Copper Effects Demo

[valis]

Someone a while back was asking how to do copper effects.

For those who don't know, the "copper" was the name of a very simple but powerful graphics coprocessor on the Amiga.  It had a very small list of commands available to it, having to do with changing color during scanline operations.  It also allowed some other strange idiosyncrasies like having different resolutions at different vertical positions on the screen, something unique to the Amiga as far as I know. 

Of course, like everything on the Amiga, the Copper was pushed beyond any sane limits by the demo scene, who did things with it that it was never designed to do.

I often wonder why the demo scene don't push limits of new hardware the way they used to.  Perhaps because they don't need to anymore to achieve beautiful effects, but as amazing as they are, people seem to be resting on their laurels to some extent and not continuing to really push the technology.

Probably because they're obsessed with ancient hardware like Spectrums, and effects that were already played out in 1989...

Code Select Expand

Source removed; not everyone has blitz installed.  Sorry to be a bother

[zawran]

I often wonder why the demo scene don't push limits of new hardware the way they used to.

Back then it was fixed hardware. Everyone had the same, so it was easy to see who pushed the technology and who did not. Todays pc is so fragment with thousands of variables in hardware specifications that you just cannot compaire the same way that you could back then.

I have done a number of copper effect demos and even though they might be played out as you put it, I still like these, and many other "oldschool" effects.

I hope you do not mind that I have made exe files for people to run. Not a lot of users on this forum has blitzmax. I think most uses freebasic and c/c++.

[valis]

Oh, I appreciate it that you make exes-- sometimes I'm writing on linux anyway.

I like the oldstyle effects too and I often think something has been lost with the transition to more powerful hardware.  One of my favorite latterday demos is "Cube," by Farbraush.  Trippy does not even begin to describe it, and you can really see the scene roots.  For best results view in HD and fullscreen, it's really worth it.

Or even, like, download the demo and run it on your own box...