.Start.of.DemoNews.105..............................................Size:42,284 ______/\___________________________ __ ________________ ___ /\_______ \____ \ ________ _ _ ______ \ / \| \ ________ | \/ ______/ / | \ _) \ \_/ \ | \ / \ \ _) \ | \______ \ / | \ \ | \ | \ / \ \ /~\ \ / \ \_____ /_______/___| /________/ \____\_____/_______/_________/________/ \_____/ |____/ | Subscribers : 1621 DemoNews Issue #105 - October 19, 1995 | Last Week : 1616 ------------- | Change : +5 DemoNews is a newsletter for the demo scene. | Archive Size : 1231M It is produced by Hornet at the site ftp.cdrom.com. | Last Week : 1200M Our demo archive is located under /pub/demos. | Remaining : 235M | =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Uploads Articles Introduction................................Snowman Scoring Points for Helping..................Snowman Putting a Bow on Your Demo Scene Gift.......Rimbo The 8086 Compo..............................Trixter The Freedom CD is Out!......................Dan Wright Subscribing Closing =-[Uploads]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =----------------------------------------------------------[File Information]-= 1. Uploads listed below are on ftp.cdrom.com or its mirrors. 2. Ratings are subjective. 3. ftp.cdrom.com too slow? Check out DN102 for info on ftpmail. =-------------------------------------------------------------[Demos:General]-= Location /demos/alpha Size Rated Description =-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------= /1994/a/abcdefg.zip 6 **+ ASM94: Abcdefg by Anarchy /1994/a/addy_ii.txt 7 ***+ ASM94: Another Way Scroll by ??? /1994/a/agn_kac!.zip 299 [n/a] ASM94: Kit & Cadooble by Agony /1994/a/akm-back.zip 1332 ** TP94: CPC is Back Demo-5 by Arkham /1994/a/amana1.zip 820 *** [1/2] TP94: Amanaman by Coma /1994/a/amana2.zip 839 *** [2/2] TP94: Amanaman by Coma /1994/a/anorexia.zip 52 *** TP94: Anorexia by Hazard /1994/a/atticfix.zip 399 *** The Attic (bf) by Digital House /1994/b/banaani.zip 4 * ASM94: Banaani by ??? /1994/b/blow.zip 52 ** TP94: Blow by S!P /1994/c/chaos.zip 6 ***+ ASM94: Chaos by ??? /1994/c/classika.zip 601 [rip] Classika by Renegade /1994/c/coma.zip 515 *** TP94: Comatose by Fear Factory /1994/c/compcode.zip 6 [n/a] ASM94: ??? by ??? /1994/c/compovrs.zip 5 *** ASM94: Eikoneita by ??? /1994/c/contagio.zip 1109 *** TP94: Contagion by The Coexistence /1994/c/crn_pcd.zip 64 ***+ ASM94: PolyC. Dreams by Creation /1994/c/cte-jk.zip 39 **+ Santa is my Favourite by Cute /1994/d/d.zip 5 **+ ASM94: ??? by ??? /1994/d/defect!.zip 5 *** ASM94: Defect! by ??? /1994/d/delay_pt.zip 5 **+ ASM94: Delay Points by Mythos /1994/d/dole.zip 194 *+ Dole by Planet Hardcore /1994/d/dragon.zip 64 ***+ TP94: Dragon by Core Image /1994/d/drain.zip 6 **** ASM94: Drain by ??? /1994/d/dream.zip 5 *** ASM94: Liquid Dreams by ??? /1994/f/fdreams.zip 7 ****+ ASM94: F. Dreams by Mental Design /1994/f/fg_beta.zip 319 **+ First Glimpse Beta by XTF /1994/f/fractals.zip 6 **** ASM94: Fractals by Schwartz /1994/f/fraczoom.zip 6 ** ASM94: Fractal Zoom by ??? /1994/g/grey.zip 68 **** ASM94: Grey by Abaddon /1994/h/happijoy.zip 9 **** ASM94: Happ. Joy. by Darkzone /1994/h/hn-son.zip 80 * TP94: Song of a Gun by Hardnoise /1994/m/muq_soap.zip 64 *** TP94: Soap by Proxima /1994/p/perlz1.zip 793 **+ [1/2] TP94: Trippin' Megap. by WTB /1994/p/perlz2.zip 704 **+ [2/2] TP94: Trippin' Megap. by WTB /1994/s/soppa.zip 61 *** ASM94: Soppa by Future Crew /1994/s/spaced.zip 7 *** ASM94: Spaced by Force II /1994/s/stoerfal.zip 760 [n/a] TP94: Stoerfall by Strontium 90 /1994/s/stronken.zip 764 *** ASM94: Stronken by Post Mortem /1994/t/trapped.zip 716 ** TP94: Trapped by GLP /1994/v/vs_vreal.zip 671 ** Virtually Reality by Vacant Space /1994/x/xmas_dem.zip 658 **+ Christmas Demo by Paralytic Minds /1994/y/y_eti.zip 470 ** TP94: Everybody by Symptom /1994/y/yakuza.zip 62 ** TP94: Back to the Past by Yakuza /1994/z/zero.zip 559 *** Zero Pulse by Nuclear Threat /1994/z/zetor.zip 45 + TP94: Zetor by Hirmu /1995/a/ascii95.zip 53 ***+ ASCII by Paranoids /1995/c/clx_xtal.zip 1444 **** Xtal by Complex /1995/c/cna-ply.zip 