Dark Bit Factory & Gravity

GENERAL => Challenges & Competitions => Topic started by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008

Title: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
REDUCED RESOLUTION CHALLENGE
ITS VOTING TIME!

Challenge Overview:

I learned a lot from this challenge about the talent that we have in this programming community.

The first challenges that we ran here a couple of years ago now used to attract about 10 entries, back then you could work on something and if you spent more than a day on it, then you'd have a sure fire top three on your hands.

Now things have changed.... Oh, how they have changed.

I was nervous about ramping up the difficulty in this challenge, and to make these challenges, you must understand that because the community covers so many platforms, the playing field needs to be levelled in some way... This is to ensure that everyone can have a go who wants to have a go... The whole ethos of this community is to include everyone who wants to be a part of it.

This time the challenge was severe. I worried that the difficulty level would put people off entering but I am glad we ran the challenge.

I need not have had any concerns, we have never had so many entries to a challenge.

I worked hard on my own entries but I will be dissapointed if I place in the top three, there are many more entries that are either downright clever, gorgeous, creative or all three that they all deserve to win much more than mine.

Seriously I have a huge smile on my face when I write this because you guys have done a great job!

Anyway, great competition fellas. Thank you for your programs once again, I love them!

Now it's voting time!

As you know, the number of votes per person has to reflect the amount of entries, this is to make it easier for voters to choose.
Voting Requirements:

The people who worked so hard on these programs deserve your votes, so anyway, please browse down the list below to remind yourself of the 21!!! entries to this comp before voting.. Please do look at all the pictures again because there might be a little gem you had forgotten to download.. You will need to log into your account to see the thumbnails. ;)

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS TOPIC
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

XALBOY
Entered By :

XALTHORN
Overview:

In homage to the legendary games console, Xalthorn takes us on a cute journey over the world bridge! This entry complies with both the reduced colour part of the challenge and the reduced resolution, it is software rendered and features Xalthorns own graphics too.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

WIRE
Entered By :

HELLFIRE
Overview:

This entry complies with both the reduced palette limitation of the challenge and also the reduced resolution element too. We see an image that gets progressively more rippled and animated, the entry has sync to the synth tune that is playing, with a radial blur happening on heavy beats.. This entry also features a rapidly switching palette and set of textures to give the illusion of many more colours than the 4 that are actually being displayed.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

TUNNELAKI
Entered By :

OPTIMUS
Overview:

Here we have a classic demo effect, the free rotating texture mapped tunnel. The tunnel smoothly scrolls into the screen while rotating around slowly and smoothly. It complies with both the resuced resolution and reduced palette aspects of the challenge. A good choice of texture and colours here means that you dont really notice that there are only four colours and there is even the illusion of fogging at the far end of the tunnel.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

TRICOLOURS
Entered By :

GOONER
Overview:

An example of software rendering here from new programmer Gooner! This entry complies with the reduced colour element and reduced resolution element of the challenge, we see a full screen flag displayed that has a kind of morphing effect that changes it to other flag colours while we watch.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

SPECCY
Entered By :

XALTHORN
Overview:

Here, Xalthorn pays homage to the Spectrum! First we're shown an image that is an almost exact copy of how the Speccy used to load a title screen, then the demo progresses to an isometric view where Xalthorns' own graphics are used to display a variety of effects in Knightlore style, including SIne Waves, bouncing balls, maps, all fully complient with resolution limitations and colour palette limitations too.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

RETROCHUNKY
Entered By :

SHOCKWAVE
Overview:

This entry complies with resolution and colour palette limitations of this challenge, in this entry we see a background texture that changes over time, over this are some copperbars, a filled lightsourced vector and also a large sine scroll, colour gradients are produced using dithering to make several shades of each colour possible.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

PLASMA
Entered By :

JIM
Overview:

In this entry we see many more colours apparently being displayed because the demo switches between two colour palettes on alternate frames, it complies with the colour restrictions and resolution restrictions of the challenge. The plasma its' self is not a standard plasma, but Jim has used two different Perlin Patterns here that "overlap" each frame that produce the extra colours.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

0.17% - LOWSTREZ
Entered By :

PRAECOR
Overview:

This entry complies with the reduced resolution aspect of the challenge, Praecor pays homage to the Great Giana Sisters in a 3D extravaganza, he takes us on a trip through a 3D representation of the Giana sisters world with characters moving around, particle effects and alpha blending, the end part switches to the more traditional view of Giana Sisters World. Please note that this entry was changed in time for the deadline to make it compliant with the rules.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

LOWRES CAM
Entered By :

BENNY
Overview:

