Breakpoint 2010: detailed report. Part 2

I publish the continuation. The first part is here .

2. Welcome to the world of tomorrow!

I woke up at 10 in the morning, went outside, ate an omelet with coffee. We talked with the musician xni, from the RNO group, known for works on Amiga (AMIGAAAAA !!!). He was not at BP for the first time, he writes music exclusively on bass, he also announced the track on the Unofficial Tracked Music compo (according to the results he took 9th place).

Then I went to the shower. Showers worked according to a certain schedule, but at least three hours a day. The poster read “PIMMELPARADE” :) (Pimmel = penis). Everything is civilian inside, the shower invigorates splendidly, I went there every morning.



Several official events-meetings with the organizers were scheduled. The first is Meet the Networking team (also known as Notworking). Behind the screen, if you climb the stairs, a third of the organizers are sitting, there are also the main network nodes on which the local wired and wireless networks are arranged. If I remember everything correctly, then the Internet comes to them through 4 DSL links. An additional UMTS antenna was also installed. Someone asked why there is no DHCP in the wired network, to which I received an answer that they tried this approach, but then everyone starts to raise their own DHCP servers, and conflicts arise. Wi-fi is not really slow, but just in the hall it is very difficult to make good coverage. Although there were several access points between which "roaming" was supported, and which were supported by Cisco equipment. Licensing at Breakpoint is certainly not welcome ("you still have faster Internet at home"), and many ports are closed. Squid is used as a proxy.

After this mountain of information, I went outside, took a pizza and joined the conversation of a small group of people with Gargaj. The Hungarian musician was talking about some kind of game that, as I understand it, they do together with the rest of the Conspiracy members . It seems to be something multi-user, not free, and is now in the alpha stage. He also told an amusing story of how he taught schoolchildren the art of demoscene, if I’m not mistaken, in Stuttgart (at the same time he was paid for it), and how, when he showed them on the Elevated screen , and then told them that it fits in 4 kilobytes , then the girl, “such in glasses, with pigtails” did not believe him: “You are lying to me! It's impossible! ”:)

I said hello and asked about their latest 64kb demo, Actuator- the text in the credits hints that this is their last thing, they seem to say goodbye. Gargaj laughed and said that they did, did, did the demo for all sorts of different parties, and in fact it was never completed, because it is "just a robot and two tunnels." And that it seemed like some kind of text was needed at the end, well, Gargaj wrote something, and Zoom says, “Yes, they will think that this is our last demo.” And then: “Oh, yes that’s what you need! all sorts of assholes will come up and ask about it! ” It would also be strange to do your last demo on a new engine. Here the textures are generated on the GPU, and you can see that it loads almost immediately, a second or two at the very beginning are spent on music processing.



Then I took my leave and went inside, where the executable music contest (newschool, 32 kb limit) just started. It didn’t play anything interesting, but then “Gargaj - Commence / Collapse” appeared on the screen, and this track wildly broke all the previous ones. The 17kb track (with the possibility of rendering in .wav), combining the elements of drum and bass and trance, and at the end changing the tempo and turning into dubstep, in the end, he deservedly won.

Then there was a meeting with the Streaming team and the Beam team, i.e. those people who respectively monitor broadcasts on the Internet and the projector / screen / scene. They were located farthest, at the top of the grandstand. The man showed several screens with views of the hall, the street and the tent, explained that the video server is very simple, that it’s not at all difficult to organize, the main thing is to get video inputs, and there it’s already a matter of software and technology. Microphones are placed in many different places, so the picture and the sound of what is on the screen easily comes down to the sound of the crowd in the hall. Everything was broadcast on the Internet in H.264 with a stream of 500 kbps through the scene.org server, and the Flash player on BPTV was chosen from the principle of popularity. Last year, an average of 800-900 people watched broadcasts at the same time, and in 4 days Breakpoint "generated" 35-40 terabytes of Internet traffic. This year, probably once in 1.