62 *** Polly by Candela /1995/d/ddgdonut.zip 648 *** Donitsi by Digitize Design Group /1995/e/eps_drea.arj 67 *** ASM95: Dream by Epsilon /1995/h/h-karma.zip 494 *** Karma by Halcyon /1995/k/klda_top.zip 165 **+ DaSisTop by Kloon /1995/l/livelove.zip 376 ***+ Love by Live /1995/m/mass-arf.zip 731 *** BIZ95: Arabicum (bf) by Massive /1995/p/perf-fin.zip 935 **** BIZ95: Performance (bf) by LogicD. =--------------------------------------------------------[Demos:Non-Reviewed]-= Location /demos/alpha Size Description =-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------= /bbs/a/anarchy!.zip 153 Anarchy Online by Rex Deathstar /bbs/d/dfuse.zip 10 Digital Fuse by Uncle Bob /bbs/d/drinks.zip 13 $1 Drinks BBStro by Xtatic /bbs/f/forces2.zip 9 Digital Forces by Force II /bbs/s/southfix.zip 79 South of Heaven by Omicron /bbs/s/spoint.zip 15 Pointbreak by Surprise Productions =-------------------------------------------------------------[Music:General]-= Location /demos/music Size Rated Description =-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------= /disks/1995/a/af_quest.zip 993 *+ Quest of Hope by Arura Flux /disks/1995/c/classic1.zip 504 **** Classic by ??? /disks/1995/c/cosmic.zip 1063 **** Cosmic Eclipse by Cosmic /disks/1995/d/dl-ie_1.zip 1206 *** [1/2]Intro/extrospe. by Darkling /disks/1995/d/dl-ie_2.zip 1382 *** [2/2]Intro/Extrospe. by Darkling /disks/1995/d/dusken.zip 1456 ** Dusken by Raphael Blackwolf /disks/1995/k/killers.arj 1456 **** [1/2] Killer's Arrest by Logos/cbr /disks/1995/k/killers.a01 902 **** [2/2] Killer's Arrest by Logos/cbr /songs/1995/mod/b/blues.zip 131 + Rubber blues by Dustbin /songs/1995/mod/c/c64rules.zip 25 * C64 Rules by Dustbin /songs/1995/mod/e/endsleep.zip 6 *** Endless Sleep by Black Thunder /songs/1995/mod/p/pavs_hit.zip 105 *+ Pav's Hit by Pavlov /songs/1995/s3m/e/epi-drz.zip 273 * Drizel by Swill /songs/1995/s3m/f/fdn-val.zip 86 *** Valley of Shadows by Ender /songs/1995/s3m/f/fishup.zip 251 ***+ Fishpond Hup by Ruffkut /songs/1995/s3m/f/fred-fwl.zip 252 *** Farewell by Fred /songs/1995/s3m/l/lx-gndrs.zip 176 *** Genisis Drum Song 1 by TaMeRaX /songs/1995/s3m/l/lx-influ.zip 353 **+ Inflence of Narcotics by TaMeRaX /songs/1995/s3m/m/m-aqth.zip 79 ***+ Aquarius by Mystical /songs/1995/s3m/m/m-delus.zip 124 *** Delusive Dreams by Mystical /songs/1995/s3m/m/m-fate.zip 126 **+ It's my Fate by Mystical /songs/1995/s3m/m/m-finenc.zip 144 ***+ Final Encounter by Mystical /songs/1995/s3m/m/m-getit.zip 173 ***+ Gotta Get it Out by Mystical /songs/1995/s3m/m/m-never.zip 128 *** Never Mind by Mystical /songs/1995/s3m/m/m-slight.zip 182 ***+ Something..Silly by Mystical /songs/1995/s3m/m/mentrevb.zip 92 *+ Mental Reverb by Lightfoot /songs/1995/s3m/n/nex-chil.zip 261 ** Chillout Folk by Nexus /songs/1995/s3m/n/nex-tn.zip 133 *+ Trance Nation by Nexus /songs/1995/s3m/p/pf-world.zip 26 * World of Worlds by Pfister /songs/1995/s3m/p/pig.zip 44 ** Good Pig Boy! by Black Thunder /songs/1995/s3m/p/plldpmc3.zip 280 ***+ Pull of..Deep(mc3 ver) by Jester /songs/1995/s3m/p/pm-mapp.zip 223 * Malicious Apparitions by Pwrmouse /songs/1995/s3m/p/pr-frei.zip 315 *** Freiheit(freedom) by Freejack /songs/1995/s3m/p/pr-fresh.zip 256 ***+ Fresh Start by Freejack /songs/1995/s3m/p/pulldeep.zip 305 ***+ Pull of the Deep by Jester /songs/1995/s3m/r/rr-dream.zip 213 ** Dreams by The Fury /songs/1995/xm/a/alien.zip 182 ***+ Alien Encounter by Black Thunder /songs/1995/xm/a/ancturk.arj 410 *** Turkei Dreams by Anc /songs/1995/xm/b/beyondre.zip 97 **** Beyond Reality by Vogue /songs/1995/xm/b/brainpsy.zip 79 ** Brain Psychosis by Wild!Eye /songs/1995/xm/c/cyberia.zip 775 ** Cyberia 1 & 2 by Kraken /songs/1995/xm/h/horse.zip 220 ***+ Wild Horses by Tito /songs/1995/xm/j/jz-tpt.zip 352 **** The Persuasive Theme by Jazz+Chris /songs/1995/xm/l/lk-fors.zip 664 **** The Forsaken by LizardKing =----------------------------------------------------------------------[Code]-= Location /demos/code Size Rated Lang Description =-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---- ----------------------------= /demosrc/chiparus.zip 12 **+ A "Chiparus" BBS intro w/src /pmode/gema16.zip 118 ***** A 32-bit assembler for demos /text/kmagv1.zip 31 **+ A P Coding magazine from KING v.1 =------------------------------------------------[Miscellaneous:Non-Reviewed]-= Location /demos Size Description =-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------= /hornet/d..s/101-120/demonews.103 47 DemoNews 103 /hornet/d..s/101-120/demonews.104 51 DemoNews 104 /hornet/demonews/other/dnr130.zip 82 DemoNews Reader v1.30 /info/traxw/traxweek.028 38 TraxWeekly 28 /info/traxw/traxweek.029 53 TraxWeekly 29 /info/traxw/traxweek.030 84 TraxWeekly 30 =-[Articles]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =---------------------------------------------------[Introduction]--[Snowman]-= _____Introduction Hello all, and welcome to DemoNews issue 105. This issue is very delayed for several important reasons, none of which I will tell you. :) I can only say that I hope things calm down soon or I'm gonna get an ulcer. I have been receiving much mail concerning mirroring, size of archive, groups directories, the ratings system, DemoNews, etc. Hopefully this introduction will answer a few of the questions. Just consider this the ftp.cdrom.com FAQ for the week of October 15. _____Out of Room In DemoNews.104, I listed the remaining size for our archive at about 394 megs. Earlier this week, I checked again and it was down to less than 200! The /pub/demos archive is located on one physical mount with 6 other archives. Of the 2.4 gigs on this mount, we eat up about 1.2, while the other 6 archives take about 700 megs combined. We are getting about 40 megs a week of new files in /incoming. Put this together with 394 megs free and you see we _would_ have had about 10 weeks before we ran out of room. Put this together with my discovery earlier this week (less than 200 megs left) and we have about a month left. For some time, Dan Wright has been trying to offer a 1 gig SCSI drive to ftp.cdrom.com as an expansion to our archive. They had not replied to numerous mails, so I finally wrote a very urgent mail saying "We will run out of room very soon. Can we please donate a 1 gig drive? Please respond quickly." And they did. They refused the drive. They said that 1 gig wasn't worth adding when they could just buy another 4.4 gig drive and move us to that. So Dan Wright gets to keep his hard drive and we get moved to a much bigger place. It might take a few weeks before our archive is moved. After it is though, we should have enough room for at least 1 year. A couple months ago, the idea was put forth that if we deleted songs rated under *** (and over a month old), we could significantly reduce our archive size. Many people were opposed to this idea. Because we now will have much more room, this deletion system will not have to be set up. Its a good thing we found out about the new 4.4 gig drive when we did. I had the pseudocode for this system ready and could have started implementing it as early as Friday of this week. Whew! :) Problem solved. _____The Connection Bottleneck Many people are having a lot of difficulty getting on to ftp.cdrom.com. This situation will not improve until the administration at Walnut Creek (who own the ftp.cdrom.com archive) decide to add on a few more processors or increase the bandwidth. The lag is so bad that I am having trouble even moving files and doing regular maintenance. The only advise I can give you all is to try to get on the site at 2:00-6:00 PST (12:00-4:00 GMT). I can't promise that this will be faster for you, but it does seem that access is much quicker during these hours. _____Where are the Mirrors? ftp.luth.se has stopped mirroring our archive. This is because they simply can not through to our archive to copy the new files. Trixter has written Walnut Creek. But again, they are slow to respond to mail. On the flip side, there are at least 3 European ftp sites which would like us to mirror their incoming directories. I am all in favor of this, but given our other problems, this is not high on the priority list right now. I would guess at least two weeks before we can