Feedback on Hugi #16
One of the most vital things for everybody is to get feedback. Response to one's deeds. When interacting with other human beings, feedback is the only thing that can directly lead to change in one's behaviour. Everybody needs feedback, otherwise he/she will not be able to integrate in society, to survive in our world.
Also for publications in general and diskmags specifically, feedback is important. Feedback tells the authors how their work has been appreciated and what could be improved. Feedback is the only way to directly influence on the contents of a magazine except actively writing articles for it. Feedback shows what should be in the magazine and what should be not, what should be emphasized on more and what less. Feedback is the main motivation for idealistic, unpaid authors to continue making their magazine.
In Hugi #16 we published a strong appeal to send us feedback in order to help shape the future of Hugi. To get more detailed reactions to individual articles, a new feature was introduced to the Hugi interface: the feedback button at the end of every article. Indeed it helped. Some people invested a slice of their precious time to send us their thoughts about some of the articles. We are very glad about that and want to thank you much for it.
Following are some interesting reactions. Most of them were included in support.sheets with their authors' explicit wish to be published or posted to newsgroups. Also, some more feedback can be found in the article "Pain vs. Hugi Mud-Throwing Contest" in the Demoscene Forum.
I think it's a good idea to release Hugi monthly, I'll read it more frequently, and this is very good. However, be sure to keep the number of articles, and mainly its quality.
I remember Hugi #11, do you? It not only has changed, or evolutionized, it has improved. I mean the quantity of articles, the quality, and the interface. However, I think that Hugi should have 3 mods. One more than usual. When you are reading Hugi and have already listened to both mods too many times, you just turn music off. Another mod will help. However, 4 mods will be too much.
I hope that Hugi keeps improving, and that everytime I start to read it, I can think that it's worth to download.
Dario Phong / PhyMosys
[Editor: Hey Dario, Thanks for your comments. I also think a monthly release would be good, but I doubt we'll ever make it... that is, except this issue, which was made within a month's time indeed. But this was only possible because I and most of our staff writers had holidays. And I had to work on the mag all day and night, just like I did last year with Hugi #12. Although I had sworn last year I'd never spend my summer holidays in such a way again! Well, I guess you'll have to live with a three-monthly release manner if you want to have the same quality and quantity of articles. Keep on writing for Hugi, this makes the mag bigger and - probably - better! Adok]
Great! HUGI is now released very often, and still has zounds of articles. But the worst thing is the presence of bugs. There are MORE bugs than in the previous issue. The Mag often crashes. :( Some bugs were fixed, but the bug with the messy pointer in the Win version still exists, and there is an awful bug with the mag crashing while trying to change music in DOS version via "1" and "2" - this really suxxx. :( Also there is some messup with reviews. You have 2 similar reviews in the general part and the music part.
FatCrazer / Storm Studios
[Editor: The reviews are not "similar" - they are identical. I thought that it would be advantageous to put links to these reviews of the Remedy music compo both in the party stuff review section and in the music section because it fits both of them. OK, if you think this isn't good, tell me what you think about the way it is in this issue, where the Assembly multichannel reviews are not located in the music section.]
Leave the 64k/4k charts merged... I think most people dont know 5 4ks to fill it up, and if its something like Omniscent or Mesha it will have a spot on the 64k/4k charts.
You are discriminating against girls with a best scene girls vote.
About German/Austrian charts, I think you should create a home-country charts and if you get more then 10 votes or smtg like that from that country you put it up on the mag. You are discriminating against other scene countries like this. If its only for German section of Hugi make it German/Austrian ppl being allowed to vote.
One last thing about charts, friendlier and funniest might be a better category for a scene person. :) Just a thought...
Here is another idea, put party reports, reviews and results in the same section.
Nice those few articles only about groups. Please do some more.
Last but not least use more original secret parts, not getting into them, the content! Whats the point of finding a secret part if there the reward isnt appealing? Maybe joke/controversial articles? Or special tributes to sceners like you did with Unreal. Nice. :)
Psychic Symphony / Evolve / Frequency / Arf!Studios
[Editor: "Home-country charts" like you described them remind pretty much of Fleur, don't you think? Yep, that's why we decided against this concept in favour of allowing everybody in the world to vote for German and Austrian sceners. We'll, however, probably stop the German/Austrian charts after Hugi #18 because so far hardly anyone from outside these countries has voted in them. Most sceners seem to have little insight about what's going on in a particular area which is not their own; they rather care about the international top and their own local scene. Since our German/Austrian charts now hardly differ from the ones in Fleur from the origin of the voters with the exception of Austrians being included, I see no reason in continuing with them. About secret parts: There are 5 hidden parts in this issue. Find 'em!]
Hi Hugi!!!
Really cool mag. I saw the Hugendubelexpress (or something like that), but it was shit.
Now Hugi is even better than Imphobia. I've read many diskmags the last 5 years, but hugi has now reached the top of the diskmags (worldwide). So I want to thank all the people behind Hugi (coder, gfx,...) and also the scene people for writing articles for hours of fun.
Best wishes
toadward^zoog productions
Hugi is the best diskmag I have read since the end of Imphobia. Every current issue is better than the previous. With Hugi, where do you want to go today? :-)
Wishbone / GFX Zone
Some people say you don't change the mag design enough - I disagree though. Keeping the layout the same but changing the graphics keeps it familiar but doesn't let it get dull.
