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What's the most impressive Tech Demo you have ever seen?

Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,069
It doesn't have to be the most technical or newest just the one the has impressed you the most.





Pound for Pound, nothing has ever impressed me as much as the Spaceworld 2000 Gamecube tech demo for Star Wars Rogue Laeder (it didn't even have a name yet)
 

mclem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,442
.kkreiger for ridiculous compactness.

A playable FPS environment in 97,280 bytes



Second Reality C64 for doing something on a platform that really shouldn't be able to

Second Reality PC (original)


Second Reality C64
 
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.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,217



Square Enix's Agni's Philisophy tech demo blew me away back then. Still holds up!
 
Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse

Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,941
Jintor said:
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I think it's gotta be this.

It was Grand Canyon-sized lead in interactivity and realism, unlike anything else I'd ever seen in games up to that point. My friends and I were enamored. The physics, visuals, and animation were staggering.

But the most impressive moment was probably when Freeman stuck the oven in front of the door, causing the combine to punch out the windows. I nearly fainted.
 
Fei

Fei

Member
Oct 25, 2017
582
SpaceWorld 2000 Dolphin tech demo is the one I always go back to. Just stunning for 2000, not to mention that music.

 
Jintor

Jintor

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,401
Betelgeuse said:
But the most impressive moment was probably when Freeman stuck the oven in front of the door, causing the combine to punch out the windows. I nearly fainted.
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haha sucks that was faked (or got taken out later in dev)

i do remember watching this particular one over and over and over again... it took probably a day or two to download on my shithouse connection at the time
 
Kinthey

Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
22,270
That good old nvidia mermaid demo and how we still don't really have a lot of hairphysics

 
I_D

I_D

Member
Oct 27, 2017
572
Shitty quality, but it used to be available in higher resolution.

Peter Molyneux's "The Room" demo has tech in it that still hasn't been matched.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGiPUx9Zgi0


And this PREY demo from 1998 was incredibly ahead of its time.
www.youtube.com

PREY | E3 1998 Infinite MHz Interview | Paul Schuytema of 3D Realms Entertainment

Infinite MHz (aka IMHz) was a TV show from the mid-1990s to early 2001 about PC games. It primarily aired on public-access television cable TV in New England...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
Big G

Big G

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,604


I remember the lighting in this absolutely blowing my mind back in 2002.

As for purely tech demos, the GameCube stuff from Spaceworld that was already posted (Zelda, Rebirth) blew me away back then as well.
 
Rodney McKay

Rodney McKay

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,186
That Half-life 2 demo is one of the lasting ones for me. The physics were just incredible, and doing stuff like pushing a washing machine in front of a door to stop enemies from entering was so cool.
Doom 3 as well for the lighting.

Not sure if it was a tech demo exactly, but early footage and trailers of Kameo on Xbox 360 blew my mind. Seeing thousands of enemies on screen that were actually fighting each other was so cool. I didn't even have an HDTV at the time and it was still an impressive looking game.
 

bastardly

Member
Nov 8, 2017
10,577
All the dolphin stuff was insane, too bad we never got mario 100 too.

What's crazy is Rogue Leader was a launch game and it was still one of the best looking games ever on the NGC
 
Orioto

Orioto

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,716
Paris
My fav memory is the saturn tech demo with panzer dragoon, clockwork knight and that soccer game i think (victory goal maybe ?) cause back then it was the firts time i experienced a "next gen" and it was the stuff dreams are made of, and we just had blurry shots in magazines it was so mysterious, but i can't find a good quality vid of it.
 
xneezy

xneezy

Member
Jul 6, 2018
209
I wouldnt say it's the most impressive thing i have seen but this force unleashed techdemo got me pretty hyped back in the day:
 
MP!

MP!

