Being impressed
category: general [glöplog]
I'd like to know when the last time was you were really *impressed* by a demo or intro, and when you think you will be the next time.
Last time for me was fr-08. Now that i have seen generator.exe and know how it's all done, none of fr's intros have been able to impress me since, because i know it's all basically the same stuff.
Next thing i can think of that will impress me is speech/singing in 64k, from what i understand, kb has been investigating this?
But of course, i'd like to see someone impress me in whole other ways...
Last time for me was fr-08. Now that i have seen generator.exe and know how it's all done, none of fr's intros have been able to impress me since, because i know it's all basically the same stuff.
Next thing i can think of that will impress me is speech/singing in 64k, from what i understand, kb has been investigating this?
But of course, i'd like to see someone impress me in whole other ways...
hmm.. last time i was *REALLY* impressed by a demo as a demo (not just artistically) was CNCD - inside maybe?
have no clue about phuture - i cant even think of an answer
there is singing in 40kb intro nonstop by DCS. ->
[feck BBkOOde http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=1718 ]
what can I say?
for me as a coder I can only notice that people seem to like design more than code. I guess I´m one of those old farts who has the "if you want design you should make avi´s and flashmovies" attitude.
Not that design is a bad thing, ofcourse not, but demos are about code, music, graphics and design, and if one of those is bad or totally missing than I thing something is wrong.
Right now most demos fail to impress me personally because there´s not enough new shit going on. Everybody is still doing the same: distorting spheres, blobs, twistbars, particles etc. We have to recapture that old coderspirit where we could do such impressive shit with so little. Maybe it´s the PC scenes inability to exploit hardware acceleration like the old scenes on atari, amiga and indeed c64 that is keeping us trapped in this same routine.
Now that I think about it, perhaps this is the source of this horrible design-hype. We just can´t come up with new decent code anymore to we try to make up for that trough designy flatshading and excessive music syncing.
So to all coders I´d like to say: make us happy, free us of the tirrany of bad design and code some decent effects! Read the dx8 sdk and do some new shit. Heal the scene!
for me as a coder I can only notice that people seem to like design more than code. I guess I´m one of those old farts who has the "if you want design you should make avi´s and flashmovies" attitude.
Not that design is a bad thing, ofcourse not, but demos are about code, music, graphics and design, and if one of those is bad or totally missing than I thing something is wrong.
Right now most demos fail to impress me personally because there´s not enough new shit going on. Everybody is still doing the same: distorting spheres, blobs, twistbars, particles etc. We have to recapture that old coderspirit where we could do such impressive shit with so little. Maybe it´s the PC scenes inability to exploit hardware acceleration like the old scenes on atari, amiga and indeed c64 that is keeping us trapped in this same routine.
Now that I think about it, perhaps this is the source of this horrible design-hype. We just can´t come up with new decent code anymore to we try to make up for that trough designy flatshading and excessive music syncing.
So to all coders I´d like to say: make us happy, free us of the tirrany of bad design and code some decent effects! Read the dx8 sdk and do some new shit. Heal the scene!
the last (and only) demo that really impressed me was toasted by cubic&$een. i saw it and a friend's place, only knew '93-ish demos before, and had seen them long before i was able to judge whether they were hard to do (or not). toasted was the first real demo i saw after i got into coding.
after that, there's not much to say - the only release that had the potential to impress me after that (it takes a lot more than a few really fast routines or nice screens to impress me :) was fr-08, and kb told me far too much about it before i saw it, so in the end i was more disappointed than really impressed when i saw it, because it wasn't even near what i expected (and chaos seemed quite irritated, when he expected me to drop my chin on the floor and i didn't).
anyway - i can't think of anything that would really impress me in a demo anymore (neither design- nor codewise). but then, i only do demos for fun.
on the artistic aspect, there's really NO single demo that comes anywhere near good art IMHO (be it literature, paintings, concept art, anything). most of the so-called "art" demos are plain bullshit if you ask me, and what remains (for example metamorf by satori) is nice, but still doesn't really give me something (like the shivers i get when i read a really good book or just look at the detail in some paintings or sculptures).
there's a different kind of being impressed i frequently get when i look at demos though - some productions are obviously a result of really long, continued, hard working, which i deeply respect. this is the kind of being impressed you get when looking at productions like desert dream, arte or tube.
