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Once again it's demotime! \o/ Yep, early august is time for the 2nd major demo party of the year: assembly in finland. This is a massive party in a big sports arena, but it's mixed with a gamer/lan party (the sight of which fills the average demoscener with disgust, but hey it wouldn't be the same without them :) So, on with the demos. I'll post links to the executables (mostly PC/Windows unfortunately), youtube videos (good for a quick scan) and high quality videos (MP4, large files, 720p, but well worth the download for the quality.. youtube's compression seriously KILLS some of these!) First, the 'main event', the demo competition itself. The rules here are pretty open: it must run realtime on a current high end PC, and I think the size limit is 128mb. Happiness is Around the Bend by ASD. This won the compo. 8 minutes of amazing work, great effects and art. Executable: http://amusic.gr/files/ASD%20-%20Happiness%20is%20Around%20the%20Bend.zip Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQngoCBvq3Q Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1193_dem... Ceasefire (all falls down..) by Fairlight. Came 2nd. This is Smash's work, and is technically awesome as usual. Everything is rendered using particles.. millions of particles, with lighting, fluid effects and texturing, in realtime. Good artwork + music too. Executable: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2010/assembly10/demo/ceasefire_all_fall_... [warning: needs a VERY high end video card!] Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grqb1aIa_4s Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1185_dem... Koiban by Satori. Came 7th, but it's not a natural party-friendly demo like the others so this is actually a very good ranking for this kind of demo. It's software rendered and needs a fast CPU (3ghz core 2 or an i5/7 is a good idea, the engine isn't yet threaded so multicore won't help). Satori do very cool psychadelic art stuff, the kind of effects we often make in QC. Executable: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2010/assembly10/demo/koiban_by_satori.zip Youtube (NOT recommended for this one, it just can't cope with the number of lines ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVwY5D-NQiY&hd=1 Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1195_dem... |
Next up the 64KB entries. Rules here are the same, except that the total size for the program (all code, graphics and music) is 64KB. That means you can't use any videos, mp3s, or even photoshopped textures. Basically everything is programmed: they write their own synths for the music, their own texture and modelling tools so the textures and models are generally <1KB each. No network access is allowed.
X Marks The Spot by Portal Process. 1st place. Has a pretty nice 3d city, with a dancing robot.. classic party winning material ;) Executable: http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~kyrrehg/pf/demos/pp_xmarksthespot.zip Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpQnV_Bp7Jo Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1181_64k...
Behind the Curtain by United Force & Digital Dynamite. 2nd place. More traditional stuff (spike balls and cubes!) but good effects. Executable: http://www.scene.hu/public/ufdd_btc.zip Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFbS58IebrA Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1171_64k...
Ars Nova by Accept Corp. 3rd. This is a classic "show tons of high quality 3D in a tiny file" demo. Impressive, but I wished it had some concept + direction too :) Executable: http://www.chiptown.ru/demo/ArsNova.zip Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnjX8xXh52M Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1177_64k...
Pier by Hedelmae. 4th. I really like this one - it's very simple, just the one scene, but really well done. And it's only 22KB :) Executable: http://download.hedelmae.fi/pier.zip Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4qVnbLpntY Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1179_64k...
The Hungarian Gambit by ate bit. Only managed 6th, it's fairly traditional demoscene stuff (tunnels, cubes, city scene). But it's really nicely designed, flawlessly executed, and the music is amazing for 64KB. Most of this is achievable in QC :)
Executable: http://atebit.org/downloads/TheHungarianGambit%20-%20Ate%20Bit.zip Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqYrBnllOjk Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1178_64k...
Now we're getting to the small stuff: 4KB! These tiny little things pack in the synthesiser, instruments and music, plus 3D objects and textures, plus all of the actual demo code and script into 4KB. No external files or network access allowed. It's pretty hardcore ;)
Neanderstaller by Pittsburgh Stallers. 1st place. Amazing music, and a really cool line/swarming type effect. One of the true great 4KBs I reckon. Executable: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=%2Fparties%2F2010%2Fassembly10%2Fin4k... Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZopz-dvq08 Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1156_4k_...
Atleeti by Archee. 2nd. Not really a 'demo' as such, this is more AI + physics. The AI controls the character, who chases the ball: the AI itself flexes the joints of the limbs, nothing else, and learns from its mistakes. It starts almost just rolling around, but ends up almost running and punching the ball in the air. Technically pretty amazing, quite amusing to watch ;) Info file (worth a read): http://www.pouet.net/nfo.php?which=55563 Executable: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=%2Fparties%2F2010%2Fassembly10%2Fin4k... (contains a randomised version so you can see different versions) Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hJEPzqnyIQ (youtube is fine for this one) Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1167_4k_...
Bubblin Under by Adapt. 3rd. Cool effects. Executable: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=%2Fparties%2F2010%2Fassembly10%2Fin4k... Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykJoFjaw1v4 Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1168_4k_...
Collideride by Digimind [web] & Silent. 4th. Very pretty raytraced metasurface or distance function tunnels. Executable: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/in4k/collide... Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoeDA5eJvUs Video: http://www.scene.org/file.php?file=/parties/2010/assembly10/vod/1155_4k_...
I'll leave it there for now. There's a ton more, but those were the highlights for me (so far, not watched everything yet :) (and no, I missed the party this year, too busy :( )
There's a full(ish) list of the entries here: http://www.pouet.net/party.php?which=7&when=2010
Oh yeah, other stuff worth checking out perhaps:
Tricky truck ( http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=55533 ). Game by Archee (that did the atleeti AI/physics 4KB). You get to park a truck. Except you get to park it on the side of a cliff, in 3d, with realistic physics, it's really cool :)
Tonot ( http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=55571 ). 4KB for mac osx \o/ Except that it requires an i3/i5/i7 CPU, if you've not got one of those it crashes :(
Counter Intelligence Program by Bilotrip ( http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=55575 ). Demo with a mac port. Not seen it yet, looks interesting.
That's a shed load of creativity to catch up on. Outstanding links psonice :-)
Wow, there is soooo much great stuff in there.
Collideride is a real fave. I always love the fairlight stuff as well. I love the Archee thing (it kinda reminds me of the thing that looked like the boxy animal walking over cubes chasing the butterfly from last year).... I could look at that dopey AI character hit that ball all day! It's oddly fascinating. I like that "pier" one as well. That's one that's doable in QC now as well, for sure. Minimal but tasteful.
The winner didn't get me as much this year as that cycling forth from last year....it was like a Tool vid gone awry.
Yeah, breakpoint and assembly both produce massive amounts of awesomeness. There's always a few really stunning entries, always a couple of great demos from the big groups (ASD, farbrausch + fairlight, plus sometimes others like plastic or mfx).
There's usually some amazing 'wild' entries too, like somebody did an amazing demo on a pokemon mini once ( http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=16376 ), and a demo made by connecting PC sound output to an oscilloscope ( http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=31592&howmanycomments=50&page=1 ).
And of course there's the oldschool platforms, where somebody squeezes last year's fairlight demo onto an 8bit machine with 64kb of memory :)
I've not had time to dig through the other entries yet (bought a house a couple of weeks back, been hard at work fixing it up.. it was empty for 12+ years, the garden alone took 2 full days to cut down!)