From: das9674@usl.edu (Stephenson Daniel A)
Subject: Re: Unreal demo!
Organization: University of Southwestern Louisiana
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 21:43:59 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.190823.5325@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rjc@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray) writes:
>In article <1992Sep3.005629.13793@usl.edu> das9674@usl.edu (Stephenson Daniel A) writes:
>>In article <jbickers.0els@templar.actrix.gen.nz> jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) writes:
>>>Quoted from <1992Sep2.052244.7893@usl.edu> by das9674@usl.edu (Stephenson Daniel A):
>>>> Wow, guys, any of you with a fast 386 or 486 and maybe a SoundBlaster
>>>> REALY REALLY ought to try getting the Unreal demo from nic.funet.fi.
>>>
>>>    For those of us who haven't managed to get it yet - could you give
>>>    use a run-down of the effects that it uses? Things like sine
>>>    scrolls (vertical and/or horizontal?), mirror effects, rotating
>>>    text, etc?
>>
>>It has sine-wave text, text that sorta does a 'loop-de-loop' ina
>>screwing-type fashion - really great.
>
>  Sine/Twist scrollers have been done in just about every Amiga
>intro/demo since 1987. (and they have been done on the C64 in the
>last 3 years).  Compare Unreal's Sine scroll to the VectorBob-Sine-Scroller
>in Phantasmogoria or Aces High. No comparison.

Nor was I asking for a comparison! 

>>It does some amazing color things.  VERY VERY smooth!
>>It has a 3d filled polygon space-scene, ships flying everywhere...
>>a 'potential well' - looking thing (for all you EE people out there),
>>called 'black hole' or something, it looks neat.
>>It has a really neat 'terrain' thing at the end.  Scrolls around really fast,
>>if any of you have seen t'Powerminger' for the PC, it is similar to that.
>
>   The rest of this stuff is the type of routines that are done
>at "the end" screen on Amiga demos except for the vectors.

Oh, how nice.

>>I am not too up on 'techniques', mind you... 
>>
>>ah ahh, maybe you just oughta get it, the music sound great, too.
>>
>>personally I love 'cheesy Euro-synth'!!  :)
>>.
>
>   I challenge any PCer to get a hold of an Amiga and watch
>Hardwired, Razor's Voyage, Odyssey, Digital Innovation, Substance,
>Cube-o-Matic, etc, compare them to Unreal and come away with a straight
>face claiming that Unreal is even in the same _league_ in terms of
>creativety, smoothness, direction, innovative routines, and music.

I don't think there is any Amiga 20-30 miles from me,..sorry, but that'll
be hard to do...

> The MODs in hardwired alone beat Unreal's butt.

So...computer demos somehow....compete with one another?

>  Instead of messing around with Unreal, get REND386,a virtual
>reality renderer system. It does something the 486 is good at,
>lots of vector transformations, instead of faking something it's can't do,
>lots of playfields w/bobs and parallax scrolling.

I like messing around with UNREAL!  That's what these things are FOR:
the look at with jaw dropped for a few times and then delete them from
your hard drive.  That IS exactly what you do, right?

>>>> Is this the sort of thing commonly found for Amigas?
>>>
>>>    Yes, and not so big... :)
>
>   It's the type of routines that are so old and easy that Amiga
>demos don't use them any more. Sine Scrollers are _OLD_. If anyone
>used them in a modern demo contest they would be laughed out of the room.

O. K.  So they are old.  So freaking old i had never ever ever seen them
before.  I thought it was kinda neat.  What I asking for your opinion...
at any time?

>  But don't take my word on it alone, ask some of the
>hardcore demo collectors in alt.sys.amiga.demos and they will tell you.
>Plain Filled vectors are fast becoming old too. Now most demos do 
>rubber vectors, real-time image mapping onto polygons (voyage demo), 
>shadows,  Glenz/Blenk vectors (morphing vectors and transparent polygons),
>spline vectors, etc.  As I said in another post, if Unreal
>had been written in 1989, it might have stood a chance of making the
>top ten.  If Unreal is the best that PC demo coders can come up with
>(pushing the hardware to its limits) than the PC demo scene has a long
>time to go.

Well, like I said, I'm not gonna collect this baby.  It is merely amusement.
It is amazing what people do to entertain themselves, isn't it?

--
Dan Stephenson                                           das9674@usl.edu
" BERLIN WALL FALLS.  3 BORDER GUARDS LOSE JOBS.  CLINTON BLAMES BUSH! "
        -George Bush, '92 Republican nomination acceptance speech