after that, there's not much to say - the only release that had the potential to impress me after that (it takes a lot more than a few really fast routines or nice screens to impress me :) was fr-08, and kb told me far too much about it before i saw it, so in the end i was more disappointed than really impressed when i saw it, because it wasn't even near what i expected (and chaos seemed quite irritated, when he expected me to drop my chin on the floor and i didn't).
anyway - i can't think of anything that would really impress me in a demo anymore (neither design- nor codewise). but then, i only do demos for fun.
on the artistic aspect, there's really NO single demo that comes anywhere near good art IMHO (be it literature, paintings, concept art, anything). most of the so-called "art" demos are plain bullshit if you ask me, and what remains (for example metamorf by satori) is nice, but still doesn't really give me something (like the shivers i get when i read a really good book or just look at the detail in some paintings or sculptures).
there's a different kind of being impressed i frequently get when i look at demos though - some productions are obviously a result of really long, continued, hard working, which i deeply respect. this is the kind of being impressed you get when looking at productions like desert dream, arte or tube.
ryg thats bullshit, close your eyes when watching demo and you will percieve something as artistic (ultimate drug for me!) as music, take screenshot and you'll have painting, no good movies tho but still feelings and to add something stupid, read nfo files not your ordinary books
I think last demo or intros that have really impressed me have been fr08 and Heaven7. From different reasons of course. Fr08 impressed with its incredible code (altough I'm not a coder and I don't really know anything about coding) and Heaven7 impressed with its beautiful overall feeling (music really matches with visuals, it just gives me the shivers every time).
vip2 impressed me (and still does) with an atmosphere lacking from far too many demos. I actually do get moved by some of the parts, like the one with the sculptures in the rain. it's just beautiful :)
I remember that Drift by Wild Light made me fall off my chair at Assembly95, the same happened with Machines of Madness in 96 and, since then, I've been falling off chairs several times.
Lately, Planet Potion and Poem to an horse gave my shivers, who knows what's next?
And yes, not being a coder helps a lot. I think a lot of magic gets spoiled when you know what's behind those visuals...
Lately, Planet Potion and Poem to an horse gave my shivers, who knows what's next?
And yes, not being a coder helps a lot. I think a lot of magic gets spoiled when you know what's behind those visuals...
i was really really impressed by odd-newschool plasmademo
only two demoscene shocks for my soul:
Contrast (Oxygene) and Te2rb (Tpolm).
I must agree with Ryg that (without te2rb) I've never got a massive artistic shock incoming from demoscene versus single movie/book/painting/music etc... only some "what's the code-trick?" issues (and it's true that except some few releases (FRx?), it's harder to say that nowadays).
maybe i'm waiting for some 'mature' prods, like Couloir14, in the future.
Contrast (Oxygene) and Te2rb (Tpolm).
I must agree with Ryg that (without te2rb) I've never got a massive artistic shock incoming from demoscene versus single movie/book/painting/music etc... only some "what's the code-trick?" issues (and it's true that except some few releases (FRx?), it's harder to say that nowadays).
maybe i'm waiting for some 'mature' prods, like Couloir14, in the future.
I'm impressed with the crap that some people release! :)
j/k
Many demos have impressed me over the years...
A quick list:
Enigma - Phenomena
World of Commodore - Sanity
State of the Art - Spaceballs
9 fingers - Spaceballs.
Desert Dream - Kefrens
Arte - Sanity
Crystal Dream - Triton
Crystal Dream II - Triton
Into the Shadows - Triton
Panic - Future Crew
Second Reality - Future Crew
Fishtro - Future Crew
Dope - Complex
Stars - NoooN
Machines of Madness - Dubius
VIP2 - Popsy Team
Impossible - Loonies
Lapsuus - MatureFurk
Quite a diverse list... Most of them impress me with fast code, and doing things that were not possible before. Or sometimes the music is just great... Or music and visuals are combined to create an incredible atmosphere.
That's the sort of stuff I like.
j/k
Many demos have impressed me over the years...
A quick list:
Enigma - Phenomena
World of Commodore - Sanity
State of the Art - Spaceballs
9 fingers - Spaceballs.
