TATICLINE February, 2001
// Monthly Scene E-Zine 195 Subscribers
Table Of Contents
Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Features:
Columns:
Music:
In tune -- Travels in Blue by Smash
Retro Tunage -- Aeons of Notes by Yannis
Demo:
Screen Lit Vertigo -- Chrome and Lego Basics
Intro Watch -- Five Cigar Coctail and Peyote
General:
Editorial -- Part of the Scene?
Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing:
Credits
Message From the Editor
Well, what can I say, its been a hell of a month.
For those of you who tried to subscribe last month, you might have
noticed that you couldnt, or that you at least had problems. We had
some issues with our mailman listserv daemon this past month, but they
have been resolved, and its business as usual. You can resume with your
subscription modifications as you need to.
In addition to all the things that have been happening scene wise, I
personally havnt had a very good month. I dont need to get into
details, but lets just say that things are finally starting to clear up.
It is my hope that next months issue wont be so short, as this issue is
smaller than our latest few issues.
Regardless, I think that you will find this issue pretty interesting.
There are no special features this month, but our reviewers managed to
pick out a few good things for you to check out. All-in-all, I would
say that things are going pretty good, considering we just finished
January. After all, isnt January that time in the demoscene where
nothing happens?
One thing that I am very proud of is the fact that we are only five
members away from being a good healthy 200! Help us find those 5 readers.
It will only help the magazine to thrive.
Enjoy!
--Coplan
Letters From Our Readers
-- Letter from Smash --
Hey.. I want to lend my opinion to Psitrons article about moving the
scene away from windows. Let me explain why exactly this is a bad idea.
The scene is on windows because 99 of pcs come with windows
installed, and this will not change in the forseeable future. Also,
virtually all games produced for pc are for windows, and virtually all
commercial pc art/sound packages, etc.
It really doesnt matter about the features of an OS, as long as it
isnt unsuited to graphics and sound applications. much more important
is the number of people using it and developing on it. When the c64 was
computer of choice for most home users, scene was on c64.. when amiga
was machine of choice, scene was on amiga. when pc and DOS was machine
of choice, scene was on pc/dos. and now, home users are using pc and
windows.. and guess what the scene uses.
Also linux is NOT a great OS to develop demos on. 3d card drivers are
often much less updated and much worse than windows equivalents. Running
an opengl app on a linux machine, then just recompiling on windows and
running it, the speed difference is very noticable. Ive experienced
this first hand coding for linux+windows. At least windows is very
supported by hardware makers, which greatly improves performance.
You want to close off the scene, make it a tiny minority environment
which a few techie nerd kids will get involved in maybe if they manage
to drag themselves off their muds for a second? Then move to linux or
beos or freedos. Want to make a demoscene where no-one new will ever
come in? Move to demOS.
Coders will get the best out of whatever OS they work with. What is
more important, I think, is that enough people can actually see our
works, And I dont just mean other demosceners but average
internet-using home pc owners. people have to be able to just come
across a demo, and run it on their pc and get interested in the scene,
and for the average person this means using windows. we want the scene
to grow, not close it off. By suggesting a move to a platform which just
isnt very popular, its not adhering to any oldschool ideal or trying
to regain some kind of golden era. In the golden era, on the amiga
of early 90s, it was a time when demos were made for the platform that
everybody used - kids could just discover the scene and get involved.
People were amazed by demos back then because they were the most
impressive things on their computer.
If anything, Id rather see people developing more console demos -
and making them available so people can just get them on cd, stick them
in their ps2 and watch them, no problems.
The fact is, whatever people may wish for, the people who decide are
the ones coding the good demos, and at the moment they are all using
windows.
Hoping for a demoscene that is available to all not just a bunch of
nerds.
--Smash
-- Letter from Dilvish --
It is clear to many that Windows lacks that real-time support and
stability to provide a good home for the demo or video game community.
It is unclear, however, where we should turn to. Other operating
systems lack focus - attempting to be all things for all people, making
too many compromises between ease-of-use and functionality, and missing
the essential fast access to hardware, and real-time signal sharing
features that are a must for anybody involved in demos, music, or
gaming.
Here then are the essential features that we must search out or
provide before flocking to a new home:
* Hardware support
* 3D accelerators
* Soundcards
* External device I/O for MIDI or game control
* Not locked to specific hardware processors, video architectures,
RAM, storage devices
* Modular toolsets for developers including
* 3D libraries
* Audio libraries wave mixing, dsp, format conversion
* Modular O-O patterns, datatypes, etc.. someone still has to code a
flexible tracker
* Scriptable architecture remember how cool QuakeC was? DemoC
anyone?
* skinnable XML-based GUI widgets
* Efficient access to low-level devices, without locking ourselves to
any specific card remember all those demos that require the now
defunct gravis? treasures lost for most of us these days...
The most important feature:
* MODULARITY - new soundcards and video cards come out all the time.
It has to be EASY to support our OS. We have to be flexible and
lovable enough that over-looking support would be CRAZY on the part of
manufacturers. That means we have to design the architecture carefully,
or forget about it.
Of course, we should not forget network connectivity multi-player is
great, text editing and layout documentation, obviously, but what
about cool layouts for text and graphics in game menu screens? XML?
SVG?, or data management strategy games or RPGs often require a good
database to back up the cool interface.
I think its possible that an OS designed specifically for demos,
gamers, and Audio/Video types would also do a great job at anything else
youd like to throw at it. The difference is, we dont make choices
that limit what we can do in terms of real-time effects, multi-tasking,
or critical performance in order to enable a spreadsheet program to save
its data.
Many projects have launched with similar goals and met a quick demise
because they did not plan out their architecture carefully beforehand,
or did not realize the scope of what they had planned.
Here are some things we must also consider:
Many of the elements we need have already been built, and are
available to us freely. There are even GPLed OS kernels, some of them
specifically tailored for real-time systems. We should decide what we
can use, what we can wrap temporarily until a good replacement is built,
and what we must build ourselves.
We cannot do it alone. Open source seems the ONLY way for a bunch of
different demo-makers from around the globe to collaborate on a single
masterpiece of design and engineering. There will be MANY facets of the
architecture and design that no single person may be able to comprehend
entirely on their own.. for this reason, a modular, collaborative
structure is essential.
Unix pipes: the best example to date of a large system of tools that
truly communicate and work together well... why? Because they dont
know anything about each other. They have an input stream, and an
output stream. They do not call each other directly.. they do ONE
THING, and do it VERY WELL. That philosophy is one that we have to
adopt to make such a diverse collaboration a reality. They did it with
text - we can do it with MIDI, wave data, and graphics - or anything
else that might come along later.
