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The Art of the Tech Demo

Posted by Hemos on from the impressing-the-folks-around-you dept.

Alan writes "A lot of people underestimate the significance of a good technology demo. A good tech demo can be more important for a GPU product launch than even benchmarks. However, this means more than just pretty graphics or complex shaders. In my final article to the industry, I explain what the art of the tech demo is all about. "

7 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Back in the old days... by Agent+Green · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...there actually used to be a demo scene which really turned out some amazing stuff. My favorite demo group of all was the Future Crew, and Second Reality did some really pretty neat stuff on some pretty mediocre hardware. Though, the VLB card I ended up getting sped up significant portions of some of the more intensive portions of the demos (i.e. the concentric rings in Second Reality).

    I used to leave it running in a loop at work so we could sell more computers. :)

    --
    // Agent Green (Ian / IU7 / KB1JQO)
    // IEEE 802.3: All 10base Are Belong To Us
    1. Re:Back in the old days... by flynn_nrg · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In a sense it is. I used to be an amiga scener back in the day, and recently wanted to see what the PC guys are up to these days. I can tell you, I'm pretty disappointed with most of what I've seen. I was very impressed by stuff like this, which, ironically, was coded by an ex-Amiga guy (dierk "chaos" ohlerich).

      I don't mean to flame, but I've been much more impressed by what games companies are doing these days than by PC demos from the last two years. There was a time when the demoscene was ahead of game developers. I don't think this is still true.

      TBL still makes demos for Amiga 1200 (060/AGA) that are quite impressive. Most PC stuff I've seen is mediocre.

  2. Animusic by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One of the demos they go over in the article is the Animusic demo for ATI's Radeon 9700.

    That was one of the cooler demos I've seen. The graphics aren't that special but paired with the sound the scene comes alive.

  3. A demo by any other name ... by torpor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... In my industry, demo's (or, more appropriately, demo songs) have been a staple part of the released product for years.

    Okay, demo songs for synthesizers are not often the 'best' example of what the synth can do. But this is also a good thing, sometimes ... because musicians will often hear a 'demo song' and think to themselves "sounds great, but I could do better", and the moment someone is thinking that about a song on your product (in my business), you're closer to a sale.

    IF the demo is interesting enough 'sounding' to get their attention, but turns out to be pretty 'uninspired' as a song, then this leads the musician/customer to think 'okay, great capabilities, poor execution in the track, I'll take it and see what I can do better' ...

    Its been known for a long time that a demo need not be 'superlative', just "demonstrative of the technology you're trying to sell", and not much else. When was the last time you heard a "Hit Demo Song" coming from a synth? But, I'll bet you anything that the demo songs on most modern synth gear these days contain factory patches that you'll recognize as sounds in popular songs, and no matter how cheesy the track is, if it somehow shows you what is 'possible' with the hardware, even if its naff, then you're closer to a sale ...

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  4. It's all about the drivers by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1, Interesting

    In the end, many people go with the brand-name they prefer and that's where the tech demo comes in.

    Many people are also like me who just look to see who has the best Linux drivers. (nvidia, for those wondering)

    --
    Do you have ESP?
  5. I don't know by Erwos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think the importance of tech demoes have diminished greatly in recent years, when cards have had more or less the same capabilities (not speed, maybe) anyways. I mean, a DX9 tech demo is theoretically able to run on any card that can "do" DX9.

    Also, when it comes to bragging rights, "prettier tech demo!" just doesn't work on most people. Intangibles like frame rate and features are what people can easily point to.

    That's not to say GPU tech demoes are worthless - but in comparison to other stuff, they've had their day in the sun. Fortunately, I predict a long life for them on consoles :).

    -Erwos

    --
    Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
  6. Misplaced priorities by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't know what the videocard industry is thinking sometimes. Maybe instead of sinking so many hours of coder time in creating these pretty bits of eye candy for each new product release, they should assign some more resources to the development and QA testing of the actual drivers.

    I dunno about you, but I think the last time I bought a video card that came with a rock-solidly stable video driver was the VGA card that came with my 386. For every card since, it seems like it's been a buggy, 90% functional driver at release, an update to 95% functionality and fewer bugs three or four months later, and then no further driver releases as the driver teams have all moved on to the next bleeding-edge chipset.