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CL9:  Fast Breakpoint Productions Review
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CL4:             By Zerox/Gods

CL7:The Breakpoint 2003 -
http://breakpoint.untergrund.net

CL1:When: 18th to the 21th of April 2003
Where: Bingen am Rhein/Gernany

CL7:Introduction

CL1:The  first  Breakpoint party ever took
place  between  the  18th  and 21th of
April  2003  in Bingen am Rhein, which
is   located   in  the  south-west  of
Germany.   Even  though  this  is  the
first  Breakpoint  party,  it  can  be
looked  upon  as  the successor to the
more  famous Mekka & Symposium series.
The organizers of Breakpoint have lots
of  organizing  experience,  not  only
from  the  Mekka  & Symposium but also
from   parties   such  as  Underground
Conference,    Evoke   and   Dialogos.
Therefore  the  visitors  were in safe
hands.

CL0:The Breakpoint party was a celebration
of   digital  art,  which  means  that
creative persons from various computer
platforms  could  show  their  skills.
There were sceners from the C64 scene,
Atari-scene, the PC-scene, the console
scene,  and  of  course from the Amiga
scene.

CL1:In  the  last  issue of the  EuroChart
done  at the Breakpoint party, both me
and Darkhawk wrote live reports.  This
time  I'll  instead  write a few words
about the various productions released
there.

CL7:The productions

CL1:There  were  no  Amiga  64k-intros  at
Breakpoint,  and a lot less demos than
at the previous Mekka&Symposium  party
for  instance.  That was perhaps a bit
disappointing, but I'm sure there will
be  more  Amiga  demos and intros next
year.    Unfortunately   many   groups
didn't    manage   to   finish   their
productions in time for the compo this
year.    And  as  this  is  the  first
Breakpoint party, some sceners were at
home  and  waiting to see if the party
was  a  success.   More  sceners  will
definately     come     next     year.
Nevertheless,  the  Amiga  scene  once
again  got  to  see quite some quality
productions this easter.

CL0:It's time to have a closer look at the
various  productions. Let's start with
the  4k-intros.   At  Breakpoint there
were 3 intros in the compo.

CL7:Entry 1:  Tulou 4k by Tulou

CL1:This  intro  is  the only "weak" Amiga
production  released  at the BP party.
At the bigscreen it was mentioned that
this  intro  was  made  for  the Party
1997,  but  missed  the deadline.  The
intro  has  no  music, and only show 3
effects.   Infact,  the  intro is also
exceeding the 4096kb sizelimit.

CL0:The  intro  starts  off  with a rather
small  texturemapped object/background
in   a   few   greyish  colours.   The
background is being pulled very slowly
towards  the upper left in the screen.
Then  some of the same mapping is used
again but the object looks more like a
circle  if  I  remember correctly, and
it's expanding out on the screen.  The
last   routine   has  the  exact  same
mapping  as  the first effect, and the
background  is generally just rotating
and being zoomed very slowly.

CL1:All  in  all,  not a quality intro for
sure but it works on most Amigas.

CL7:Entry 2:  Fact by Scarab

CL1:This  is  definately  a quality intro.
Fact got quite many nice details which
I'm  sure  at  least  the coders would
notice.   The  intro  starts  off with
some  good  music  including a quality
bass-sound.

CL0:We   get  to  see  an  object  with  4
screens, with a  written Scarab on one
screen,  Fact  on  another  etc.  This
figure  spinning  around  is  actually
animated,   but  the  effects  on  the
screens themselves are naturally coded
in real-time.  In order we will get  a
closer  look  at the effects on all of
these screens.

CL1:The first screen with the first effect
we get to see, is the S in Scarab with
some  special  things around it.  Then
we move over to the 4 spinning screens
again, and afterwards we zoom into the
next screen.

CL0:Now  the  best  effect  of  the entire
intro   appears,   it's  some  greatly
created  particles  which  is  flowing
down   over   the   screen   perfectly
natural.     The   opposite   triangle
prevents  all particles in hitting the
water.

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CL1:After this we zoom into yet another of
the 4 screens, this time an S in green
colours  which  are  blinking.   The 4
spinning  screens return, and its time
to zoom into the last screen.

CL0:The last is simply saying Scarab, Fact
on  a  blue  background.   And I guess
it's being reduced and faded out.