Got a web cam? If the answer is yes then Benny has made a program that will convert the pictures taken by your web cam and convert them into a 4 colour low resolution display. The display and colour restrictions are fully compliant with the challenge rules. If you do not have a web cam, you can still see the effect because Benny put some video of his entry in action in his thread. It's usual for Benny to think of something original for these competitions and we were not dissapointed this time either!
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

LIFE
Entered By :

DELETER
Overview:

This entry is compliant with the resolution and colour limitations of the challenge. In this entry we see an example of cellular automation in action. It is a 4 colour lowres implimentation of "Conways Life" algorithm which gives rules for creation and destruction of cells, you can watch it evolving into new and interesting patterns over time.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

HIGHRES
Entered By :

OPTIMUS
Overview:

Here we see an entry that complies with the colour limitation of the challenge. Optimus wanted to see how effective dithering was at a higher resolution and this entry is the answer. You see a contorting pattern that looks quite similar to Polar Plasma, there are definately four colours on screen (I checked!), but the impression given is of quite a lot more than this!
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

GOONERDOTS
Entered By :

GOONER
Overview:

This entry complies with both the resolution limitations and also the reduced colour limitations of the challenge. In this entry we see a long chain of dots which seem to have quite a complicated movement pattern running through them, gooner appears to have used several waveforms of varying intensity to generate the smoothly contorting pattern.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

FLAGMATIC
Entered By :

GOONER
Overview:

This entry complies with the resolution limitations and the colour limitations of the challenge, it was inspired by many of the different countries that participated in the Olympic Games, and here we see a selection of flags from countries all around the world with a Y sinus deformation. There are quite a lot of flags displayed, this was Gooners last entry to this challenge.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

ELEMENTS
Entered By :

PIXEL OUTLAW
Overview:

Pixel Outlaws' entry here is fully complient with both the resolution and pallette limitations of the challenge, and in his demo, he represents the four elements. In fact his entry is in an even lower resolution than was the requirement for the challenge. We see several effects here, including rapid changing of colours each frame to create many shades of colour from only foru on screen at once.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

BLUE & GOLD
Entered By :

XALTHORN
Overview:

This was Xalthorns first entry for this challenge, it complies with the low colour and low resolution aspect of the challenge. We see some vector bobs, they are large and smoothly dithered, rotating around smoothly with a large text routine and background effect too. This is software rendered in Freebasic, Xalthorn sticks to the same four colours in this entry which has a decidedly nostalgic feel to it!
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

BLOCK TUNNEL
Entered By :

SHOCKWAVE
Overview:

This entry complies with both the resolution and colour limitations of the challenge. We take a trip down a dithered 3D tunnel in this one, whilst this is happening there is a sine scroller in front of everything.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

ATOMIC
Entered By :

GOONER
Overview:

This entry complies with the resolution aspect of the challenge. In this one, there are four sin / cos rings in the center of the screen that change size to give the impression that they are rotating around their center, this is where I think Gooner decided on the name of this entry, given that electrons orbit the nucleus of an atom.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

ASTROSARAKI
Entered By :

OPTIMUS
Overview:

Optimus gives us another entry here that could put us in a celebratory mood! It is a reduced resolution and reduced palette demo that simulates exploding fireworks. It complies with both the resolution limitations of the challenge. Watch as the fireworks are fired up the screen and explode into many colourful particles, these are all anti-aliased to make them look smoother.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

23 COLOURS
Entered By :

XALTHORN
Overview:

There are actually only four colours here, but it complies with both the resolution and reduced colour palette limitations of the challenge. Xalthorn fires rectangles up the screen, whilst scrolling stencilled patterns through them at very high speed to trick the eye into believing that there are a lot of colours being displayed when there are only four.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

7 COLOURS
Entered By :

XLATHORN
Overview:

This entry again uses only four colours and uses stencils with horizontal lines of alternating colours, they are scrolled at very high speed and are used to colour rectangles that are shot up the screen again at high velocity. The program successfully tricks the eyes into believing they are seeing 7 individual colours. It complies with boththe colour and resolution limitations of the challenge.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Entry Name :

4 COLOURS
Entered By :

RBZ
Overview:

Rbz shows us again his programming prowess with an entry that uses Pixel Shader model 2.0 and Direct X 9 to convert high colour textures in real time with the GPU to four colours, they are mapped onto the faces of a cube and some deformations are also applied to the textures too. It complies with the reduced Palette aspect of the competition but uses a higher resolution. The cube rotates and the textures deform smoothly, the pallette chosen give an almost gameboy esque look to this entry.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Optimus on August 31, 2008
Nice entries. Just a little correction for the comment on my entry astrostaraki:

"Optimus gives us another entry here that could put us in a celebratory mood! It is a reduced resolution and reduced palette demo that simulates exploding fireworks. It complies with both the resolution and colour palette limitations of the challenge. "

No, this was my low res but no color restrictions combination entry. It doesn't comply with the colour palette limitation. Antialiasing uses every gradient possible without bothering about color limits. There are way more than 4 colors here.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: benny! on August 31, 2008
@all competitors:
Thanks a lot for your hard work and amazing productions.