The vision here is freedom from windows. Freedom from any particular
platform, rather, as all of them will have their own set of
shortcomings. We need to build a system that can be custom fit for the
individual, or even an individual program. If no process is currently
in need of a bulky GUI user likes textmode access, GREAT.. dont load
the damn GUI overhead. If they need it for something, it should be a
keystroke away, just as simple as launching any other program... a GUI
is simply a viewer framework.. not the foundation of an OS.
There are standards we can work with that will make our data
sharable, and as other developers flock to support those standards, they
will be supporting us without even realizing it. Without even trying.
Freedom can be ours.
Please direct comments, feature suggestions, and rants to
ostechdev@yahoo.com. Someone is listening. I promise.
--Dilvish
- Reply from Coplan:
I have always been a big supporter of the Open Source community,
especially when it has to do with Linux. Linux has grown, and it will
continue to grow -- but will it grow in the right direction for the
demoscene? At this point, its a mute point, as there isnt enough
single-user usage of Linux. There are a lot of systems out there with
Linux, but most are network servers. If you are one of those people
that has taught themselves linux, and if you program or write perl or
shell scripts, I urge you to find a project to get involved in, or even
create:
http://sourceforge.net
Yes, as I said, there arent many people useing Linux as a primary
medium, but there are two reasons for that: Ease of use and hardware
support. If you can help narrow any of those gaps, I garuntee, one more
person will be willing to use it. And one day, we might have our next
OS for the scene to expand into -- and you can say that you helped it
get there.
--Coplan
In Tune
Travels in Blue by Smash
By: Coplan
What can I say, Ive always been a Smash fan, and hes topped my list
more than once. So, I was quite happy to hear from him the other day,
where I could ask him to direct me to his latest music. Glad I ran into
him! I have a very inspirational tune for you guys this month:
Travels in Blue one of my favorite Smash tunes to date.
With very few exceptions, Smash did everything right with Travels in
Blue. The song is not too loud, its not too crazy, and its a nice
little mellow piece that you can toss in the background and play while
you work.
By tradition, I dont read a song description until after Ive heard the
song. So, when I heard that the opening was a bit slow. I thought that
might dictate the mood of the rest of the tune. Well, order 12 kicked
in, and I realized I was a bit wrong. The tune continued to be mellow
and dreamy throughout, but not quite the way I thought it would be.
Based entirely on the opening few patterns, I wouldve told you it was
an ambient tune. Again, I wouldve been wrong.
At order 12, we get what I like to call a kick-in transition. Its
not a technical term, but I think it describes it well. A kick-in is
the type of transition where a lot of instruments are introduced at
once. The most important instruments to introduce at this time are
always the percussion instruments. By doing this, and without changing
the tempo/speed of the song itself, you feel like the song is a bit more
lively. A kick-in transition was well suited for this tune, and smash
picked a good set of samples to kick in with. His percussion samples
are just perfect for this tune. The snare is something I like to point
out. There are a lot of different kind of snares out there, and I think
that one which sounds a bit muffled throw a few sheets in there sounds
great in a jazzy little tune like this. Yes, the percussion is
repetative, but not without reason. As you will see throughout the
song, he does know when to stop, when to start, and when to change the
percussion.
The baseline is one of the coolest parts of the song. If you have the
ability, crank your base. If you have listened to my advice from the
past -- you got your computer hooked up to a high quality amplifier, and
this shouldnt be a problem. If you dont listen to my advice -- that
cheezy little set of PC speakers with the 4 subwoofer isnt going to do
anything for you. Again, the baseline is repetative, but it does
change when it needs to. My interest in the baseline has to do entirely
with the way it controls the mood of the song. A quick baseline like
this, along with the fast paced percussion, help to liven up a song.
Percussion and tempo arent the only thing to consider for a lively
song, folks.
Order 32 comes upon us, and as I promised, the percussion fades out.
But the baseline remains. We got some dreamy lead instrument jumping
into action here, and with the percussion fading to the back, it sounds
really cool. It sounds even cooler when the percussion modified from
the norm kicks back in, and the baseline changes a bit as well.
Now comes my slight beef with the song: Around order 40, the strings in
the background the onces carrying the chord progression seem to fade
into the foreground off-and-on. The baseline also tends to sound a bit
forced, as it too does some really wierd stuff. Yes, it does sound
kinda cool, but I honestly dont think it fits the song very well. This
part couldve even been cut out all together. But, thats just my
opinion, you might like it.
By the time order 52 comes back around, everything is back to normal.
Its nice to get some variety in a song, and then end where one started
off. That is what Smash did -- as slowly as the song began, he ends it
the same way. One might think it drags a bit, but the song ends very
smoothly.
Overall, the song is a dreamy song that makes you want to move. As I
said, its great background noise if you turn the volume down a little
bit. But crank the volume, and you really want to move. I can picture
a whole bunch of my friends seriously dancing at a club to this one.
Definately worth a download.
--Coplan
Song Information:
Title: Travels in Blue
Author: Smash of Fairlight
Filename zipped/unzipped:
flt013-travelsinblue.zip / travelsinblue.xm XM
File Size zipped/unzipped: 864 kb / 1.9 MB
Source: http://fairlight.scene.org
Alternate:
ftp://ftp.scenespot.org/staticline/suppliment/travelsinblue.zip
In Tune is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. Coplans opinions are not the opinions of the Static
Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend either your own,
or another persons, We can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
Retro Tunage
Aeons of Notes by Yannis
By: Tryhuk
Welcome to another trip to the disappearing world of mod music. Today
Id like to introduce you my favourite track by Yannis Brown, who was
active in the scene for a really long and became a respected veteran.
I can still remember the first of his tracks that I heard, it was
just a cheesy cover tune on some song by Tori Amos, but it was enough to
stick his name in my head so I could pay attention to his other
releases. As I discovered Hornet archive, his songs were among the
first Ive downloaded and although there are many other good songs by
him, I remember this one as my favourite.
Style of the track is hard to describe - in the beginning it shows
signs of house, but then the percussion gets more complicated and more
attention is payed to the chord structure and leads. More dance style
feeling is brought back by a deep bassline, that shows to be typical for
Yannis. Over all this, the track has a very complicated structure and
its analysis would be for a separate issue. Just take a look on the
worked out chord structure, excellent leads - I count there to be at
least 3 instruments alternating on the place of lead, and also slight
but significant tempo and mood changes, often evoked by good handling
of instrument volumes.
With this song you can notice that isnt thrown together in few
hours like many todays tracks tend to be. Thus if you think you would
like to feel the oldskool feeling once again, or if you believe that this
track can give you ideas how to improve your tracking technique, go on
and listen to Aeons of notes.