Keep up the good work!
Oh - and how many female sceners are there exactly? I can only think of one here.
Sack / Digitalis / Sonic Dreams
[Editor: It's hard to estimate how many female sceners are around, but there are enough to fill a top-ten. The best known ones are probably Lluvia/Bomb, Ms. Saigon/Threesome, and nogsf/Level-D. Interesting enough, all the three of them are musicians.]
Hugi #16 was the BEST Hugi! A lot of great articles, interesting music-corner (yeah!) and fantastic design. What more do you need?
Echo / Diffusion / Level-D
The last Hugi issue reminded me of all the bad diskmags I read during Amiga times. In the past, we shot their editors 'cause we couldn't stand their pressure much longer...
Exorcist Phase a.k.a. Reverend Red / Church of AntiScene
[Editor: At least you spared them having to evaluate fake votesheets like yours too, hehe.]
I'd like to see more interview with interesting people. And I'd also like to see some quality demo-reviews.. a couple every issue.. done by coders, graphicians and musicians so they all can give their views of the demos.. I really miss that as it is today.. I mean, this way you get more feedback on your work...
gnilk / noice
Subject: Beos Article...
Wish that I had read this article a few months ago.... It took me a while to figure this out when I got my original copy of Beos 4.0.
Keep up the articles on Beos demo coding! This OS deserves more respect from the Demo scene....
Hans / nowhere
Subject: The idiot-scene, written by Makke
Just great, more stuff like this! :)
/Gathers
[Regarding the polls,] perhaps you could add questions about the coding experience, for how many years the people have been in the scene...
The vote.scene.org idea is great, I've never used IRC so I don't know if you'd reach everybody using bots...
Are the people who write the articles the same age [as the majority of the poll senders] (18-20)?
Regards,
HIS^None
[Editor: As far as I know, the majority of the writers and the Hugi Staff is between 15 and 22 years old. But there are also a few older people who write articles for Hugi.]
Hey Adok!
Firstly thanks for sending me Hugi 16's txt files. It was really great to get them close to the release date. It's always more enjoyable reading up to date mags. :)
There were some really good articles there which I really enjoyed [...]
On the critical side, I thought some of the freelance articles seemed a little amateur and careless. I got the impression a lot of people supported the mag simply to get their name there rather than wanting to cover a valid point. Also, I personally disliked the new sex story section.. I think it's because it portrays sceners as frustrated, steriotypical computer nerds.
Anyway, it's really great to read your articles and to see Hugi setting some high standards on the PC. Yet another reason tempting me to buy one in the near future. ;)
Wade / Scoopex
Hi there !
I've discovered Hugi thanks to French democoders on PC, and I've read Hugi issue 16. It's a complete magazine with lots of interesting articles. But I'm sure I'm not the only one to say you that :)
In the article "REVIEW: UNDERCOVER MAGASCENE #15 (ATARI)", you've written: "UCM's former main editor Moondog of the Poets of Decay has now retired from the Atari scene. His sucessor is STsurvivor, who used to edit many issues of the French-language Toxic Magazine which was now stopped due to lack of support."
Well, that's not exactly true... ST Survivor has stopped the Toxic Mag because of a lack of support, but I'm the new editor of Toxic Mag and I plan to release next issues. In fact, I was the editor of this French disk magazine but, due to the army, ST Survivor took my place in 1998, during 10 months.
Now I'm active on Atari and Toxic Mag is still alive. Moreover, some articles of Toxic Mag are now translated into English since issue 17. So, it's more understandable by non-French readers.
Well, keep up the good work !
The Beast/Typhoon, editor of Toxic Mag
[Editor: You can get Toxic Mag at http://www.chez.com/toxicmag/index.html. It works fine with PaCiFiST (http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com).]
The coding articles are very interesting as always in Hugi and others are good too, haven't read them all yet, but I'm going to have a better look there.
But why those sex stories? I don't see the point of putting that in a scene diskmag, or are we too many sex weirdos in the scene that we need these articles to motivate us, heh?
Hugi should stay a diskmag about scene and what's going on there. If you want to write something about "tierschutz" (check the German part), join the WWF or Greenpeace, you would be more useful IMHO. A demoscene diskmag is not a newspaper or you should add a sport corner in it ASAP.
-dake/calodox-
[We won't answer this one, as Malte a.k.a. The Update / CoPro already did it well in his follow-up to this posting:]
Remember how Hugi started: When the first issue was released, the amount of scene articles compared to the rest was quite low, as it wasn't planned as a Imphobia successor but as a German magazine of general interest without topic limitation. I mind neither sex stories nor tierschutz articles, I just don't read them if I don't like them. ;)
c u,
Malte
Although I think Flood did a nice job on #16 (the best gfx in Hugi so far!), the mag just doesn't reach Imphobia visually. Imphobia had a strong image created by the combination of changing title pics from the scene's top artists and a consistent visual line for the actual interface. I loved pl's "clean&cool" interface style even though his technique wasn't particularly outstanding and the pastel coloring started feeling sort of bland (but at least it was consistent, and so 1993! =)).
