What are computers?¶
Answer: They're rocks that think.
A lot of people treat CPUs like complex magical objects with minds of their own, but that's not true and it's a dangerous mindset to have if you want to understand how they work. They're just little blocks of silicon, an element that makes up most rocks and minerals. I.E. they're rocks.
If computers are just rocks, why do they do stuff when we connect them to electricity?¶
To answer this, we're going to have a quick science lesson.
Most rocks are not great conductors and pure silicon also does a poor job of conducting electricity. However, silicon is actually classified as a semiconductor which means it can change its conductivity under the right conditions.
Semiconductors conduct electricity semi of the time.
Not grammatically correct, but totally makes sense if you think about it.
There are two ways to change silicon's conductivity: 1. By mixing in impurities. 2. By exposing it to a nearby electrical charge, such as a piece of metal with a current on it.
The first one is pretty obvious. Adding other elements will change how the material behaves. These mixtures get names like p-type or n-type silicon and some are less conductive than pure silicon and some are more.
The second method is less intuitive, but that's okay. We don't have to understand how it works. Just know that it works and it can affect conductivity in both directions.
Check out this gif. It shows a piece of silicon that was mixed to be naturally less conductive. But, by applying a charge to the gate, which is just a piece of metal, it becomes more conductive.
This little piece of silicon is called a transistor. Some people call them gates because they "open" and "close" to control the flow of electricity.
When you turn on your PC, electricity flows through through the input section of the little pins on the bottom of your CPU.
Different input pins will open and close different gates, which will result in the current taking a different path through the CPU to light up a different pattern of output pins, and each pattern of output pins will do something different.
One specific pattern might save a sequence of data to a specific memory address in RAM. Another might change the color of a specific pixel on your screen.
So which combination of pins create a VRChat world?¶
Each operation your CPU can perform has to be hardcoded into it. There's a finite number of 64 bit numbers, so it makes sense that your CPU manufacturer would account for the adding and subtracting of any two combinations of them. But there's an infinite number of possible VRChat worlds.
There's no single CPU operation dedicated these more complex tasks. Instead, you have to string together many simple operations in a process called programming.