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Before Zero by Byterapers [web]
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popularity : 54% |
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alltime top: #20746 |
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added on the 2026-08-03 09:37:01 by mikron  |
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Another great non-CNCD-Fairlight Notch demo from this group which again has a lot of ambition and actually delivers on it. The worthy winner.
rulez added on the 2026-08-03 09:59:53 by fizzer 
Worthy winner! Obviously I can't thumb-up based on the engine alone, but this goes a long towards using Notch for something, and the flow and direction is good. Music, too.
Great demo!
Our 1st project, which was initiated already in the later part of 2025, was a create a Bond style anthem thing celebrating our 40 years. Them Gaspode Golden Egg came from the Revision (and Razor 1911 kinda sealed the nail in that coffing), so the whole shebang went into hiding. Maybe some year the time is right for that idea and content. Soundtrack from that project will be probably released in some form in our upcoming 40 years party. Months went by and we were still upset and uninspired after our idea went from hero to zero in one compo block. Until in mid June this year we had a BBQ meeting with the whole team (+team Protocode) at Mikron's place. We already had Roz's soundtrack for part 1 and Mysdee started composing music for part 2 on that evening. Me (mikron) also asked Truck for few narrator lines that evening.. so that's about 6 weeks before Assembly. Wode had already made some of the visuals we could use with the new "vision" and rest was hammered quite quickly in, almost same order what you see in the final prod. Last 2 weeks before deadline we hit the performance wall and all kinds of vram, moon position and strawberries price increase problems came splashing on our faces. Fix after fix after fix, but this time not after deadline, compo-orgs were strict. Which is the reason compo version, which was presented at Asm, doesn't have particles on that cube part close in the end of the demo .. + some other more minor things. Those have now been fixed in this release and maybe there's even more polished and tuned version coming later .. or maybe not. We don't know yet.
Mind blowing is that we were doing our DOS demo at the same time, almost with the exactly same team. Some real life multitasking there.
Kiitos ja anteeksi!
Mind blowing is that we were doing our DOS demo at the same time, almost with the exactly same team. Some real life multitasking there.
Kiitos ja anteeksi!
Very pretty!
I absolutely love the visual style and the direction of this demo. And the soundtrack is such a banger. Worthy winner definitely. Get's better every time I watch it.
Awesome
B40!
B40!
Such a beauty. So many visual layers, all coming together with the music in extreme precision. Masterwork.
For the most part it looks and sounds really nice. Very demoscenish with all the pomp and bombast you'd expect.
I just don't know how to rank these notch products or what to think of them. There's no concept that I can see, the cool tech comes from outside and as a whole it's just a mishmash of cool things.
I just don't know how to rank these notch products or what to think of them. There's no concept that I can see, the cool tech comes from outside and as a whole it's just a mishmash of cool things.
Quote:
Then Gaspode Golden Egg came from the Revision …
Oh nooo … please release your Bond-demo anyway. There’s enough space in the scene for multiple Bod demos.
Forgot the thumb for this massive prod.
Massive!
Need to rewatch it. Lots of things.
lots of things indeed
notch
I have some mixed feelings about no-code Notch demos repeatedly winning demoscene competitions. Looking at the votes, if that's what we want to watch, then I think it'd be fair to allow any CGI software like After Effects etc. and welcome that talent to the competition instead of pushing it to the side stage (short film).
Whether this stuff runs real time or not hasn't felt important to me for years, and doesn't sound like much of a challenge when it's played on some monster of a machine (this year 9800X3D, RTX 5070 etc).
Still, it's a cool film and the soundtrack is fantastic so I'd feel wrong giving anything else than a thumbs up.
Whether this stuff runs real time or not hasn't felt important to me for years, and doesn't sound like much of a challenge when it's played on some monster of a machine (this year 9800X3D, RTX 5070 etc).
Still, it's a cool film and the soundtrack is fantastic so I'd feel wrong giving anything else than a thumbs up.
Solid! Love that big-beat boom!
some pretty parts, some not so pretty. not a fan of the abundance of (animated) overlays either to heap up the mess, but hey, must have been a lot of work and best demo of the compo nonetheless.
A bit fixed version of my story .. sorry for previous which is rich of typos and some other minor errors.
