Originally posted by almostfamous88
has any1 tried it yet? does it work
Yeah, they do work, on %99 of systems. They are usually coded on specific hardware and aren't tested on multiple configurations in most cases. Sometimes, one of these won't work properly on some hardware setups. A few years ago there were a couple of demo's that wouldn't run on Voodoo based cards. Just the way it goes, it's not like making games or apps where maximum compatability is a must.
BTW, there was some discussion about these in the news thread about these demo's, Here's some of what I replied there about demo's and intro's:
These movies don't display some new form of compression folks, and it can't be applied to other files.
In very simple terms, the main file of each one contains two things, a rendering engine and mathmatical calculations needed to render each movie. That's what makes them so small, no video in any of the files, just formulas and an engine. The exe is compressed, but exe compression is nothing new. Yes, that's right, there is no "video" in any of the files, each movie is rendered, or created, in real time by your hardware.
As for the music, in the 64k catagory demo's (called intro's actually) it's usually done with trackers, resulting in very small audio files that can be included in the exe.
But trackers are limited, so with the larger demo's (up to several mb) you will see MP3's used, but those are a seperate catagory from a size standpoint and the size of the package reflects the use of MP3, Larger demo's can run 4 to 9 mb or so.
Another reason for the small size, they are frequently coded in assembly language.
The 'Demo Scene' has been around for ages, there are actually many groups creating art just like the examples shown here. It's all about creativity and pushing the edge of programming capabilities, showing off your talants as it were. There are scene rules (such as 64k size limit for intro's) and competitions. The whole scene dates back to the Commodore and Amiga days. Search the web and you'll likely find tons more like these, all just as impressive, interesting and unique. The whole scene is just amazing and the people that learn how to do it are just as amazing..... Maybe of some of those guys could go work for Bill, my XP installation wouldn be so damn big !!
Dukey