THE 2013 DBF UDG CHALLENGE!
Something New For The New Year!
Some of you are probably too young to know what a UDG is, those who are in the same age bracket as me will remember User Defined Graphics in their old Speccy programs. Put simply, they were a way of redefining the way that characters in the font looked and they were used to make sprites and scenery in Basic Spectrum games. You'd define them using data statements as a grid of 1's and 0's. Where a bit was set a pixel would be drawn... You get the idea I am sure!
Nostalgia:[youtube]Eoom2dGnHJw[/youtube]
So.. Since a UDG is essentially a letter then the screen could be filled with them in the same fashion as tiles and this is kind of what the challenge is about but let's bring it more up to date!
How Can You Make A Challenge From This You May Ask?The challenge this time is to create a demo - Any demo you like but the screen has to be rendered entirely out of a grid of UDG's with no post rendering effects and to make it more interesting and get the creative juices flowing there are some rules!
In fact we're going to increase the capabilities of UDGs and let you have more colours! Yay!You may have two sets of UDG's which may not be changed throughout the demo, you'll load them in as images at the start of the demo or pre-calculate them before you show your first effect.
Each set of UDG's can contain up to 8 different UDG's and each UDG must be of 8*8 Pixels in size. There are two sets because each set can have it's own colour palette of 3 bitplanes (8 colours including transparency). The UDGs must be drawn in grid fasion so if you divide the screen position horizontally or vertically by 8 you may only draw a UDG at locations which produce no remainder when divided by 8 - This will ensure you conform to the grid.
At all times during your demo, your screen display should be entirely constructed out of any combination of the 16 different kinds of UDG in your two UDG sets.
To allow people to actually see the effect, we'll limit the screen resolution to a maximum of 1024 * 768 on this one.
The idea then is not necessarily to create something that looks like a Spectrum program (though you can if you want!) but one that draws it's inspiration from a bygone age.. Think of it as a version of the reduced res challenge with a twist!
Inspiration:[youtube]pWxftUTMbRQ[/youtube]
Some demo groups have been using the ascii character set for years, your demo can look even cooler because you can use more colours in each block!
Here are the rules.
- Your Demo's screen display must be rendered out of 8*8 blocks.
- You may have 2 sets of 8*8 blocks, each set can contain 8 blocks, each set can have it's own 3 plane colour palette ( 8 colours including transparrancy)
- blocks may only be drawn at screen locations where x/8 produces no remainder and y/8 produces no remainder.
- You may NOT use any other kind of graphics in your display apart from the 8*8 blocks.
- The blocks must be defined at program start up, either loaded in at the beginning or calculated by the program at the beginning.
- You may NOT redefine any of the blocks or change their colour palette at any time after you've begun to render graphics to the screen.
- No post-render effects are allowed. The UDGs must remain in their unmolested form!
- Maximum screen resolution of 1024 * 768 applies.
- You must provide the raw image of the blocks you used in the archive attached to your post.
- Colour palettes are to remain the same throughout the demo and may not be cycled.
- You may write something for web browsers as long as it works in IE8 or Chrome or FF4 (or all!)
- If you use flash, please provide a link where people can see your demo. If you are placed in the top 3 your .swf will be added to the site as a .zip file You should attach the .swf in a zip file to your post.
- Wild entries are allowed and you may use any home computer / console. Anything that is not windows based should be entered as a Wild. Therefore you should upload it to youtube and post the video as your entry. It's cool to post the binaries as well.
- Please write something new for the challenge, no previously released stuff.
- Do not use ripped routines. (dlls, libs, fmod, sdl, frameworks etc are fine but say what you used please!).
- Entries to be posted in this forum please with the title [UDG] entry name.
- Entries may be posted between NOW and Midnight of [Saturday 23rd Feb 2013] - UK GMT
- The winner [S?] will be decided by a poll of forum users
- If 1st, 2nd or 3rd places are tied there will be a vote-off to decide the winner.
- Late entries absolutely will not be counted for voting, even if one second over the deadline.
- Please PM any correspondence regarding rules to me, don't discuss them here such posts will be removed and not answered.
- Please include a screenshot of your entry in your post.
- Please only post finished work, if you update your entry the final one will be voted on.
- After the submission deadline You may NOT post ANY further attachments to final or other versions of your entry ANYWHERE on this forum until voting has closed.
- You may post a video of the entry along with the binaries (useful if you use shaders or linux etc). In fact it is advisable that you do this if possible, especially if you use technology that not everyone possesses.
- Prize money is by Paypal only. No other forms will be discussed. PLEASE don't refuse your prize if you win!
- As well as appearing in DBF's showcase, your entry may be video captured and placed on DBF's youtube channel.
- You may enter as many times as you like, you will however only qualify for the highest prize you win. If you're voted as 1st and 2nd for example, you will win first prize and 2nd prize will fall to the person below you etc..
Here are the prizes! Good Luck!