CL1:All  in  all,  a  very nice intro with
many   good  details.   Also  a  great
samplecalculator  and  samplegenerator
was  used  to do this intro.  The only
problem is that the intro is too short
after  my opinion, and I did like Nano
from  last  easter better.  This intro
needs   fpu  to  work,  but  a  no-fpu
version may be released later on.

CL7:Entry  3:   Timur Lenk by Spaceballs &
Ephidrena.

CL1:If I'm not mistaken, this intro is the
third   cooperation  4k-intro  between
Spaceballs  and Ephidrena, and it also
seems to be a lucky strike for them as
this  intro  won the competition.  The
name  of  the intro seems to have been
taken  from  the  name of an mongolian
warlord.

CL0:The  intro  is mainly dealing with one
routine, which has been used to create
several cool effects.  It's a bit hard
to  explain  it  all,  but I'll try my
best.

CL1:The  intro  starts  off  with  a black
screen and the name Timur Lenk written
down at the left side of the screen.

CL0:Then  the  show has opened.  We see  a
texturemapped    object    which    is
rotating,   changing,   2   parts  are
melting    together,    then   getting
separated,   and   then  suddenly  the
object   is  being  divided  into  two
screens  which are looking exactly the
same.

CL1:Next is a very nice effect.  It's some
kind of spiral, perhaps texturemapped.
At  least  it's  very  colourful.  The
circles inside are of different sizes.
This object is rotating etc.  Suddenly
a  small  screen  pops  up down in the
right  of the screen I think.  It's an
exact  copy of the object.  The object
also seems to be a bit blurred.

CL0:Afterwards  the  credits  appear, they
are  Spaceballs, Ephidrena, Slummy and
Loaderror.   Quite  a good combination
of forces.

CL1:Then  we  see something similar to the
opening effect, just that more is done
with  this  effect.   More effects are
added.

CL0:Some  backgrounds  are added, and they
are  moving slowly.  In front of them,
we see the shadows of some objects.

CL1:Next  we see a rather strongly lighted
object, which is moving around.  Nice.

CL0:Back  again  comes  the  spiral vector
object, it's changing a lot.

CL1:After   that  an  object/effect  which
looks  like  the first effect appears.
Naturally  more  things  are happening
this time around.  At the end the name
Timur Lenk appears again.

CL0:All  in  all  I have  to say the intro
was  quite  good,  with  really  great
music.  It deserved to win.

CL1:As there were no 64k-intros to review,
I'll  rather  write  a few words about
the  demos.   There  were only 3 demos
this time, but I really enjoyed all of
them.

CL7:Entry 1:  Light II by IRIS

CL1:IRIS  had  the  pleasure  to start the
show  with the follow-up demo to their
Light  demo  released  at  the Mekka &
Symposium party 2001.  The demo starts
off with a journey forward into a dark
landscape  also  featuring a sky.  And
we  see some particles that are flying
in  the  air.   The  name  of the demo
appears:    Light   II,   and  IRIS  @
Breakpoint  2003.   Then the IRIS sign
is  shown,  even  though  some  people
would  probably  notice  that the last
part  of  it  is  missing.   Then  the
credits  are  quickly  shown, together
with  a  nice  picture.   Afterwards a
kind  of  voxel  landscape  appears  I
guess, and next are some greetings. So
we  enter  part  II.   I  also have to
mention  there  are some nice and fast
part-links.   First  is  a  cool coded
tree. It's not an animation unlike the
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TBL  demo  which  won  some years ago.
Then  we get to see a great picture of
a  girl,  a  nice coded heart and some
fast  text.   Next up is a cool effect
it's  a  bit  hard  to explain really.
But   after  that,  perhaps  the  best
effect of the demo is being displayed.
It's  a  lot  of rising bubbles, which
are   reflecting   eachother  and  the
background.  The end effect is a great
coded  rose which is rotating.  I have
to mention that roses are some kind of
a  theme  in  this  demo, as a rose is
displayed while showing several of the
effects.

CL0:All  I can say is that this is a great
classic  demo,  which  the audience at
Breakpoint  really enjoyed.  It's also
less than 1mb all in all, but you need
a  060  to  watch  it.   The  demo was
however  too  small to win this party.
It came third.

