pouët.net

As I am learning more about the demoscene and the scene in general, everything is becoming very overwhelming for me.

Are there any rules to what I can use to make Demos? Can I use the web as a platform for making Demos?

Any resources to help me getting me started?

web is definitely a demo platform yes. E.g., JavaScript and WebGL or three.js

Check out the demos by Holon for some nice examples.

Hey Spike, can I ask you a few more questions?

What happened to Scene.org? It seems like it was supposed to be the central place for the Demoscene.

How exactly the Demoscene is related to the scene? I know that the Demoscene is an offshoot of the latter but seems like Demoscene is doing its own stuff now.
Why don't I see Demos in today's Scene releases? I see music in RLD's Installers (most are by LHS I beleive) and stuff but where are the Demos gone?

What classifies as a Demo and what can I release here on Pouet?

A few more questions 😅, is it necessary for everything to be procedural generated? Can I use normal Texture maps and Models? I just saw Monoamine by altair which used music in MP3 format and as well as normal Models, Shaders and Textures.

So I believe it is not necessary for a demo to be completely procedural?

Let me put it this way: ARTISTS: Competent, Interested, Available - pick two.


"Scene" itself is an ambiguous word, we demosceners call our scene the "scene", whereas for warez people it'd mean their scene, and I suppose for a non-computer-related activity it'd also mean their group of people, so it depends who you're talking to.


The lowest barrier of entry for a demo would be something that has visuals and music wrapped in executable form - but I suggest you to just watch a few demos (good and bad) to get an idea.

No, JPG and MP3 is perfectly fine in a demo; procedural generation is mostly for stuff that has a size limit (4k or 64k) where you obviously have a hard time using large assets.

So, if I was to make a Demo in p5.js or three.js, how would I release it here on Pouet? What Platform is it?

Okay. There is a Platform of JavaScript. Sorry to bother!

Thanks for all the help!

You should release it at least as a downloadable archive, i.e. ZIP file. You can upload your productions to ftp.scene.org. Also many times web based demos tend to have webpage to watch it instantly and/or YouTube/Vimeo link for online video.

If you want to release your production at a demoparty then for example Demobit demoparty allows remote entries. They have "One Scene competition" which is in my opinion quite beginner friendly category.

Wel lit still up and serving a lot of demos as well as hosting this very website :)

Here's one guide that covers the basics of all the demomaking aspects.

Also, if you get lost in the mathematics behind 3D graphics, you should watch these videos (for the 'normal' 3D stuff with polygons), and maybe also these videos, as well as this talk (slides pdf) and all links under "How to use this" if you want to do raymarching.

For more demoscene-specific information, you could watch various seminars from demoparties (eg. Revision: yt, twitch), Ferris' streams, sizecoding.org if you want to look into <=512b stuff, various writeups about separate demos, etc.

You can also join IRC (mainly #revision on IRCnet) to chat with other demosceners. There's also a Demozoo Slack, but I'm not on there because I'm not a fan of Slack, so you'll have to ask other people about that one.

When your entry is (almost) finished, go to a demoparty and enter it in the competition! Hope to see you soon!

Oh, if you don't know how to connect to IRC, you can use this web client, but it's often a better idea to install a real IRC client (HexChat for desktop stuff, and I don't know what for Android/iOS)

Thanks for all the info! I'll start going through it immediately!

As soon as I am confident with GLSL and 3D Graphics, I'll start working on something!

Thanks once again!

Note that you can start also earlier also! I'm still not confident with my graphics programming skills but I like to do demos'n'stuff. :)

Some demos and intros have also been made using processing which has easier learning curve compared to WebGL. So give it also a go, if you want to. Have fun coding!

And there's still a huge collection of demo coding related articles at http://hugi.scene.org/online/coding/.

Welcome to "The Scene" duttaditya18!

Visiting a demoparty will be hard from India i suppose, but i recommend to watch the Livestreams almost all Parties provide.

This Weekend is "Under Construction Party" in Germany for example...

I will keep up with the Scene as much as I can. I'll start by learning some Mathematics and will watch some talks.

Thanks once again for the help! ❤️

Regarding "the demoscene" and "the scene", I would argue that the former still is a subset of the latter, to some extent. Or at least there'd be an overlap if you draw a Venn diagram. Also with the hacking/phreaking scene. "The scene" can simply be thought of as referring to computer based counterculture, and then there are some somewhat vague subdivisions where "the demoscene" constitutes one.

There are no rights or wrongs regarding what you can release as a demo as long as someone enjoys it. Ours is a very decentralized meritocracy, with no central committee arbitrating what is a demo and what isn't. Individuals will have their opinions of course, and you may choose to care about what some people think, if you respect them -- that one is up to you.

And then Pouët is an entirely different matter; being run with a rather gentle iron fist by mr. Gargaj and his posse. Many sceners like it, some don't and avoid it, etc. -- there's no right or wrong in that sense either. Some sceners make their major contribution to the scene in a mostly social sense, by being active on sites such as Pouët, or by hanging out with people at parties and making contacts/connecting people, while others are notable recluses who pretty much only make their presense known through their releases and never visit any forums or parties. Both types of people are equally much sceners.

From my personal perspective: If you are able to travel to Europe then attending one or more larger parties and meeting some active people is a very good way to get a sense of what the scene is (or at least can be) about. It's easy to start building up your own slightly mythological and incorrect understanding if you don't know anyone in it.

I don't think it even matters if anyone enjoys it :)

But don't take that as an excuse to release every little thing you do, people will tire of that quite quickly.

When I started making demos I found that having support from more established sceners was the key thing. I keep thinking that someone* should set up a match-making mentor scheme for newbies - does such a thing already exist?


* I realise this might mean "me"

Well there is the newcomer section @ Revision.

I also highly recommend the ryg blog. It is a very good and educational weblog about mathematics and computer science.

https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/

In general, no, but keep in mind that some parties may have demo size limits and of course some compos are sized limited like the 64k compo, 4k compo and stuff.



yes web is a platform. your demo can utilize html5 canvas, WebGL, javascript, flash player etc.



well, depends on which platform you want to create the demo and what type of demo you want to create (a simple demo, 64k, 4k etc - I would recommend to start with a simple demo with no size limits). a demo is usually a program that creates graphics in real time that are synced (either manually or automatically) to a music track. focus on achieving this simple idea first.



No most demos certainly use precompiled stuff like textures, musc, models and so on.

Generally don't be afraid to ask for help around here, there are a lot of sceners hanging around that are willing to help. :)

apparently you like .js a lot... in that case https://webgl2fundamentals.org/ is actually nice for starters. also has a bit more explanatory stuff regarding writing shaders and the required 3D/2D math than e.g. learnopengl.com, so even for non-.js future endeavors it is a good read.