Origin by Astroidea = notefile
------------------------------


Okay, i've felt that i should write something about this demo.

Some months ago, three of our members left our team, leaving us in a very sorry state,
namely we dont have a coder except me (reptile), so i hadnt planned a demo for antiq99.
Later, i talked to Inferno / Exceed, we were talking about our powerrangers project,
which is a fun-group founded to make fun-demos that arent lame but contain decent code,
gfx, mzx, etc. So we wanted to make a PR demo to antiq99, but somehow, he said, why dont
we make a REAL one instead? I said, hell, why not, mrz and i just finished our opengl
3ds player, let's do something real!

Our work began 3 weeks before antiq, and i was really worried because we had noone to
make 3d scenes for us. After a few unsuccessful attempts to contact 3d guys, i've decided
to make the scenes myself, although i've never modelled before. I finished the first two
scenes in a weekend, sent it to Inferno so he could make textures, and so. Meanwhile, he
sent me a music by Archon, a not-yet-so-known musician from Kecskemet (hungarian city), and
i agreed to use it as the soundtrack of the demo. Two weeks before the party, we worked like hell, made three scenes complete, everything went so fine i just couldnt beleive.

One week before the party, i got VERY busy with my work, so i stopped working on the demo,
but fortunately it is over now, so i can pick up where i left.

As i'm typing this, we still have 5 days to finish the demo, and i'm pretty sure we're gonna
make it. I've got only one scene left, which will be the easiest one, and of course we will
upgrade the existing ones.

I owe BIG thanks to our former member MRZ for porting the player to class-based cpp style,
and making it work under openGL. I also would like to thank Ian Luck for his kind support,
he always took his time to answer when i got problems with BASS/Xmplay, thank you Ian!

And the BIGGEST GREETS ever go to Inferno / Exceed. I must tell you all, i've regained my
faith in the demoscene, seeing that there can be cooperation between dudes that arent even
in the same team, and i really am impressed with the ammount and quality of the work he
put into this demo. You rule, pal!


Let me talk a bit about WHY we decided to make it run under Windows and openGL. One year ago -
my former teammates can tell you - i was VERY against making anything for windows or 3d accelerators, but as time went by, i had to realize that i was wrong. Making use of new things opens new doors, and i have just entered that door. Some of you will disagree with me, i'm sure about it, but hey, it's not a sin to be different, it's just a matter of opinions. Anyways, today, you cant really buy a videocard without 3d acceleration, it's become a STANDARD FEATURE, so i wont avoid using it for reasons like "we can code fillers, it's lame to use 3d acceleration". I've even implemented surround sounds, and dont tell me it's a luxury, even the fucking cheap sblive card can do it, you just have to connect two pairs of speakers.

Finally, i'd like to tell you all that i had a great time making this demo, and i hope that
there are ppl out there who still think that the demoscene is the best place for one to pour
her/his talents into a moving, morphing, flashing, amazing form.


Credits:
	- Graphics, additional modelling: 	Inferno / Exceed
	- Music: 				Archon
	- BASS sound system (rules):		Ian Luck
	- Additional coding:			Mrz
	- Coding, modelling, sound:		Reptile / Astroidea


Technical notes:
	- The planet in the beginning is a realtime generated, shaded, morphing mesh.
	- I used only basic openGL functions, no multitexturing or other extensions.
	- The particle system is on timer so it should be the same on every machine.
	- The player supports every 3dsr4 functions except morphing which i found useless
	  to implement.
	- I had to made some additonal keyframing by code, for example 3dsr4 doesnt support
	  hide keys for lights, etc. Rip the meshes, and you'll see what i mean.
	- I'm using the Intel Jpeg Library to load the JPEG textures and images.

Oh and, big greets to our american friends, who arent as lucky as we are to have such a cool
demoscene. Hello Pyro!


If you're interested in contacting me for any reason, write to:
	email:		reptile@scene-hu.com
	snailmail: 	Balázs Vasvári - Hungary, Budapest 1203. Topánka st. 4.

signed, reptile/astroidea	