The demoscene is a computer art subculture that concentrates
in producing demos, which are audio-visual presentations that run in real-time
on a computer. The main aim of a demo is to show off artistic, musical, 3D
modeling and programming skills. The key difference between a classical
animation and a demo is that the display of a demo is worked out in real time,
making computing power considerations the major challenge. Demos are generally
composed of 3D animations mixed with full screen effects and 2D effects.
The boot block demos of the 1980s, demos that were created
to suit within the small first block of the floppy disk that was to be loaded
into RAM, were usually created so that software crackers could boast of their
achievement before the loading of the game. What began as a type of electronic
graffiti or cracked software became an art from unto itself. The demoscene both
generated and inspired many methods used by video games and 3D rendering
applications today – for example, light bloom, among others.