Song Information:
Title: Aeons of notes
Author: Yannis Brown
Release date: Nov 96
Length: 4m27s trimmed
Filename zipped/unzipped: ybaeon.zip/ybaeon.it
File Size zipped/unzipped: 172k/316k
Source: Hornet archive
ftp://us.hornet.org/pub/demos/music/songs/1997/y/ybaeon.zip
--Tryhuk
Screen Lit Vertigo
Chrome by Damage and Lego Basics by Hybris/NEMESIS
By: Seven
-- Chrome by Damage party version --
Found at www.scene.org
3th place at The Party 10 demo compo
System requirements:
win32.opengl.geforce does this means its 100 Geforce only, or
that it wants certain extensions, or just any TL card? Who knows....
7 MB HD
Test Machine: PIII 900 192MB, SB128, GeForce 2MX 32MB, Win98
The Credits:
code: ther
music: db
gfx: adam
The Demo:
January is a bad month to get new demos, only checking Hugi party
calendar two parties, one of which is non-PC, and the other is past the
deadline for this Static Line issue. So Ill just keep reviewing TP
demos this month : Personally, I like the third place Chrome by
Damage better than the top two. Crome is a heavy 3D demo, not the
camera-flight kind but the 3D-texture-effect variant, a bit like Wonder
or Tesla/Sunflower. There are lots of standard effects like transparant
tunnels, morphing motion-blurred objects, wavy textures and the like,
but there are also some more original parts. For example, at the end
theres a morphing blob whose edges are more visible than the inside,
and several of these outlines are overlayed. Looks nice. In fact, there
are a lot of parts shown very quickly at the end: a discoball, some
transparant nutcrackers, the inside of a torus... Theres a bit of
space-station design, with cross-hairs and pseudo-technical terms like
proton spetrometer or radial docking port sprinkled here and there,
but it doesnt really form a solid whole.
Besides the multitude of textures, theres a nice Chrome-logo at the
start, but no other graphics. The music is a dnb track with enough
variation, with some more quiet parts between the pure rhythm parts.
The syncing is almost lacking at the start, but grows better towards the
end, with the human model rotating and the parts switching to the beat.
Just like the other demos in the top-3, Chrome uses an MP3 which makes
syncing harder.
Overall:
A lot of effects in Chrome can be summarized by done before, but
still good-looking. I also liked the variation near the end. A bad
point is that Damage appearently followed the 50 white-rule: if less
than half the screen is white, keep adding more flares and textures.
Maybe they did it on purpose for the bigscreen, on which darker colors
often get lost, but on a monitor its really overly bright :/ Luckily
the things that are visible still make this a demo worth watching.
-- Lego Basics by Hybris/NEMESIS final version --
Found at www.hybrisNEMESIS.com
2nd place at The Party 10 demo compo
System requirements:
No info file found...
Windows, 5 MB HD, and a 3D card to get 1 fps.
Test Machine: PIII 900 192MB, SB128, GeForce 2MX 32MB, Win98
The credits:
Code: Bender
Models: Bender Hawk
Music: Trauma Dunkel
Maps: Beyond
The Demo:
As the title says: the theme of this demo is lego, the little
bright-colored toy bricks 75 of the scene used to play with when we
were kids. Such a subject is guaranteed to draw some nostalgia votes in
a compo : The demo starts with a lego-man, dressed in black and with
sunglasses, who dodges some rockets that are fired at him by a simple
lego-helicopter. The rest of the demo doesnt continue this story, but
shows some bricks and simple objects that fall, collide and bounce. This
is no animation, but rather real-time calculated physics which means
detecting the collisions of objects and give them a new direction,
velocity and spin, based on their weight, current velocity etc. The
result looks quite realistic, better than normal keyframed animations,
but sometimes the objects bounce too much. The physics-part is slightly
randomized, so it looks different each time you run the demo. There are
also shadows, but as the invisible lightsource doesnt move, it might be
just a hack with a simple diagonal projection. Strangely, the lego-man
does not cast a shadow. At the end, a lot of bricks form a C64-logo, to
remind us which platform Hybris/NEMESIS comes from.
The music is an MP3 which starts with some mumbling singer, then
guitars kick in together with some helicopter-sounds, and the rest is a
kind of, hmm, techno-jazzy tune. Not bad, but not very special either.
Overall:
Lego Basics is mainly a technical demo, so you wont watch it very
often. Its also quite short 2 min 30 and the landscape doesnt look
very good. On the positive side, the whole demo runs an editable script,
so if you know XML you can edit LegoBasics.XML and create your own
LEGO-demo. Further good points are the realistic physics-generated
motions, and of course: lego :
--Seven
Intro Watch
Five Cigar Coctail by Replay and Peyote by Proxium
By: Gekko
-- Five Cigar Coctail by Replay --
64k at The Party 2000
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/THEPARTY00/in64/rplfccnotshown.zip
Requires: 3d card, Windows, OpenGL
For me, this is the best Replay intro so far. It was entered but not
shown at The Party 2000. This is a real pity, because it could have
ranked very high in the competition. The disk that they handed in
was broken, and I guess the Authors were boozing somewhere when the
organizers tried to contact them...
The intro is a show of beautiful scenes from nature: trees, flowers,
grass, and so on. These are not photorealistic of course, but they dont
appear synthetic. Somehow they still have a touch of reality. They
rather look as if they were hand-drawn. Meanwhile a poem runs line by
line.
This is a mood demo. This means that you have to be in a certain mood to
like it, and people usually react to it in a love-hate way. Some of them
are fond of it, the rest of them cant stand it. Hopefully you belong to
the first group...
-- Peyote by Proxium --
1 64k at Chaos Construction 2000
http://www.proxium.org
requires: MMX, Windows, DirectX
Proxium is a Russian group which is not so well-known in the
international scene. This intro is a very promising work by them. It is
far from perfect but it is surprising how much is squeezed into it.
There are two musics with software synthetised samples. We are shown a
sequence of countless 3d scenes sewels, street lamps, walking doll,
etc, with many textures and even still pictures. Hopefully Proxiums
next work will reach the top in style, too, because code-wise they are
already there.
--Gekko
Editorial
Part of the Scene?
By: Coplan
I dont find it very necessary to constantly reassure myself that Im
doing my part for the scene. I hope most of you dont either. In fact,
no one that is reading this should be concerned about doing their part
for the demoscene. I say that not because I truly expect that you all
bleed demoscene red I dont know, what color is demoscene blood?. I
say that because every tiny little part matters.
For me, my part is Static Line and SceneSpot which hopefully should
fully get off the ground soon. I release music on occasion, and I have
to remind myself not to overlook that. My primary existance in the
scene might be Static Line, but I wouldve never been here had it not
been for my tracking background. I dont claim to know the scene any
better than anyone else, and I dont claim myself to be a veteran. Im
just here, and Im enjoying myself. If asked, most of you wouldnt
argue my claim to be a contributor.
What about you? Are you a part of the demoscene? Can you honestly
say you know ANYTHING about the demoscene? In my absolute honest
opinion, I truly believe that anyone who can explain the demoscene to
someone else, and show examples, is a part of the demoscene -- even if
one does not contribute anything.
But Coplan! How can you allow someone to claim membership in the
scene if they dont contribute?
The question is in everyones mind as they read this, at least in some
form or another. The difference between your definition and my
definition of contribution is subtle. A song here and there is
definately a contribution. An article for Static Line is definately a
contribution. Jumping in trax or pixel or code and telling giving
someone ideas, or recommendations on their past work -- thats a
contribution, and many people overlook that. Many people also overlook
the fact that someone, perhaps someone who doesnt track, downloaded the
latest demo and played it on his/her computer. I say that, too, is a
contribution, because its spreading the word. Id be willing to bet
that person might have downloaded a demo or a tune, and thought it
really cool. Then they go grab more, and more, and pretty soon, they
know enough about the scene to describe it to someone. So what if they
dont write for some mag, or write music, or code? They are the ones
that are viewing and listening to your work -- and dont forget that.
I think that is the most important thing to remember when it comes to
The best OS for the demoscene. The answer is simple -- the one with
the most viewers. The reality is that we, as scene writers, trackers,
coders and artists, are doing what we do for an audience. No one here
expects to make money, so that cant be it. And though we cant rule
out personal satisfaction, the majority of people want to be heard or
seen.
Well guess what? You need those non-contributors dont you?
--Coplan
Link List
Portals:
Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net
Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org
SceneSpot.............................http://www.scenespot.org
CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net
Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net
Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org
Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz
Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com
Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/lascena
ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods
Norvegian Scene............http://www.neutralzone.org/scene.no
Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl
Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru
Spanish Scene............................http://www.escena.org
Swiss Scene..............................http://www.chscene.ch
Archives:
Acid2.....................................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
Hornet 1992-1996........................ftp://ftp.hornet.org
Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
Scene.org Austra........................ftp://ftp.nl.scene.org
Scene.org Netherlands...................ftp://ftp.au.scene.org
Swiss Scene FTP...........................ftp://ftp.chscene.ch
Demo Groups:
3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
3State...................................http://threestate.com
7 Gods.........................................http://7gods.sk
Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
Addict..................................http://addict.scene.pl
Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
Alien Prophets...................http://alienprophets.ninja.dk
Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
Broncs..................................http://broncs.scene.cz
Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
Cocoon..............................http://cocoon.planet-d.net
Confine.................................http://www.confine.org
Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
Eclipse............................http://www.eclipse-game.com
Elitegroup..........................http://elitegroup.demo.org
Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/exceed
Fairlight.............................http://www.fairlight.com
Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
Freestyle............................http://www.freestylas.org
Fresh! Mindworks...................http://kac.poliod.hu/fresh
Future Crew..........................http://www.futurecrew.org
Fuzzion.................................http://www.fuzzion.org
GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
Halcyon...........................http://www.halcyon.scene.org
Haujobb..................................http://www.haujobb.de
Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
Komplex.................................http://www.komplex.org
Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/mandula
Maturefurk...........................http://www.maturefurk.com
Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
MOVSD....................................http://movsd.scene.cz
Nextempire...........................http://www.nextempire.com
Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
Orange.................................http://orange.scene.org
Orion................................http://orion.planet-d.net
Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
Prone................................http://www.prone.ninja.dk
Purple....................................http://www.purple.dk
Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de
Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
Talent.............................http://talent.eurochart.org
The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org
The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net
The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no
TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com
Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma
T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org
Unik.....................................http://www.unik.ca.tc
Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch
Wipe....................................http://www.wipe-fr.org
Music Labels, Music Sites:
Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com
Aural Planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com
Azure...................................http://azure-music.com
Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
BrothomStates.............http://www.katastro.fi/brothomstates
Chill..........................http://www.bentdesign.com/chill
Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/cnd
Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com
Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com
Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/boris/fabtrax/home.htm
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org
Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.l7.net
Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org
Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net
Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org
Lackluster.....................http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster
Level-D.................................http://www.level-d.com
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music
Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/mon
MAZs sound homepage..................http://www.maz-sound.com
Med.......................................http://www.med.fr.fm
Moplayaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
Noerror.......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror
One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net
Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net
Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
RBi Music.............................http://www.rbi-music.com
Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruffengine
SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m
Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev
Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate
Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d
Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr
Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila
Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net
Tetris....................................http://msg.sk/tetris
Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr
Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tdr.scene.org
Triads C64 music archive.............http://www.triad.c64.org
UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com
Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm
Programming:
Programming portal......................http://www.gamedev.net
Programming portal.....................http://www.flipcode.com
Game programming portal...............http://www.gamasutra.com
3D programming portal.................http://www.3dgamedev.com
Programming portal......................http://www.exaflop.org
Programming portal............http://www.programmersheaven.com
Programming portal.....................http://www.freecode.com
NASM free Assembly compiler......http://www.cryogen.com/nasm
LCC free C compiler.........http://www.remcomp.com/lcc-win32
PTC video engine.........................http://www.gaffer.org
3D engines..........http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/ki/engines.html
Documents...............http://www.neutralzone.org/home/faqsys
File format collection...................http://www.wotsit.org
Magazines:
Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/dimag
Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
Eurochart.............................http://www.eurochart.org
Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
Hugi........................................http://www.hugi.de
Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
Shine...............................http://www.shine.scene.org
Static Line................http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
WildMag...............................http://wildmag.notrix.de
Parties:
Assembly Finland.....................http://www.assembly.org
Ambience The Netherlands..............http://www.ambience.nl
Dreamhack Sweden....................http://www.dreamhack.org
Buenzli Switzerland......................http://www.buenz.li
Gravity Poland............http://www.demoscena.cp.pl/gravity
Mekka-Symposium Germany...................http://ms.demo.org
Takeover The Netherlands.............,http://www.takeover.nl
The Party Denmark.....................http://www.theparty.dk
Others:
Demo secret parts....http://www.inf.bme.hu/mandula/secret.txt
Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
Freax................................http://freax.scene-hu.com
GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
IRC Channels:
Scene.........................................ircnet thescene
Programming.....................................ircnet coders
Programming....................................efnet flipcode
Graphics.........................................ircnet pixel
Music.............................................ircnet trax
Scene French..................................ircnet demofr
Programming French............................ircnet codefr
Graphics French..............................ircnet pixelfr
Scene Hungarian............................ircnet demoscene
Programming Hungarian......................ircnet coders.hu
Programming German........................ircnet coders.ger
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / mont@tar.hu
Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / tigerhawk@stic.net
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
Seven / Stefaan VanNieuwenhuyze/ seven7@writeme.com
Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / vojtech.tryhuk@worldonline.cz
Technical Consult: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
Static Line Subscription Management:
http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/staticline
If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware
that we will format your article with two spaces at the beginning and one
space at the end of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii
characters. Contributions should be mailed to Coplan
coplan@scenespot.org.
See you next month!
-eof---------------------
// Monthly Scene E-Zine 195 Subscribers
Table Of Contents
Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Features:
Columns:
Music:
In tune -- Travels in Blue by Smash
Retro Tunage -- Aeons of Notes by Yannis
Demo:
Screen Lit Vertigo -- Chrome and Lego Basics
Intro Watch -- Five Cigar Coctail and Peyote
General:
Editorial -- Part of the Scene?
Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing:
Credits
Message From the Editor
Well, what can I say, its been a hell of a month.
For those of you who tried to subscribe last month, you might have
noticed that you couldnt, or that you at least had problems. We had
some issues with our mailman listserv daemon this past month, but they
have been resolved, and its business as usual. You can resume with your
subscription modifications as you need to.
In addition to all the things that have been happening scene wise, I
personally havnt had a very good month. I dont need to get into
details, but lets just say that things are finally starting to clear up.
It is my hope that next months issue wont be so short, as this issue is
smaller than our latest few issues.
Regardless, I think that you will find this issue pretty interesting.
There are no special features this month, but our reviewers managed to
pick out a few good things for you to check out. All-in-all, I would
say that things are going pretty good, considering we just finished
January. After all, isnt January that time in the demoscene where
nothing happens?
One thing that I am very proud of is the fact that we are only five
members away from being a good healthy 200! Help us find those 5 readers.
It will only help the magazine to thrive.
Enjoy!
--Coplan
Letters From Our Readers
-- Letter from Smash --
Hey.. I want to lend my opinion to Psitrons article about moving the
scene away from windows. Let me explain why exactly this is a bad idea.
The scene is on windows because 99 of pcs come with windows
installed, and this will not change in the forseeable future. Also,
virtually all games produced for pc are for windows, and virtually all
commercial pc art/sound packages, etc.
It really doesnt matter about the features of an OS, as long as it
isnt unsuited to graphics and sound applications. much more important
is the number of people using it and developing on it. When the c64 was
computer of choice for most home users, scene was on c64.. when amiga
was machine of choice, scene was on amiga. when pc and DOS was machine
of choice, scene was on pc/dos. and now, home users are using pc and
windows.. and guess what the scene uses.
Also linux is NOT a great OS to develop demos on. 3d card drivers are
often much less updated and much worse than windows equivalents. Running
an opengl app on a linux machine, then just recompiling on windows and
running it, the speed difference is very noticable. Ive experienced
this first hand coding for linux+windows. At least windows is very
supported by hardware makers, which greatly improves performance.
You want to close off the scene, make it a tiny minority environment
which a few techie nerd kids will get involved in maybe if they manage
to drag themselves off their muds for a second? Then move to linux or
beos or freedos. Want to make a demoscene where no-one new will ever
come in? Move to demOS.
Coders will get the best out of whatever OS they work with. What is
more important, I think, is that enough people can actually see our
works, And I dont just mean other demosceners but average
internet-using home pc owners. people have to be able to just come
across a demo, and run it on their pc and get interested in the scene,
and for the average person this means using windows. we want the scene
to grow, not close it off. By suggesting a move to a platform which just
isnt very popular, its not adhering to any oldschool ideal or trying
to regain some kind of golden era. In the golden era, on the amiga
of early 90s, it was a time when demos were made for the platform that
everybody used - kids could just discover the scene and get involved.
People were amazed by demos back then because they were the most
impressive things on their computer.
If anything, Id rather see people developing more console demos -
and making them available so people can just get them on cd, stick them
in their ps2 and watch them, no problems.
The fact is, whatever people may wish for, the people who decide are
the ones coding the good demos, and at the moment they are all using
windows.
Hoping for a demoscene that is available to all not just a bunch of
nerds.
--Smash
-- Letter from Dilvish --
It is clear to many that Windows lacks that real-time support and
stability to provide a good home for the demo or video game community.
It is unclear, however, where we should turn to. Other operating
systems lack focus - attempting to be all things for all people, making
too many compromises between ease-of-use and functionality, and missing
the essential fast access to hardware, and real-time signal sharing
features that are a must for anybody involved in demos, music, or
gaming.
Here then are the essential features that we must search out or
provide before flocking to a new home:
* Hardware support
* 3D accelerators
* Soundcards
* External device I/O for MIDI or game control
* Not locked to specific hardware processors, video architectures,
RAM, storage devices
* Modular toolsets for developers including
* 3D libraries
* Audio libraries wave mixing, dsp, format conversion
* Modular O-O patterns, datatypes, etc.. someone still has to code a
flexible tracker
* Scriptable architecture remember how cool QuakeC was? DemoC
anyone?
* skinnable XML-based GUI widgets
* Efficient access to low-level devices, without locking ourselves to
any specific card remember all those demos that require the now
defunct gravis? treasures lost for most of us these days...
The most important feature:
* MODULARITY - new soundcards and video cards come out all the time.
It has to be EASY to support our OS. We have to be flexible and
lovable enough that over-looking support would be CRAZY on the part of
manufacturers. That means we have to design the architecture carefully,
or forget about it.
Of course, we should not forget network connectivity multi-player is
great, text editing and layout documentation, obviously, but what
about cool layouts for text and graphics in game menu screens? XML?
SVG?, or data management strategy games or RPGs often require a good
database to back up the cool interface.
I think its possible that an OS designed specifically for demos,
gamers, and Audio/Video types would also do a great job at anything else
youd like to throw at it. The difference is, we dont make choices
that limit what we can do in terms of real-time effects, multi-tasking,
or critical performance in order to enable a spreadsheet program to save
its data.
Many projects have launched with similar goals and met a quick demise
because they did not plan out their architecture carefully beforehand,
or did not realize the scope of what they had planned.
Here are some things we must also consider:
Many of the elements we need have already been built, and are
available to us freely. There are even GPLed OS kernels, some of them
specifically tailored for real-time systems. We should decide what we
can use, what we can wrap temporarily until a good replacement is built,
and what we must build ourselves.
We cannot do it alone. Open source seems the ONLY way for a bunch of
different demo-makers from around the globe to collaborate on a single
masterpiece of design and engineering. There will be MANY facets of the
architecture and design that no single person may be able to comprehend
entirely on their own.. for this reason, a modular, collaborative
structure is essential.
Unix pipes: the best example to date of a large system of tools that
truly communicate and work together well... why? Because they dont
know anything about each other. They have an input stream, and an
output stream. They do not call each other directly.. they do ONE
THING, and do it VERY WELL. That philosophy is one that we have to
adopt to make such a diverse collaboration a reality. They did it with
text - we can do it with MIDI, wave data, and graphics - or anything
else that might come along later.
The vision here is freedom from windows. Freedom from any particular
platform, rather, as all of them will have their own set of
shortcomings. We need to build a system that can be custom fit for the
individual, or even an individual program. If no process is currently
in need of a bulky GUI user likes textmode access, GREAT.. dont load
the damn GUI overhead. If they need it for something, it should be a
keystroke away, just as simple as launching any other program... a GUI
is simply a viewer framework.. not the foundation of an OS.
There are standards we can work with that will make our data
sharable, and as other developers flock to support those standards, they
will be supporting us without even realizing it. Without even trying.
Freedom can be ours.
Please direct comments, feature suggestions, and rants to
ostechdev@yahoo.com. Someone is listening. I promise.
--Dilvish
- Reply from Coplan:
I have always been a big supporter of the Open Source community,
especially when it has to do with Linux. Linux has grown, and it will
continue to grow -- but will it grow in the right direction for the
demoscene? At this point, its a mute point, as there isnt enough
single-user usage of Linux. There are a lot of systems out there with
Linux, but most are network servers. If you are one of those people
that has taught themselves linux, and if you program or write perl or
shell scripts, I urge you to find a project to get involved in, or even
create:
http://sourceforge.net
Yes, as I said, there arent many people useing Linux as a primary
medium, but there are two reasons for that: Ease of use and hardware
support. If you can help narrow any of those gaps, I garuntee, one more
person will be willing to use it. And one day, we might have our next
OS for the scene to expand into -- and you can say that you helped it
get there.
--Coplan
In Tune
Travels in Blue by Smash
By: Coplan
What can I say, Ive always been a Smash fan, and hes topped my list
more than once. So, I was quite happy to hear from him the other day,
where I could ask him to direct me to his latest music. Glad I ran into
him! I have a very inspirational tune for you guys this month:
Travels in Blue one of my favorite Smash tunes to date.
With very few exceptions, Smash did everything right with Travels in
Blue. The song is not too loud, its not too crazy, and its a nice
little mellow piece that you can toss in the background and play while
you work.
By tradition, I dont read a song description until after Ive heard the
song. So, when I heard that the opening was a bit slow. I thought that
might dictate the mood of the rest of the tune. Well, order 12 kicked
in, and I realized I was a bit wrong. The tune continued to be mellow
and dreamy throughout, but not quite the way I thought it would be.
Based entirely on the opening few patterns, I wouldve told you it was
an ambient tune. Again, I wouldve been wrong.
At order 12, we get what I like to call a kick-in transition. Its
not a technical term, but I think it describes it well. A kick-in is
the type of transition where a lot of instruments are introduced at
once. The most important instruments to introduce at this time are
always the percussion instruments. By doing this, and without changing
the tempo/speed of the song itself, you feel like the song is a bit more
lively. A kick-in transition was well suited for this tune, and smash
picked a good set of samples to kick in with. His percussion samples
are just perfect for this tune. The snare is something I like to point
out. There are a lot of different kind of snares out there, and I think
that one which sounds a bit muffled throw a few sheets in there sounds
great in a jazzy little tune like this. Yes, the percussion is
repetative, but not without reason. As you will see throughout the
song, he does know when to stop, when to start, and when to change the
percussion.
The baseline is one of the coolest parts of the song. If you have the
ability, crank your base. If you have listened to my advice from the
past -- you got your computer hooked up to a high quality amplifier, and
this shouldnt be a problem. If you dont listen to my advice -- that
cheezy little set of PC speakers with the 4 subwoofer isnt going to do
anything for you. Again, the baseline is repetative, but it does
change when it needs to. My interest in the baseline has to do entirely
with the way it controls the mood of the song. A quick baseline like
this, along with the fast paced percussion, help to liven up a song.
Percussion and tempo arent the only thing to consider for a lively
song, folks.
Order 32 comes upon us, and as I promised, the percussion fades out.
But the baseline remains. We got some dreamy lead instrument jumping
into action here, and with the percussion fading to the back, it sounds
really cool. It sounds even cooler when the percussion modified from
the norm kicks back in, and the baseline changes a bit as well.
Now comes my slight beef with the song: Around order 40, the strings in
the background the onces carrying the chord progression seem to fade
into the foreground off-and-on. The baseline also tends to sound a bit
forced, as it too does some really wierd stuff. Yes, it does sound
kinda cool, but I honestly dont think it fits the song very well. This
part couldve even been cut out all together. But, thats just my
opinion, you might like it.
By the time order 52 comes back around, everything is back to normal.
Its nice to get some variety in a song, and then end where one started
off. That is what Smash did -- as slowly as the song began, he ends it
the same way. One might think it drags a bit, but the song ends very
smoothly.
Overall, the song is a dreamy song that makes you want to move. As I
said, its great background noise if you turn the volume down a little
bit. But crank the volume, and you really want to move. I can picture
a whole bunch of my friends seriously dancing at a club to this one.
Definately worth a download.
--Coplan
Song Information:
Title: Travels in Blue
Author: Smash of Fairlight
Filename zipped/unzipped:
flt013-travelsinblue.zip / travelsinblue.xm XM
File Size zipped/unzipped: 864 kb / 1.9 MB
Source: http://fairlight.scene.org
Alternate:
ftp://ftp.scenespot.org/staticline/suppliment/travelsinblue.zip
In Tune is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. Coplans opinions are not the opinions of the Static
Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend either your own,
or another persons, We can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
Retro Tunage
Aeons of Notes by Yannis
By: Tryhuk
Welcome to another trip to the disappearing world of mod music. Today
Id like to introduce you my favourite track by Yannis Brown, who was
active in the scene for a really long and became a respected veteran.
I can still remember the first of his tracks that I heard, it was
just a cheesy cover tune on some song by Tori Amos, but it was enough to
stick his name in my head so I could pay attention to his other
releases. As I discovered Hornet archive, his songs were among the
first Ive downloaded and although there are many other good songs by
him, I remember this one as my favourite.
Style of the track is hard to describe - in the beginning it shows
signs of house, but then the percussion gets more complicated and more
attention is payed to the chord structure and leads. More dance style
feeling is brought back by a deep bassline, that shows to be typical for
Yannis. Over all this, the track has a very complicated structure and
its analysis would be for a separate issue. Just take a look on the
worked out chord structure, excellent leads - I count there to be at
least 3 instruments alternating on the place of lead, and also slight
but significant tempo and mood changes, often evoked by good handling
of instrument volumes.
With this song you can notice that isnt thrown together in few
hours like many todays tracks tend to be. Thus if you think you would
like to feel the oldskool feeling once again, or if you believe that this
track can give you ideas how to improve your tracking technique, go on
and listen to Aeons of notes.
