Revision 2016 PC Demo Competition

DemosceneDemo, Party, Review21 April 2016

The biggest demoscene party in the world is over, and we have a lot of new, high quality releases. Without all the drama of reversed lists and countdowns, let’s start from the highest ranked prods.

#1 – Shapeshift by Cocoon

After last year’s 2^nd place with We Stand Divided, Cocoon, once again, reached the top of the ranking, and this time with a demo called Shapeshift.

What makes this production to stand out, is that it is not just one effect demo (a common trend), and actually features different effects like voxels and metaballs with Global Illumination lighting. There’s also a nice city with flying vehicles scene inspired by Blade Runner. The demo’s size is quite big, the archive contains over 150 MB of data (almost 1 GB after decompression), but all these textures just have to take space.

Unfortunately, I was unable to run this demo on my PC, currently it just hangs on a black screen. The good news is, that the team is working on the final version, so it should run on non-Titan configs as well.

Credits:
Guille – codework
NTSC – visuals, direction
Rorque – graphics
Tineidae – soundtrack
Shapeshift by Cocoon on Pouet

#2 – Instant God by CNDC & Fairlight

Yet another Fairlight & CNDC’s demo exploring particle effects (previous demos based on this effect were, for example: Numb Res, Ceasefire (all falls down..), Agenda Circling Forth). This time, the smoke was replaced with air bubbles. Well, actually, it looks more like kind of underwater clouds to me, but each one can have his own interpretation here.

We get some nicely color-graded underwater scenes. The screen is sometimes mirrored, and this creates Rorschach-inkblot-test-like patterns (so again, “what do you see on this picture?”), but my first impression was that it looks a bit cheap. Maybe that’s just for uploading data for the next scene in a background or to pre-calculate something.

The same day as the PC demo compo, Smash led a seminar on “How Fairlight/CNCD infiltrated the world of live visuals”. He talked about the industry of stage visuals, some common myths and even how their visualization got rejected by Coldplay. He also has shown his tool called Notch, and made a quick smoke effect based on a video footage of pop singer Ellie Goulding. As it turned out, she also starred in “Instant God”, but this time she was captured in 3D with Kinect.

The demo also features a soundtrack by Gloom, with a nice vocal samples by Holly Drummond. It develops slowly and, just like the whole demo, ends abruptly. These 4 minutes feels so short.

Credits:
Smash – visuals, code
Destop – visuals
Gloom – soundtrack
Ellie – performer
Instant God by CNDC & Fairlight on Pouet

#3 – Through the Cracks by Still

Another proof that it is perfectly possible to create an interesting demo using only two colours. This one is a study of moiré patterns and interferences made by lines and other shapes. You should definitely run it on your own machine, as YouTube’s video encoding killed it (or just made its own remix :).

If you like it, check out Intrinsic Gravity too. Both demos feature a very pleasant soundtrack. The one in “Through the Cracks” was made by JCO.

Credits:
1x – design, direction
Pixtur – code, additional design and sync
JCO – soundtrack
Through the Cracks by Still on Pouet

#4 – True Colors by Still

The second (or was this the first one?) demo by Still for Revision 2016. This time it’s an experiment with a video feedback effect. Nice music by Lucid and interesting liquid-like effects by Pixtur. This is also the official invitation for Evoke 2016 party.

Credits:
Pixtur – design, shaders
Lucid – soundtrack
True Colors by Still on Pouet

#5 – The Zarahustler by Jugz

This is a demo made with Unity 3D. You can select your preferred “jump” and “fire” buttons in the configuration window, nice! :).

I’m not sure what was the motivation to make a demo with dancing nude woman. Is it another tribute to State of the Art by Spaceballs  (we already had one recently: Ziphead by Fairlight & CNCD)? Is it a music video parody? Or maybe there is no hidden meaning at all.

I like the tunnel effect, a bit similar to the one from the previous Jugz’s demo, Payback. Voronoi diagrams and floating particles also looks nice. The soundtrack features some vocoded lyrics, and the demo runs smooth. This is a one-man production, so even if it’s made with a tool created by someone else, it deserves the appreciation.

BTW: if you like such videos, check out the clip to Mille – Crysteena. :)

Credits:
Jugi – graphics, music, code
The Zarahustler by Jugz on Pouet

#6 – 400 by Satori + Tu v dome

…and we have another black-and-white demo. This one has an unusual soundtrack, performed by a live band with a female vocalist. But it may be also the other way round: the demo is actually a video for the Tu v dome band’s song “400 špendlíkov” (“400 pins”) from “Protichodné chute” (“Opposing flavours”) album.

Even that it is only around 2 minutes long, it features well made synchronization, many camera takes, and a very nice painting-with-triangles effect.

Credits:
Zden – code, visuals
Ubik – 3d models
Tu v dome – music
400 by Satori + Tu v dome on Pouet

#7 – Everything Is Static Still Changing by United Force vs. Digital Dynamite

Overall style of this production is similar to the previous demo in the series, Rainbow Clash: Way by Digital Dynamite and United Force. This time we get lots of colourful, nicely post-processed kaleidoscopes. Truly mesmerizing.

I really like the soundtrack, it could have been added as a bonus track to classic Wendy Carlos’ “Switched-On Bach” album (well, maybe without the voice-over). As it is a bit too late for that, you can grab this track from the “I. (The First)” album by Rainbow Clash. This demo should definitely have been ranked higher.

Credits:
BoyC – code
Slyspy – music, graphics
Everything Is Static Still Changing by United Force vs. Digital Dynamite on Pouet

#8 – 1:4:9 by s.k.o.y.p.

A nice and funny invitation for De:coded 2016 party, with references to Second Reality by Future Crew and 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you want to visit Lviv in Ukraine, 3-5 June 2016 seems to be a good time to do this.

Credits:
Keen – graphics, music, story
Feral – modeling
Willy – additional music

1:4:9 by s.k.o.y.p. on Pouet

#9 – Nautile by The Deadliners

One of WebGL demos in the compo. You can run it in your browser online. I like the previous production, 68000 Reasons by The Deadliners, more, but this one keeps the quality on a decent level too.

BTW: if you are curious how this has been done, you can download the sources from Github.

Credits:
Soundy – code, music
Made – graphics
Nautile by The Deadliners on Pouet

#10 – Nautilus by Holon

WebGL demos are getting more popular each year. Sometimes their quality is even better than regular prods coded for a specific platform, and this one can be a good example of that.

We get an underwater story with a nice soundtrack and well-chosen colours. Another demo that was really underrated. You can watch it live in your browser, and if you like the music, check out Oceanography Vol.1 by The New Library Sound.

Credits:
Pandur – code
Chunna – design, graphics
Susencrusen – design, graphics
Nautilus by Holon on Pouet

Summary

…and that was top 10 of the PC demo compo at Revision 2016. There are 10 more productions, but most of them were either invitations, fast-made fun demos or so underground, that only a small group of people appreciated them. Feel free to check them out, none of them got zero points.

So, after seeing all of these new releases, are you motivated to create your own demo for the next party? I hope so! :)

Official PC demo compo results