We were led even higher, where one of the most famous characters on the demoscene, kb / farbrausch, was waiting for us. It turned out to be very funny, and showed everything in an interesting way :) But first, another organizer, the main one in the world, showed what his wildest console was for controlling various light sources, which are mainly located near the stage. He said that his work is mainly to emphasize what is happening, i.e. mostly background. Then kebby showed us the 4 large monitors that he stood there, and how the image from each can be displayed on the projector. On one, slides are shown - the opensource system for demo party , Partymeister is used (the local site www.party is also kept on it), others run video and demos. Since the PC is better than 60 frames per second, and for, say, the Commodore 64 - fifty (otherwise all the pretty scrollers in the original will go to hell), then there are several computers. When connecting, only DVI is used. There are two identical cars there, and the organizers have exactly the same behind the screen (where demos are tested, more on that below). Namely: Core i5-661, 2 GB DDR3-1333, nVidia GeForce GTX280 with installed cloning 32-bit Windows 7 Professional. And even so, they sometimes behave differently, said, with a grin, kb. He also showed a gigantic audio mixer, played a jingle and demonstrated in his signature manner how he announces something from above. At the same time, a delay of 30 meters to the scene, and without immediate feedback, results in a delay that prevents you from speaking normally into the microphone, so there’s a feedback speaker nearby. By the way, all the equipment was not bought, but rented, it was much more profitable, often with a markdown (familiar demosceners work in companies).

Soon after this presentation, the Sundown Quiz quiz began on stage. Sole, Syphus and Okkie competed with havoc, ne7 and maali in various frivolous contests, including eating a bunch of Pringles chips, calling the demo platform by name, faster stuffing a bag of potatoes into your pants (PANTS OFF, POTATOES IN!) And other nonsense :)

Then we went to chat with the Compo team. The main organizer in this section was ryg / farbrausch. He said that although all the declared demos are shown on the big screen, because there are not many of them (and even if it takes two hours), you have to make a selection in a music competition, otherwise the competition will take a lot of time, and it will be difficult to vote. When he said that this time 70 tracks were announced, I realized that mine won’t work (it turned out later). For the selection, they take volunteer musicians who have to listen to everything in a row, and at the same time they don’t know who owns a particular track, so everything is fair. He further said that PC demos are shown on the screen in real time, but demos on Amiga and C64 have to be recorded, because often there are problems, consoles fail at the most inconvenient moment, and then everyone suffers - creators, spectators, organizers - the demo has to be restarted, the moment is lost, etc. And of course, there is no question of any emulation. Then he led us down to the demo recording room. There, Amiga was connected to the video converter (which “hadn't let them down for five years”), then the video signal was sent to a computer with software that was used to record. The data format is DV. Since here the video immediately with sound, there are no problems of desync. The video converter also has to be selected, because for example, C64 outputs a PAL signal, which is very poorly compliant with the standard, so much so that any expensive equipment refuses to work with such a signal. The guru finished, and we, having thanked ryg, we went back to the hall ... There is no question of any emulation. Then he led us down to the demo recording room. There, Amiga was connected to the video converter (which “hadn't let them down for five years”), then the video signal was sent to a computer with software that was used to record. The data format is DV. Since here the video immediately with sound, there are no problems of desync. The video converter also has to be selected, because for example, C64 outputs a PAL signal, which is very poorly compliant with the standard, so much so that any expensive equipment refuses to work with such a signal. The guru finished, and we, having thanked ryg, we went back to the hall ... There is no question of any emulation. Then he led us down to the demo recording room. There, Amiga was connected to the video converter (which “hadn't let them down for five years”), then the video signal was sent to a computer with software that was used to record. The data format is DV. Since here the video immediately with sound, there are no problems of desync. The video converter also has to be selected, because for example, C64 outputs a PAL signal, which is very poorly compliant with the standard, so much so that any expensive equipment refuses to work with such a signal. The guru finished, and we, having thanked ryg, we went back to the hall ... by which the recording is carried out. The data format is DV. Since here the video immediately with sound, there are no problems of desync. The video converter also has to be selected, because for example, C64 outputs a PAL signal, which is very poorly compliant with the standard, so much so that any expensive equipment refuses to work with such a signal. The guru finished, and we, having thanked ryg, we went back to the hall ... by which the recording is carried out. The data format is DV. Since here the video immediately with sound, there are no problems of desync. The video converter also has to be selected, because for example, C64 outputs a PAL signal, which is very poorly compliant with the standard, so much so that any expensive equipment refuses to work with such a signal. The guru finished, and we, having thanked ryg, we went back to the hall ...

