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demo tools

category: general [glöplog]
 
What's the minimum that a demo tool should have? I'm thinking of making a demo 'player' with built-in effects, that would be fed music and a small script, no coding required/possible. Something using the embedded 'events' that you can put into wma, probably. Really just a lightweight way to throw visuals on top of music, with very good sync. Something that can't take in a significant amount of data, but which could procedurally generate crap from sets of parameters. Nothing really huge though, as it's all got to be procedurally generated in real time (so no 'loading' time at start).

So what I'm asking is: what kind of effects does a demoplayer require at minimum, to be interesting? So far I think this is the min, but I'd like to hear suggestions, since this would face a lot of people.

I've been thinking:
hypnoglow flash centered at coords (x,y)
create object n of type m with procedural parameters a,b,c...
display object n with size x,y,z at location x,y,x relative to camera
move camera with momentum dx,dy,dz, spin da,db,dg
turn on/off blur/feedback/some other built-in effect
display text "whtaever" at location x,y in font n
suggestions???
added on the 2006-03-17 17:25:09 by GbND GbND
well...I guess, a decent startup routy ;)
added on the 2006-03-17 17:27:37 by d0DgE d0DgE
Quote:
what kind of effects does a demoplayer require at minimum, to be interesting?


Interesting? Probably not those winamp vis-plugin effects you described and that we have already seen 500 times :)
added on the 2006-03-17 17:45:43 by keops keops
take a look at OSDM!
you definitely need more cup holders and an automatic switch for style. "cool", "very cool", "even cooler", "extremely cool", "beakpoint entry"
added on the 2006-03-17 18:20:59 by apricot apricot
It also needs more cowbell.
added on the 2006-03-17 18:46:57 by Gargaj Gargaj
keops: yeah, that's why I asked. Are any winamp vis plugins driven by events embedded in music though? I thought they all just fed off of winamp's beta detection / sound levels and crap.
Honestly, with most of them (and the xbox2 vis's) I can't tell if the music is playing or not just by looking at the vis.
added on the 2006-03-17 18:52:23 by GbND GbND
DON'T BE A FOOL - MAKE DEMOTOOL WITH DEMOTOOLTOOL!
added on the 2006-03-17 19:58:45 by kusma kusma
fuck demotools, code effects from scratch goddamnit ;)
GbND:

It kind off depends on which approach you want to do. Would you like some pre-coded effects with a bare minimum of settings (would be what you describe in your first post), or the abillity to build new effects trough the tool?

Personally, I prefer to create a set of basic building blocks, integrate them in the tool, toss in a timeline, then build new effects by combining the basic building blocks in different ways inside the tool.

If you want to do it by doing some effects and using events in the music file as synching, then you might as well just use pure code since the layer of abstraction you would add (the scripting or whatever) would just get in the way eventually. Thats my oppinion at least. ;)

The most important thing is usability though, no point in having a leet demotool if it takes 351 hours to get a spinning quad.
added on the 2006-03-17 21:01:57 by wb wb
demotools are FORBIDDEN!!!!!1 omfg!(one).
### ILLEGAL DEMOTOOL IMPLANTATIONS ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH DEMOCRACY ###
added on the 2006-03-17 22:34:00 by kelsey kelsey
on the other hand... demotools are so 2001
added on the 2006-03-17 22:39:00 by keops keops
demo player has to include a penis to be interesting
added on the 2006-03-17 22:46:09 by waffle waffle
as long as it has the farbrausch loading bar its good enough to use.
added on the 2006-03-17 23:33:22 by psenough psenough
hardcoding!
added on the 2006-03-17 23:44:13 by styx^hcr styx^hcr

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