@shockwave:
Thanks a lot for organizing another comp so well and for
putting for much work into it.

@all:
Please do all take some spare minutes and vote for your favourites.
I think this competition deserves a lot of voters.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on August 31, 2008
Thanks for spotting my error Optimus, I altered it now though :)
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on August 31, 2008
Yes, this competition has really dished out a challenge and I think the members here have really excelled. Every member here has produced a unique entry and even with this very restrictive challenge, we all have unique and exciting demos. WELL DONE everyone.  >:D
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Xalthorn on September 01, 2008
I didn't have enough votes.... five just aren't enough hehe

Seriously though, it was a really hard decision with the votes, I knew that although I loved a bunch of them, I would have to make a decision on where to cast my votes.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on September 01, 2008
Hmm seems people are not using all  5 of their votes...
59 votes / 13 voters != 5 votes per person.

Please ensure that you are using 5 votes...
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Voltage on September 01, 2008
Guilty. I assumed 3 votes as per previous comps, although I see why 5 votes are necessary.  How can I use my final 2 votes, now that I have incorrectly only voted 3 times?
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on September 01, 2008
Voltage, please PM me with the other two you wish to vote for and I'll add them with the spare account.

Cheers.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: combatking0 on September 01, 2008
There are certainly a lot of entries this time round.

I should be finished viewing all of them by tomorrow.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Jim on September 01, 2008
Quote
In this entry we see many more colours apparently being displayed because the demo switches between two colour palettes on alternate frames
Not that it'll make any difference to the voting, but I really do only use 4 colours, red, green, blue, orange, I just put them in different places at different times :).

Jim
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on September 02, 2008
Voting is as tight as it can be!
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: rain_storm on September 02, 2008
Most difficult vote I have ever had to cast, if only we had 6 votes for this compo. Then again 6 votes might not have been enough.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on September 06, 2008
Thank you to everyone who voted in this challenge!

Congratulations to Hellfire, Xalthorn and Ooops! Looks like I was third! I really wasn't expecting that.

This was a really fabulous challenge, sigs, karma and prize will follow over the next 2 days :)

Thanks again guys!
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Xalthorn on September 06, 2008
Grats Hellfire and Shocky :)
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Shockwave on September 06, 2008
It was close Xal.

17 people voted for you, 19 for Hellfire.

Looking at the entries we had, there was no way I could have picked out the top 3 before the voting started :)
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Xalthorn on September 06, 2008
Quote from: Shockwave on September 06, 2008
It was close Xal.

17 people voted for you, 19 for Hellfire.

Looking at the entries we had, there was no way I could have picked out the top 3 before the voting started :)

Yeah I saw :D

Hellfire's win was well earned, that piece just improved with each version.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Praecor on September 06, 2008
What a cool kompo, folks!!! Congratz Xalthorn, Shockwave, Hellfire! :clap:

Looking forward to see lots of other tight kompos like this in the future! :D
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Praecor on September 06, 2008
Quote from: Shockwave on September 06, 2008
Thank you to everyone who voted in this challenge!

Congratulations to Hellfire, Xalthorn and Ooops! Looks like I was third! I really wasn't expecting that.
:cheers:

What I wonder is why 'Speccy' didn't get more votes. It's odd. ???
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Jim on September 07, 2008
Congratulations everyone!  Great comp - the bar has been raised :)

Jim

Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: gooner on September 07, 2008
Congratulations to all the winners fantastic competion. :clap: :clap: :clap:
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: hellfire on September 07, 2008
First of all congratulations to Xalthorn for a thrilling head-to-head photo-finish :D
And all my appreciation to all the other wonderful entries, too - I really enjoyed every single one of them!
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: Voltage on September 08, 2008
Awesome compo everyone, really nice entries.

I regret not finding the time for this one, but I'm fired up for the next comp.

Congrats Hellfire, Xal, and Shockwave... all well earned wins.
Title: Re: Reduced Resolution Voting!
Post by: benny! on September 14, 2008
Yeah. Awsome competition and congratulations to the winners.
This comp was truley fun!