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The Utopian News 01
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o o o
oo8oo o 8 8 o
8 8 .oo. 8 8 oo8oo.oo. .oo. " .oo. `o.o. .oo.
8 8'`8 8_.8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 `oo.
`o 8 8 `8o. `o.o' `o `88' 8"o' 8 `88'`o 8 8 ooo'
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//||// //_ \\ // /__ 8 | tHE uTOPIANS nEWS |
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// \/\/ |___________________|
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<--Contents------------------------------------------------------------------>
1. Editorial - Zippy
2. Current memberlist - Zippy
3. Utopian Database Project - Blade
4. Demos - Art of the 21st Century? - Adok
5. Coding Tutorial: Juliet and Mandelbrot fractals - Sanity
6. The Role of Diskmags in the PC Scene - Adok
7. Coding Tutorial: Triangle Filling - MasterBoy
8. Important Messages - Zippy
* * *
<--Editorial----------------------------------------------------------------->
Hello all!
This is the first issue of The Utopian News.
First of all I want to apologise most sincerely for the delays in the
release of this newsletter. Those of you who have been members for more than
a month or so will know the reasons for all the delay,
and will know that there is no need to fear further delays with the next
issues. 'I'm sorry, it won't happen again..', said with big watery eyes.
I hope there will be more articles in the next issue.
This turned out to be quite small.
I'm really not pleased with the layout yet either... It really needs to be
standardized through all the articles, and tidied up a bit...
Next issue, next issue...
I am however quite pleased with the way this organisation is shaping up.
What I'm still having a tough time doing is making people understand
that they aren't joining a demo-group (unless they want to),
and that it is possible to *support* the Utopians officially without becoming
members. You guys do seem a bit lazy at the moment though, I would appreciate
more response to the mini news-snippets I've sent out.
However those of you who *are* eager to do some demogroup-like things,
can talk to me by e-mail or ICQ, and hear about the first Utopian demo.
It's still pretty 'hush-hush', and it won't be released for a good while yet.
Members who are interested in doing some code/music/gfx for that should get
in contact with me. Especially 3D-coders.
There's been a little controversy regarding me dividing The Utopians into
sub-sections, but let me please make it clear that this is mainly
to keep the organisation more organized, less chaotic, that is.
And so people don't worry about commiting to things they don't want
to commit to. It's a good way of making it clear, exactly what you want
to do in the organisation. And we are of course completely united,
intertwined, and together as ONE organisation. WE ARE THE UTOPIANS.
Two of the articles in this newsletter come from the very good diskmag;
Hugi #11. They are written by one of our latest members: Adok/Hugi.
He is the editor of the Hugi diskmag. Hugi is really worth checking out.
Hugi #12 has just been released.
Wired'98 has just finished. The last Wired. Yet another symbol of the end of
an era, and the dawning of a new one within the demoscene.
DemoNews, Wired, Winmos... We naturally have a party-report from Wired,
written by Blade. However, this won't be here until the next issue of the
newsletter, so we don't have to delay it any further.
The Utopian homepage has recently been overhauled for better design,
and more updates are too come. The various sections will be improved somewhat,
and the download-section should be operational a short time after the release
of this newsletter. It will also be possible to join through a form on the HP.
I'm afraid to say that I have to take back what I've said earlier.
I *do not know* when DSSK4 will be released.
I'll do my best to release it before the end of the year.
I'm sorry, but I guarantee you all that it *will* be released sometime.
Editorials are normally filled up with lots of bullshit,
but I really can't think of too many 'interesting' things to write about at
the moment, so why don't you go ahead and read the newsletter.
* * *
<--The Current Utopian Memberlist-------------------------------------------->
For official Utopian affairs, contact the management-section.
(first three lines).
Sections have not been implemented in the memberlist yet,
because most people haven't told me what sections they want to be a part of.
Zippy President/Organizer/Coder/Writer demoscener@hotmail.com
Blade Organizer/Writer/ASCII/ANSI blade.runner@iname.com
Pearl Hunter Organizer/Musician/Graphician fimarkus@online.no
Sanity Coder/Writer jmcauley@bellsouth.net
Parody Coder parody@defacto2.net
Bixen Coder bixen@usa.net
GREco Coder tadej.gregorcic@guest.arnes.si
PeeL Coder marcus.persson@mbox301.swipnet.se
Fractal Demo-reviewer ole.olsen@ah.telia.no
Vac Man Coder uhp@uakron.edu
Serun Coder/Writer serun@geocities.com
SIDe Musician/Graphician/Coder lennartr@gudmund.vgs.no
Shalinor Coder/Graphician wolfin32@hotmail.com
Darwin Coder/Graphician darwin@nwinfo.net
fredisdead Coder E-MAIL NOT WORKING: stewartd@ihug.co.nz
MHz-man Writer mhzman@cqi.com
VIGNA Coder eurodevice@mail.aitec.it
SyNc Coder oeyruud@online.no
MasterBoy Musician/Coder cobra11@netvision.net.il
Adok Writer/Coder hugi@netway.at
Psychic Symphony Coder ec97104@crazy.fe.up.pt
Dns Coder bebe@whoever.com
* * *
<--Utopian Database Project-------------------------------------------------->
Author: Blade
E-mail: blade.runner@iname.com
I'm glad to be joining again a fresh and new demo project like
The Utopians organisation. Personally I think that the scene needs
something like the Utopians. I joined the scene back in the 1992.