actively start working with the maintainers about the mirroring. _____Too Many Uploads I mentioned earlier that we are getting about 40 megs per week of uploads. Over time, this number will _not_ be going down. Since we review all uploads, we are becoming very backlogged. Diablo is in charge of our music reviewers. In total, there are 6 people who are rating music and music-related files each week. This is still not enough and I am most emphatically urging Diablo to add on at least two more reviewers. Come to think of it, the only /incoming directories we are having problems with are /music and /graphics. The /code directory is taken care of by Trixter, and the /demos, /mags, and /news are taken care of by myself. It appears that GD might start maintaining the /incoming/graphics directory. Who knows. _____Special Directories Symbolic links to files are presenting a special problem. I have been trying to update all of the links to /party/1995. These aren't too bad except for the party music and party graphics. Many people have suggested that we keep /music/artists directories for songs produced by one person. The good news is that this is very possible and easy. All we need to do is grep the ALLFILES.TXT for a given author, and set up the links from that. However, that would imply that the ALLFILES.TXT has an accurate and up-to-date list of all songs that an author has done. Such is not the case. Many of the descriptions in 00index.txt files were taken from older versions of DemoNews that did not list songs in the "Song Name by Author" format. _____Conclusion Well folks, its going to be a rocky road ahead for a little while. We will be doing the best job we can, so just be patient and understanding. Now, I'll bet you're saying to yourself "I'd really like to help out ftp.cdrom.com in some way but I just don't know how." Well, you are in luck! You can help us out. Just read "Scoring Points for Helping" (the next article in this issue). Have fun and read on. Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com =-------------------------------------[Scoring Points for Helping]--[Snowman]-= _____Introduction I'll bet you're wondering how you can help out with the archive. Here is an easy way to do so. Whenever you see a problem on our site, just mail us. In return, will will give you a "point." So what do you do with these points? I'm a flat broke college student so I can't run out and buy you anything. I _can_ however mention in DemoNews that person "X" has been doing a good job helping us. I know this whole system sounds kind of corny, but it should work, and it should help. _____Details Mail the problem to : r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com Problems take the form of : 1. An incorrectly cataloged file. You must provide the correct description to receive a point. Files not already cataloged do not count. Files containing "???" are prime targets. 2. A poorly cataloged file. You must provide the better description to receive a point. 3. An invalid link to a file. You must provide the correct link to receive a point. Files in /incoming do not count. _____Examples The file /music/songs/1995/xm/a/angothrp.zip has the description "Angropthorp by Bazzleman". The description should be "Angothorp by Bellman". The file /music/disks/1995/z/zeblack.zip has the poor description "Zeblack by K. Knight". The description should be "Zebra in Black by Korny Knight". The file in /groups/complex/clx-dope.zip is an invalid link. The correct link should be to /alpha/1995/c/clx_dope. _____Conclusion Next week, I'll post a list of all those who have helped out so far. Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com =----------------------------[Putting a Bow on Your Demo Scene Gift]--[Rimbo]-= Okay, a while back, I was extraordinarily tired and foolishly posted a long, meandering, but surprisingly well-received tirade about design in demos. Sure, it made a good editorial, but I think I'd rather take this opportunity to point out some of the things that have made demos work in the past. You see, we in the demo scene are, in a rather odd way, off all on our own. There is a fringe element of people who are curious to see what we in the scene produce, but for the most part, should this scene die out altogether, nobody would miss it. The only reason I mention it is this: I think it's a shame. Here's why. Within the scene is what is quite possibly the largest pool of incredible coding talent in the world. And--perhaps I'm odd in this fashion--I think it's unreasonable for us not to get the credit due to us. But the world doesn't look at that; they look at packaging. And that's why I'm bringing this up. Because packaging, once you set your mind to it, is the easiest thing in the world to do. These examples are all part of a whole attitude; you try to imitate the thought which produce these results, and you gain the attitude. Right now in the demoscene, people are putting out crappy demos, because all the demos do is demonstrate the barest possibilities of highly-optimized algorithms and set them to music of questionable quality. And that, precisely, is where the problem begins: Music. Take Second Reality for example. A brief aside here. I'm going to bring up Second Reality because, despite its age, people still seriously ask about it, talk about it, and it is still the standard by which all others are judged. Considering its age, this probably reflects poorly on the scene, but I've already editorialized this enough. The first thing to say about 2ndR's music is that it's just plain good. You take every piece out of that demo and listen to it, and it sounds great, without the effects. But there's much more to it than that. Not every group can have the musical talent FC was blessed with, but every group can use it as well. There are three things which musicians and coders should be aware of when they begin merging code with music: Synchronization, appropriateness, and the "hook." Synchronization means making sure the music actually accompanies the demo, not just plays in the background. When the music hits a certain stage, the demo hits a certain stage. I've seen demos which merely looped the music endlessly, and ended by just cutting off the music. Dope, in this respect, is almost criminal. Notice that the pieces are relatively short in 2ndR, and so effects don't have to stay on longer than they need to, as well. But with each section, there is a corresponding part of the music. Appropriateness means writing music that fits the mood of the rest of the demo. In some cases, one piece fits the whole demo (e.g., Majic_12's "Show"). In the case of 2ndR, however, each effect has fitting music. What Purple Motion does for plasmas is wonderful...but what really makes your heart pound are the grandiose orchestral pieces of Skaven at the beginning and end of the demo. The music says "you're about to see something incredible" and "you're seeing the end of something spectacular." But if you close your eyes, you can still see each effect; if you turn off the sound, you can still hear the music--because the music is APPROPRIATE. You don't write a techno piece to accompany a bird flying around a fountain; you don't write an ambient ballad for a bunch of space fighters shooting each other up. The last bit is the "hook." The hook is something many more demos need. Basically, the music has to grab your attention. It could be something which happens immediately (like in "Show"), but most often you are prepared for it with slow music (or speech in the case of EMF's Verses..."Is everybody in?"). The "hook" occurs in 2ndR right after the beginning credits, when the title screen appears, and PM's piece begins. Notice, also, that the title is preceded and succeeded by two of the (at the time) most impressive effects in the demo--the Praxis explosion and the bouncing glenzed objects. A few non-music-related suggestions. I've already mentioned shortening the length of effects, but it's worth mentioning again because it's so important. Once you've shown something, move on. Don't give the audience the opportunity to get bored. No one failing is more rampant AND damaging to demos released at any one time than this. Think