Where soon you could see some pretty handmade and freestyle pictures. But when the Animation / Video contest started, I went to the forefront. There were certainly a lot of boring videos, but everyone definitely remembered Membrain , Ninja Gent 2 and, of course, How to use Blender . During watching I talked with German Gita, who announced a thermo-photo of a pooping elephant for the contest :) (and then took 5th place). By the way, there were more girls on the demo party than I expected to see, but, of course, they did not go in crowds. Scene.org Awards



ceremony held in the eveningfor the best demos of 2009. While she was waiting, he talked with Nemesis and the demoscene from Belgium, who was at a party with his pregnant wife. On the clothes on her stomach she wrote “Little demoscene inside” in the Intel-style, very nice :) Scene.org Awards were held by Okkie and Netpoet, depicting the breaking news. Best quote: "Outrageous is a new meaning: a group of Portugal individuals create music videos in no more than 64 kilobytes. That's roughly the size of a Word document ... empty. " Netpoet also unbelted, said, “There is no one here on stage so I guess I could even take my pants off” and pulled down his pants to please the public :) As a result of ASD, they took three figurines with their Rupture (including “The Best Demo” ”, But there wasn’t anyone from this Greek band at Breakpoint), and Fairlight's Smash was two more.

A little later there was another “concert” - ronny / farbrausch played his DJ set, which consisted of primitive techno, house and also demo tracks. Maybe the set was nothing, but the volume was exorbitant, and the entire #breakpoint channel was unhappy (“PC 4K GIMMEH GIMMEH”). Plus, many added their productions, and loud music prevented this. True ripping off the scene was a lot.

I tried to find Russians on Breakpoint (and there should have been at least four of them, according to the site, and Quite were also participating), but unfortunately I didn’t find anyone, although I even made an announcement in the hall when I asked.

When the set finally ended, the show of 4 kilobyte demos began, on Amiga and PC. There were few of them at the first, but one was impressive. Anyone who wants to understand the AMIGAAAAA meme must watch a live recording.Ikadalawampu, it was just a bomb. But on the PC, the demo was in bulk. Mistrace by TBC and Darwinism by Archee are great, unreal things. It’s a pity for Quite - 1kb demo without music (and TBC’s more interesting, with music, and also 1kb!), But now it turned out that they didn’t manage to finish the amazing stereographic 4k hypnoise part 2 , and they had to declare this unimpressive thing.

That day, I couldn’t quickly fall asleep - where I was sleeping yesterday, someone very loudly began to watch German porn, you could hear her crawling, and it was impossible to sleep. I had to move to a quieter place.

3. WE LOVE YOU!

In the afternoon, a “very important announcement” was planned, but before that, there was also a Breakpoint tour for Bingen residents, so they asked everyone at least for the time PANTS ON :)

When everyone gathered in the hall, scamp asked to free a place in the corridor, and then pointed to a video screen in which a group of organizers broke into a supermarket in the middle of the day and loaded their carts to the top with sweets and chocolate hares. And then in real life they ran into the hall and began to distribute sweets to everyone. It was very nice and unexpected :) Scamp: “Happy Easter! We love you! ”

Later mountain contests. The executable oldschool music certainly remembered Flamethrower by reed, a track on C64 with really cool guitars and a voice sample. Then there were a lot of pretty good photos, and after that - an executable graphic in 4kb (in this contest there was a gorgeous tower of Babel, just like from a picture). Then there was a streaming music contest, after which the phrase FUCK ON THE FLOOR AND BREAK SHIT even became a small meme. There were several games in 96kb. Only the multiplayer three-dimensional “ snake ” (out of competition) and the very funny C64 game about Spike and Molly (DARN IT!) Were remembered.