I've had time to join some projects and know so many people and I think
that I would never be grateful enough to all the things that the scene has
given to me.
It's about time to give all those things back. The Utopians may be the best
way to do so. Our organisation can provide the scene with something that
has been lacking... and needing.
One of the things that is nice about the scene is that there is not a body to
control it. It's a movement that has been growing and evolving by itself.
And so it has to continue. But it's necessary something that allows us to see
ourselves now, in the past... and in the future.
The Utopians organisation has to provide the information and encouragement
necessary to make the scene develope further and be able to look at itself
knowing where it is and where it has been.
What about having as our first project an inmense demo scene database? A
public database where all the members of the scene could get information about
the history of the scene, people that is active, people that was important
in the scene in the past, parties reviews, etc.
Something like that is an immense task with years of time to be ever completed.
But I think that is something worth of being tried. Is something that would
speed up the developing of the scene.
If we ever start something like that I would be proud to provide the hard disk
space needed to keep all that information, and as well, I would try to make
everything accessible in the InterNet through a server.
Anyway, is just an idea. Many projects can be undertaken by our organisation.
I really hope that we all will start to provide ideas to make a better scene.
Nothing should stop us now. ;DDDD
* * *
<--Demos - Art of the 21st Century?------------------------------------------>
Author: Adok
E-mail: hugi@netway.at
Originally published in Hugi #11
(hugi@netway.at, http://privat.schlund.de/hugi)
People in the demoscene have always had doubts whether what they did
really made sense, and they consealed themselves behind the fassade of
claiming to become the artists of the 21st century but that the reason
why demos aren't a topic of public interest is just that the outer
world hasn't discovered them yet. With this belief the scene has been
running for two dozend years now. Still it is underground culture, art
with no importance in the public, nowadays even less importance than
it used to be in the highflies of the mid 80's and early 90's home
computer generation, when the highest amount of the computer users
were freaks that understood their system quite well and were
interested in technology. Then you could really amaze people by
showing what you produced from the limitied capabilities of the
hardware. This has changed on the PC of today: Hardware isn't really
limited, coders get lazy and don't give a damn about optimizing for a
special configuration, demos have just become a piece of computer art
without a major emphasis on the technical aspect. Which is what the
scene wanted, actually.
Now however the PC scene is confronted with the question: Which
operating system to choose for a new demo platform? Windows 9x? "Nah,
too lame, too messy, too big, no neat code possible, just sucks. Let's
either switch to an alternative platform such as Linux or stay with
DOS."
That's the attitude of the majority of the scene - and that's the
reason why demos will never become the Art of the 21st Century unless
something basic changes. Art that wants to become popular always has
to be mass culture. DOS isn't mass culture. Not any more.
Even worse: People who waste their talents on systems like Amiga or
C64. Great people, great systems - but no audience, no possibility of
becoming famous, of reaching the high aim to be the Art of the 21st
Century. The fruits of their gifts are limited to a small, small
public that is steadily becoming smaller with the development and
mass-marketing of new, popular systems.
Who needs demos? People can't get impressed by demos that easily
anymore. They know too much of that stuff from animations, rendered
sequences and Full Screen Movies in computer games, music videos or
cinema. Such animations are way easier to produce than a coded,
optimized and stable demo with the same content. You need basic
knowledge of math and computer technology to figure what a demo is all
about. To learn what the impressive things about demos are and why
there is a bunch of nerds that is fascinated by them, you even need to
have made one yourself.
Similar things as for the code go for the graphics. Today you almost
can't distinguish real, hand-pixelled art from scanned,
photoshop-retouched crap unless you are an artist yourself. The only
light I see is regarding musics. Tunes created by 'music maker'
programs of today can't be compared with music by a talented musician.
At least today. How much time will pass until this changes?
Long life to the guys of TBL and all the others who prove that the
demoscene still has the chance to develop in the right directory.
Think.
Adok/Hugi
This article was originally published in Hugi #11. Download it at
http://privat.schlund.de/hugi
* * *
<--Coding Tutorial; Juliet and Mandelbrot fractals--------------------------->
Author: Sanity/Tenth Reality
E-mail: jmcauley@bellsouth.net
Mental Image:
Okie, time to take a mental trip. Can you imagine a black hole?