--
Our first project, which had already been started in late 2025, was to create a James Bond-style anthem celebrating our 40th anniversary. Then Gaspode's Golden Egg arrived at Revision (and Razor 1911 kind of drove the final nail into that coffin), so the whole thing was shelved. Maybe one day the time will be right for that idea and its content. The soundtrack from that project will probably be released in some form at our upcoming 40-year party.
Months went by, and we were still disappointed and uninspired after watching our idea go from hero to zero in a single compo block. Then, in mid-June this year, we had a BBQ with the whole team (plus Team Protocode) at Mikron's place. We already had Roz's soundtrack for Part 1, and Mysdee started composing the music for Part 2 that very evening. I (Mikron) also asked Truck to record a few narrator lines that night. That was only about six weeks before Assembly.
Wode had already created some visuals that fit the new vision, and the rest came together surprisingly quickly, almost in the same order as you see it in the final production.
During the last two weeks before the deadline, we hit the performance wall. All kinds of VRAM limitations, moon-phase alignment, and strawberry price inflation problems came crashing down on us. Fix after fix after fix—but this time there was no fixing things after the deadline, because the compo organizers were strict.
That's why the version shown at Assembly doesn't have the particles during the cube scene near the end of the demo, along with a few other smaller details. Those have now been fixed for this release, and there might even be a more polished and finely tuned version later... or maybe not. We honestly don't know yet.
The really mind-blowing part is that we were making our DOS demo at the same time, with almost exactly the same team. Now that was some real-life multitasking.
--
Our first project, which had already been started in late 2025, was to create a James Bond-style anthem celebrating our 40th anniversary. Then Gaspode's Golden Egg arrived at Revision (and Razor 1911 kind of drove the final nail into that coffin), so the whole thing was shelved. Maybe one day the time will be right for that idea and its content. The soundtrack from that project will probably be released in some form at our upcoming 40-year party.
Months went by, and we were still disappointed and uninspired after watching our idea go from hero to zero in a single compo block. Then, in mid-June this year, we had a BBQ with the whole team (plus Team Protocode) at Mikron's place. We already had Roz's soundtrack for Part 1, and Mysdee started composing the music for Part 2 that very evening. I (Mikron) also asked Truck to record a few narrator lines that night. That was only about six weeks before Assembly.
Wode had already created some visuals that fit the new vision, and the rest came together surprisingly quickly, almost in the same order as you see it in the final production.
During the last two weeks before the deadline, we hit the performance wall. All kinds of VRAM limitations, moon-phase alignment, and strawberry price inflation problems came crashing down on us. Fix after fix after fix—but this time there was no fixing things after the deadline, because the compo organizers were strict.
That's why the version shown at Assembly doesn't have the particles during the cube scene near the end of the demo, along with a few other smaller details. Those have now been fixed for this release, and there might even be a more polished and finely tuned version later... or maybe not. We honestly don't know yet.
The really mind-blowing part is that we were making our DOS demo at the same time, with almost exactly the same team. Now that was some real-life multitasking.
Quote:
Forgot the thumb for this massive prod.
And funney is that you actually initiated this one ^p^
i don't really know what notch is but i really like a lot of this demo, a lot of the effects look really cool! and it has pretty good music
is ok. lots of content, but a lot of it is "yeah, notch can do this too", and also overall kinda not very consistent.
this feels like I just watched 20 demos at once. impressive effects and scenes, but disconnected. I dig the first part of the music for being 2000s-bigbreakbeatish, the second part contains this cheesy synth lead "guitar" patch that I really can't stand anymore. still this is one of the better demos!
This is a very artistic product of extremely talented sceners.
Interesting that viewers or critics, who seem not to like Notch didnt care about artists using farbrausch .werkzeug many years ago. Demos often used (demo)engines in order to create the perfect demo that has been envisioned. marvellous demo!
Interesting that viewers or critics, who seem not to like Notch didnt care about artists using farbrausch .werkzeug many years ago. Demos often used (demo)engines in order to create the perfect demo that has been envisioned. marvellous demo!
Thank you all for the feedback <3 Remember to check Manu's awesome logo sticker art here https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=106797
I do notice this disconnection on notch demos, like let's put some stuff together and show all the fluid dynamics and physics effects that would give us votes. Also tried to run on my old PC, some parts were slow, some parts were ok and then it crashed.
