Crystal Dream 2
Encyclopedia
Crystal Dream 2 is a PC demo
by the demogroup Triton
. It was released in 1993 at The Computer Crossroads demo party where it ranked 1st.
Crystal Dream 2 is often considered one of the most influential classical PC demos, on par with Second Reality
, released the same year by Future Crew
.
, being zoomed in fluidly, to the zoom ratio of over a million. The calculations are not done real-time, but rather precalculated and stored alongside the demo – the programmers admit this freely in the post-demo FAQ.
". It features a rotating cube undergoing various slime-like distortions.
-like spaceships are displayed. The camera zooms to them and rotates around the first one, which begins then to proceed along the maze. The camera eventually abandons the spaceship and goes into a room with a large "TRITON" text.
entirely mapped with a texture of the Earth, spinning before the camera.
game, rendered in 3D. The board is textured and the pieces move until checkmate. The invisible lightsource moves while the game is performing. According to the infotext, the scene features over 2000 polygons, a large amount compared to the era's given computing power.
80486
PC with a Gravis Ultrasound
sound device. On modern PC, it can be run using an emulator such as DOSBox
.
The demo itself famously suffered from Pascal's Runtime error 200
-problem; a known workaround to get the demo running on newer computers was to enter the BIOS
settings, and disable the computer's L2 cache.
Demo (computer programming)
A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene. Demogroups create demos to demonstrate their abilities in programming, music, drawing, and 3D modeling...
by the demogroup Triton
Triton (demogroup)
- History :Triton's first demo, Crystal Dream, was released in the summer of 1992 and won the PC demo competition at the Hackerence V demo party. Their second and last demo, Crystal Dream 2, was released June 1993 and won the demo competition at The Computer Crossroads 1993 party in Gothenburg...
. It was released in 1993 at The Computer Crossroads demo party where it ranked 1st.
Crystal Dream 2 is often considered one of the most influential classical PC demos, on par with Second Reality
Second Reality
Unreal ][ - The 2nd Reality , is a demo created by Future Crew for the Assembly '93 demoparty. In the PC demo competition, Second Reality placed first with its demonstration of 2D and 3D rendering. The demo was released to the public in October 1993. It is considered to be one of the best demos...
, released the same year by Future Crew
Future Crew
Future Crew is a now-defunct Finnish demogroup who created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1992 and 1994.-History:The group was founded in 1986 by PSI as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC demoscene in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel, ICE,...
.
Introduction
After an introduction screen ("ATTENTION! This is a Triton production, Time to wakeup"), one is asked for the sound device to use throughout the demo. When chosen, the screen fades to black and some text announcing the demo is shown. The words morph into various 3D wireframe rotating objects before the name of the demo is shown.Text scroller
A variation on the text scroller, this one is rendered in 3D against an animated star field. Letters and camera move in a way the text is impossible to read. (Its actual meaning can be found at the end of the demo: "DANGER DO NOT TRY TO READ THIS TEXT!" and various greetings.)Linear algebra
This part shows some 3D rendered objects such as a football and a torus, some of them featuring transparency and/or textures. The effect later changes into various intersecting objects and the famous "spacecut" sequence where a transparent box cuts out the middle of an opaque cube.Mandelbrot zoomer
The screen fades to black and the words "Check this out" is printed in the center. Again, the scene fades to the classic fractal Mandelbrot setMandelbrot set
The Mandelbrot set is a particular mathematical set of points, whose boundary generates a distinctive and easily recognisable two-dimensional fractal shape...
, being zoomed in fluidly, to the zoom ratio of over a million. The calculations are not done real-time, but rather precalculated and stored alongside the demo – the programmers admit this freely in the post-demo FAQ.
Vector slime
The scene is first labeled "Vector slimeVector slime
In the demoscene , vector slime refers to a class of visual effects achieved by procedural deformation of geometric shapes.- Synopsis :...
". It features a rotating cube undergoing various slime-like distortions.
Virtual reality
After the fadeout and the label "virtual reality", the scene fades to a 3D maze where two Tie fighterTIE fighter
TIE fighters are fictional starfighters in the Star Wars universe. Propelled by Twin Ion Engines , TIE fighters are depicted as fast, fragile starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire...
-like spaceships are displayed. The camera zooms to them and rotates around the first one, which begins then to proceed along the maze. The camera eventually abandons the spaceship and goes into a room with a large "TRITON" text.
Vector world
A sphereSphere
A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object in three-dimensional space, such as the shape of a round ball. Like a circle in two dimensions, a perfect sphere is completely symmetrical around its center, with all points on the surface lying the same distance r from the center point...
entirely mapped with a texture of the Earth, spinning before the camera.
Starwars scroller
A Starwars scroller, simply stating "This is our version of the Starwars scroller – The raytraced pictures are rendered in our own modellers". Interestingly, while the text is blue, every letter T in the text is colored orange. The scroller eventually "inverts", as the top of the text begins to stretch.Chess
The last piece of the demo features the last moves of a chessChess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
game, rendered in 3D. The board is textured and the pieces move until checkmate. The invisible lightsource moves while the game is performing. According to the infotext, the scene features over 2000 polygons, a large amount compared to the era's given computing power.
Information viewer
The end of the demo is interactive, and the viewer is presented with a menu dealing with the credits, greetings and general information Triton didn't want the viewer to be forced to read.Raytracing
Before and after the textured torus scene are displayed two raytraced pictures. They were, as said, raytraced in Triton's own renderer.Credits
- Mr. H (Fredrik Huss): code
- Vogue (Magnus Högdahl): code, music, graphics, 3D design
- Lizardking (Gustav Grefberg): music
- Loot (Anders Aldengaard): 3D objects
Running the demo
Crystal Dream 2 was designed to run best on a MS-DOSMS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
80486
Intel 80486
The Intel 80486 microprocessor was a higher performance follow up on the Intel 80386. Introduced in 1989, it was the first tightly pipelined x86 design as well as the first x86 chip to use more than a million transistors, due to a large on-chip cache and an integrated floating point unit...
PC with a Gravis Ultrasound
Gravis Ultrasound
Gravis UltraSound or GUS is a sound card for the IBM PC compatible system platform, made by Canada-based Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd...
sound device. On modern PC, it can be run using an emulator such as DOSBox
DOSBox
DOSBox is emulator software that emulates an IBM PC compatible computer running MS-DOS. It is intended especially for use with old PC games. DOSBox is free software....
.
The demo itself famously suffered from Pascal's Runtime error 200
Runtime error 200
Runtime error 200 is the standard error message by Borland's Pascal compilers, standing for Division by zero. Many older computer programs for the MS-DOS operating system fail immediately on loading with this error message...
-problem; a known workaround to get the demo running on newer computers was to enter the BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
settings, and disable the computer's L2 cache.
Trivia
- The demo was programmed in BorlandBorlandBorland Software Corporation is a software company first headquartered in Scotts Valley, California, Cupertino, California and finally Austin, Texas. It is now a Micro Focus subsidiary. It was founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad and Philippe Kahn.-The 1980s:...
Pascal 7.0 and assembly languageAssembly languageAn assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
.
External links
- Crystal Dream 2 on YouTube
- Crystal Dream 2 info on Pouët