Now, imagine if there are billions of little particles orbiting
the black hole, each one moving at a different speed.. now, some of
these particles are traveling fast enough to escape the pull
of gravity, and some do not. The basic idea is if we mark the
speed that the ones that escape the black hole with different colors
a fractal starts to form, anything that didnt escape the
gravity is sucked in and is colored black.
Theory:
Now, is it safe to assume that you know that
x = x + 1
is not a true statement? (Do the algrbra you get 0 = 1). However
f(x) = x + 1
works just fine. Now lets take that function and plug a number
in 10,000 times, its gonna take a very long time right? Well
imagine if it was:
f(x) = x^2
it is going to take much longer, and your numbers will be HUGE.
That is why fractals were just a theory until the 1970's when
computer technology allowed the math to done fast enough to view
these pictures. The first fractal drawn on a computer took 14
days running straight to fully draw. Now, with a Pentium it will
only take you around 2 min to draw a fractal. So lets get to it.
The Equation:
Both the juliet and the mandelbrot use the same equation, it is
f(x) = x^2 + c
simple huh? I will explain why they use the same equation later.
The Juliet:
Juliet is the easier of the two programs to write, and it is a faster
plotting fractal than the mandelbrot. Okie, here is a brief
BASIC program showing you a juliet (Why BASIC? Cause even a total
idiot can read basic)
INPUT "Real Number Seed:", CX
INPUT "Imaginary Seed:", CY
SCREEN 13 'VGA 320x200x256
FOR A = 1 TO 320
FOR B = 1 TO 200
i = 1
' This sets up our zoom factor
' We need it else we cant see the fractal
X0 = -2 + A / 25
Y0 = 2 - B / 25
DO
' x1 = x0^2 - y0^2 + cx
X1 = (X0 * X0) - (Y0 * Y0) + CX
Y1 = 2 * X0 * Y0 + CY
' Okie, he were are checking to see if the pixel escaped
' Now, I am using I to be the speed, so I = 1 to 256
IF ((X1 * X1) + (Y1 * Y1)) > 4 THEN
PSET (A, B), i
i = 256
ELSE
X0 = X1
Y0 = Y1
i = i + 1
END IF
LOOP UNTIL i >= 256
NEXT B
NEXT A
Alright, if you want to cut/paste this feel free, for the seeds
use 0.36 and -.1, it is kinda small and will draw somewhat fast
(about 30 seconds). Now, changing the numbers for the seed
with give you a new fractal, and changing to zoom will make
it larger/smaller:
X0=-1.0 + A/ 100
Y0=1.1 - B/ 100
give those a try for the zoom, but be ready to sit for awhile.
Mandelbrot:
What makes the mandelbrot different? nothing really, just
a few small changes
'We dont ask for a seed this time
'Our CX/CY is now what used to be our zoom
SCREEN 13 'VGA 320x200x256
FOR A = 1 TO 320
CX = -2 + A / 25
FOR B = 1 TO 200
i = 1
CY = 2 - B / 25
X0 = 0
Y0 = 0
DO
X1 = (X0 * X0) - (Y0 * Y0) + CX
Y1 = 2 * X0 * Y0 + CY
IF ((X1 * X1) + (Y1 * Y1)) > 4 THEN
PSET (A, B), i
i = 256
ELSE
X0 = X1
Y0 = Y1
i = i + 1
END IF
LOOP UNTIL i >= 256
NEXT B
NEXT A
See, not too hard.
Last Thoughts:
Alright, so it really isnt much of a tutorial, but it will get you started
in making some fractals. Now, because all of the math up there is in
reals (floating point) it is gonna be SLOW. So, just a few changes and
you can turn it into integer.
More Last Thoughts:
Not much of a tutorial, more of a quick info file but because I have
seen some very poor attemps at fractals. I also threw this out
because most people only ever cover the mandelbrot fractal in programs
and I feel the juliet looks nicer (Put a palette rotation to it.. it
rocks).
Greetz:
Mr. Fixer, Ogre, z3r0, Zippy, Utopians, Ordeth, Goat Boy
Necromancer, DoomGaze, Spigogidoff
Editor's comment:
Sanity wrote this in BASIC so it would be easy for most
people to understand, and easy to convert into whichever programming
language you use, however, I would absolutely not recommend anyone to write
a fractal program in BASIC. I'm sure Sanity wouldn't either.
It's far to slow. If you're coding a demo, you don't want the fractal to
take 30 seconds to generate. :) If you want fast fractal generation you do
it in 100% assembler. If you want easy code, do it in C/C++ or Pascal.
You should precalc it too, methinks.
In fact, I wouldn't recommend you to code *anything* in BASIC.