So, I think the best situation would be if there was a single artist responsible for the Hugi visual line, who would also do the interfaces (perhaps as coops with other graphicians every now and then?). I don't know where to find such a dedicated person though, especially if Hugi is going to start publishing monthly...
In the meanwhile there are some things that the Hugi people could do to improve things; first of all they should weed out all the already-released compopics that too many people are apparently shoving down their throats as title pics. In most of the latest Hugis, the title pic has been just someone's compopic with the text "Hugi" slapped on, with not too much attention given to whether the pic suits a diskmag environment. That kind of reuse just feels cheap (although I'm much too fond of recycling compo pics myself, so maybe I shouldn't be talking).
Another thing are the end pics, I just don't see the point with them. Either the Hugi people need to come up with some sensible reason to show random renderings when people exit the mag, or just get rid of the end pics altogether. Maybe there could be some kind of visual concept (such as a Hugi logo) or theme that the end pic artists would have to work with, that way it would be actually interesting to see the end pic in a new issue.
Also, I thought the menu clipart in the last issue was ugly and interfered with Flood's background art. Although a minor complaint, this just seems to emphasize my point that there would need to be someone in charge of the mag's look.
Saffron / TBL
Nice HUGI #16 - it's simply THE best so far. The sound problem of HUGI #15 has been solved and the overall quality of the articles is high. Well done everyone at HUGI!! In this kinda heat, it's nice to have something SO cool... #:o)
It was REALLY surprising to read 3 articles about how to write articles - I had thought my article would be unique.. I guess some ppl just think alike.
TAD
Come on people! Vote for me as the funniest scener!
Spock means fun at the parties!
Spock means dance in the music compos!
Spock means assimilation of female sceners!
Spock means coding in the strangest languages!
Put a Spock in your life!
When getting your Spock ask for the real one:
Spock (Oscar Portela Arjona) of the Wild Bits
Now a "special". Seven was the only one who really fulfilled our request to really read through the (English) articles in Hugi and write down his immediate thoughts. The result was a 30 kbyte huge text file, which he sent us to publish it in this feedback corner. Again, thank you very much for this, Seven. Well done! Of course you've been knighted for this.
And here's Seven's comments.
General:
- It's annoying that the music stops whenever the window loses focus. So when I select WordPad to write this, I hear utter silence. :(
- It has crashed once, while I was typing this.
- The separation between header and main (text) part is broken by the face of the woman, partly inside the text-area. I like that.
- Feel free to quote me on this feedback (except if makes me seem stupid :). Well, if that is the case, maybe you can contact me to see if you understand what I meant to say, if I didn't make a typo or so... (Hugi, the diskmag that can crush someone's (lack of) reputation. :)))
- A last-minute note: Tomorrow I'll check the Assembly-demos, so bear in mind that certain statements, like "there are no really high-standard demos", might change (I hope, I hope, I hope).
Articles:
- Prelude
-- For new readers
--- Introduction to the demoscene: Just checked this to see if you updated the INF/Yume2000 & oldskool thingie. You did. Nice. I was wondering how you decide which groups are important enough to introduce to newbies, especially when you add new ones. Maybe you can use the incredible Hugi-charts for that? But again, it might become a burden to keep the descriptions and productions up-to-date.
[Editor: Yes, it's mainly various charts according to which I decide what groups should be mentioned. In general, the top groups and their major productions don't change that often so I think it shouldn't be such a "burden" for me to keep this list up-to-date.]
--- The Philosophy of Hugi: Personally, I prefer a diskmag to write about demos. As you might have noticed, I'm the kind of person who reads almost every article (I'm not so good at German, but I try), and I'm not interested in chemistry or sociology. But hey, if you want to provide a platform for that stuff, I'll learn to skip it.
-- Hugi Sixteen Prelude
--- Editorial: An idea for the voting: maybe you can have an expiration date for a votesheet of a single person. Say, for example, three months. So a sheet is used for three issues, unless the voter sends in a new one sooner, and after three months, he is notified by the country-responsible person he should update his vote. This system could mean both more work for the collector (must keep track of people, notify them), or less (must notify only 1/3 the nr of persons on average each month). Another drawback is that a new demo will not directly reach the top of the charts, but only after three months (unless it inspired everyone to update their votes).
[Editor: This is a good idea for e.g. monthly updated charts. Systems like the Hornet Charts show though it's pretty easy to get the people to vote once, but it's hard to get them to update their votes. The Hornet Charts had got almost 400 valid votes in total, but when it stopped being updated, less than 150 votes were still "active". Well, as Hugi won't be released monthly, there's no need to hurry up collecting lots of votesheets per month. I now plan to publish charts every second issue, as even within three months there are usually not really significant changes in the top ten, and most likely won't ask anybody to fill in their votesheets. If you vote, then it's okay, if you don't, well, why should I force you to use your right to vote. Without asking for votesheets, I've got slightly more than 40 filled votesheets after the release of Hugi #16, which I think is quite an okay number for a month. Also if people decide to vote themselves, they will usually fill in their votesheets more carefully.]
