An afterthought on intros depending on windows 8.1
category: code [glöplog]
If only it was "The real party is on $someOtherVideoPlatformThatDoesntSuckMoreEveryYear!"... Really, I'd rather download proper video captures of demos that I cannot run than having to bear the turds YouTube craps on those videos.
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Knowing your hardware and feeling as the demo runs on it is a big part of the watching pleasure.
That's a perfectly valid opinion, but please don't assume it's the only one. I watch everything on youtube, even javascript demos. If it's not on youtube, I make do with the screenshot.
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Watching today demos on real ZX or Amiga would make my jaw drop. Watching them on emulators makes me only wonder how great they are. Watching them on YT makes me fall asleep.
You forgot:
"...on a f**king cleverphone. Using shitty bandwith. In direct sunlight. ;>
As a regular demo watcher and video capture guy I can only say that the best long-term solution might be a compo-machine-version and a compatible.exe that will run on older systems too. At least if you want poeple to enjoy/preserve your masterpiece in a couple of years too...
youtube is the shit
Personally, I almost always watch demos on youtube, even though the frame rate usually sucks and compression artifacts are often obvious... For the longest time, I didn't have a PC capable of running demos even from the last couple of years, let alone the most recent ones. In fact, despite buying a new graphics card recently, I still doubt my machine would run the latest demos at a worthwhile frame rate.
On the Amstrad, I'll usually make the effort to try to watch the demo on real hardware, but even then it's often easier just to watch it on youtube. For platforms I don't own, I obviously have to watch a video or else I'd have to try to figure out how to set up an emulator for a platform I've never used. Naturally, the video wins. Also, it's trivial to send a non-scener a youtube link to show them something cool, which can sometimes get them interested in the scene.
I'm all up for preserving the ability to run demos on real hardware for those that can and want to, but videos are just so much easier for the usual case. There is a certain sense of irony of streaming 20MB of video to watch a 64KB demo though!
Long term compatibility though is always going to be a nightmare, especially on dynamic, always changing platforms like Windows. At least with retro hardware, the variance between machines are much smaller, so for instance if you find a old C64 and a disk, you'll probably be able to watch all C64 demos. Having any vintage Windows probably doesn't guarantee much success of running anything, just because there's all the other variables to consider...
On the Amstrad, I'll usually make the effort to try to watch the demo on real hardware, but even then it's often easier just to watch it on youtube. For platforms I don't own, I obviously have to watch a video or else I'd have to try to figure out how to set up an emulator for a platform I've never used. Naturally, the video wins. Also, it's trivial to send a non-scener a youtube link to show them something cool, which can sometimes get them interested in the scene.
I'm all up for preserving the ability to run demos on real hardware for those that can and want to, but videos are just so much easier for the usual case. There is a certain sense of irony of streaming 20MB of video to watch a 64KB demo though!
Long term compatibility though is always going to be a nightmare, especially on dynamic, always changing platforms like Windows. At least with retro hardware, the variance between machines are much smaller, so for instance if you find a old C64 and a disk, you'll probably be able to watch all C64 demos. Having any vintage Windows probably doesn't guarantee much success of running anything, just because there's all the other variables to consider...
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I'm all up for preserving the ability to run demos on real hardware for those that can and want to
Yes, but that is not even the issue here.
The prods run fine on Windows 8.1, which is a common and easily available OS, which runs on a large variety of common and easily available hardware.
"Windows" is not a platform. It is a large family of OSes spanning multiple decades. A platform is far more specific. As you say, many variables.
The .nfo files of most prods are very vague at best, when it comes to specs.
I think that it may be a good idea to add the specs of the compo machine used at a party to the pouet database. If you know the compo machine used where a prod was released, you also have a rough indication of what kind of configuration the prod would run on.
Alternatively, perhaps prods should be more specific in their requirements (minimum OS, memory, GPU/API/shader version/whatever, CPU extensions etc) when being submitted to compos. That will make 'archeology' a lot easier in the future than it is now.
The thing is, with the multitude of available CPUs, mainboards, GPUs, etc.. these days, how should demo makers easily find out the minimum specs of their productions?
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The thing is, with the multitude of available CPUs, mainboards, GPUs, etc.. these days, how should demo makers easily find out the minimum specs of their productions?
If you write the code, you should have a decent idea of what the requirements are. You know what version of a given API you're using, and it's trivial to find out the minimum OS version for that API.
Besides, it doesn't even have to be 100% accurate. As long as it's a ballpark figure, it's fine. If you don't know the exact minimum, at least you can list the specs that you've used while developing the prod. Say 'recommended' specs instead of minimum. Better than nothing.
Just an indication of: "This prod is known to run on specs XYZ". So when you try to run that prod 10-15 years from now, you have some indication of what kind of system to look for.