I have a real static visualization. I should put some pictures online. My visualization does not rely on in-place algorithms: There's a square of pixels n x n, if two items are compared by the algorithm the corresponding pixel turns black, otherwise it stays white.
The traces of mergesort, quicksort and so on are quit distinctive.
Sounds much simpler than these ones. I've never really found it useful to see the unordered set transform into an ordered one - the point should be in how the algorithm does divide&conquer.
The traces of mergesort, quicksort and so on are quit distinctive.