You want feedback? OK, I'll give it to you. :) I think Hugi is very readable as is, no need to include a billion hard-to-read fonts. Personal info: Nice idea! Looks a bit like a maniac, with that big grin. :)
--- Feedback for Hugi 15: Well, feel free to put any snippet that you find interesting in this corner. :)
* Hey! My mail to you in it. Wow! I'm in Hugi! I'm famous! :)
* The idea for active-only charts is important, I think. If we want to give new groups & productions a chance, it's better not to have skeletons (Future Crew etc.) in the charts. Maybe a 1-year limit can keep the charts up-to-date, and motivate people to be active.
* I'm in for three or four tunes. I don't really like the second tune of this issue, so it's silence or full-time tune 1 ...
--- Hugi Icon competition results: Well, rorschach-adok, you have a lot of imagination. :)
--- Scene statistics: Bear in mind that these results are biased, as only the persons who can be bothered to fill in the polls fill in the polls. :) You might get other results if you ask the same questions to people at parties. Or maybe musicians do read Hugi less than coders do or so...
--- Commercial break: If you see how many people react on that stupid little USA-flag, you will probably be flamed down for mentioning all little countries (Belgium!) only at the end without any ansi-art.
--- Archive list: I don't see demo.cat.hu in there. But it might be a mirror of sites already listed there.
[Editor: It's a part of the Trebel project and listed there.]
--- The E-mag Net: Hmm, maybe you can show a [new!]-sign next to the "usual" articles in the prelude-section, otherwise only newbies read the info in the usual articles. About the big project, wasn't that mentioned in the previous issue? And if so, how's it going?
[Editor: I moved all the "usual" articles from the Prelude that didn't change or only changed marginally to "For New Readers". The E-Mag Network is pretty dead just like this "big project". That's also the reason why I removed this info text from this Hugi issue.]
--- Where to get Hugi: Only one URL? Maybe you need to update this, on csipd you posted several URLs...
[Editor: The mirror sites change all the time so I only publish the URL of the main web-site in that info text. However, the current list of mirror sites is always in the hugi??.nfo file and at the main web-site.]
--- Credits: Yeah! That's the way to make people read this every issue! Funny! Maybe next issue you can present the staff as, hmm, a maffia-clan or something. :)
[Editor: I thought about presenting ourselves as the "Centralnyj Komitet of the Koders' Party of Scene Souvereignity". I'd be "Generalnyj Sekretar i Politicheskij Rukowoditel", and the others would get the title "Komissar". But when reflecting on the crimes the Communist Party of the Soviet Union committed, I decided to refrain from this idea. The Royal Family is much more harmless. And Lady Di can't be compared with Batjushka Stalin.]
--- Get active: Maybe I'll write a code-article. If I weren't so lazy... and I'm making reviews already for DemoJournal & Static Line.
- Scene Forum
-- Front News
--- Replay: Good idea to focus on groups, but to interview each member is a bit too detailed. Unless you know them personally, a history of which computers everyone has had is boring.
--- Trauma & Nomad & Bomb: Yes, news of the famous groups with well-known demos... That's what we like. Celebrity-watchers. :) Maybe you can use the charts to keep track of groups that should have an "currect projects"-article, so people can look forward to parties and demos...
--- Trouble with Trebel: Good to mention it again, so people don't say it is dead.
--- Antiscene Superstar: Waste of diskmag-space. It's the first time I hear of them, and I don't feel any sympathy. Maybe if they try to change the scene by making the next Second Reality...
--- Shit happens: Sad story. I've mixed feelings on this [...] But it's a good thing to put this in the mag, as a warning.
--- Misc scene news: News about big groups is interesting, news about unknown groups ... less. The more big groups get a separate article, the more boring this article becomes.
-- Forum
--- Scening today & in the past: Oh no, another "In my time..." article. I'm not aiming at a crystal-clear discussion, just some random remarks:
Too accessible:
- I have known the scene for only three years, but I would have LOVED to know it as a 12-year old kid. I think as many people as possible should learn about the demoscene, as they can just be demo-fans without being active.
- I'm almost never on IRC, so I don't meet those newbies, and I usually download only the top 3 of the party-demos. The only moment they can annoy me is at parties and csipd. For a part, you decide how much you see them.
- Maybe we need elite-rules, such as: you can only join #coders if you made a demo that's in the top 3 of a party. However, such rules would just never be agreed upon.
- It's perfectly possible to restart an oldskool-scene. Heck, maybe all oldskool sceners are doing that. Imagine all those "dead" groups, having their own private parties, talking on hidden IRC-channels, swapping diskmags by mail, spreading the new demos among themselves, without anyone of the newbie-scene knowing it. Doesn't it makes you wonder? :)
Too much knowledge:
- True.
- New effects are often built upon older ones. You can't do volumetric fog if you don't know 3D-rotations. No scene culture:
- Demos are the only common element that binds the demoscene. What exactly do you expect? I'm rather happy there are no wars or threats.
--- KB-interview: Interesting. And I don't want to be called a lamer, so I'd better know him. :)
--- Good night, scene: I have carefully read through this article. :)
Remarks:
- If you want to be part of the scene, you have to work. Cut'n'pasters should be flamed, newbies should be helped if they are willing to learn. I agree.
