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The Art of the Tech Demo
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.
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We've been doing it for years..
http://www.scene.org
...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
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.
... In my industry, demo's (or, more appropriately, demo songs) have been a staple part of the released product for years.
... 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.
...
...
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
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. --
Yup. I can attest to that. Being part of a GPU design team myself.
If only we hadn't have used the goatse man as part of our tech presentation on the big night, we might still be around.
--
The last digit of pi is four.
...Boobs! - They seem to be rather obvious to show off high polycount and advanced shading techniques. Furthermore they are also a good place to show off your great dynamic-body-physics-engine(TM).
... insert more good reasons to show boobs in tech demos here...
A very successful integrated solution salesman, with whom I once had the pleasure of working, had a very relevant quote for here:
"Do a demo, lose a sale."
The deeper explanation is that so many salespeople come to call with "gadgety" demos and slides. The really successful salesperson LISTENS to a customer's problems and tries to work out a solution in common.
Have you Meta Moderated t
Its the naked pixies that influence my GPU purchases. If I am going to drop $500.00 on the latest GPU it better have a naked pixie tech demo. Errr wait didn't NVIDIA try that . . .it didn't make me buy their leaf blower GPU. (remote power station not included - see store for details)
Is how to rig it, of course. To misquote a phrase, any sufficiently advanced technology can be simulated by a rigged demo :-)
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.
The tech demo is how Sony PlayStation 2 was able to stifle the Sega Dreamcast despite platform parity early on.
I think in this case the author is exaggerating the importance of tech demos. I wonder what % of Dreamcast or PlayStation 2 owners have actually seen either of the two tech demos? I think the simple fact that the PS2 was backwardly compatible was much more significant then some stupid tech demo
I worked on the Savage 2000 driver for S3, for instance, i.e., the one that everybody thinks was broken because T&L didn't work. Of course, the hardware came back so incredibly shitty that it was actually _slower_ to use its pipeline than the one me and another guy wrote in software (originally as an exercise in load-balancing in high-number-of-lights conditions and to handle a couple of D3D7 features the chip didn't support).
The driver writers at graphics chip companies know their stuff. They're good. Fundamentally, with immature hardware and the desire for speed at all costs, I think they're doing the best they can at this point.