You disagree? Send an article saying so. ;)
* * *
<--The Role of Diskmags in the PC Scene-------------------------------------->
Author: Adok
E-mail: hugi@netway.at
Originally published in Hugi #11
(hugi@netway.at, http://privat.schlund.de/hugi)
If you take a glance at the current development in the international
PC-diskmagscene, most of the demodiskmagscene, that means diskmags by
demosceners about the demoscene, you will spot some interesting
trends, and since nobody has summarized them in an article yet, I'll
do that now!
All in all the development of the demodiskmagscene is pleasant. Lately
lots of mags were released, the most outstanding ones are in my
opinion Fleur, Insight, Restless and Defcon. Of course there was a lot
of crap as well, but that is inevitable. Definitely the average text
amount of diskmags has sunken since the last issue of Imphobia - which
means: summer 1996 - alot. The new diskmag geneneration, if one can
already speak of a generation, consists of smaller, usually about 300
kbytes text containing mags. That isn't surprising because firstly
they are new mags with a small number of released issues so far, which
still have to build up their images, secondly the interest in diskmags
in the scene has diminished generally, by which it naturally is harder
to get supporters, about which I want to talk later on. Another
interesting feature of the international scenemags of today are
pronounced local elements. Every mag, of course, has a certain set of
regular readers / regular writers, a set to which the editors keep a
more intensive contact than to the rest, and this set often
concentrates to a country or a region, usually that region from which
the editors come. For example Insight is in many senses still a Dutch
mag, its editors live in the Netherlands and also most of its
supporters, they report mostly about the NL-scene, they also have the
best contact with the NL-scene. One must not forget that Insight is
the only Dutch mag with international audience, in some way it
therefore has to represent Holland and its scene activities. The same
goes for Fleur, it's a mirror of the Hungarian and the Polish scene,
the majority of the voters and supporters come from these countries,
also most news comes only from Hungary. With Defcon it's even more
extreme because the French articles form a majority at the moment.
Isn't this local character in contrast to the current political and
social development? Globalisation, the Internet, and the European
Union reconcile borders and make it possible to choose your friends
from people all over the world, there are also people who have more
contact to overseas than to their neighbours, the organisation of
international scenegroups works way better, utilizising IRC you can
communicate with people from Australia and the USA as well as
Europeans without noticing any delay. Those are just a few examples.
The increasing local element in international diskmags just does not
logically follow.
There are also local diskmags. That's natural, I think you'll agree,
since a platform has to exist where the people can communicate in
their own language and discuss internal problems, which are often not
of much interest to the rest of the world. Outsiders don't often see
much of these local diskmags, which is plausible too. Just consider:
What would a Spaniard do with a diskmag in Finnish language? Assuming,
of course, he is not a Finnish language student. So, local diskmags
are spread mostly locally, some exceptions are e.g. the Polish Budyn
or the English-language Pain, which are jolly well known also in the
rest of the world. You realize the true number of local diskmags only
when you look around yourself a bit. For instance Poland and Hungary
have a still very active local diskmagscene, in Poland mags with more
than two megs of articles aren't unusual, dimensions which are
incredible for other countries. But I also found Russian, Finnish,
Slovak, Norwegian, and even Spanish and South American and of course
German language diskmags. Diskmags, of sorts, exist all over the world
with great regional differences, interesting features that aren't
familar to the rest of the world, an amazing number of topics, writing
styles, interfaces, et cetera. Diskmags still have important roles
locally, but there are of course, like everywhere else, regional
differences. The four year old Swiss diskmag, Pain, is an institution,
it has a great representative role since it is almost the only thing
that the world knows from the ch-scene. The Spanish focus on
recruiting coders and offer lots of sources, similar to the Slovaks
who lack sceners generally. The Hungarians cannot stop talking about
everything under the sun, and in the German-speaking world, where a
great variety of magazines existed some years ago, the diskmagscene
goes in the direction of the demoscene again. Russia, finally, is
another of those diskmag-countries that focusses on introducing
newbies to the scene.
You see that diskmags are spread most of all in the former East Bloc,
just like the whole oldschool-mentality moves to the east, by the way.
A possible reason is, on the one hand, the relatively low spread of
the Internet, which is why other ways of communications, most of all
mailswapping, are still very active in Poland, but on the other hand
also the bad knowledge of foreign languages, which can be attributed
to the eastern school system. The scene in the east hasn't existed for
a long time - you all know that in most of those countries Communism
was replaced by a Democratic system only in 1989-1991, which slowly
opened to the west. In Poland for example there has been a demoscene
on the PC only since 1993/94.
You must not forget either, that a fair number of sceners are, for
some reason, only locally active and do not want to sacrifice any time
for the international scene. For this type of scener, participating in
an international diskmag doesn't make a lot of sense, even though mags
like Pain, Insight or Fleur would give them the possibility of
presenting themselves to the world. Of course a kind of 'big family
atmosphere' can exist in local scenes, an atmosphere that does not
necessarily exist on an international level.
