[   D   S   Y   S    %    T h e   C o m p l e t e   D e m o   S y s t e m   ]



                 Dsys 3.3  by  Doomsday  9.1.1999


Hello world!
This is MRI, coder in Doomsday writing. I'm happy to present Dsys, our
complete demo system we used for our last 5 demos. Doomsday as a group is
now dead but we are hoping our tools developed during our active time can
live on and be useful to someone else. Enjoy.



Dsys is .....................................................................

Dsys is an abbrevation for Demo System. This system can be used for creating
multimedia demonstrations, "demos" for short. With Dsys you can create
realtime 3D animations and wierd 2D effects that can be syncronised and
sequenced to background music giving a visual and musical experience on a
standard home PC. The keyword is realtime here. Dsys is not a mpeg player
that just displays precalculated video sequences. In Dsys, each new frame is
rendered in realtime.

Creating demos with Dsys is not a simple job of clicking, dragging and
dropping as a typical Windows application is. With Dsys you create scripts
(text files) and parameter files that are interpreted by the Dsys engine in
runtime. It takes time, effort and a bit of talent to make a demo. However,
no programming and linking whatsoever is needed to make the final demo
executable. The acompanying documentation and example demos (possibly
released separately from this pack) should be enough for anyone to get
started.

Dsys can play music files in XM, S3M and MOD format tracked with e.g. Fast
Tracker II. The 3D engine can import 3DS files created in 3D Studio R4. For
textures and static images 8 or 24 bit PCX files can be used. Many utilitys
has also been created for generating lookup tables and data files needed for
special effects.

Dsys was designed for DOS but will also run in a DOS-box under Windows 95.
Dsys can use standard 320x200 256 color mode or 15/16 bit hi-color modes.
A Vesa 1.2 or 2.0 compatible video card is needed. Some of the effects are
hardcoded to use the resolution 320x200. For sound output many soundcards
are supported trough the MIDAS module player.

Dsys has been used by us for creating our last 5 demos among which 3 of them
has won 1:st place in Assembly'97, Abduction'98 and Dreamhack'98 respectively.
The two other got 2:nd and 7:th place in Abduction'97 and The Party'97
respectively. Quite a successful life I would say even though Dsys never had
the newest and most advanced effects. Instead Dsys let the gfx-team work
and experiment by themself without the need to continously involve the coder.


Legal part ..................................................................

This legal part is here to forbid comercial use of Dsys and the other
utilities included in the pack. I.e. you are not allowed to sell this system
or a demo created with it. You can not sell a product where Dsys is included.
Of cource if you find Dsys useful and actually would like to buy license to
use it comercialy, please contact me. I just don't want to see other people
make money of our work which we provide for free.

OK, enough with that. Except for the above you can use Dsys in any way you
like. You could even make a demo and release it at a demo compo. Don't worry,
we won't make any claims on the price money.


History .....................................................................

When we started making Dsys we had no intention of releasing it. The sole
idea was to make something better than the system used for the demo Vivid
Experiment that came third at Assembly'96. The aim was to compete with a new
demo at Assembly the next summer. I started in september 1996 and after 3
month the first version of the 3D engine and Dsys was ready and sent to the
gfx-team for testing. A few months, many bugfixes and improvements later I
found out that Wode & Co. had used Dsys and made a demo at the Abduction'97
party place. The demo was called "I wish I was a Skijumper" and came 2:nd
in the compo. At that time Dsys didn't have anything but the 3D engine and
PCX image background. Months passed and soon Assembly was closing and we had
to start integrating Doom's new 2D effects into Dsys which up till now had
run standalone. About one week before the compo we had major problems getting
my and Doom's code to work together. Code was sent back and forth for
debugging. We was used to work over the internet as we lived in different
towns but now the situation was extreme. I had moved to Oslo Norway just
before and was the first week at my new job. We struggled, spent long nights
debugging and finally, the night before the deadline I made a final desperate
attempt to fix the code. The next day I sent the whole pack to the rest of
the Doomsday crew at the party place, very close to the deadline. During that
weekend I had no idea what was happening at the party place. Did the demo
work at all? On monday I got a mail and a phone call from Doom saying we had
won! Increadible! I wish I had been at the party place...

After Assembly'97 we was very inspired but suddenly everybody was working
full time with other things. Doom said quite early that he had no time for
demo coding any more. A few new features was added but nothing major. However
the gfx-team kept on making new demos with Damaq being the most active. And
of cource we shouldn't forget the music-crew. A group without at least one
insanely active coder can not survive long and I certainly didn't fill that
criteria. Damaq was working on a demo that was to be released at Dreamhack'98.
Just before the party someone said that "let's make this our last demo and
then quit the scene". So Damaq travelled to Dreamhack in Sweden, won the
compo and then we quit the scene. As quite a bit of documentation had been
made for Dsys we decided to release the whole system as someone actually
could make use of it. Maybe we will see new and improved versions of BOOST.
That would be very kewl. Let us know where to download your production.


Who made what ...............................................................

Doom coded all 2D effects (including the 3D wormhole) and the sprite system.
MIDAS was made by Sahara Surfers and PMODE/W by T Pytel & C Scheffold.
Everything else was coded by me.


Doomsday was ................................................................

Mats Byggmastar   MRI          code
Mika Pesonen      Doom         code
Markus Kaikkonen  Damaq        gfx, 3D
Antti Miettinen   Dice         gfx, 3D
Sami Voutilainen  Wode         gfx, 3D, music  
Antti Pollanen    Razorback    gfx  
Janne Laitinen    Swallow      music 
Sami Liuski       Illusion     music 
K Mikkonen        Muffler      music 
Tomi Korkalainen  Bay Tremore  gfx
Antti Piirainen   Addict      

Sorry if I forgot someone. Doomsday had alot of members comming and going
towards the end.


Present status ..............................................................

I myself is currently working as software developer making realtime protocol
analysers and simulators for GSM and D-AMPS mobile networks. Doom is studying
in polytechnic and planning to become an engineer in spring 1999. He's also
working parttime coding multimedia and 3d/modelling. Damaq is studying
information technology in the University of Oulu. Dice and Wode are working
as WWW-designers at CIS advertising agency in Kajaani. Swallow is enjoying
his freedom as he just recently finnished six month of professional ninja
fighting in the Finnish army at Tikkakoski. Illusion is currently in the
army. Muffler is having an umbrella drink every sunday morning at 5.00am
and remembering the good times he had in Doomsday.


Contact info ................................................................

If you have any questions regarding Dsys, I can be reached by email:
mri@penti.sit.fi or mats@moesarc.no (work) or by snail mail:
Mats Byggmastar, Fyrstikkalleen 11 B, 0661 Oslo, Norway or by phone:
+4791682882 (GSM) Btw I'm not norwegian, I'm finnish, I just work in Norway.


Final words .................................................................

It'll be interesting to see what the rection will be in the scene, if any
reaction at all. Dsys is a demo maker program. Anyone can use it for making
their own demo. Is that lame? And if you haven't noticed, there is no source
code included. This is a release for the non-coders in the scene.



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