Quote:
This is a very artistic product of extremely talented sceners.
Interesting that viewers or critics, who seem not to like Notch didnt care about artists using farbrausch .werkzeug many years ago. Demos often used (demo)engines in order to create the perfect demo that has been envisioned. marvellous demo!
+ Or Chucky, or Demopaja, or Kauhanen .. list goes on. This is really weird indeed. Thanks jazZ : )
yeah, i wouldn't be too worried about the whole "yeah, notch can do this too" kind of stuff. it can do a lot more than what's shown here. these are mostly just the kind of things that make you think, "this is the sort of stuff a demo is supposed to have, right?"—the kind of material people expect to see.
the best effect is often the simplest one, and not necessarily anything like what you'd imagine it to be.
a lot of parts and good sync are what make a demo work. if it makes you feel like you need to watch it again, then you've probably done something right.
the best effect is often the simplest one, and not necessarily anything like what you'd imagine it to be.
a lot of parts and good sync are what make a demo work. if it makes you feel like you need to watch it again, then you've probably done something right.
I'm supportive (and also 40)
There's a huge difference between using a tool with nice timelines and stuff as a sequencer, to put the parts you coded together and make a nice demo, maybe take advantage of some part compositing features to make things easier... you still coded the fucking effects... and using a motion graphics/VJ tool throw some assets in there and call it a demo. It's not a demo, take that shit to the wild compo.
certainly not without its flaws, but it was a great show, and the music deserves a separate thumb <3
Sounds and looks pleasing, doesn't get boring and the 2005 numedia-arrow overlays make it kind of coherent, but doesn't really go anywhere.
Outstanding technical archievement for making a Notch-demo, which doesn't bug all the time in scene changes etc :D
Overshadowed by that other group releasing a design-masterpiece 40y demo just couple of months earlier, and this feels like "just another demo" compared to that.
Outstanding technical archievement for making a Notch-demo, which doesn't bug all the time in scene changes etc :D
Overshadowed by that other group releasing a design-masterpiece 40y demo just couple of months earlier, and this feels like "just another demo" compared to that.
holy mackerel, that's quite an engine (Notch) ! Clearly some serious editing effort has gone into this as well (and I like the visual style).
at 360mb it's probably also the largest demo I've ever downlooted :-)
at 360mb it's probably also the largest demo I've ever downlooted :-)
I stole some statistics, they were left on the table unguarded ...
Before Zero has: 46 composition layers (parts), 507 textures, 19 3D objects, 2610 notch nodes. The most complicated single part has 150 nodes.
First version of the project file (the main .dfx) was created 14th June '26 and last version sent out to compocrew was version 85 of the main branch, 31th July '26 at 15:06. Release version datafile before Deepr's exectractor is 247M (notch compresses it a bit).
So yeah... when I casually threw out "6 weeks" in response to someone's question, it ended up being pretty close to the truth. : ) Actually we had a BBQ meeting with almost the whole crew present at 13th of June, but I think we didn't have the Before Zero name yet until the 14th.
Before Zero has: 46 composition layers (parts), 507 textures, 19 3D objects, 2610 notch nodes. The most complicated single part has 150 nodes.
First version of the project file (the main .dfx) was created 14th June '26 and last version sent out to compocrew was version 85 of the main branch, 31th July '26 at 15:06. Release version datafile before Deepr's exectractor is 247M (notch compresses it a bit).
So yeah... when I casually threw out "6 weeks" in response to someone's question, it ended up being pretty close to the truth. : ) Actually we had a BBQ meeting with almost the whole crew present at 13th of June, but I think we didn't have the Before Zero name yet until the 14th.
Non-coherent and scattered, not in a good way. The colours aren't doing it any favours... And that makes the graphics art-ish scenes not work well.
And the 3d scenes themselves often suffered from not enough attention to detail/shading/composition. Music doesn't grab me at all either. I didn't like anything about the demo really, but not a thumbs down because of the obvious amount of effort poured into it.
And the 3d scenes themselves often suffered from not enough attention to detail/shading/composition. Music doesn't grab me at all either. I didn't like anything about the demo really, but not a thumbs down because of the obvious amount of effort poured into it.
Best example of too many cooks spoil the broth. Music by Roz is standing out - the rest it Notch-slop.
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