At this point, we have arrived at the central question, as to why
there is a lack of interest in international diskmags, from sceners.
As we've just seen, there is plenty of interest in local diskmags, so
why not global ones? This is a central, and essential question,
because the further development of the diskmagscene might depend on
it.
Let's start with a bit of history. The Demodiskmag scene history,
abbreviated version: Until the beginning of the ninties, diskmags were
unheard of on the PC, apart from a few US-ansimags that have no
importance nowadays. In 1992 the first issues of Imphobia were
released, 'The first and only European review', followed by Hoax. The
quality of the mags quickly increased, in 1993 Pulse and New World
Order were founded, in 1994 Parrot and Daskmig; these PC-diskmags had
a lot of importance due to being the pioneers of diskmags. The years
1993 and 1994 were the first peek of the demodiskmagscene, sometimes
there were so many active mag-projects that one had serious worries
what had happened to the democrews. Mags were an essential, if not the
most important, communication medium of the scene. The number of
articles featured in these mags multiplied like unrestrained rabbits,
and as a side effect one wished to see less. The number of articles
grew rabbit-like, so that sometimes one wished to have less. In 1996
the scene activity sank down to the ground again. For the time being,
the last issue of Imphobia was released in 1996, although Darkness
always ensures that this wouldn't be the last Imphobia forever.
Nothing has moved on the Imphobia-front since then. It is dead. And
with it the old spirit of the demodiskmag scene has disappeared, of
which its lifeblood was Imphobia. In a instant, hundreds, and dare I
say, thousands, barring any exaggeration, of sceners had lost their
platform. Just imagine the readers of Demonews at the best of times,
and all this is gone in a flash. Since the remaining diskmags didn't
even touch the quality of Imphobia, sceners then turned away from the
mags. A large number found a new home on the Internet. Students, as
most demosceners are, always had Internet access from the beginning.
At this very time the Internet was discovered by the masses, the
conquest of the home-sector began. IRC-channels like #coders,
newsgroups like comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos and FTP-servers like cdrom.com
gained a lot of acceptance at that time. Not only diskmags but BBSes
as well, all globally lost a lot of their audience to the Internet,
they were replaced by FTP sites, some sysops opened their own FTPs,
mostly with ratios and other features that were prevalent on BBSes.
Here the situation is similar to the diskmags. Although BBSes might be
of great importance locally, that does not happen to be the case
everywhere else. All of that happened in 1996; in the meantime, the
scene has changed. New sceners have found their way to the scene,
mostly younger sceners and ex-Amiga-sceners, the latter with more of a
background in the scene by which they could exploit to gain a leading
position on the PC with comparisons to the newbies. The older scene
members partly retired from the scene, some remained active and are
members of meanwhile famous groups like Pulse, Coma, Orange, TBL,
Melon, Halcyon, Exmortis or ACME. Even if that may be the avantgarde
of the demoscene, the younger sceners form a majority, they form the
actual, inner picture of the scene. And often it doesn't look good
here. Many scene-rookies are of the type 'I saw 2nd reality and became
a scener'. Many of them have never seen a diskmag or logged into a
BBS, or do not know that something like that existed or even still
exists. Their activities concentrate mainly on the Internet, and they
- I'm quoting a contact know who's been watching the scene for a
longer time - 'develop to 'dull' clickers of buttons about
information'. Regarding the scene that might sound a bit dramatic, of
course. Most people actually do show some activity, even if it is only
some quickly coded releases for a party. But as for diskmags it is
exactly the case. You cannot interact with a diskmag in the same way
as an online-magazine - you would have to take a little time to
download it, which is something many people don't do, probably because
they know about things other then diskmags that are exciting to them -
of course, if you have never seen a diskmag, you will always remain
downloading demo-stuff. How would you know what a diskmag would offer
you.
Yes, there are also onlinemags, partly excellent ones, such as
Network, Orange Juice and Error 404, and online-versions of diskmags.
Some onlinemags are successful indeed, for example Network, an
onlinemag for the PC, Amiga, Atari and C64 scenes, is said to have
between 500 and 1000 hits daily. In contrast to diskmags, onlinemags
as well as newsgroups have the advantages of frequent updates, that
they aren't system-independent and can be viewed by every
Internet-user, as long as his/her WWW-browser supports it. Thanks to
CGI-scripts, everything can work automatically, a visitor can publish
their news, articles, et cetera in the magazine without expensive
text-formatting, without dealing with some strange features of the
interface, without having to contact the mag staff, in which way also
discussions can be started much easier. But diskmags also have their
advantages, and these are pretty big: Firstly, diskmags can be spread
freely and are swapped alot, by which they exist literally for ever.
