Posted By
MMS
on 2019-08-06
05:20:44
 |  Re: Árok 2019
It was really a great show.
About the Demo result.
I have no bitter feelings, but I think the platform was more important here than the real demo effects.
(I was not involved in any way in the +4 demo production, and most of the day I used a C64 with DOTC :-) so you can say I am biased :-) ):
It is hard to compete with the huge C64 base and romantic feeling of them, but according to my personal view:
-The +4 demo has more fluid execution
-+4 demo has more interesting story, than "we are old, but we are back"
-+4 demo has more effects, like picture morphing, huge picture scroll
-The Plus/4 demo had a better music track, huge basses with TED, really immersive experience. I dunno how it is possible, but I was there, I hear it.
C64 demo had a nice track too, but I was less influenced by this, than Csabo's tune.
-+4 demo had no breakages in the show (during the C64 demo most of us though it is already finished, but it continued. TWO times!). It is about planning and time spent on the finetuning of the trackmo.
-To be really honest, at the very end I got tired of the C64 demo, repeating several times the same effect and objects, just changing the background image or object color to show something different. Chequered flag rotation, how many times? Maybe 6 or 7x?
I think the C64 demo was unnecessarily long, sometimes boring, and timing not so properly planned as we saw at Uncertain Future.
C64 demo had some nice effects, but much less idea, and much much less effort put in it (despite bigger production team)
I tried to be as objective as possible.
You can doublecheck these things yourself, when both videos are on the YT.
My 2c: from my point of view Uncertain Future was the real winner, the final result is just the result of C64 romance.
My message? You cannot change voters, they could not be always biased. Especiall not after few beers.
We should accept this, and for them the facts are hard things :-)
Larry's videos were also fantastic (huge work, nice optimalization), and the HW behind them is also pure genius!
Just to put in a real comparison:
I was curious, if an Amiga 500 could do the similar video playback in any way with an SD card or HDD.
320x200 (240?), full screen, no lag in playback, color faithful to the original (and without a 60020, 60030, 60040 or Vampire card).
What I found as the closes thing in HAMP file (requires the same preencoding of the AVI to an Amiga specific HAM format as Larry files)
"On as stock Amiga 600 it can play back a 320x200 file 12 bits per pixel at 12 frames per second."
(Motorola 68000 @ 7.16 MHz, 16bit, 1MB RAM, built-in IDE HDD: 320x200, 12 fps
MOS8501 @1.7MHz, 8bit, 64KB RAM: 320x200, 50/60 fps)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOjgvLiEaEU
An Amiga1200 +64MB RAM+60030 CPU seems to able to provide a very similar experience, that we saw yesterday from a humble stock +4 (no memory upgrade, no CPU upgrade, just a very advanced storage device, equal to the HDD of the Amiga).
And this is shocking!
My conclusion on my party releases:
I need to upgrade the HFLI loader routine, as without music (and some small effects) the impression is not that good as it could be.
In this form it can't even hold a candle.
The hard thing is, that I am not a real coder, but a humble graphician :-)
Frankly speaking, working for a demo project with tough deadlines and high responsibility on demo readiness, also adding additional gfx limitations to the existing ones is not my world. That's why I am more a lone wolf, but certainly it influences reputation and results.
I accept this, because my approach means less stress on real life and the void. :-)
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