Within the ongoing quest to do unusual, and seemingly unattainable issues with Microsoft Excel, Redditor u/awesomegraczgie21 posted an illustration of a functioning, playable raycaster within the type of a first-person maze recreation working completely by way of Microsoft Excel utilizing its Visible Primary for Functions (VBA) programming language.
Particularly, this maze tech demo is seen using raycasting to help transparency and per-column texture mapping. Transparency is famous as being performed from the participant’s view outward (close-to-far rendering), and a easy collision system is used to maintain the sport functioning throughout the constraints of its walled maze. The maze is, in fact, explored completely in first-person, navigated just about one body at a time through the included 4 motion and a pair of strafe buttons.
In comparison with previous makes an attempt at rendering graphics in Microsoft Excel, just like the “Fallout for Excel” recreation, that is far extra formidable, although equally restricted in scope and playability. Whereas there may be sped-up video footage (10 FPS!) of navigation by way of the maze being unfold on-line from the unique posting, the precise gameplay is extra like a “interactive slideshow” . With its creator stating that the FPS ranges between “2FPS as much as 5 SPF (0.2 FPS). Rendering a number of overlapping clear partitions kills the efficiency, but it surely’s price it.” All the demo is coded in simply 400 strains of VBA.
Excel – one of the best recreation engine. A easy raycaster with help for transparency and per column texture mapping. Extra data within the feedback. from r/GraphicsProgramming
Again in January, one other Excel hobbyist went and proved that it was doable to construct a whole functioning 16-bit CPU full with 128 KB of RAM, a 128×128 pixel show, and a customized meeting language (dubbed Excel-ASM16) throughout the constraints of Microsoft Excel. Like with Excel-ASM16 and “Fallout for Excel”, it is possible that this playable Excel raycaster demo merely will not work outdoors of Microsoft Excel, i.e. in alternate options akin to OpenOffice or LibreOffice.
Like most of those Excel tasks, then, it could appear that this venture was performed virtually purely for enjoyable and/or amusement, although it is also famous by the creator that it was made as a venture for a “Programming in VBA” college course, “as a result of why not”. The creator had wished to construct a raycaster from scratch since they have been 16, however lacked the data to make it occur. Now of their second yr of college, AwesomeGraczGie21 has performed it, however will they cease there? So far as college assignments go, breaking the assumed boundaries of Microsoft Excel with simply “~400 strains of code” is one thing that one would hope would facilitate a passing grade.