In contrast to that postings in newsgroups are usually deleted from
the newsserver every few days, if nobody saves and stores them they'll
be erased without a possibility of recovery sometime. Secondly,
diskmags cost much less than onlinemags because it is enough to
download them once, then you can read them in peace as often as you
want. Ergo diskmags can have a bigger size than onlinemags; with
onlinemags the danger would be that several articles would be read by
a small audience only just because the headline doesn't sound
interesting enough, which means that the majority of the readers won't
download the article. Thirdly: Who checks in unmoderated newsgroups or
in mags like Network respectively, which allow publishing news and
articles without being examined by the staff first, if the postings
fit to the character of the newsgroup or the onlinemag? In contrast to
that the articles in diskmags are usually sorted out and as many as
possible grammatical errors are fixed. You won't be flooded by trash
and spam like in newsgroups. Furthermore, you can call it the fourth
advantage of diskmags, there is the special feeling of a traditional
diskmag that an onlinemag doesn't have, caused by the interface,
textlayout, graphic- and sound-style. in spite of the many
possibilities HTML and embedded Javaapplets, Javascript and so on
offer, this doesn't reach the possibilities a mag-interface has that
is independent from any standard except the operating system and the
hardware.
That was the topic acceptance of diskmags and online media. Sole
acceptance, however, isn't everything, it's just passive, just the
basis that something like a diskmag can work at all. The most
important thing is the active participation, and that is what the
demoscene really lacks of at the moment. You just have to look at
Network, which is said to have between 500 and 1000 hits per day. The
number of articles, but not only of articles, but also of news, is
shockingly small. Yes, of news... by which you see that the people
don't even use the chance of advertising for themselves, their groups,
their activities or productions. Shouldn't that be something to think
about? How lazy are the sceners? Is their intention to kill their own
scene, which they are so proud of, while activity is one of the most
essential things in the scene?
Maybe we lack appropriate organizers, maybe the content or the news
and the style of the magazines is too unexciting for the people, not
motivating enough, maybe there is simply not enough action, and if
there is no action most people aren't ready to create action!
An example: Lately when I organized the first
Hugi-Size-Coding-Competition - you remember, the attendees had to code
the smallest nibbles-clone - there were up to 350 hits at the
compo-homepage at the best time per day. Which tells you that by
certain steps it is indeed possible to motivate and activate the
demosceners or, in this case, the coders. What these steps have to be
like in the case of a diskmag is the question. In any case it is
important to support the active dudes - but how should one find them
at all?
One has to do more advertising for diskmags. for certain diskmags as
well as for the term diskmag itself. Most of all for the newbies -
this term isn't meant derogative or equal with lamer -, which form the
mass of the sceners, diskmags have to be made attractive. Switching to
Windows 95, Linux or Java or at least attaching an interface or these
operating systems might be useful too.
(It is correct that above I wrote that up to now, using HTML and
Javaapplets in it, it isn't possible to gain the atmosphere of a
traditional diskmag. However, you must distinguish between Java and in
Java written, in HTML used Applets. Java is a programming language
like every else, the only difference is that Java programs aren't
translated to machine language but to bytecode, which then can be
interpreted by Virtual Machines. Because of that Java is
system-independent. Basically Java doesn't have any advantage compared
to other Interpreter languages, but at the moment Java is very popular
and almost everyone who has access to the World Wide Web can also
execute Java programs. Therefore the suggestion is to write the
interfaces in Java. Hugi, by the way, already has an optional
Java-interface.)
The text amount of the diskmags has to be enlarged, at the same time,
however, the size of the packed archive has to be as small as possible
to allow people who log in to the net at home via modem or ISDN to
download the diskmag. Two megs packed is maximum, in my opinion.
When the diskmags are attractive enough for the broad public, the
sceners' laziness has to be defeated. They have to be motived to
write, one has to show that diskmags still have a reason to exist,
that they are important, that they could be a platform. How that
should be done in detail is open and an important topic for
discussion.
When we take a glance at the C64- or the Amiga-scene, a completely
different picture is displayed. There are way more international
diskmags which have an important role, so many that some diskmags have
even created sections for diskmag editors - although here the Internet
is spread as well, though it's probably not so extremely spread as on
PC. Indeed mailswapping is still the most common way of communication
between the sceners and the spread of scenestuff on the C64-sector.
Perhaps this mailswapping is one of the reasons why diskmags are doing
so well on these systems: The people are forced to be active, to write
a letter to their scene friends from time to time, otherwise they
wouldn't get any new releases and lose contact to the scene. If you
often write letters it isn't as hard to write articles either. The
PC-dudes on the other hand get the latest stuff from FTPs, which,
okay, is much faster and in many cases cheaper than via snailmail, by
which the sceners however become slow and lazy with the time. Let's
take the Amiga- and C64-dudes as a model for us! Let's try to be as
active as them or even more active!
