Call to arms

Post by **TyRaNiD** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 4:23 am

This is only an idea at the moment but is anyone interested in producing some nice effects for a PS2 demo to show at the upcoming Breakpoint demo party.

The plan is thus, get as many people to do a bit of the demo, maybe 5 to whatever seconds each depending on time. These individual bits we can weave into a unified demo. The bits would need to be free running for the period (i.e. no interactions with pads etc), independant of anything like music (maybe, not sure yet) and cool looking would be nice :)

If we get enough interest we will work out a code skeleton so that people can contribute their pieces, and not even have to provide source code. There will be limits set on what you can do, e.g. no IOP usage and each part must be freestanding, not requiring loading of external data files.

Anyway post your interest below.

Post by **mrbrown** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 4:25 am

It would be cool if some of the VU ninjas flaunted the VUs. What about integrating adresd's VU demo harness?

Post by **TyRaNiD** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 5:35 am

Ok some preliminary rules we have been specced out...

-= Project BP =-
Maximum size of demo (uncompressed) 16mb
Maximum size of demo (compressed) 2mb

Rules:

You cannot:

Use the IOP or any IOP functions.
Allocate memory generally, outside of any internal alloc in the
specified 16Mb block provided.
Reset the screen resolution. i.e. playing with any PCRTC stuff.
Disable interrupts.

You can:
Utilise all of VRAM for your own nefarious purposes.
Use VU0 and VU1 for any purpose.
Use any GS path you like

All demo pieces will start at the same location in ram and must
be provided in binary form at least. The main function of the
demo should return to ra/$31 register at end of program. The main
function should also return in v0 the location of the last drawn
framebuffer in VRAM so that any interesting linking can be attempted.

The resolution will be fixed to 640x224 in both PAL and NTSC
timebases. The display type (PAL/NTSC) will be passed to the main
function so that any custom timing can be attempted (if required)
Any frame buffer format can be utilised including
playing with DISPLAY1/2 to whatever effect you desire.

That is all for now...

Post by **blackdroid** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 11:04 am

My only objection to this would be the resolution.. atleast interlace.
and the compo is held in europe ( pal, pal, pal ) but thats a minor one.

Post by **TyRaNiD** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 9:41 am

Ok for anyone interested the demo harness and skeleton code has been written, so if anyone wants to try out their hand in this short time period msg me on IRC or send a priv message on the forums.