file_id.diz
**** DVision Software Group ****
18-9-1994
We are:
Wild Weasel General Manager / Musician Roland Muts
WIWYG Graphical Artist Wouter Nijman
Khaell Storywriter Remko de Lange
Math Fobewiyo Public Relations / Storywriter Arno de Lange
SAM Program Manager Sebastiaan Megens
Simm Coder / Musician Desmond Germans
And:
PC and MSX only
We do:
Try to get some real games off the ground in the near future
Try to come up with original demos / intros
We did:
LightShade demo, a small first demo, 5th place at Bizarre '94
SDTetris, a tribute to Konami and its outrageous SF RPG: SD Snatcher
SD Snatcher Sound Test
Space Manbow Sound Test
We will do:
"Principia", a new demo, to compete at a party in the near future (probably
The Party '94)
DFence, something like Aleste, Raptor or Space Manbow
More really cool games including a great RPG !
We don't:
Have a deadline
Try to hate other demo groups
The rumors:
We designed a brand new device independent music system, which takes only
32K for a fullgame music score, including all instruments and soundeffects
(compare that to the average 300Kb of an .S3M file)
We will go to the Party '94
We have an official DVision-agent in Japan (our Japan Manager :)
Principia will:
contain: 3D vectorstuff (We CAN do that) and some really cool & hot new
effects you've never seen before!
have a THEME!!! (the next generation in demo programming)
be fully in 386 (real mode) Assembly
We can be reached at / in / on / by:
Voice: (+31)-(0)2990-31758 (ask for Roland, between 20:00 & 22:00 CET)
Fax: (+31)-(0)2990-31758 (between 0:00 & 23:59 CET)
Snail: DVision Software Group
Jaagweg 15
1452 PB Ilpendam
The Netherlands
Email: samegen@cs.vu.nl / sam@dds.hacktic.nl
germans@cs.vu.nl / simm@dds.hacktic.nl
weasel@dds.hacktic.nl
--- May DVision be with you ---
**[[ LIGHTSHADE TECHNICAL INFORMATION ]]**
This file contains information on how-we-did-it topics.
**** GENERAL INFORMATION ****
For the music and sound effects we used ScreamTracker 3 from Future Crew. The
sound effects in the demo are part of the musical score.
To play the S3M-files, we used the MIDAS Sound System of Petteri Kangaslampi
and Jarno Paanen (with some slight modifications).
The graphics are mostly designed with Deluxe Paint II enhanced for PC. If you
want to make pictures we strongly recommend this program.
The demo is entirely coded using Borland's Turbo C++ 3.0 (only the C part, no
classes, templates etc.) with lots of inline assembler (even 32bit code !).
**** DOOMPLASMA ****
This is just another subdivision plasma with palette rotation. The buildup
algorithm for the plasma to shape itself around the sentences is a little
more difficult though.
**** CRAZY LOGO ****
4 images - 4 bitplanes.
**** STARFIELD ****
Fixed point 3D star calculations. There are a total of 500 stars on the
screen all the way through.
**** CROSSFADER ****
Not too difficult either. A simple calculation shows that 16^2 is 256 color
combinations so each image can have 16 colors. This algorithm uses MORE than
16 colors per image, and all pictures together contain a great lot more than
256 colors...
**** WARP BEAR ****
Bit image mapping. We applied a strange periodic function for the warping
(oil-on-water) effect.
**** DIZZY BEAR ****
Simple animation.
**** ZOOMING BEAR ****
We needed a black screen and fading out was too common.
**** LIGHTSHADE TITLESCREEN ****
Just another palette trick, nothing special.
**** CREDITS ****
The effect was too slow for an full-screen demo part so we used it here.
**** GREETINGS ****
No comment.
**** MORE QUESTIONS / TIPS ****
We will not release the sourcecode yet, maybe later sometime. A newer version
will be considered (SB support, bugfixes, etc.), but we will mainly
concentrate on games (read DVISION!.NFO) or another demo.
If you still have questions or tips, contact us (see DVISION!.NFO).
CU.
Simm, SAM.
DVision Software Group 1994
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some notes on LightShade 1.13:
LightShade 1.0 (or just LightShade) depended heavily on an FPU (it had
floating point fading, for example). This wasn't such a problem for the
competition (486DX2-66), but for 386-processors without an FPU, the demo was
awfully slow. I fixed this (I wanted the demo to run on _my_ machine, a
386DX40 :) and so it should now run quite smooth on a fast
386 with a fast videocard. Most of the old FPU-code has been changed to
fixed point code. The no-music option has been added. Some minor bugs were
removed.
Once more:
CU.
SAM.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some notes on LightShade 1.15
(LightShade 1.14 was not released, since it contained a rather old version of
MIDAS)
At last, I can enjoy the full demo on my machine (SB only)!!! With the help
of the MIDAS Sound System, LightShade should now work with GUS, SB, PAS and
Windows Sound System.