What is clear: At the moment there enough different diskmags on the
PC-sector. Now it's the time to expand the mags, they have to get
better known in the scene, article-writers and other supporters have
to be found. The demodiskmagscene is on the right way - the speed of
development just has to become faster.
Maybe this article has changed something about the way you see
diskmags. I don't want to be too optimistic with my expectations, but
I would be very pleased if more activity would be shown from your
side. It isn't just that the diskmag makers would have an advantage of
this. No, on the contrary, you all will have an advantage! By whom and
for what are diskmags being made? By sceners, to offer a platform for
themselves and other sceners!
So have a swell time, continue reading and sleep well to be able to
start working tomorrow with a lot of energy.
With these words I've arrived at the end of the article. Bye.
Adok/Hugi
This article was originally published in Hugi #11. Download it at
http://privat.schlund.de/hugi
* * *
<--Coding Tutorial; Triangle Filling----------------------------------------->
Author: MasterBoy
E-mail: cobra11@netvision.net.il
MASTERBOY'S FILLING TUTORIAL
======================================
þ Index
1. Introduction
1.1. About The Tutorial
1.2. About The Author
1.3. Flat Triangle Filling
1.4. How To Speed Things Up
1.5. Compiling
1.6. Final words and Hellos and greets
1.7. Contacting Me
1. Introduction
1.1. About The Tutorial
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ok well thats my first turorial,
i made that tutorial first for my friend(yes sosay its for you),
this tutorial made for newbies that want start coding 3dengines,
it should teach you how 2 fill a triangle and will give some tips
how speeding things up
btw this tutorial was edited with NCEDIT
1.2. About The Author
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
my nickname is MasterBoy i am a musician
(mostly i make demostyle songs,trance,acid,house) and i am 3dcoder aswell
in a new group (thats a demo group without a name ),
i am in organisation THE UTOPIANS as well ,that organisation fights to keep
the demoscene alive
please check http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/hills/1571/utopian2.txt
1.3. Flat Triangle Filling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
x1,y1
/D\
/DDD\
x2,y2 /DDDDD\
\DDDDD\
\DDDD\
\DDD\
\DD\
\D\
\\
x3,y3
u have 3 sides
in a triangle:
1).from x1,y1 to x2,y2
2).from x2,y2 to x3,y1
3).from x3,y3 to x1,y1
ok?
ofcourse ok
well now u need 2 find the distance that will symbole the letter D
ok how do we find it?
very simple we step thru the 3 lines by their slope
how do we calc a slope?
slope=(x2-x1)/(y2-y1)
y its not slope=(y2-y1)/(x2-x1) ,coz that is the slope in the line
when we want 2 find y
but now we want 2 find x
we need 2 make a maximumx array and minimumx array
wich size is like the height of ur screen in our case its 320x200
^
height
int minimumx[200],maximumx[200]
we also need 2 set impssible values in minimumx and maximum x
like:
all mimimum x in the start r 320
for i=0 to 200 minimumx[i]=320;
all maximum x in the start r -1
for i=0 to 200 maximumx[i]=-1;
Why to do it?
well we r checking if x<minx minx=x right?
so if the x=10
and minimum x=320;
10<320 then minimumx=10;
but if minimumx was -1 that wouldnt put the x int minimum x array
e.g:
if 10<-1 then minx=10
but it never would b smaller than minimum x
the same is 4 maximum x
btw u can use any impossible numbers like maximumx=-16000 or any other number
low than zero maximumx<0 and minimumx>320
void scanside(int x1,int y1,int x2,int y2)
{
int i,x;
double xs,xdouble;
/* u need 2 check first 4 making it faster
if y1=y2 if it is equal dont scanline
coz its on the same ypoint ,and when u wouldb b calculating the
slope (x2-x1)/(y2-y1) ,it wouldb (x2-x1)/0 and it would give u error
divided by zero
and if y1>y2 4 founding minimumy and maximumy
if its bigger than swap the points
swap(x1,x2);
swap(y1,y2);
*/
if (y1!=y2) {
if (y1>y2) {
i=y1;
y1=y2;
y2=i;
i=x1;
x1=x2;
x2=i;
}
/* its out slope*/
xs=((double)(x2-x1))/(y2-y1);
/* xdouble out starting x ,wich is x1
xdouble=x1;
for (i=y1;i<y2;i++)
{
x=xdouble;
if (x<minx[i]) minx[i]=x;
if (x>maxx[i]) maxx[i]=x;
/* stepping trough the xslope */
xdouble+=xs;
}
}
}
now the most imprtant work was done
u need 2 find minimum y and maximum y
void flatpoly(int x1,int y1,int x2,int y2,int x3,int y3,int c,char where[64000])
{ int i,ymin,ymax;
/* these r starting values */
ymin=y1;
ymax=y1;
if (y2<ymin) ymin=y2;
