pouët.net

This I have to say: of what use is all this source being released?

Great, the millionth (badly implemented) matrix class, object loader, D3D setup, window handler, audio library wrapper et cetera. I'm not denying that there is useful stuff in some of the releases (think 64K audio solutions) but it's mostly just ubiquitous as all hell.

So as for releasing source, I think it'd be more useful to release actual nifty algorithms, optimizations, specific effects, stuff like synthesizers, packers.. And people were doing this already. And it's also much easier to integrate these isolated solutions into your own projects (because lets face it, in the end we mostly all make our own nuts and bolts).

So in conclusion: maybe it's me, but I just don't care about the nuts and bolts of your demos, intros or systems. I don't need to see that if statement that triggers the cubes to move to the left after a note plays or your setup dialog.

I don't think these source releases are particularly useful for anyone who has some experience in the scene, but if you're just starting out or if you're a nodejs fanboy who is interested in looking at "how the demoscene does things" it can be quite useful, I guess.

And I like browsing the code, useless as it may be. :)

@sag: I'm guilty of that too. I leeched the FR stuff, looked at Kusma's stuff a while ago. But is there any educational value really? :)

Nah, not really. But I do believe it has some PR value.

But I'm also guessing that there are a lot of people, like that wz4 reverse-engineering guy, who believe there are some magical pixies hidden somewhere in the code that will magically enable them to do fantastic demos or intros, only to find out it's just code. And perhaps even fairly ugly code, too. (*)

(*) No offence, Navis!

Reading some messy source code might not be awfully useful or interesting, but at least you can try to compile it to some other platform, fix bugs etc. In general demos aren't too future-proof, so having the source provides some added longevity when drivers, operating systems and hardware change. A very practical plus is that once the code is published, it's much harder to completely lose it in the case of a hard drive crash or user stupidity.

i view the code mostly as supplemental material that people can check for reference. anything actually interesting is better conveyed using plain old text.

and of course, if anyone wants me to fix kkrunchy now, i can just direct them to the source and tell them to go fix it themselves. :)

"Pull request #1: No more false positives in virusscanners"

which reminds me, still need to check if i have a newer version of kkrunchy_k7 somewhere...

I have to agree with ryg, it's very good reference material. There can be a lot of inspiration in seeing how other people do things different from you.

"imho smash's blog is worth well more as far as education and motivation goes than just giving shit out."

I'm cool with writeups and codedumps, but both will hopefully prove fodder for the next generation of demomakers.

Kudos to folks passing on the torch, as it were.

As for ideology, meh, I shudder to think of a scene filled with instances of rms. *wry*

also, I agree about future-proofing. Who knows, there might be a trend starting to make one's demos uncapturable. : D

yay! code sharing!
here's my contribution (4 years old but could still be relevant)
http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=51945

I'm a little pissed. I'd been thinking about doing some synth work in the open. Now I'm suddenly waaaay late to the party. Releasing source? SOOO 2012. Anyway, I don't care. I'll jump on your bandwagon eventually.

@metoikos:

let's not belittle what rms did for OSS.

sure, I too shudder when I think about him picking unmentionable things from his beard and (from the looks of it) eating them (d'oh!)
(vid on YT, find it yourself) :-) (not to mention the Jobs episode which just was not cool)
but IMHO he sure has a point when it comes to software freedom!

other than that, I too think that a well written article about an algorithm is a lot more worth than the source code of one possible implementation.

but yeah, this is a bit off topic and demos are not prime OSS material, anyway (Navis' code being a good example of that -- wouldn't want to maintain that one ;)).

still..kudos to all ppl releasing their demo sources -- there's still a lot of things that 'beginners' can learn from them (it's easy to get stuck with 'trivial' but necessary things)

kb: If you one day find the time I would be very interested in reading a making-of V2 (you did not 'just' ROM-dump and reverse-engineer an Access Virus, did you ? :D)

If "fiddling with the knobs, listen to what it does and then find a way to implement it" counts as reverse engineering, then yes. I took my trusty Virus B as a reference. But there's no ROM dumping or actual reverse engineering involved, only lots of lessons on how a synth has to feel and sound. :)

(tho I had one or two drinks too many with a hereby unnamed Access employee a few years ago, and he told me some superficial things about the Virus' inner workings that already made me go whoa. There's lots of screwed up stuff happening inside that little DSP. :)

coolio. even if your synth is already ~12 yo it still sounds very good!

i.e. much better than the usual musicdsp.org filters that I hear a lot. we should talk about this over some beers some time :-)

I'm no coder, but I just wanted to chime in and say that the source release was a fantastic thing to do, and if it starts a trend; that's cool too.

found the most recent kkrunchy_k7 (0.23a4/asm07) source code after all! updated :)

Source dump:
https://github.com/mudlord/framework64k

My meager addition. Am planning of opening up demosource when the time comes when I do my first intros.

And here's another code dump for your enjoyment (or perhaps embarrassment): http://svn.emphy.de/scene/trunk/

kb_: having owned the original Virus (and now the Virus C), I'd say there is definitely a tiny gap between the sound of those units and the V2 ;)

For someone who doesn't know how/have any desire to go through the Github repository, which demos/intros are included in the release?