<> translation by paniq and rawstyle <>
<> ripped and transcribed by ste <>
Let's go - Tracks is back again!
Lots of Music, Pop and Lifestyle News.
In today's show: Demos
These gatherings where people hold up signs
as a protest against something?
in computer animation here.
Yes - but we're talking about the latest trend
Now featured in our Tribal.
In the beginnning,
some kids only wanted to play games for free.
They cracked the copy protection
of computer games
and left visible traces:
blinking bars, jumping banners and irritating beepy sounds.
Visual teasers, and the begin of the so-called demo scene.
Demos today - a mixture of computer game and video art.
Farbrausch from Hamburg
is one of the most respected demo groups.
It is non-commerical, it is done only for fun
and an incredibly large amount of time
is invested into something
that only a handful of people in the world understand.
Those that do understand it
communicate through the Net.
The demo scene is a global community.
In real life, many members work for
game or software companies.
For both you need the same know-how.
the difference: making demos is more fun.
Demoproduction means teamwork.
Graphics, Sound and Programming
Virtually euphoric is the the traditional art scenes responsiveness to Farbrausch.
every discipline has its experts.
Virtually euphoric
is the traditional art scene responsiveness to Farbrausch.
Everybody wants to benefit from the new trend.
The aspect of art is rising now steadily.
We're suddenly aware of museums approaching us
and telling "cool thing, digital art, internet"
and so on.
But it hasn't been like this for a long time
and it has definitively never been a stimulation to us
- so far - maybe it will change, eventually.
But the aspect of art has not been
that important to us so far.
I for one had always said up to now
"Art is something for people, who lack talent."
The art of demomaking:
exhausting the limits of the possible.
Demos bring computers to a boil.
Demos are "realtime",
meaning that all images are rendered -
calculated by the computer -
in the moment they are displayed.
This makes the file size of the demos very small.
Extreme case:
this Farbrausch fits on a floppy disk 20 times.
Competing against each other
is an important tradition in the demo scene.
Who is the best, who gets listed in the charts,
Who makes it to the first place?
Without this competition, many demos wouldn't exist.
The scene competes on parties -
events like the Breakpoint
in Bingen at the Rhine river (germany)
one of the biggest demo parties in Germany.
Each Easter, about 500 creative minds gather here.
The audience: international;
English, Scandinavian, Polish -
some even come from as far as Australia.
All of them want to show off their skills.
Ekkehard Brüggemann aka Steeler
has been one of the Breakpoint organizers
for several years.
He doesn't make demos. He brings together those who do.
I once said that I consider myself
"social middleware" of the demo scene
and that means I'm sort of an intersection
of several people and I just try
to promote them as far as I can.
I have absolutely no commercial interest in this thing.
Historically, the audience has grown
in the course of the years from 50 over 300 to 500 people
Basically, the organizer team has simply grown with it, too.
This is not about messages or psychological expression.
There are demos with a story -
but that doesn't have to be the case
"Demos", somebody said,
"Demos demonstrate, they show off" -
that means they show what people are capable of.
It's about the capabilities the people want to show,
in graphics, music and of course,
very importantly, in programming.
Farbrausch released
their widely acclaimed "Popular Demo"
on this year's Breakpoint
Graphician Gizmo shows how it developed.
You basically start with an ordinary cylinder.
It looks like a cube, but internally it is a cylinder.
then you apply a material -
that's only some kind of metal with some bright spots on it.
Then that goes through several changes
until it has the approximate final form.
through several changes until it has the approximate final form. It gets additional materials
until it results in an archway.
This archway is what is shown in the final scene.
Heated by the glamourous dancer
also the members of farbrausch
tune up after their job's done.
When you are getting a bit more relaxed
e.g. when the deadline is over
or you're already finished from the start
or you dont have a demo with you
and just want to enjoy the party,
you actually walk around and chat with people,
warm yourself on the campfire -
and tons of alcohol
are being consumed on these parties. ;)
You just have fun like everyone else
except for that a lot of computers are standing around.
Firedevils and airship-tinkers -
who believes that game- and softwaredevelopers
just sit on the computer: Not a chance!
So let's go to the next demoparty and have fun!
At the end of a demoparty
there is the most important competition:
the democompetition.
The demos are shown on big screens
and at the end the audience is voting
which demo won the competition.
The demoscene is doing
incredible things with computers!
They need much more attention in the public
with what they are doing.
Graphical gems giving you creeps.
And if the hype continues
we probably will be able to see demos
in cinemas right around the corner...