Announcement for 2024: The "Let's Make a Demo" workshop takes place as part of the Instanssi 2024 party program! I'm celebrating the fact that my employer, the Faculty of Information Technology of the University of Jyväskylä is sponsoring the Instanssi 2024 event and this year's instance of this workshop. It is also the best place in the world to study, teach, and do research on cool stuff. Be prepared to hear me recite these facts repeatedly throughout the event - it has been paid for. Yet, to clarify, I'm buing a support-class ticket and T-shirt for myself and doing the workshop and all related advertising of my employer pro bono on my spare time.

This is a twisted and obscure piece of code, yes. It was my first attempt at creating a JavaScript library (of any kind...) with the intention of it being used in the production of very small browser-executable files called "intros" in the demoscene parlance.

I am trying to make it very simple and easy for total beginners to use this library to make some simple and creative 3D graphics and participate in a 4k intro competition with their own entries.

This is a work-in-progress that surfaced in March 2019, for the second time, in the beginner-friendly demoparty called Instanssi held in Jyväskylä, Finland. It was then used in Instanssi 2020 and after some COVID-19 hassle, again in Instanssi 2023. The workshop has been announced for Instanssi 2024, too! More information and detailed schedules are being updated at https://instanssi.org/

So, Instanssi 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2023 party programs contained a workshop called "Let's Make a Demo". This is the current instantiation of the "Version 1 series" customized for Instanssi. Even though we've had much fun also with other demo tools in other workshops in other events, this "Version 1 series" continues strictly on the track of 4k intros and with my own base code.

Documentation is generated with the default settings of JSDoc, and not much is written as of yet. My bad. Might improve over time, or might not.

WARNING: The interface may change any time, so for productions you will want to stick with one snapshot version of the library until you've made it to the compo in question!

Author: Paavo Nieminen - known as "The Old Dude" for Instanssi people and "qma" for the wider demoscene community. (My identity crisis with nicknames still persists since the 1990's and being called Flex of The Blues Boys group).

In Instanssi "Let's make a demo 1.x", the goal is to enable each participant to create their own entry in one of two possible competition categories: 4k intro ("pikkiriikkinen" in Finnish) or demo.

The entries will be made from scratch, at the party place, with guidance. The target audience is first-time demo programmers. "Seasoned veterans" are most welcome to hang around at the workshop area, but I hope they'll mostly help in guiding the newcomers, having done their own compo entries mostly before the party starts.

Previous experience in computer graphics is not required of the participants. Programming experience would help, but is not strictly required. Interest and a curious attitude towards demo programming and willingness to work hard towards that goal are most necessary, and also sufficient.

In order to actually make it to the competition before deadline, it is absolutely necessary to allocate dozens of hours of time during the demoparty to also independent programming between the guided hours of the workshop. (Some 4 hours of guidance will be provided each day on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the Instanssi 2024 party.)

What is needed in the workshop:

• Laptop with current Linux, Mac or Windows is required.

• Headphones will help with creating music without distracting others.

• Some software will be needed and installed in the first session:

  • GNU software development tools (Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux, or GNU tools for Mac)

  • Decent code editor such as VSCode

  • A browser that can preview the obfuscated Javascript executable. Tested recently with Chrome Version 110.0.5481.105 (Official Build) (64-bit)

  • Starter package with a barebones example will be made available to participants on-site as a downloadable ZIP file. No need at all to clone or fork this git repository in order to participate! The starter package will contain a snapshot of everything.

The following example schedule assumes the compo deadline to be 6pm on Saturday and the event opening on Thursday around 6pm. If the deadline is earlier, everybody has to wake up earlier to the sessions :). Guidance is given 4 hours per day, so that also the teacher(s) can enjoy the party, mingle, and finalize their own compo entries. Participants should be prepared to work hard between the sessions - otherwise there is little chance of finishing in time.

    Thursday
      18:00  (Assume the party opens for visitors; allow some settling time)
      19:00  Introduction session in main hall: live-coding with starter package
      20:00  Guided workshop session 1/3:
             * meet the people; launch a channel in some instant message sys.
             * install tools and make sure they work on everybody's laptop
             * make sure everybody knows how to modify the starter codes and
               preview results
             * brainstorm ideas for everybody's own entry: what can / cannot
               be done in 3 days.
      00:00- Independent working

    Friday
      14:00  Guided workshop session 2/3:
             * attend to problems encountered in independent work; discuss
               details
             * clarify the creative concepts and re-work them according to
               schedule
             * assess the size limits, decide on intro/demo compo for each entry
             * try making an entry, possibly test on compo machine if possible
             * tool assistance
      18:00- Independent working

   Saturday
     14:00  Guided workshop session 3/3:
            * finalize
            * make sure entries are in the compo system
     18:00  Deadline
     18:00- Enjoy compos and everyone's own entries on screen.

Starting from 2024, I'll keep a log here about what's new and shiny:

• Version 1.4, premiere at Instanssi 2024: Focus on smoother and faster start at first workshop session.

  • "Before workshop" instructions about tools and installations.

  • Video tutorial about creating soundtrack.

  • No need to rename source files - just make a copy of the whole starter example folder and start replacing contents with own.

  • Massively improved comments on starter prod.js

  • No more white fog or hardcoded light. Material parameters well-documented.

  • More customization possible from the participant's prod.js

  • Many small size optimizations suggested by tmptknn at and since last year's Instanssi.

"Version 1.0" of this library was successfully used to produce some 4 productions in Instanssi 2018 compos, most of them 4k intros. After some hours of free time during the following year, I tried to make this much more beginner-friendly, in the spirit of the beginner-friendly event that Instanssi is. In Instanssi 2019, "version 1.1" was already quite workable with guidance. In Instanssi 2020, "version 1.2" was pretty smooth to carry out. Instanssi 2023 had a successful "version 1.3" with 6 intros from the workshop. I don't find myself under pressure to do more than tiny polishing towards "version 1.4". As much as I would like to impress with a new feature every year, the available spare time remains very limited.

There might always be some improvements. I better promise nothing, though; it all depends on the time I can spare. On the current TODO-list would be the following, in priority order:

1. Make it easier and faster to install tools and start modifying the example entry. (Was very easy at Instanssi 2023; lots to download, so starting is bandwidth-heavy. Only a few small things need to be fixed in next version: Small installation guide for tools (done). Simplify info file customization; it is now a nuisance (done). Add some guiding "do this / that here" type of comments to the starter example code. (done) Simplify the example (snowman already quite a load to understand) (deemed unnecessary, with comments). Make the white fog disappear from example (done). Note-to-self: Pick up last year's own entry as a starter example for the following year?(not necessary)). Let's see how it goes 2024 and what new problems lie ahead.

2. Improve documentation to make it easier to work between the guided workshop hours, or use this even for self-study (in the far, far, far future maybe).

3. Gradually move towards WebGL2 features.

4. Make material parameters more intuitive

5. Make it easier to work with different shaders and light sources

6. New features

As of yet, there are quite a few undocumented nuts and bolts around, and it is probably very difficult to go about using this without face-to-face guidance. You have been warned...

In a workshop such as those held in Instanssi 2018-2024, there is enough time to sort out any technical issues together before the compo deadlines.