It allowed others to get started creating demos by supplying:
* image
* sampled sound
* scrolling text
Not very advanced by todays standards, but unbeknownst to me at the time, turned out to actually be used by some groups to release their first Amiga demos:
Back in 2018 (I guess) I was trying to create a place where programmers could create audio visualizations (like winamp and windows media player) that would react to an audio (radio, mp3 playlist, youtube video...). I end up creating 5 or 6 "demoscenes" so other people would contribute. My original goal was to detach the radio project from me website. Give it it's own domain and hosting and make a platform out of it, maybe an online code editor, so people could create live (while listening to music). Well, the project is not dead yet and I'd like to continue it some day.
"Demoscene" refers to the movement & community of people. Specific contributions to the demoscene can be called with the catch-all term "production", or by their particular type: demo, intro, mod, music, wild demo, etc or even generic ones like sketch, experiment...
awesome! I started working on some visualizations in that vein for fun just in the last few weeks, and had very similar ideas about making a 'scriptable' version and letting others build what they want with it.
I've been running a node-ytdl-core server alongside it to stream audio from youtube videos, which is my primary issue right now: making something interesting for others seems like it needs to be able to play the audio they want, but most people don't have folders full of mp3's anymore, and both youtube/soundcloud/others and the modern cross-site web security model make it incredibly hard to do something as simple as decode the audio signal the browser is playing.
Regardless, your project looks super cool! Using online radio seems like a neat way to workaround the problem I've been having.
Yeah, I've encountered some cool people running web radio stations who thought they site were bored. So I've added slugs so they can link the project directly to their station.
Later chrome started blocking non https content (which most of the stations were streaming like) so I had to remove a lot of cool stations, sadly
Ever since I had discovered shadertoy I've been searching for a consolidated source like this. I have a decent graphics background after taking a handful undergrad courses, but most of the producers on shadertoy just seem like magicians comparatively. Very excited to check this out!
Not mainstream; it's a niche hobby. Most people have never heard of it, and you won't encounter anyone on the street chatting about the latest demoscene developments. You won't find TV shows about it nor regional clubs dedicated to it. While it is an art, no artist makes their living doing it. It's also not the most accessible since there's some technical skill required.
For the 3rd one, you are probably thinking about "Elevated", which is 4k http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=52938
There are others but it is the most famous and it was revolutionary when it came out.
I think what GP means is that even a "compofiller", a demo that is not expected to win any prize requires some technical skill.
I suppose nowadays it means "not mainstream" as many have pointed out, but historically many of these computer scenes have been called part of an "underground" simply because they're part of something illegal. The demoscene itself was born out of the warez scene, as its sole purpose was to advertise pirated software distribution groups. It branched out fast, but those scenes have always been heavily linked together.
Presumably it just means "not mainstream". Which is certainly true. Because demoscene is exemplar of the "hacker mindset", it's no wonder it tends to feature on HN. But HN is not exactly mainstream either.
If you're doing something creative then deadlines can be useful to stop yourself from constantly tweaking. Actually finishing stuff helps with morale and also allows you to review and hone processes, rather than getting lost in the weeds. I dabble in music production and the amount of 16 bar loops I had before actually deciding to restict myself (with the help of a friend adjudicating) was mind-boggling. Once I'd started to finish stuff it became easier overall to not get stuck in a rabbit hole.
How so? Not sure if you said that partly tongue in cheek, but deadlines for me usually seem to help me make realistic choices in order to get something done on a time budget. No doubt they can sometimes compromise lofty goals, and/or can be frustrating or less fun than having open-ended time, but there’s enough to be said about deadlines I don’t think I’d personally ever summarize them with a single word counterproductive.
In this context, the deadline section is referring to being ready for a demo party, possibly as a compo entry, which happens on a specific date, so what would even be an alternative to having a deadline? The writing wasn’t urging the reader to choose whether to use deadlines, it was saying pay attention to the fact that your demo showdown is coming up on a day picked by someone else, so plan accordingly. Right?
It depends on the person of course,but I think also in circumstance.
If I want to tinker or aimlessly play with something,sure,artificial deadlines may not suit me.
But if I want to even remotely accomplish an actual goal,or build something,or even learn something concrete,I positively need a firm and ideally external and enforced deadline - otherwise I'll meander,change scope and direction,redo from scratch,try a different tool / framework / system / method /whatever...and generally never ever finish
Constraints stimulating creativity and innovation is pretty well accepted fact.
Time to deliver is just another constraint, which tends to force all decisions be made quickly and to err on the side of forward progress vs. some theoretically ideal option.
Having participated in a few demo parties back in the 90s, I have a deep appreciation for the scene. But I think we tended to dismiss the negative consequences of sleep deprivation, considering what we know now about the brain and sleep.
Edit:
Also, in terms of deadlines in general, not just the insane 24/48hr demoscene/gamejam style competitions, it can be rather difficult to prioritize a project receives your precious bandwidth on a given day if there's no deadline. It just keeps getting pushed aside by the tasks that do.
As a deeply lazy man, the I was most productive during the handful of Ludum Dare 48-hour game jams I entered. It felt great, if stressful. I couldn't afford to stay too far off from my plan if I'd intended to meet the deadline.
It depends. For projects which are never really 'done' (i.e. there's always more polish you can put on), they can help focus things to get them out the door. However for other projects they can be extremely counterproductive, especially if the priority is on having something done by the deadline over having something which is good enough as soon as possible (in which case sufficiently poorly defined deadlines can basically prolong a project indefinitely).
Well, I see you got a lot of the same, kind of generic answers. Deadlines motivate you, and this and that.
That’s all good and well, but my initial thought is simple. Just remember the title. The author specifically designed this course to teach Demoscene ‘in 14 days’.
If you don’t mind taking longer, then the deadlines don’t apply. But the course is designed to help you do it in this timeframe.
the title was more of a tongue in cheek reference to those kind of books that claim to teach you a certain thing in 14 days. not meant to be a strict deadline of learning :)
Sometimes; I find it can depend on the project in mind. I think if a decent number of people try to scope for a certain timeline, you can get interesting discussions on what's achievable within the timeframe.
Maybe a bit like schoolwork, what you get out of it is what you're able to put into it.
http://janeway.exotica.org.uk/release.php?id=73124
It allowed others to get started creating demos by supplying:
* image
* sampled sound
* scrolling text
Not very advanced by todays standards, but unbeknownst to me at the time, turned out to actually be used by some groups to release their first Amiga demos:
https://www.reddit.com/r/amiga/comments/nd74xf/celebrating_3...