Desert Dream - Kefrens
Arte - Sanity
Crystal Dream - Triton
Crystal Dream II - Triton
Into the Shadows - Triton
Panic - Future Crew
Second Reality - Future Crew
Fishtro - Future Crew
Dope - Complex
Stars - NoooN
Machines of Madness - Dubius
VIP2 - Popsy Team
Impossible - Loonies
Lapsuus - MatureFurk
Quite a diverse list... Most of them impress me with fast code, and doing things that were not possible before. Or sometimes the music is just great... Or music and visuals are combined to create an incredible atmosphere.
That's the sort of stuff I like.
Not much 3d accelarated stuff impresses me these days (aside from Le Petit Prince and fr08). The only things recently that have really made me go WOW have been all of Holocaust's releases on Atari and Planet M by Melon Dezigns. In these demos you really get a feeling that the people who've made them completely know what theyre doing and that the code is truly a piece of art.
What impresses me are the amounts of Amiga and C64 demos *still* being released. Crazy...
last time I was impressed.. humm.. dunno.. hplus still impresses me and so does reve by pulse and lots of other demos/intros.. can't recall last thing that impressed me though that spinning kids 64k was impressive and it's quite new... I blame my bad memory on alcohol
being impressed for me is, when all is just about perfect, but the most importaint thing is the mood, vibe whatever, last time i saw that was at scene event, the excess demo was goodlooking and the mood was just about perfect. vip2 is also a great example of how importaint the mood is, even though the music is commercial, it fits well in with the effects and its well synched. orange, satori and damage often impresses with their mood and originality.
Part of the problem is that the games have become too advanced -- what's cool about some effect in a demo when John Carmack & co. have done it before? :-)
ryg: I'm quite sure you'd be impressed if you saw Doom3-like graphics in a demo (at least if you added some fancy refraction effects, or other "impossible" stuff ;-) )... I would, at least. :-)
ryg: I'm quite sure you'd be impressed if you saw Doom3-like graphics in a demo (at least if you added some fancy refraction effects, or other "impossible" stuff ;-) )... I would, at least. :-)
OBTW... does 3dmark count as a demo? In that case, please record the nature scene in 3dmark2001. :-)
i was recently pretty impressed by "requiem of a dream" - great effects and design, wonderful story, and it's even two hours long. we talked for an hour after watching it... no, wait, that wasn't a demo.
yeah that one rocks. and it is a demo, they also got site about "the making of demo"
http://www.requiemforadream.com
computers don't impress me. girls do!
{ was the last to impress me.
poem to a horse (fr-019) was the last prod who impress me much, even if i know ( or think ) how they made all this stuff i found this prod excellent and beautifull because we don't see the technik behind... and i think it's a sign of quality ( when we forget the code and just say wow ).
i was last being impressed of iles dancing skills (*cough*) at m+s
I've never understood the idea of why demos should impress you at all.
All other artforms works with the premise that art should mainly somehow communicate with the beholder, that it should be some sort of emotional and/or intellectual expression.
Impressing you, is what people do when they break records in different sports (or play a *really good game against another team and wins*), for instance.
Sports and Arts.
These two things are very different in their nature, and - in a way - there's a conflict between these two in the demoscene.
I, who only care about the former of these, don't have any intrest in - for example - how well structured, fast, small or hard-to-write a piece of code is. If something is real-time or just a rendered avi or something else is *completely* indifferent to me.
I *only* care about how the thing I'm watching affects me.
Therefore, if part of the reason why the thing I'm watching succeeds with this is because the code is well-written. So be it. Sure. Whatever.
If the code is lousy/simple/slow. So be it. Sure. Whatever. The only thing that matters is how it expresses itself.
The rest is details...
All other artforms works with the premise that art should mainly somehow communicate with the beholder, that it should be some sort of emotional and/or intellectual expression.
Impressing you, is what people do when they break records in different sports (or play a *really good game against another team and wins*), for instance.
Sports and Arts.
These two things are very different in their nature, and - in a way - there's a conflict between these two in the demoscene.
I, who only care about the former of these, don't have any intrest in - for example - how well structured, fast, small or hard-to-write a piece of code is. If something is real-time or just a rendered avi or something else is *completely* indifferent to me.
I *only* care about how the thing I'm watching affects me.
Therefore, if part of the reason why the thing I'm watching succeeds with this is because the code is well-written. So be it. Sure. Whatever.
If the code is lousy/simple/slow. So be it. Sure. Whatever. The only thing that matters is how it expresses itself.
The rest is details...