- Nomad's "No Exit" is pretty good. The feeling of being unable to escape, the last part with the angel being shot down... The textures, pictures, music, modelling and scripts must have taken months of work. There are several new effects, like the zoom, and lots of 2D-effects, such as the plasma/tunnel the main person falls into. I think it's plain embarrasing if you judge the winner of a big party with one sentence, "design they don't have anyway". There were 61 messages today on the "new blasphemy demo"-thread, because someone thought Moral Hard Candy, being a Danish design-demo, is less good than a 3D-demo. If it gets first place and you don't like it, your taste is the cause, not the demo.
- There are no really high-standard demos: agreed.
- Never release unfinished productions: I am only motivated to make an intro for a party. Between parties, I just try to learn new effects. All my productions were a bit unfinished due to last-minute party- coding. Should I wait 3 months and release it at the next party I can attend? Face it, unfinished & buggy productions are a tradition in the scene. But there is a difference between a demo with good effects that is unfinished, and a demo with crappy effects that should just never have been released.
- Except for the Nomad thing, I mostly agree.
--- Voting Phobia: Just an idea: maybe you can put an online votingform on the website, so people can vote while downloading Hugi.
--- A tale of two scenes: I wonder what that would do to the spirit in the scene. I think it will result in more competition between groups, which can result in more or better intros (good), and/or wars (bad). A good thing would be that more youngsters get a chance to know the scene, even if they don't contribute actively to it.
--- "Who is the lamest?": Funny. :) I liked to play games, too (occasionally!) but after a while I wanted to program games. And not much later I discovered demos so I lost my interest in games. :) Once a friend of mine was watching a Pac-man game, and he said "Wow! it must have been a terrible work to draw all those frames!". He thought games where like Disney movies, with every single frame drawn by hand. :D
[Editor: Actually I thought so too when I didn't know how to program! :) When I read in a video game magazine that "Sonic the Hedgehog" was a 8mbit module (that is, 1 mbyte), I thought: "Wow! You can save SO many frames in such a small module?"]
--- The decay of swappers: Cannot disagree with anything. :) So I'll complement you with your clear writing style. You always manage to show your point.
--- Classic interview with Steffo: OK, interesting. No special remarks.
--- New trends:
Strange 3D-worlds: I don't have a problem with them, but I agree some more recognizable objects would be better.
Undefinable FX: I agree more or less, you don't think "HOW did they DO that?", but "WHAT the hell is this supposed to be?" :)
Unreadable text: Haha, check out some really old demos, and you'll see scrollers with so many effects that it's impossible to read them. Nothing new under the sun, really.
CPU: Before I got my PII, I had a 486 (last year), and hardly anything would run on it. Didn't like that, but then I upgraded, and now half of the demos want a 3D-card. :( But remember, people have flamed Second Reality because it needed a 486! Time changes...
--- The idiot-scene: It's a good thing Makke uses a bit of humour, otherwise this article is rather useless.
--- The Ansi-scene: Hey, I respect ansi-artists! Most parties I've been to had an ansi-competition, with pretty impressive pictures. Maybe the habit of showing an ansi-screen at the end of a demo should be re-established, so more people get to know ansi.
--- ANSI world is dead: Same as above...
--- Somnium: Interesting. I'll check this site. (Last-minute note: Great! They look just fantastic! I think Hugi should have an Ansi-gallery with horizontal scroll, not like the advert section. It takes far less space than pictures or music, and so people have a chance to learn & appreciate it.)
--- Counterstatement to releasing code: I'm a 4K-intro coder, and learning to size-optimize is really difficult. No tutorials, no books on the subject... It's vital you can check the code of e.g. 256-byte intros to learn the tricks. Later, you learn your own new tricks, but without open code, you would constantly re-invent the wheel.
--- Another point against source-releasing: OK, Dario Phong is a good writer. But I bet most of the coders do not want to write articles. Releasing code is just easier for them.
--- Interview with Bacter: Hmm, can you group those interviews please? Unless you spread them all over this section on purpose... Also, from the (grins) and (smiles), I suppose you are interviewing face-to-face. It would be nice if you mentioned at the start of the interview how it was made: IRC, mail or real life, and where, when,...
--- End of Amiga career: I don't even know anyone with an Amiga, so I can't comment on this.
--- More fun to compute: Well, I also feel a bit nostalgic about my first PC (an XT). About games: I remember California Games, Ski or Die (both hilarious when played with several people, one after another), Arkanoid, etc. Wolfenstein came much later, indeed! (And wouldn't run on my 286 then.)
--- Games and demos: I think there is one ray of light (pun intended :)): Realtime raytracing. That is really something impressive, 3D-cards can't do this, so that will give us an edge over games. Look at Control/green: there is a part with sharp (320*200, not blurred) raytracing, and Quasar (the coder of that part) told me it was 100% C. So by using ASM it must be possible to boost the speed or complexity even more.
--- More 3D in demos: I think this kind of articles is useless. Some people don't like 3D and make demos without 3D, some people do like 3D and make 3D-only demos (the two extremes). No side will ever convince the other that they are wrong, so the both kinds of demos will coexist happily together. And remember, not all 3D is equal. It's how you use it that counts. First we had rotating objects with as many faces as possible, then we had static 3D-worlds, and now we have 3D-worlds with stories in them (see No Exit, Tribes & The Fulcrum). I'd like to see more of the last kind.
