1] [2], which can be seen in action in this video [3]. [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [VIDEO]

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@pwnfunction2025 · in “Show HN: ASCII Drawing Board”

is this opensource? adding a cool fluid simulation to whatever you draw would be really fun. its like one of those ioccc vids - [VIDEO]

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