pouët.net

The question is old, but answers are what I am interested of.

What would you as a viewer and consumer of demoscene demos would like to see in the modern high end demos? Yes, the ones which are limited "only" by the most modern ultra parallel high bw hardware, and by the creators creativity etc.

Large, non-procedural datasets (that still don't take up gigabytes and gigabytes on end), and the ability to do something interesting with them.

Concepts.
Design.
A pleasing audiovisual experience.
Less cliches.

The technology doesn't really pay a role here.

(and for Pouet in 2025 - an edit button with which to fix typos)

* Satisfying, skilled {well-known, innovative} x {colors, animation, textures, modelling, composition (msx and gfx), chord progressions, sound design, synchronization}
* Fresh and stylish {typography, logo (group and prod)}
* Notorious {generic Tropes, Greetings}

I deliberately left out the story, I just want to see a consistent concept.

Bonus points if attitude or a message is transported.

Put great stuff on to the screen, but... I do care about:

Less size, more optimized for "lesser" GPU's and memory sizes. I think more oldskool way of getting there than "gigantik engine here, wait for loading 10 minutes, oh your GPU is not enough, its 1 number smaller than we had and now its running 5fps!" :)

i would like to see proper abuse of gaussian splats tech

effort, care and skills... maybe a bit of talent too... why not...

All I need is cubes! ;)

Maybe more modern software rendering PC demos exploiting multi core and SIMD. Not sure what else would impress me.

The only way those modern mega huge "no limits" things are going to impress me, at all, would be them booting/running completely freestanding, sans OS, sans 3rd party engine.

Software sexy Nazi chicks

The question is as old as this century: what the heck are we supposed to do with such enormously overpowered technology? It was already a problem around 2000. That's why old and limited platforms are still alive and kicking. Also why virtual 8-bit machines exist.

But if you think of it, high end platforms pose a challenge on their own, in a rather ironic way. It's not how to get around the limitations but how to reach them?

With code? Right, but code what? What can you possibly dream up that takes full advantage of a modern PC while staying spectacular? What is the modern equivalent of, say, the Mandelbrot zoom from Crystal Dream II?

With art? No way in hell. These things are supposed to run games with millions of creative hours invested by megacorporations. You won't match that alone or with a few buddies.

Music? You have been able to play any sort of music since MP3 became a thing. There are adult sceners who don't even remember the time before. Music has long ceased to be a technical challenge.

In the end, you will either create some coder porn monstrosity, or something we've already seen 20 years ago. This doesn't mean your demo would be bad, not at all. But it would easily run on a PC from 20 years ago. That's the takeaway in my opinion.

A good example would be "Konrad Zuse's Plankalkül" by Electronic Knights. It's hardly a high end demo, it's an Amiga 500 one. Even by Amiga standards, it doesn't show anything remarkable. It could've been made in 1994. But boy, what a compo blaster! It was truly a highlight of Evoke 2024. I would bet many people still remember it, but not that it was in the alternative compo, and not the PC demo compo.

- Explosions and shattering stuff without any self intersecting geometry.
- Plastic metaballs that crumbles and gets seared and boils before finally catching fire
- Withering effects.. stuff going from fresh to rotten
- Snow metaballs made out of "kram snø"
.... metaballs made out of peat with moss on them that crumbles and makes sounds that remind you of your young days when you were walking around in the marshes looking for cloudberries

Boobs. Then, more boobs.

In it for the art! If your tech is good it's one thing but I think presentation matters equally if you want it to be memorable.

A logo, a scroller, and a catchy tune. That's a start. Then innovate, vary, deconstruct.

Reminds me when many years ago I was claiming we have seen meatballs but not hairy meatballs or some other variation and someone was pointing a demo done this :)

Assets that were made with actual human effort is an important one that I wish didn't need to be mentioned.


mostly though, I want to see new things. Old things are fine too, but I want to also see new things that I haven't even thought of, or at least seen in a demo before. Be that in the realm of music, tech, theming, direction, storytelling, visuals, etc.



oh, and generally just more queer shit, please. Preferably furry too. That'd be nice :3

I wanna see cool new shit that people had fun making and it shows.

More 2D, isometric, interesting use of geometry, "less is more" and more storytelling.
The kind of stuff you need unreal engine and co.

Honesty

fuck you kaneel or do i need to expell you from bps? lies are the only way

-Effects copied directly from first search hits in Shadertoy
-AI generated art and music
-Models and animations taken directly from Unreal and Unity asset stores.
-Multiple gigabytes of unused data (extra points, if they are above mentioned asset store files)

Hey, you do you but don’t be a cunt about it, can you?