if (y2>ymax) ymax=y2;
if (y3<ymin) ymin=y3;
if (y3>ymax) ymax=y3;
if (ymin<0) ymin=0;
if (ymax<199) ymax=199;
for (i=0;i<200;i++) {
/* setting our impossible values */
minx[i]=320;
maxx[i]=-1;
}
/* scanning the lines 1,2,3 */
scanside(x1,y1,x2,y2);
scanside(x2,y2,x3,y3);
scanside(x3,y3,x1,y1);
/* putting horizontal line between minimum x 2 maximum x
/* ditstance=maximumx-minimumx;*/
for (i=ymin;i<ymax;i++) hline(minx[i],maxx[i],i,c,where);
}
ok hline is very easy to make
void hline(int x1,int x2,int y,unsigned char color)
{
int x;
for (x=x1;x<x2;x++) putpixel(x,y,color);
}
/* i hope u understood it */
1.4. How To Speed Things Up
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
well first u can calcluate the offset of the pixel only once
and not using the putpixel procedure u can
like that:
yoffset=ytable[y];
for (x=x1;x<x2;x++) where[x+yoffset]=color;
you can also use fixedpoint,i currently dont have the time 4 explaining
fixed point method
ill make for you a fixed triangle example
i included a fixed point tutorial aswell ,this will give u everything
u need 2 know about fixed point math
1.5. Compiling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ok well i included flat.c it compiles with watcom compiler
WCL386 FLAT.C
but if u want 2 work with that with any other compiler
ull just need 2 change the setmode procedure
and that should work
it probably wont work with djgpp
but any other C compiler it should work fine
1.6. Final Words And Hellos And Greets
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I hope this tutorial helped somebody,i will continue writing
more advanced stuff like :
A).flat shading
B).gouraud shading
C).texture mapping
D).fake phong
E).texture mapping+gouraud shading
F).texture mapping+fake phong
and alot more ,ill give alot of optimizing tips
ill teach you how to use asm to make thigs faster
Hellos And Greets:
====================
Kalms
Biomass
YoYo
Sosay
Hand
Matja
Cube-Trm
Timluther
Asm[Exe]
Civax
TNSe^98
ThE^lOtUs
Vic
Zippy
Peaker
Matr|x
CyCat
Borzom
Vertigo
Kombat
Velocity
Macaw
Banamos
LordCrc
Rage
Adept
Mental Trip
Kbot
GooRoo
SagaCity
Eckart
DarkSpirit
Jeffry Lim
Voltaire
Jare/Iguana
i hope i didnt forget anyone ,if i did im sorry 8)
1.7. Contacting Me
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ok i can b reached on
#coders(efnet)
#coders(ircnet)
E-MAIL: cobra11@netvision.net.il
ICQ : 14054887
THE UTOPIANS Home Page:
http://bigfoot.stones.com/~zippy
g00d luck in 3dcoding ;)
* * *
<--Important Messages-------------------------------------------------------->
WWW: http://bigfoot.stones.com/~zippy
FTP: --watch this space--
E-mail: demoscener@hotmail.com (Zippy)
IRC: There will be no *official* Utopian IRC-channel.
However, we use IRCnet #coders for Utopian IRC'ing.
ICQ: 15593120 (Zippy)
Info-file: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Hills/1571/utopian3.txt
Please read the webpage regularly.
If you are going to a demo-party, and there is no info about that party
on the Utopian webpage, please say so, and we'll try to set up some stuff
for that party.
If you aren't already a member, you can join, simply by sending an e-mail
saying what your handle is, what your interest in the demoscene is
(code/music/gfx), what your e-mail-adress is, which country you come from,
what year you entered the demoscene, and which other demo-groups you are a
member of. You must have read the infofile first.
Zippy's FAQ-like thingy
Q. Will there be a Utopian IRC-channel?
A. NO!
Q. Well where can I go to chat with you guys?
A. We will use the IRCnet #coders for Utopian chatting.
Q. Will there be a Utopian FTP-server?
A. Maybe.
Q. Will there be Utopian charts for demos/intros/etc?
A. No. We feel that www.hornet.org offers the most comprehensive charts,
and that unless it gets as many votes as possible we'll never have
a 'real' demoscene-chart.
Q. Will The Utopians make demos?
A. Yes, probably a few.
Q. AHA! So they ARE a demogroup!!!?
A. NO. We make a few demos, and some of our members make demos under our name,
and that's great. Anyone who has been in a demogroup knows that simply
making demos together occasionally does not make you a demogroup.
We are an organisation that sometimes functions as a demo-group amongst
those members who would like to do stuff like that.
The TUIDC-section of The Utopians takes care of making demos.
TUIDC is sort of a demo-group. Just rather big and international..
Q. Will you give me some warez?
A. NO!
* * *
<--------------------END OF THE UTOPIAN NEWSLETTER #01----------------------->
