Making history not repeat itself
January 15th 2010
As Quasimondo rightly pointed out history keeps repeating. Specially on the web. Over the last decade we've been repeating what off-line graphic programmers have done two decades ago. Even worst, with Javascript we're repeating what Flash was doing half a decade ago.
In the case of Flash, the reason of why history repeated is because Flash is software rendering. Meaning that it's the CPU the one processing all these 2D/3D effects. Meanwhile, all these off-line graphic programmers had been enjoying from hardware rendering where the graphic card is outperforming the CPU in many levels.
In order to avoid history repeat itself we should know history on the first place. Watching what the people have done in the Demoscene, Processing, etc worlds helps. However, it's very tempting to just remake something for the sake of showing that it's possible. And I personally don't see anything wrong with it as it's good for learning. But we should focus on creating new things.
An example of this was back on the early days of Papervision3D. People were complaining that the engine didn't have lights or shadows. Amiga computers neither had enough power to efficiently render 3D scenes with lights and shadows but they managed to fake it by prerendering the shadows in the texture. That was the reason I did the pink ball experiment. I knew the trick because I knew this Amiga demo from 2006.
Now that hardware rendering is getting closer to be default (no plugins) on the web with WebGL, the possibilities are going to increment a lot. But we don't want to have a rotating cube on the screen, we should learn from what all the off-line graphic programmers have been doing with these possibilities and continue from there.
Here it's a selection of hardware accelerated demos from the last decade. I've sorted them (more or less) in chronologic order.
Remember, all these videos run in realtime on their original form. I'm aware that presenting them here in video form devaluates the work but it's just easier to watch.
Oh my... mix all these tricks and aesthetics with interactive experiences, audio visualisation, data visualisation, ... and that's a nice looking future for the web! :D
In the case of Flash, the reason of why history repeated is because Flash is software rendering. Meaning that it's the CPU the one processing all these 2D/3D effects. Meanwhile, all these off-line graphic programmers had been enjoying from hardware rendering where the graphic card is outperforming the CPU in many levels.
In order to avoid history repeat itself we should know history on the first place. Watching what the people have done in the Demoscene, Processing, etc worlds helps. However, it's very tempting to just remake something for the sake of showing that it's possible. And I personally don't see anything wrong with it as it's good for learning. But we should focus on creating new things.
An example of this was back on the early days of Papervision3D. People were complaining that the engine didn't have lights or shadows. Amiga computers neither had enough power to efficiently render 3D scenes with lights and shadows but they managed to fake it by prerendering the shadows in the texture. That was the reason I did the pink ball experiment. I knew the trick because I knew this Amiga demo from 2006.
Now that hardware rendering is getting closer to be default (no plugins) on the web with WebGL, the possibilities are going to increment a lot. But we don't want to have a rotating cube on the screen, we should learn from what all the off-line graphic programmers have been doing with these possibilities and continue from there.
Here it's a selection of hardware accelerated demos from the last decade. I've sorted them (more or less) in chronologic order.
Remember, all these videos run in realtime on their original form. I'm aware that presenting them here in video form devaluates the work but it's just easier to watch.
Oh my... mix all these tricks and aesthetics with interactive experiences, audio visualisation, data visualisation, ... and that's a nice looking future for the web! :D
Thanks for that great compilation. I could watch that stuff all day.. But I think I will search that stuff on vimeo, youtubes quality is still lacking.
January 15th 2010
DieTapete
Nice demo selection, and interesting thoughts...
But I have my disbelief in case the WebGL implementation results not so close to drivers loosing efficientcy and performance bootlenecks.
But I have my disbelief in case the WebGL implementation results not so close to drivers loosing efficientcy and performance bootlenecks.
January 15th 2010
Thank you very much for this post! As person watchin and contributing to demoscene (as vorg/DMA) I have the same feeling everytime I see some experiments in Flash or even openFrameworks. They really have to see this post and videos and rethink definition of what's cool and new. When it comes to moving forwad and building on experience of others ShaderToy by iq is a great example. After watching all rotating boxes this gave me hope that WebGL can deliver great visuals on the web http://www.iquilezles.org/apps/shadertoy/
I'm gonna write more on this topic soon on my blog.
I'm gonna write more on this topic soon on my blog.
January 15th 2010
You're exactly right. It's important to remember the difference between "it's amazing (fullstop)" and "it's amazing you can do that in Flash", which only another flasher would know, and we're a mere million peeps compared to 4 billion users. The Flash community is usually good at congratulating itself for things the game-console-owning public take for granted. Fidelity should be a given, and the wow-factor must come from it's use, the so called "content", whether that be beauty or information. Still, the fact flash gets hardware acceleration on mobile is monster cool and will hopefully drive a massive demo scene! The skills needed, the procedural graphics and sound should come in handy for real world serious projects, ie. games!
January 16th 2010
have you played with unity...?
you've got more than one computer...?
cmon...
you've got more than one computer...?
cmon...
January 25th 2010
your website hurts m
Hi, and thanks for this compilation, but even more to be one of a few that puzzled himself with that kind of questions. ;-)
Understand, REproduce, REcreate seems to me a good way for learning and challenge myself. But this is just lot of time loss if you're gonna create something original and new ONLY out of it
Because create something original is not depending on technologic paradygms, and technology is paradygms.
"How to breack trough?" is the question...
As an exemple : see what people have done over the last century with canvas+pencil+colors... they were interested in both master "technology", but even more, they had tons of original points of views and story to tell... some forgot about the canvas, some about the tools, some about the gesture, some about the light shades, some reinvented all of those their way.
That would be nice if we could see more demos with those kind of starter point...
but the sad is :
I don't do small demo any more since I started to work with that kind of creative process... I'm too busy searching for ideas ;-)
Understand, REproduce, REcreate seems to me a good way for learning and challenge myself. But this is just lot of time loss if you're gonna create something original and new ONLY out of it
Because create something original is not depending on technologic paradygms, and technology is paradygms.
"How to breack trough?" is the question...
As an exemple : see what people have done over the last century with canvas+pencil+colors... they were interested in both master "technology", but even more, they had tons of original points of views and story to tell... some forgot about the canvas, some about the tools, some about the gesture, some about the light shades, some reinvented all of those their way.
That would be nice if we could see more demos with those kind of starter point...
but the sad is :
I don't do small demo any more since I started to work with that kind of creative process... I'm too busy searching for ideas ;-)
January 28th 2010
Have your say!
Some of the projects that I worked on.
Some of the HTML5 and Actionscript experiments I've done.