--- Demoparties and Internet: Most people are pretty lazy, and most demos for compos have a low quality. At a party, you just have to sit down to watch all entries, it doesn't matter if they are good or bad, while at i-net compos, you have to download them, get them to work, etc. If most of them are crap, people will skip Inet-compos, so less people will vote in the end.
--- Interview with phreaker Digiman: It's nice to read what a real phreaker says, the media are always biased (at Inscene, there was a TV-crew that just filmed the people sleeping under the tables, instead of the competitions. Wanted to make a freak-show, probably).
--- Quotes: Yeah! My favourite part! More! More! MOOORRRREEE!
-- Science Fiction
--- PsychoJournal: Bwahaha! Funny! Hope Psychic isn't angry. BTW, I write reviews for DemoJournal, so I'm part of the big superscript. :)
--- King of the Scene: Less funny then PsychoJournal, but still enjoyable.
-- Reviews: I like detailed reviews, Wade's graphic review is very good; you can actually learn some do's and dont's about GFX. Fatcrazer's reviews are a bit to small, and just telling what happens in all demos is rather boring.
-- World Charts: Well, no criticism on this. Voters are always right.
- Scene Journalism
-- Scene Journalism
--- Guidelines: Good idea. Something I have been thinking about: it's difficult for foreign people to write faultless English. Maybe Hugi's proof-readers can gather the most common-made errors and put them in an article. Could be useful, as people just never mail you to correct grammar mistakes, so you just keep writing the same error over and over again...
--- Editorials & counterstatement: I agree with Makke. And it would be close to impossible to compress 2 Meg of aricles in one editorial. :)
--- Copyrights: I've had a course Intellectual Property, and most of the things you write are right. I don't know about international laws, but in Belgium, as soon as you make something that is the product of your mind's work and that has an own style, it's protected. No need for copyright messages etc, although you will get more money at a trial if you have included them. Strange, he. :)
--- Why not write: Hmm, lack of time/motivation is also a big killer. But otherwise, everything is right.
--- How to write a good article: Useful stuff, although the title should have been: "How to write a good code-article", as it is mainly centered on that.
--- A dummy's Guide to writing articles: Same as above. It doesn't tell you, for example, how to structure your arguments in an opinion-article.
--- How to become a ruler of the scene: Hey! The unstructured approach is what I'm doing right now. :) Sorry for that, but sometimes it is the only way to write large amounts of text, if you're not motivated enough to spend lots of time structuring your arguments etc.
-- Diskmag review: I've read Fleur3 & THUB6, and most things are right. I'd like to mention that I like the funny style of The Watcher. Generally, I like humor in almost every article, editorial, code-tutorial etc. It's easier to read, somehow.
- Partyline
--- Calendar: Inscene will happen again next year.
--- Results are boring, except the A.S.M result. :) Sorry, but I sent my Inscene report already to Static Line...
- Music Corner
--- Music Editorial: A bit like Psychic Symphony wanted it to be, he? A summary of the articles. Well, some descriptions spark one's interest.
--- Selling ripped music: I think the formation of groups to protect the rights of sceners is a good thing (NO! NOT IN THE GREENPEACE-SENSE! I mean the intellectual-property rights). Not only for trackers, but also for graphicians (Coders have a more difficult job to prove some piece of code is theirs). Such a centralized organization can start a trial in case of serious (commercial) rip-offs, but can also be a way for companies to hire artists, or get contact information of an artist whose work they want to use. Any lawyers (in spe) in the demoscene who can comment on the idea?
--- The Russian music scene: I'm not really into music, so it's a bit boring. Flux uses the phrase "I'd also like to tell you about..." to start several paraghraps, a bit more variation wouldn't hurt.
--- The importance of good drums: Reminds me of "Beat me up, Scotty: percusion for beginners". So far, I've only made one little adlib chiptune for a 4K, but I'll probably make some more of them, so this kind of articles are useful for me (formal music training = 0).
--- Drums for beginners: Yes! This is an article on my level. :) Not too difficult, explaining what all those instruments are (I have seen real drums, but it's difficult to match the names with the instruments). But, I think trackers should have the freedom to use drums etc. in non-standard ways. I mean, if someone creates a brilliant piano-piece that cannot be played in reality with less than nine hands, does that makes the piece less good? I guess it depends on the amount of training. Real musicians will hear there is something "wrong", others won't care. I really hate it when in a science-fiction movie, computers use big green letters that appear so slowly you can catch up with reading them. It's an eighties-cliche about computers, but lots of people don't care. More or less the same thing...
--- Interview with Milk: Quite short, I have the feeling they are not really interested in promoting their label/site. Short answers on almost all questions... Maybe they just prefer to stay underground. :)
[Editor: I agree. Yet this is strange as they asked me to interview them.]
--- Oldskool interview with Zodiak: Ok, it's a bit sad that Zodiak is not really passionated about the scene anymore. But of course, he has seen the start of it all, the good olds days etc. :) More oldskool-interviews would be appreciated. Keep track of the old heroes!