about it. Imagine you are someone who knows nothing about the effort required to make a fast Phong-shaded object, and just sees a torus rotating on screen for 30 seconds. At first, you think, "Wow, that's cool!" But the joy doesn't last. Dope, again, is one very good demo which would have been a thousand times better had it not lingered on each effect for so long. (I'm not meaning to rag on Dope so much; it really is one of my most favorite demos, but with minor effort, it could have been even better.) It doesn't matter what effect you're trying to do, don't leave it on screen longer than you absolutely must. If you're trying to tell a story, don't let it linger unless you need to for effect; but if you're merely showing off code, DO NOT give the audience the opportunity to get bored. Make it so that if they go into the next room, pour a drink of water, and return, they miss something. What about effect ordering? Here's a good general rule: Put your best effect first, and your second-best effect last. Put your worst effects in the middle. This is only if you don't have grander design ideas in mind. Why? You put your best effect first as your "hook." When you start a demo with something VERY impressive, you catch people's attention, and they want to watch. Similarly, end with a good effect, so that people are left thinking, "that was amazing!" If you begin with a bad effect, people will prejudge you and say that your demo was lame; if you end with a weak effect, it will leave a bad taste in the audience's mouth, and they will feel let-down. Finally. Don't merely demonstrate your coding. Sit around with your friends and think of an interesting way to show it off. "Gee, Alan, I've got this great phong env-mapping routine, but I'm not sure what to do with it." "What's that?" "Well, here's what it looks like..." "Gee, you know, that looks kind of like the way light bounces off of a coffee mug." "A coffee mug! That's it!" "Yeah, it could be sitting on a table in a diner..." You get the idea? The phong-shaded torus is not merely uncreative; it shows a lack of creativity that's astonishing. It's on the level of being asked to draw a picture, and drawing a picture of a house. It means you didn't actually think of a subject. Look at Tome of Opticron by Craw Productions. The 3D engine they use has no shading whatsoever (not even flat shading), yet it looks GREAT because they did something with it that was creative. The same thing goes towards transitions. There are so many approaches to different transitions they're hard to count. You can do the "Show" method, where one effect transforms itself into another...each succeeding effect at one point is almost morphed into. Effect-morphing! There is the GRiF method (a la Catchup!), where each effect is framed neatly with creatively-done titles (the "Virtual Reality") and even effects in themselves ("Zebra Vector coming up next," the feet appearing and disappearing before the mirror). You can do more smooth changeovers. You can do jerky changeovers which make the beginning and end of each effect concrete. But whatever you do, don't just clear the screen and do the next effect. The fadein/fadeout has also been overused. It doesn't take a lot of thought, and it doesn't have to be a great idea; it just has to be creative. So there are some more concrete design suggestions. But let me add a caveat: Good design is not a replacement for good code by any means. I'm not saying that I'd rather see Catchup! than Stars. I'd rather see Verses, or Second Reality, or Project Angel, than either Catchup! or Stars; all three of these demos have great coding AND good packaging. I'm not endorsing themes, either. Although they can improve the demo, they can also limit it. So go do it. Make your demo. And this time, think about what the audience is going to see. Rimbo - rimbo@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu ==------------------------------------------------[The 8086 Compo]--[Trixter]-= ___________/\_ ______________ ______ _______ ______ /\______ \__ ___/ | \_ _____/ / __ \\ _ \ / __ \ / _____/ | | / ~ \ __)_ >