Rgba
Raymarching in four kilobytes
Rgba pushed the 4K intro into new territory with real-time raymarched graphics, and their member iq carried those techniques into Shadertoy and the wider graphics world.
Rgba are a small group with an outsized influence on one of the demoscene’s hardest disciplines: the 4K intro, a complete real-time production in just four kilobytes. Working with their collaborators TBC, Rgba’s Elevated (2009) showed that 4K need not mean crude — it could mean landscapes, lighting, and motion that rivalled full demos.
The engine behind that was real-time raymarching of signed distance fields, a technique Rgba’s iq (Íñigo Quílez) did more than almost anyone to popularise — first in intros, then far beyond the scene.
Fast facts
- Platform: PC.
- Speciality: 4K intros, real-time raymarching.
- Best known for: Elevated (2009, with TBC).
- Notable member: iq (Íñigo Quílez).
Scene to the wider world
iq went on to co-create Shadertoy — the browser playground where a generation learned shader programming — and to work in film and graphics research. The raymarching ideas Rgba sharpened in 4K intros now turn up in tutorials, tools, and production renderers everywhere: another case of scene technique escaping into the mainstream.