--- Stop releasing solely MP3: Eggbird uses some good arguments to state his points. I'd like to see a pro-MP3 article with the same quality, if someone dares. :) Just to reassure you, I'm not gonna convert my 500-byte chiptune (including player) to an MP3. Unless it fits in a 4K of course :)
--- Music Interfaces: I prefer listening to music with IT or WinAmp. I want to do other things while listening to music, and I think a music- disk can never beat a demo (if they do, someone will say the demoscene is dying. Oh wait, it's already like that). Just my opinion, if some people like them, go ahead ...
--- Additional thoughts...: Hey, just what I have written above. :) Well, some demo-effects can take ages before they start repeating, and it's a bit addictive to watch such an ever-changing effect. Just look at some screensavers. That's something to use with a musicdisk, otherwise it becomes boring instead of relaxing. Maybe I'll check out some musicdisks, if I have the time.
--- Remedy music review and the next two reviews: Nice. Useful if you want to download music with a specific style, without trying them all. Clear style. Appearently, writing for diskmags improves your English.
- Coding & maths
-- Computer Math
--- Guide to computer math: Hmm, if Phinn does not want to publish articles about subjects he's going to cover, I would expect him to give at least a small list about those subjects, so people don't start writing for nothing.
--- Sine generation tutorial: I've read this already, it was included in the archive with the final versions of Void1/2/3 (was available from Franky on request).
--- World Class 3D-clipping: Question for part "...3D-clipping in object space": A screen's X-resolution is larger than it's Y-resolution, so shouldn't you have a different Field-Of-Vision-angle for (left&right) and (up&down)? Oops. Question is answered in part "...no more 2D-clipping". :) Maybe you can mention it a bit earlier so we poor readers don't get confused. Very useful article!
--- Zbuffer and other sorting topics: Sometimes, it's not very clear. The "Never-clearing the Z-buffer"-part for example. What is the point of speedup-tip nr 2? Skip the textureloading? Do you want us all to start doing flatshaded stuff? The 3rdtip isn't very clear either. Still, lots of things in here I hadn't thought of before...
--- How to code 16-color graphics: A bit basic, but very clear. If you often refer to a document (here, the Vesa-specs), you should include a URL so people can find it without too much searching.
--- The basics of image filtering: basics, indeed. But maybe someone needs them. :)
--- How to add two 16-bit...: I've been thinking about something similar, but as usual I was too lazy to try it. :) Nice to see it works.
--- DirectDraw tutorial: I'm starting to do windows-coding, so this is a great article for me.
--- 32 BPP Graphic coding: Everyone is using PTC now, but it's still nice to know what is going on behind the curtains. And maybe PTC can be improved, you never know.
--- Lightwave Bones: The basic idea could have been explained longer, I didn't understand everything in there, and so I didn't bother reading the advanced mathematical stuff.
--- Organica file format: I'm not into 3D-studio convertors, so this is rather boring for me.
-- 3D coding TAT: WOW! Massive document! It's very strange; there are some very good ideas in there, and there are several that I think are pretty useless. It's a pity not much has been tested in practice yet. Still, when I'm going to make my own 3D-engine, I'll try to re-read this doc. I've spotted several obvious errors (example: 2D-polys are used to create a 2d-polyhedron :), but they didn't get much in the way. The explanations are very clear (sometimes even a bit too simple).
-- Coding Corner: various
--- CPUID-instruction: Handy instruction. Just like Rawhed, I thought this would just give you the CPU-generation (486, 586, etc), but that cache-info is something I definitely will use.
--- Using the coprocessor: It's been some time since I learned FPU (yes, straight from the Intel manuals), and I think it's a nice tutorial.
--- Advanced features: There are a few terms in here that are not explained, like denormalized numbers. That might confuse beginners... and I think more experienced coders should just visit intel.com for the complete specs, so they can look up anything they want. An article is just too short for this kind of complex knowledge.
--- Trees tutorial: Maybe I'm spoilt (I've had two data structures and Algorithms courses), but I think you should always mention the pros & cons of a data structure (like: linked list: easy to insert/delete node, but slow to find an object), and a few situations in which it can be used.
-- Compression
--- Faster Putbits & Optimizing Putbits part III: My university end-work is about compression, so I'll check those putbits-routines when I've written my own compressor(s)...
--- Standard CRC 32: Well, CRC-checks are also used in other domains than compression, like data-communication, so it should be in the "various" section. And of course there are many different CRC-checks, each with their own characteristics.
I got a bit tired of compression, as I recently read a whole book about it, so I skipped the last four compression-related articles. I hope the authors don't mind. :-/
- Tech Talk
--- Guidelines: I still think chemistry is not something to put in a demo-diskmag. Must be some trauma from my college-years. :)
--- Counterstatement to Scene Standards: A lot of people wouldn't see the difference between an optimized routine and a slow one, if they both run on the same PC. Maybe we need to lower the power of the compo-machine at parties, so people will vote for optimized demos... But I've read this discussion in old Imphobia issues, so I think the problem will only be solved by de-facto standards and lots of times.
--- State of the art scene: I agree with most MP3 statements, and the last idea (slower compo-PCs) is exactly what I wrote above. :)
--- More Beos propaganda: This would be much clearer if there were some code snippets in there, and if is was split in more paragraphs (there is one big part that is difficult to understand, because there is so much info thrown together).