CL7:Entry 2:  Fate Fits Karma by Mawi

CL1:This  is  the only PPC contribution to
the  Breakpoint  party,  and I have to
say it looks quite similar to previous
Mawi  productions.   When seeing it at
the  bigscreen  at  the  party place I
thought  that this demo got to be much
better  than  the  IRIS  demo.  It got
more  effects  and  lasts longer.  But
then  again,  this  demo  is  actually
created  using a PPC card and the demo
is actually over ten times bigger than
the IRIS demo.  Personally I think the
demo  is  a bit boring, even though it
has  its highlights.  It's just that I
had  expected something more from Mawi
this time around.

CL0:Anyway,  the demo has the exactly same
style  as the previous Mawi PPC demos,
infact even the colourpalette seems to
be  the same.  We get to see a picture
saying  "modern  fable  about  my  own
temptation".   This  picture  was also
displayed  in  the graphics compo, and
generally this demo includes much gfx.
Especially  the  Fate Fits Karma logo,
the  Mawi  logo  and  some  background
pictures  are  very  good.   The  demo
offers  a lot of these 3d objects, and
some  quite  complex objects displayed
by  nice  camera movements.  It's just
that I feel I've seen it all before in
other   Mawi  productions.   The  most
impressive  part  of  this demo, which
actually  makes it worthwhile to check
out  the   production,  is  actually a
nice  picture  of a dog which suddenly
becomes alive.  It's really cool.  The
picture  of  the  dog  has  also  been
online  at  the homepage of Mawi since
July  or something.  At last I have to
say  that the music is really nice and
fits perfectly.

CL1:All  in  all,  a  good  PPC demo which
lasts  around  5  minutes.   But I had
expected  the  little  extra  from Mad
Wizards  this  time  around.  I'm sure
Mawi  will  strike back even harder at
the next Breakpoint party.

CL7:Entry 3:  Magia by TBL

CL1:The   Black   Lotus  has  won  several
eastern  parties  since  1996, and the
Breakpoint  party  was  no  exception.
The start of the demo is a bit boring,
but  then  all  the known TBL elements
appear  after a while.  The demo lasts
for  quite  some time, and is what you
could expect from TBL.

CL0:Anyway,  first  of all we get to see a
loading  picture, just followed by the
TBL  sign.   We  get  to  see the dark
whiskeys  present  and some more text.
Next  up is a greyish star-like object
which   is   twisting  around  over  a
background  which looks similar to the
object itself.  We get some changes of
screens,  as  the  screen divides into
two before the next screen appear etc.
This greyish object returns etc.  From
then  on,  the  demo  really starts to
impress some sceners.  We move beneath
bridges in the water, we see some kind
of  tunnels  toward  the sky, we see a
nicely  created town, we see a sort of
vehicle  with  the  TBL  sign  on  the
outside,  we see a great girl with the
number  42  written in her face (great
3d  object), we see a mermaid swimming
in  the  ocean  (all  in  real natural
movements)  and  towards the end, some
very detailed 3d buildings.

CL1:All  in  all,  quite a cool demo which
deserved  to  win.  Just like the IRIS
demo,  this is a classic 68k-demo, and
it's  half  the size of the Mawi demo.
However, I've seen better TBL demos in
the past.

CL0:There's not much else to say about the
Amiga  productions  really, you should
check them out yourself if you haven't
seen them by now.

CL7:Conclusion

CL1:The  first  attempt  of organizing the
Breakpoint  party  was quite succesful
after  my opinion, and this party is a
worthy   successor   of  the  Mekka  &
Symposium.   The  party  location  was
perhaps  not  the best one around, nor
the  facilities,  but  I think they're
good enough to arrange a scene meeting
like   this.    If  the  friendly  and
helpful organizers  manage to finetune
the  party  for next year, I'm sure it
will be perfect.  They should just try
to  have control over the heating from
day one of the party, so that both the
mainhall    and    sleepinghall   have
comfortable temperatures.  And I think
they   should   improve   the   toilet
facilities  also,  and perhaps come up
with             even             more
entertainment/happenings    from   the
stage.

CL0:Apart  from  that,  the party was very
cool.    The   atmosphere  was  really
relaxed,   and  lots  of  people  just
chilled  outside  at  the fire.  These
meetings  in  the underground scene is
all  about  meeting your scene friends
and  perhaps  getting  a few new ones.
The active demo forces were present at
this  party, without managing  to make
that  many productions this year.  But
I'm  sure  that will change next year.
And  besides, the productions released
on   all  platforms  were  very  good.
There  is  no  better  computer  party
around the globe than Breakpoint right
now,  and  this  is digital culture at
its best.  Thumbs up!
