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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. "

14 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Why don't they just ask the demoscene? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We've been doing it for years..

    http://www.scene.org

    1. Re:Why don't they just ask the demoscene? by softwave · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I am not trying to turn this post into a nostalgic troll, I'm actually trying to make a point here.. just sing along with me :)

      Back in the days, making a demo was about showing off "software"-skills. A demo was all about coding fancy effects on a broad range of hardware with no support for hardware acceleration whatsoever.
      Soft pop, technoish 4-, 8-channel music was tracked (trackered?) on a crappy soundcard (thank you Gravis for bringing us the GUS!!)
      Pixelated art was often a result of many hours of hard work, patience and eye for detail.

      A tech demo as referred to in the article is much more about showing off the capabilities of new hardware. The demoscene has brought to the fore some very talented artists, some of them making their way into the professional software business.

      But still, I think there is a big difference between a demo (as in, "demoscene") and a showoff presentation with some fancy effects. The ideology and philosophy is totally different (as is the expected result and audience).

      I'm not trying to be al elitist about the demoscene. I just think that it's a subculture and should be considered as such.

    2. Re:Why don't they just ask the demoscene? by Archibald+Buttle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Back in the days, making a demo was about showing off "software"-skills. A demo was all about coding fancy effects on a broad range of hardware with no support for hardware acceleration whatsoever.

      Back in the days of demos the main demo scene revolved mostly around the Commodore Amiga. It was about showing off software skills, but they most definitely made use of hardware acceleration. The graphics processor in the Amiga ended up doing most of the graphics work in a demo with the 68000 working essentially in a management role. No broad range of hardware on the Amiga though - all the variants were very similar.

      Now the PC demo scene inevitably did not have any hardware acceleration as part of their demos, since back then there was none. Video cards in those days on PCs only showed video - even 2D acceleration facilities to speed up drawing windows weren't around... It's only recently with the introduction of more sophisticated GPUs on PCs that some of the kind of things that Amigas could do in hardware are technically possible to do in hardware on PCs. PC demos therefore had to be about software skills rather than what nifty things the hardware could do for you.

  2. 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 White+Shade · · Score: 5, Informative

      you speak of the scene as if it was past tense ... i think you'll find that you are wrong!!

      the scene is still going quite strong! :D

      --
      ìì!
    2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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. --
  5. Agreed. by SinaSa · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  6. 1st thing to remember in a techdemo... by sh0dan · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...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...

  7. Valuable Experience by eltoyoboyo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  8. Naked pixies in gossamer lingerie . . . by pariahdecss · · Score: 5, Funny

    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)

  9. The real art of the demo by russotto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is how to rig it, of course. To misquote a phrase, any sufficiently advanced technology can be simulated by a rigged demo :-)

  10. Tech Demos - Dreamcast vs Playstation 2 by JaF893 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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