// the find
filipedeschamps/doom-fire-algorithm
Playground for the fire effect from DOOM. Really simple algorithm and all experiments are welcome!
A playground repo centered on the fire effect from DOOM (1993), where a simple cellular automaton — each pixel decays toward its neighbor below with a bit of random drift — produces convincing flame. It's primarily an educational collection of the same algorithm reimplemented in dozens of languages and rendering contexts by the community.
The core algorithm is genuinely simple and well-suited to learning: a 2D array, a color palette, and about 10 lines of logic. The breadth of implementations (Rust, Go, Elixir, Bash, STM32 embedded, Unity, SwiftUI, Godot shaders) makes it a useful reference when you want to port a visual algorithm to an unfamiliar runtime. The live demos are hosted on GitHub Pages so you can see results without cloning anything. As an intro project for graphics or game-dev concepts — color palettes, double-buffering, cellular automata — it punches above its star count.
The repo has no central explainer of the algorithm itself — you need to hunt through individual playground READMEs or watch the author's YouTube video to understand what's actually happening mathematically. Contribution quality is wildly uneven: some implementations are clean and idiomatic, others commit compiled artifacts or checked-in build directories. There's no test harness or shared spec, so implementations can quietly diverge. Last meaningful activity was early 2026 with 1.4k stars, which suggests community interest has plateaued — don't expect maintenance if something breaks.