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This attitude is fairly common amongst the real old timers of the demoscene. While there is of course a bit of viewing the past through rose tinted glasses, I t
by GuiA 12y ago
This attitude is fairly common amongst the real old timers of the demoscene. While there is of course a bit of viewing the past through rose tinted glasses, I think it's definitely grounded in truth.
The reason for that is that demo programming is the coding equivalent of watch making: extremely precise, technical work that takes deep knowledge and long hours to achieve something notable. Knowing your tools and platform inside out is a necessity - and the more modern your CPU/GPU are, the less realistic that is. When I was writing assembly for my 8MHz z80, I could easily hold the full instruction set + CPU register layout etc in working memory. When you're working on a modern i7 + GTX780, that's pretty much impossible, and you have to resort to abstraction layers and tools that inevitably lead to the situation described by the author of the article. It's a classic case of extreme restraints working in the favor of creativity.
Interestingly enough, my few friends who are still into coding demos don't do it on modern architectures - they're mostly sticking to the C64.
- bane 12y agoOn a side note: the rise of the 1k, 4k and 8k sub-"scenes" is likely a response, create artificial constraints to enable creativity.
- tracker1 12y agoI think the JS k demos are pretty interesting to say the least... it's amazing what can be done with a few K.. though the original vs. final code doesn't always bear much resemblance. The point is, too many people don't spend any* time thinking of how what they write is inefficient or not... Even mobile devices are becoming mobile powerhouses. It's a bit of a shame really.
- jpsierens 12y agoSorry to ask but, what do you and the author refer to with 'demos'?
- maxmem 12y agohttp://www.demoscene.info/the-demoscene/ http://www.demoscene.info/the-demoscene/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene
- maxmem 12y agoIf you want to watch some of the demos you can check out http://www.demoscene.tv/ http://www.demoscene.tv/
- NegatioN 12y agoI found that site hard to navigate, and a bit outdated. For anyone who want a very spesific example of how cool demos can be, here are some of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXMs54NUBOI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXMs54NUBOI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYpKnl1B_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYpKnl1B_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO6dtjxbHzs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO6dtjxbHzs Going to see these demo-competitons in Norway in my childhood was certainly a big inspiration to learn coding.
- Audiophilip 12y agoPlease don't. demoscene.tv is extremely outdated. Youtube is full of excellent quality 60fps video captures of demos. Here's a link to get started: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=60fps+demoscene https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=60fps+demoscene
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- lelandbatey 12y agoI'll quote wikipedia here: The demoscene is an international computer art subculture that specializes in producing demos: small, self-contained computer programs that produce audio-visual presentations. The main goal of a demo is to show off programming, artistic, and musical skills. Basically, these programs are extremely small, but produce interesting and impressive visual or audio experiences. A popular example would be "fr-041: debris. by farbrausch": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxfmxi-boyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxfmxi-boyo