THE FALL (ASCII)

⚠️ WORK IN PROGRESS - NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Series: Screensavers

Year: 2025

Status: Seeking publication permission

About

An ASCII art interpretation of THE FALL, using GPU-accelerated WebGL rendering to display entropy-locked patterns through colored characters.

Each character's brightness maps to RGB color values, creating a flowing, burning pattern that's guaranteed to loop but never predictably. The character set uses bidirectional gradients for visual symmetry, creating wave-like patterns as colors flow through brightness ranges.

Current Status

This piece cannot be published without permission.

The WebGL rendering techniques were inspired by ertdfgcvb's work (specifically Device 1). While our implementation was written from scratch, we relied heavily on their code as a reference for GPU-accelerated ASCII rendering.

This preview page exists to:

  • Share the work with ertdfgcvb to request publication permission
  • Gather feedback from trusted collaborators
  • Test the piece across different devices and screens

Technical Details

  • Algorithm: Same as original THE FALL (entropy locking, pixel burning, random movement)
  • Character Set: Curated palette from Pico-8 font with bidirectional gradients
  • Grid: Dynamic sizing (120 chars tall, width scales with aspect ratio)
  • Rendering: WebGL with font texture atlas and custom shaders
  • RNG: fxhash for deterministic generation (no Math.random)

Controls

  • i - Toggle info overlay
  • p - Pause animation
  • s - Save PNG
  • f - Toggle fullscreen
  • r - New seed (stays in fullscreen)

The piece automatically scales to any display size and recalculates the grid dynamically on resize without reloading.

Credits

Concept & Core Algorithm: Drew Brereton (aebrer)
WebGL Implementation: Collaborative work between Drew Brereton and Claude Code
Inspiration: ertdfgcvb - Device 1

Attribution & Permission

This work was created as a collaborative experiment between Drew Brereton and Claude Code. The WebGL ASCII rendering techniques were inspired by and learned from ertdfgcvb's Device 1.

While the implementation was written from scratch, we acknowledge the significant influence of ertdfgcvb's pioneering work in GPU-accelerated ASCII art. This piece will not be published or shared publicly without explicit permission from ertdfgcvb.

If you are ertdfgcvb and have feedback or concerns about this work, please reach out via: