Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news
From: James Russell <James_Russell@scee.sony.co.uk>
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.mydemos
Subject: Demo competition
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 19:11:37 +0100
Organization: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Lines: 81
Message-ID: <360D2E59.C32F9DA@scee.sony.co.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mailgate.scee.sony.co.uk
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5b1 [en] (Win95; I)
X-Accept-Language: en

Back in the days of the Amiga and the C64, and currently with the PC, there was a thriving demo
scene. To those who don't know exactly what a demo is, it's was a program which 'demonstrates' the
graphical and processing power of the machine. You've probably seen a few of them on the PC - names
like "Second Reality" come to mind. The Playstation's most famous demos are probably the Dino demo
and the Second Offence demo. They are usually non-interactive, have a few different graphical
effects, and tend to amaze programmers and no-one else.

I'm quite surprised that we haven't see more of these demos on the Yaroze, because programming a
demo is a good step to writing a full-blown game, and helps improve your programming skills in
general. I'd like to see more of them. So I'm creating my own little mini-competition (which isn't
an official Sony one, by the way).

Regulations:
	o Closing date: Sunday Nov 29th 1998, 11:59pm - That gives you roughly 2 months from now.
	o Categories:
		o Coolest graphical effect (long)
		o Coolest graphical effect (short)
	o Prizes:
		o For the coolest graphical effect (long), a light gun and a copy of Point Blank.
		o For the coolest graphical effect (short), a copy of Spice World, or Kula
			World, your choice if you win.
		o Various consolation prizes depending on what I can find lying around the office.
	o If you submit your demo, you either have to post the source code, or explain how the
		effect was achieved.
	o The decision will be based upon technical merit and style. Having Boris Vallejo for an
		artist won't help. I won't care if your 3D models are badly constructed.
	o The decision of the judge (me) is final.
	o It's open to all regions, but be warned that the prizes are the PAL versions of those
		games, so you'd better have a PAL/NTSC tv if you're entering from the USA/Japan.
		Yes, I have a dual format telly, so I can view both PAL and NTSC.
	o I must have received either a link to your program, or a ZIP file containing your
		program mailed to me by the due date/time.
	o No effects can use an Action Replay, but PSComUtil is allowed.
	o If I have unreasonable trouble getting your program to run, it will be disqualified.
	o You have to to use the Yaroze libraries only (i.e. professional developers aren't
		allowed to include anything from the professional dev kits which isn't available
		to everyone else). Of course, dynamic TMDs are allowed.
	o Your program can have as many effects as you like, but each one will be judged
		separately from the others. There is no "best program" category, so having 100
		crap effects in one program won't do you any good.
	o You can collaborate with as many people as you like, but you'll have to figure out
		how to split the prize if your group wins.

By "graphical effect (long)", I mean an effect that goes for a while, like water rippling or
realtime fractal zooming. By "graphical effect (short)", I mean something like a picture fading in
or out, like the Final Fantasy 7 feedback effect, which may only take a few frames but can be done
in a really styley and cool way.

It doesn't have to be 3D, you can get some really cool 2D effects going too. I'm a programmer too,
remember, so I'll be looking for a combination of some cool technical technique and original use of
effects, not just 'style' and great pictures your Art College friend drew. I am impressed by
original ways of doing things.

Some ideas you might like to try:
	o Water
	o Fire/Smoke
	o Realtime Fractals (use LoadImage, not polygons)
	o Plasma
	o Polygon morphing in a cool way.
	o Starfields
	o Cool semi-transparency effects
	o Bump-mapping (shaddup your face, Colin H! :O)
	o Shadows
	o Cool line effects
	o Fractal landscapes
	o Combinations of the above (semi-trans sprites rotating around a cube textured with a fire effect

The effects don't have to be interactive. You can find source, tutorials and other info on how to do
some of these effects at http://www.hornet.org/ The effects can be anything - you could have just a
water effect on the screen, or a spaceship flying around all the planets in the solar system. I
don't care if you leech source code from someone else.

I know you might be exhausted from GDUK/ECTS but get coding!

James

-- 
== James_Russell@scee.sony.co.uk                +44 (171) 447-1626
== Developer Support Engineer - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

A cynic smells flowers and looks for the casket.