We didn't have the possibility to test LightShade with a PAS (or Windows
Sound System), but we think it'll work anyway.
Thanks Petteri & Jarno, for creating MIDAS!
And once again:
CU.
SAM.
..--++ L I G H T S H A D E ++--..
Version 1.15
DVision Software Group 1994
18-09-1994
*********** GENERAL INFORMATION ************
This file is to inform you of our first and newest demo: LightShade.
This demo was actually made in 11 days and 6 hours total (well, with the
revisions and all, it's quite possible it took a bit longer :) and has the
following features:
- 486 or 386 required, preferably at 33 MHz and up
(you don't need a floating point coprocessor, as with the previous
version)
- VGA (a fast VGA is recommended)
- GUS 512Kb, SB or 100% compatible, PAS, Windows Sound System
- Startup parameters to start the demo
- Harddisk installation required
LightShade became 5th on Bizarre '94 (out of 9 :), with 56 points.
Bizarre '94 took place on May 7 & 8 at Nijmegen.
Although we didn't win the contest, we were very proud of our first product.
********** HOW TO INSTALL / RUN ***********
You probably got this demo with the following files:
LISH.NFO = this file
LISHTECH.NFO = how we did it
DVISION!.NFO = what we do and don't
LISH.EXE = the actual executable
DV.000 .. DV.017
= all demo data
to install LightShade, copy these files to a directory on your harddisk.
Now you can type:
LISH <starting point> <music volume>
and the demo should start with a couple of questions concerning the soundcard
you want to use, I/O address, IRQ, DMA and mixing frequency.
The 'starting point' is one of the optional parameters. You can start
LightShade at the following points:
0: start at the beginning
1: start at the CrazyLogo
2: start at the StarField
3: start at the CrossFader
4: start at the Title
The other parameter is the music volume, but you can only set it if you also
choose a starting point. Possible volumes are 0 to 64.
It is wise to give LightShade all your memory, to avoid hangups and
'Error loading ...' messages. LightShade needs about 512Kb of free main RAM
and some EMS (for most soundcards).
LightShade has no demo-looping option (at least not yet).
If you press a key during the demo, it will finish the current event and
then quit to DOS.
We couldn't test LightShade with PAS or Windows Sound System, so you have
to figure out how much memory (conventional/EMS) you need with these
soundcards.
*********** TROUBLESHOOTING ************
Here is a list of things that could go wrong (as far as we tested it) with
the appropriate solution:
P: I get "Error loading ..." messages.
S: You don't have all the data for the demo or you don't have enough free
memory. Try freeing some of the TSR's from memory (review your
AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS). For more information on how to do this,
read your DOS-manual.
P: I get a "MIDAS: out of conventional memory" error.
S: You probably don't have enough EMS-memory. Change your CONFIG.SYS
to install more EMS-memory (1024K should really be enough).
P: One part of the demo goes on too long and the music doesn't fit the
demo anymore.
S: This could be several things:
- you don't have a fast enough computer (or a fast enough VGA)
- you have a very fragmented or very slow harddisk
Try to use a lower mixing frequency: the sound system uses a lot of
processing time.
Try unfragmenting your harddisk (COMPRESS) or use a disk cache like
SmartDrive. If that doesn't work, wait for a newer version or buy a
faster computer.
P: I hear nothing / nothing but UltraClicks.
S: Either you're someone making making fun of us or you have found a bug
we couldn't find. It seems some GUSses are different then others.
Another possible source of trouble may be QEMM. Try running LightShade
without QEMM.
Notify us when it still doesn't work and tell us exactly what your
configuration is and what your TSR's are so we can pinpoint the problem
for the newer versions. For information on how to contact us, read the
DVISION!.NFO file.
P: The program is located on a DoubleSpace disk and it won't run.
(it may be possible you get a 'Stack overflow' error)
S: We don't know why, but DoubleSpace can cause serious problem when you
want to run LightShade. The only solution we know of, is installing
LightShade to an un-DoubleSpace-d disk.
P: I've got a PAS/Windows Sound System, but I can't get LightShade to
produce any sound.
S: Sorry to say it, but that's tough luck... PAS/WSS-support came with
the sound-library we're using (MIDAS Sound System), but we don't have
a PAS/WSS, so we can't test it.
We tested LightShade on the following systems/configs and it didn't cause any
problems with those:
386DX40,ET4000: with/without SmartDrv, with/without Himem,
with/without DOS High&UMB, with/without EMM386
486DX40,Diamond Speedstar: SmartDrv, Himem, DOS High&UMB, EMM386
486DX33,Diamond Speedstar: SmartDrv, Himem, DOS High&UMB, EMM386
486DX33,Trident T8900: SmartDrv, Himem, DOS High&UMB, EMM386
Hope you like(d) it and if you have anything to ask or say about LightShade,
please contact us (read the file DVISION!.NFO on how to do that).
CU.
Simm & SAM / DVision