demos

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[... "Now class, today we will talk about what you want to be
when you grow up. Isn't that fun?" The teacher looks
around and spots the child, silent, apart from the others
and deep in thought. "Jonny, why don't you start?" she
encourages him.
Jonny looks around, confused, his train of thought
disrupted. He collects himself, and stares at the teacher
with a steady eye. "I want to code demos," he says,
his words becoming stronger and more confidant as he
speaks. "I want to write something that will change
peoples perception of reality. I want them to walk
away from the computer dazed, unsure of their footing
and eyesight. I want to write something that will
reach out of the screen and grab them, making
heartbeats and breathing slow to almost a halt. I want
to write something that, when it is finished, they
are reluctant to leave, knowing that nothing they
experience that day will be quite as real, as
insightful, as good. I want to write demos."
Silence. The class and the teacher stare at Jonny, stunned. It
is the teachers turn to be confused. Jonny blushes,
feeling that something more is required. "Either that
or I want to be a fireman." ]
- Grant Smith 14:32 21/11/93

Why did I make this page

Denthor of Asphyxia (also known as Grant Smith) wrote an excellent tutorial for people who want to start learning how to code demos, and Snowman ported it to C But...

The Problem:

1) Denthor's tutorial uses Borland Pascal, Snowman's tutorial uses Borland C

2) both use Real-Mode which limits the amount of memory that your program can use, and forces you to rely heavily on the use of pointers, which might be difficult for beginners.

3) both use 16-bit code which makes your program slow.

The Solution:

1) I wrote a port (="translation") of their tutorials into today's most popular free 32-bit compilers: Free Pascal, Virtual Pascal, Watcom C, Djgpp C

2) they all use Protected-Mode which doesn't limit the amount of memory that your program can use, and doesn't force you to understand pointers - you can just use big arrays and the compiler won't mind.

3) they all use 32-bit code which makes your program fast!

#	is about	snapshot	Text Book	Borland Pascal	Borland C	Virtual Pascal	Free Pascal	Watcom C	GNU C	necessary files:
1	drawing a point		TUT1	TUT1	TUT1	TUT1	TUT1	TUT1	TUT1
2	palette colors		TUT2	TUT2	TUT2	TUT2	TUT2	TUT2	TUT2
3	circles & lines		TUT3	TUT3	TUT3	TUT3	TUT3	TUT3	TUT3
4	virtual screen		TUT4	TUT4	TUT4	TUT4	TUT4	TUT4	TUT4
5	scrolling		TUT5	TUT5	TUT5	TUT5	TUT5	TUT5	TUT5	Texter5 includes SOFTROCK.FNT PALLETTE.COL
6	pre-generated tables		TUT6	TUT6	TUT6	TUT6	TUT6	TUT6	TUT6
7	animation		TUT7	TUT7	TUT7	TUT7	TUT7	TUT7	TUT7
8	3d vectors		TUT8	TUT8	TUT8	TUT8	TUT8	TUT8	TUT8
9	3d polygons		TUT9	TUT9	TUT9	TUT9	TUT9	TUT9	TUT9
10	mode X		TUT10	TUT10	TUT10
11	crossfade		TUT11	TUT11
12	full screen scrolling		TUT12	TUT12
13	3d starfield		TUT13	TUT13
14	glenzing 3d polys		TUT14	TUT14
15	plasma		TUT15	TUT15
16	bitmap scaling		TUT16	TUT16
17	pixel morphs		TUT17	TUT17
18	file packing		TUT18
19	assembler		TUT19
20	hidden face removal		TUT20	TUT20
21	texture mapping		TUT21	TUT21

Money for nothing and Compilers for free

We are currently living in something like a golden era of free 32-bit protected-mode compilers these are a few of the best compilers around (click on the picture for a free download), the recommended dos-extender for each one, and the batch "make-file" I use to compile and link my programs with the dos-extender:

Pascal compilers		C compilers
	Borland Pascal (16 bit, real-mode) the grand-daddy of Pascal compilers. Denthor used this one to write his tutorial	Borland C (16 bit, real mode) the grand-daddy of C compilers. Snowman used it to write his tutorial. PMC or WDOSX
	Virtual Pascal (32 bit, protected mode) can run programs written for BP almost without changes DPMI32 (or here) batch file	Watcom C (32 bit, protected mode) programs written for BC need some re-write. PMODE/W batch file
	Free Pascal (32 bit, protected mode) can run programs written for BP with some changes. PMODE/DJ (or here) batch file	GNU C (32 bit, protected mode) programs written for BC often need a lot of re-write CWSDPMI batch file

Q: How did you learn to code as you do now?
A: Learning to code demos is a long and very very difficult process. It takes
years to learn to code demos very well. A good way to start is some high
level language like Pascal or C and then started to experiment with
assembler. It takes a lot of time and experimenting to get better, and
there are no shortcuts (for book recommendations, see a question before
this). The main thing is trying to understand what you do, then trying
to change the program to see what you get, and gain wisdom in what's
the best way of doing things. Learning to code well requires a lot of
patience, a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of time. It is not easy.

from the Future Crew information package (Frequently Asked Questions part) version 1.30
06-FEB-1994 Gore, Henchman & Abyss / FC