--- Simple keyboard repairs: Funny! And maybe useful. :)
--- Use 3D acceleration hardware: Well, send me a 3D-card! And send one to all those other people in the scene too. Only then you can demand that we should write demos that are 3D-ONLY! There are already several demos that refuse to run, or simply lock up because they are 3D-only and the coder is too lazy to check if the required hardware is in place. And of course, you have to support Glide AND 3Dfx AND DirectX, because MAYBE one of these standards will push the others into oblivion, just like the SB did with the GUS, resulting in literally hundreds of old demos that almost nobody can watch today ("Buy a GUS, lamer!" -> "Gravis is bankrupt, piece of crap!" -> demo is deleted). Again, within a few years, a 3D-card will be as common as a soundcard now, so the problem will solve itself.
--- Compression: Most of this I knew already, but I got some interesting links to explore.
--- Warning, this penguin has teeth: I've won two full Linux-releases at parties, and I sold both of them at university. :) I'm not eager to try a new OS, but it's still interesting to read other people's opinion about them. It may be useful for in the future.
--- "MP3: An unwanted intruder?": Same logical points that have been made several times before: Good for voice & size, bad for ripping... rather boring. :-/
--- Countdown game standards: Hehe, some true statements in the rambling. I'm not really into games anymore, but even I have noticed there are lots of clones out there. But new, innovative ideas will still have success, so compagnies will still try to make them... after which they sell the game-engine for more $$$ than they earned by selling the game. :(
--- Windows versus DOS: Well, I think people have the right to do what they want. The DOS-scene will probably stay here for years, just as the C64-scene, and then there are the DOS-boxes in Linux, alternative DOS-versions like Caldera DOS, etc... Nope, even if it's just to watch old demos, I think lots of sceners will keep a DOS-partition on their HD.
- Literature & Misc
-- Literature
--- Guidelines for literature: Again, why should this become the biggest section in the mag? I've said it before and I'll say it again: diskmags should be about demos.
--- The wake-up call: Great story! It starts a bit strange, lots of words I don't understand (and too lazy to look them up :)), but when the arm is stolen, it becomes really thrilling. I'm looking forward to the next part.
[Editor: There's a special surprise for you in the next part! :)]
--- Escapism: Short, but I like it a lot.
--- Cloning: Hmm, is there a moral in this story? :) I prefer stories with a main character, instead of a narrator, but it's not bad.
--- A valuable lesson: Very good story, and very captivating, I felt really sorry for the little boy. A minor bad point is that the end is a bit predictive, I knew Christopher would be blamed as soon as the head-master walked into the class, looking for the culprit.
--- Writer's block: Oh no, a story about stories. Good thing it's a bit funny, otherwise it would seem the writer is just trying to reach his quota of kilobytes.
-- Humour
--- Relationship with girls versus coding a program: The title is a bit strange. First I thought it was (relationships with girls) vs (coding a program). Similarities between girls and coding... would have been more clear. Anyway, I think diskmags should have more funny articles, so this is a step in the right direction.
--- Bobby Beer goes walkabout: Nice idea. It's not extremely funny, but enjoyable.
--- How to fart...: HoW! 31337 ArTiKlE mAn! Hrmm... No comments.
-- Real World
--- Evolution, politicians and answers: The style and vocabulary are much worse than in the code-related articles. And I don't really get the point. It starts pretty logical, but the end is some kind of philosophical mess. It's not really interesting for me.
--- Thorn in the heart: What can I say? I don't agree with the end. Sometimes thinking can make you happy, instead of depressed. It depends on the mood you're in. I remember a story of a Chinese emperor that asked some wise men to make something that would make him happy when he was sad, and sad when he was happy. At the end, they gave him a ring with the inscription "Even this will pass".
--- Powerless: Make backups: the number one rule that everyone knows and nobody follows. :( I made a quick zip of my current projects and put them on disk, right after reading the article.
--- My opinion on politics: Not very complex, and there are a few errors in there. But I'm not interested in politics anyway.
--- Violence & pixels: Yes, the media and computer(game)s will never mix. In fact, TV, radio & magazines will almost never give a correct, balanced view on anything remotely complex. Books are much better at that.
-- Adult corner: I don't feel this belongs in Hugi, but hey, if there was "very massive request" for it, so be it.
[Editor: As I promised our prudish Swiss friends (see "Pain vs. Hugi Mud-Throwing Contest", this was the last Fake Adult Corner in Hugi.]
OK. Hugi #16 is downloaded. Great.. I like the interface, I like the mag much more than the earlier issues. It rocks. The who say Hugi is the best international disk magazine... they're right! There is no other diskmag which can bring you so many information about the scene and... the other things.
First of all... Thank you. And for the last... Nice reading you.
Slash / CEG
I love you, implement columns and I'll marry you!
Seffren / Defacto 2
Hello HUGI writers,
I think your mag may be called THE mag of the scene, 'coz nothing is better than Hugi! The graphics are great, chicks are great ;), music is of good quality, but maybe you could use some more songs. And the texts are also interesting, so I just want to say you all should keep up the good work!
Sappy / Outlaw Triad
Now read Hugi #17 and send your feedback to hugi@netway.at!
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