Song Information:
Title: Aeons of notes
Author: Yannis Brown
Release date: Nov 96
Length: 4m27s trimmed
Filename zipped/unzipped: ybaeon.zip/ybaeon.it
File Size zipped/unzipped: 172k/316k
Source: Hornet archive
ftp://us.hornet.org/pub/demos/music/songs/1997/y/ybaeon.zip
--Tryhuk
Screen Lit Vertigo
Chrome by Damage and Lego Basics by Hybris/NEMESIS
By: Seven
-- Chrome by Damage party version --
Found at www.scene.org
3th place at The Party 10 demo compo
System requirements:
win32.opengl.geforce does this means its 100 Geforce only, or
that it wants certain extensions, or just any TL card? Who knows....
7 MB HD
Test Machine: PIII 900 192MB, SB128, GeForce 2MX 32MB, Win98
The Credits:
code: ther
music: db
gfx: adam
The Demo:
January is a bad month to get new demos, only checking Hugi party
calendar two parties, one of which is non-PC, and the other is past the
deadline for this Static Line issue. So Ill just keep reviewing TP
demos this month : Personally, I like the third place Chrome by
Damage better than the top two. Crome is a heavy 3D demo, not the
camera-flight kind but the 3D-texture-effect variant, a bit like Wonder
or Tesla/Sunflower. There are lots of standard effects like transparant
tunnels, morphing motion-blurred objects, wavy textures and the like,
but there are also some more original parts. For example, at the end
theres a morphing blob whose edges are more visible than the inside,
and several of these outlines are overlayed. Looks nice. In fact, there
are a lot of parts shown very quickly at the end: a discoball, some
transparant nutcrackers, the inside of a torus... Theres a bit of
space-station design, with cross-hairs and pseudo-technical terms like
proton spetrometer or radial docking port sprinkled here and there,
but it doesnt really form a solid whole.
Besides the multitude of textures, theres a nice Chrome-logo at the
start, but no other graphics. The music is a dnb track with enough
variation, with some more quiet parts between the pure rhythm parts.
The syncing is almost lacking at the start, but grows better towards the
end, with the human model rotating and the parts switching to the beat.
Just like the other demos in the top-3, Chrome uses an MP3 which makes
syncing harder.
Overall:
A lot of effects in Chrome can be summarized by done before, but
still good-looking. I also liked the variation near the end. A bad
point is that Damage appearently followed the 50 white-rule: if less
than half the screen is white, keep adding more flares and textures.
Maybe they did it on purpose for the bigscreen, on which darker colors
often get lost, but on a monitor its really overly bright :/ Luckily
the things that are visible still make this a demo worth watching.
-- Lego Basics by Hybris/NEMESIS final version --
Found at www.hybrisNEMESIS.com
2nd place at The Party 10 demo compo
System requirements:
No info file found...
Windows, 5 MB HD, and a 3D card to get 1 fps.
Test Machine: PIII 900 192MB, SB128, GeForce 2MX 32MB, Win98
The credits:
Code: Bender
Models: Bender Hawk
Music: Trauma Dunkel
Maps: Beyond
The Demo:
As the title says: the theme of this demo is lego, the little
bright-colored toy bricks 75 of the scene used to play with when we
were kids. Such a subject is guaranteed to draw some nostalgia votes in
a compo : The demo starts with a lego-man, dressed in black and with
sunglasses, who dodges some rockets that are fired at him by a simple
lego-helicopter. The rest of the demo doesnt continue this story, but
shows some bricks and simple objects that fall, collide and bounce. This
is no animation, but rather real-time calculated physics which means
detecting the collisions of objects and give them a new direction,
velocity and spin, based on their weight, current velocity etc. The
result looks quite realistic, better than normal keyframed animations,
but sometimes the objects bounce too much. The physics-part is slightly
randomized, so it looks different each time you run the demo. There are
also shadows, but as the invisible lightsource doesnt move, it might be
just a hack with a simple diagonal projection. Strangely, the lego-man
does not cast a shadow. At the end, a lot of bricks form a C64-logo, to
remind us which platform Hybris/NEMESIS comes from.
The music is an MP3 which starts with some mumbling singer, then
guitars kick in together with some helicopter-sounds, and the rest is a
kind of, hmm, techno-jazzy tune. Not bad, but not very special either.
Overall:
Lego Basics is mainly a technical demo, so you wont watch it very
often. Its also quite short 2 min 30 and the landscape doesnt look
very good. On the positive side, the whole demo runs an editable script,
so if you know XML you can edit LegoBasics.XML and create your own
LEGO-demo. Further good points are the realistic physics-generated
motions, and of course: lego :
--Seven
Intro Watch
Five Cigar Coctail by Replay and Peyote by Proxium
By: Gekko
-- Five Cigar Coctail by Replay --
64k at The Party 2000
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/THEPARTY00/in64/rplfccnotshown.zip
Requires: 3d card, Windows, OpenGL
For me, this is the best Replay intro so far. It was entered but not
shown at The Party 2000. This is a real pity, because it could have
ranked very high in the competition. The disk that they handed in
was broken, and I guess the Authors were boozing somewhere when the
organizers tried to contact them...
The intro is a show of beautiful scenes from nature: trees, flowers,
grass, and so on. These are not photorealistic of course, but they dont
appear synthetic. Somehow they still have a touch of reality. They
rather look as if they were hand-drawn. Meanwhile a poem runs line by
line.
This is a mood demo. This means that you have to be in a certain mood to
like it, and people usually react to it in a love-hate way. Some of them
are fond of it, the rest of them cant stand it. Hopefully you belong to
the first group...
-- Peyote by Proxium --
1 64k at Chaos Construction 2000
http://www.proxium.org
requires: MMX, Windows, DirectX
Proxium is a Russian group which is not so well-known in the
international scene. This intro is a very promising work by them. It is
far from perfect but it is surprising how much is squeezed into it.
There are two musics with software synthetised samples. We are shown a
sequence of countless 3d scenes sewels, street lamps, walking doll,
etc, with many textures and even still pictures. Hopefully Proxiums
next work will reach the top in style, too, because code-wise they are
already there.
--Gekko
Editorial
Part of the Scene?
By: Coplan
I dont find it very necessary to constantly reassure myself that Im
doing my part for the scene. I hope most of you dont either. In fact,
no one that is reading this should be concerned about doing their part
for the demoscene. I say that not because I truly expect that you all
bleed demoscene red I dont know, what color is demoscene blood?. I
say that because every tiny little part matters.
For me, my part is Static Line and SceneSpot which hopefully should
fully get off the ground soon. I release music on occasion, and I have
to remind myself not to overlook that. My primary existance in the
scene might be Static Line, but I wouldve never been here had it not
been for my tracking background. I dont claim to know the scene any
better than anyone else, and I dont claim myself to be a veteran. Im
just here, and Im enjoying myself. If asked, most of you wouldnt
argue my claim to be a contributor.
What about you? Are you a part of the demoscene? Can you honestly
say you know ANYTHING about the demoscene? In my absolute honest
opinion, I truly believe that anyone who can explain the demoscene to
someone else, and show examples, is a part of the demoscene -- even if
one does not contribute anything.
But Coplan! How can you allow someone to claim membership in the
scene if they dont contribute?
The question is in everyones mind as they read this, at least in some
form or another. The difference between your definition and my
definition of contribution is subtle. A song here and there is
definately a contribution. An article for Static Line is definately a
contribution. Jumping in trax or pixel or code and telling giving
someone ideas, or recommendations on their past work -- thats a
contribution, and many people overlook that. Many people also overlook
the fact that someone, perhaps someone who doesnt track, downloaded the
latest demo and played it on his/her computer. I say that, too, is a
contribution, because its spreading the word. Id be willing to bet
that person might have downloaded a demo or a tune, and thought it
really cool. Then they go grab more, and more, and pretty soon, they
know enough about the scene to describe it to someone. So what if they
dont write for some mag, or write music, or code? They are the ones
that are viewing and listening to your work -- and dont forget that.
I think that is the most important thing to remember when it comes to
The best OS for the demoscene. The answer is simple -- the one with
the most viewers. The reality is that we, as scene writers, trackers,
coders and artists, are doing what we do for an audience. No one here
expects to make money, so that cant be it. And though we cant rule
out personal satisfaction, the majority of people want to be heard or
seen.
Well guess what? You need those non-contributors dont you?
--Coplan
Link List
Portals:
Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net
Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org
SceneSpot.............................http://www.scenespot.org
CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net
Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net
Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org
Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz
Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com
Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/lascena
ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods
Norvegian Scene............http://www.neutralzone.org/scene.no
Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl
Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru
Spanish Scene............................http://www.escena.org
Swiss Scene..............................http://www.chscene.ch
Archives:
Acid2.....................................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
Hornet 1992-1996........................ftp://ftp.hornet.org
Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
Scene.org Austra........................ftp://ftp.nl.scene.org
Scene.org Netherlands...................ftp://ftp.au.scene.org
Swiss Scene FTP...........................ftp://ftp.chscene.ch
Demo Groups:
3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
3State...................................http://threestate.com
7 Gods.........................................http://7gods.sk
Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
Addict..................................http://addict.scene.pl
Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
Alien Prophets...................http://alienprophets.ninja.dk
Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
Broncs..................................http://broncs.scene.cz
Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
Cocoon..............................http://cocoon.planet-d.net
Confine.................................http://www.confine.org
Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
Eclipse............................http://www.eclipse-game.com
Elitegroup..........................http://elitegroup.demo.org
Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/exceed
Fairlight.............................http://www.fairlight.com
Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
Freestyle............................http://www.freestylas.org
Fresh! Mindworks...................http://kac.poliod.hu/fresh
Future Crew..........................http://www.futurecrew.org
Fuzzion.................................http://www.fuzzion.org
GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
Halcyon...........................http://www.halcyon.scene.org
Haujobb..................................http://www.haujobb.de
Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
Komplex.................................http://www.komplex.org
Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/mandula
Maturefurk...........................http://www.maturefurk.com
Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
MOVSD....................................http://movsd.scene.cz
Nextempire...........................http://www.nextempire.com
Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
Orange.................................http://orange.scene.org
Orion................................http://orion.planet-d.net
Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
Prone................................http://www.prone.ninja.dk
Purple....................................http://www.purple.dk
Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de
Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
Talent.............................http://talent.eurochart.org
The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org
The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net
The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no
TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com
Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma
T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org
Unik.....................................http://www.unik.ca.tc
Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch
Wipe....................................http://www.wipe-fr.org
Music Labels, Music Sites:
Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com
Aural Planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com
Azure...................................http://azure-music.com
Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
BrothomStates.............http://www.katastro.fi/brothomstates
Chill..........................http://www.bentdesign.com/chill
Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/cnd
Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com
Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com
Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/boris/fabtrax/home.htm
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org
Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.l7.net
Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org
Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net
Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org
Lackluster.....................http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster
Level-D.................................http://www.level-d.com
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music
Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/mon
MAZs sound homepage..................http://www.maz-sound.com
Med.......................................http://www.med.fr.fm
Moplayaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
Noerror.......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror
One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net
Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net
Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
RBi Music.............................http://www.rbi-music.com
Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruffengine
SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m
Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev
Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate
Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d
Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr
Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila
Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net
Tetris....................................http://msg.sk/tetris
Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr
Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tdr.scene.org
Triads C64 music archive.............http://www.triad.c64.org
UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com
Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm
Programming:
Programming portal......................http://www.gamedev.net
Programming portal.....................http://www.flipcode.com
Game programming portal...............http://www.gamasutra.com
3D programming portal.................http://www.3dgamedev.com
Programming portal......................http://www.exaflop.org
Programming portal............http://www.programmersheaven.com
Programming portal.....................http://www.freecode.com
NASM free Assembly compiler......http://www.cryogen.com/nasm
LCC free C compiler.........http://www.remcomp.com/lcc-win32
PTC video engine.........................http://www.gaffer.org
3D engines..........http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/ki/engines.html
Documents...............http://www.neutralzone.org/home/faqsys
File format collection...................http://www.wotsit.org
Magazines:
Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/dimag
Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
Eurochart.............................http://www.eurochart.org
Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
Hugi........................................http://www.hugi.de
Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
Shine...............................http://www.shine.scene.org
Static Line................http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
WildMag...............................http://wildmag.notrix.de
Parties:
Assembly Finland.....................http://www.assembly.org
Ambience The Netherlands..............http://www.ambience.nl
Dreamhack Sweden....................http://www.dreamhack.org
Buenzli Switzerland......................http://www.buenz.li
Gravity Poland............http://www.demoscena.cp.pl/gravity
Mekka-Symposium Germany...................http://ms.demo.org
Takeover The Netherlands.............,http://www.takeover.nl
The Party Denmark.....................http://www.theparty.dk
Others:
Demo secret parts....http://www.inf.bme.hu/mandula/secret.txt
Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
Freax................................http://freax.scene-hu.com
GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
IRC Channels:
Scene.........................................ircnet thescene
Programming.....................................ircnet coders
Programming....................................efnet flipcode
Graphics.........................................ircnet pixel
Music.............................................ircnet trax
Scene French..................................ircnet demofr
Programming French............................ircnet codefr
Graphics French..............................ircnet pixelfr
Scene Hungarian............................ircnet demoscene
Programming Hungarian......................ircnet coders.hu
Programming German........................ircnet coders.ger
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / mont@tar.hu
Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / tigerhawk@stic.net
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
Seven / Stefaan VanNieuwenhuyze/ seven7@writeme.com
Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / vojtech.tryhuk@worldonline.cz
Technical Consult: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
Static Line Subscription Management:
http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/staticline
If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware
that we will format your article with two spaces at the beginning and one
space at the end of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii
characters. Contributions should be mailed to Coplan
coplan@scenespot.org.
See you next month!
-eof---------------------
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