The time has come for all kinds of various demos. Commodore 64 pleased only one, but, as usual, long and with a bunch of effects. It was much more interesting to watch wild demos, as it was really wild. Demos on mIRC , Microsoft Powerpoint , Android, Sega Dreamcast , on a TI-8x calculator , on a cube of LEDs with a resolution of 4x4x4 ... Finn lft, as always, pleased with the thing on his own remade Atmega microcontroller. When he said from the screen that he had to lower the frequency of the chip from 24 megahertz to 18 to work with a PAL signal, someone in shock shouted “WHAT? !!!!” from the hall, and it was hilarious :)

In the evening, the band called Ultrasound, which performs music originating from the demoscene ("You make it, we play it"). Guitar, bass, drums and chic saxophone. Having played along with the truck, Jesus Christ Motocross , popular since last year , they switched to the execution of Rob is Jarig, but then kb burst into the scene and shouted, “Enough! As long as possible, always play Rob is jarig, he was in our invitation demo, yesterday at the Scene.org awards, and he will still be in demos! Is there really nothing more original ?! ”And they and the band started playing“ Never gonna give you up ”. We can say that the whole hall was rickroll'd :) (and the second time in a day, because before that it happened in one of the Wild demos as well). It turned out very sincerely, kb is generally a mega-talent. And then he sang his own theme from the well-known Candytronand it was even cooler. In the end, already without kb, the group played Elevated, to which they also wrote the words and displayed them so that the audience could sing along.

By the way, during a pause between songs, the soloist sang “Trolololo” from nothing to do, and the crowd picked up. The global meme is very global, it was amusing :)



With a delay of one hour, demos started, first on Amiga, then on PC. Elude showed on Amiga the next three-dimensional demo with unrealistic graphics. And on PC, Wir sind Einstein from UF & DD (“Research is lust / In science we trust!”), Then built from millions of dots without textures and polygons from Agenda Circling Forth from Fairlight & CNCD (the dots are new voxels, I tell you ) and the final demo from farbrausch calledfr-043: rove , “8 Years of Breakpoint, 15 Years of the Easter Demopati Tradition.”

While watching PC demos, I was sitting surrounded by Poles, and every minute you could hear “KURWA!” Or “ZAJEBISTE!” In general, Breakpoint had the most Germans, Finns, Danes and Poles, the rest were smaller. There was also one Japanese, a pair of Canadians.

To vote, it was necessary to exchange your strap on the information desk for the code that is entered in the form. Immediately after the end of the competition, everyone went to vote at the request of kb, but the server did not manage, and kb invited everyone to go and have a drink on the street and then go to vote :)

4. The end

In the morning they showed the take-off of the NASA shuttle, and I don’t know if it was live, or a record. kb announced about the time of departure of buses to airports: "the shuttle to Frankfurt ... okay, the BUS shuttle" :) By the beginning of the show of results, enough people had already left, maybe half.

Before analyzing the results, a small seminar on vacancies for demosceners was held. scamp and chaos advertised their companies, one is developing network equipment in Bingen, the other is developing games for current-generation consoles.

Prizes were awarded in all competitions for the first three places. A Dutchman was sitting next to me, they gave him 60 euros for the third place in the freestyle graphics competition, that is, they paid for the entrance ticket. The video cards GeForce GTX 260 and 280 were awarded for more serious contests. In addition, the representative of nVidia, who brought all these cards, also handed smash another GeForce for the most powerful operation of the GPU in the Agenda Circling Forth demo.



At the end, all the organizers, about 60 people, entered the stage, solemnly said goodbye. Scamp said that Breakpoint will no longer exist, but 70% of the team still ate organizing demopati, and that Breakpoint was not perfect, some demopati did something better, so this summer there will be a meeting to unite all the experience and create demoparty yet better than before. Breakpoint is over, but there will be something new next Easter, “There's no fucking excuse to sit your ass off at home next Easter!”

And I will definitely go and recommend it to you. A sea of ​​impressions, a unique atmosphere and a lot of smart, sociable and very open, kind people from all over the world (and of course AMIGAAAAAAAAAAA!).

• Your photos from Breakpoint 2010
• Great photos by thec
• You can download all productions, recordings of some events and concerts from FTP: ftp://ftp.untergrund.net/breakpoint/2010/ and on pouet.net