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,198
Las Vegas
I thought IronFall was DANG impressive what VD-Dev managed to do on 3DS


Bullet Points from the Video
Rendering
-60 FPS (dual screen rendering!!!)
-unlimited Static Lights
-Unlimited Dynamic Lights
-Shadow Mapping
-Ambient Occlusion Mapping
-Normal Mapping
-Multi-Texturing

Post Effects
-Depth of Field
-Glow
-Dead Effect
-Desert Effect (I'm guessing the mirage warping effect)

Big Bang Engine
-100% assembly language
-Custom Graphic Driver
-FPU Optimizations
-SpeedLoading
-7 Million Polygons per second
-Dynamic Audio

Bullet Time
-Slow motion
-Stop Motion
-Real-Time Variation
-Applicable on all moving objects

Particle Flow
-5000 particles
-Realistic Physics
-4 Forces (gravity, acceleration...)
-Link to object
-Unlimited Particle type

Skinning
-256 Bones per mesh
-64 Skinned mesh on screen
-Weapons Link
-smooth blending

Physics
-Pre-Calculated Physics
-Real-Time Data Decompression
-Playable during Gameplay
-Bullet time support
 
Pyro

Pyro

God help us the mods are making weekend threads
Member
Jul 30, 2018
14,505
United States


These SSDs look to eliminate loading screens/almost get rid of them and I can't freakin' wait
 
eebster

eebster

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
1,596
This one. Not only from a technical standpoint with the photorealism, but I think no other tech demo left me so desperate to want to play it as a game. I want a Blade Runner game with exactly this vibe and atmosphere.

 
OneBadMutha

OneBadMutha

Member
Nov 2, 2017
6,059
Killzone 2. Can't wait for that version of the game to release.

Also the Crackdown physics demo. Can't wait for that multiplayer mode to finally come out.
 
Man God

Man God

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,300
The Amiga bouncing ball is up there but yeah, Rogue Squadron was ridiculous. The actual game looks even better than that.
 
finalflame

finalflame

Product Management
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,538
MP! said:
I thought IronFall was DANG impressive what VD-Dev managed to do on 3DS


Bullet Points from the Video
Rendering
-60 FPS (dual screen rendering!!!)
-unlimited Static Lights
-Unlimited Dynamic Lights
-Shadow Mapping
-Ambient Occlusion Mapping
-Normal Mapping
-Multi-Texturing

Post Effects
-Depth of Field
-Glow
-Dead Effect
-Desert Effect (I'm guessing the mirage warping effect)

Big Bang Engine
-100% assembly language
-Custom Graphic Driver
-FPU Optimizations
-SpeedLoading
-7 Million Polygons per second
-Dynamic Audio

Bullet Time
-Slow motion
-Stop Motion
-Real-Time Variation
-Applicable on all moving objects

Particle Flow
-5000 particles
-Realistic Physics
-4 Forces (gravity, acceleration...)
-Link to object
-Unlimited Particle type

Skinning
-256 Bones per mesh
-64 Skinned mesh on screen
-Weapons Link
-smooth blending

Physics
-Pre-Calculated Physics
-Real-Time Data Decompression
-Playable during Gameplay
-Bullet time support
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is easily the most impressive to me. What they achieved on 3DS is simply insane.
 
Man God

Man God

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,300
I just wish Ironfall was more fun to actually play. It's an outstanding achievement.
 
Kinggroin

Kinggroin

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,392
Uranus, get it?!? YOUR. ANUS.
I remember the Nvidia fairy one. And how when I forced it to run on my unsupported card, her clothes weren't rendered, revealing a very naked, very anatomically correct fairy. Sent this info to a few websites at the time.

That's the closest I have ever been to being famous
 
ghibli99

ghibli99

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,704
Virtua Fighter 3's Model 3 demo, which was shown at AOU/E3 '96. I think I watched the loop at E3 about fifty times that year (that Dural part in particular left a lasting impression on me)...

YouTube doesn't seem to have a good quality version of it, just this blurry 240p one:

 
ElCidTmax

ElCidTmax

Member
Oct 28, 2017
693
youtu.be

Tomb Raider 3Dfx Alpha Demo (May 7, 1996)

This is one of the earliest playable versions of Tomb Raider. Despite being shipped on an installation disc for the Diamond Monster 3D in October 1996, this ...
youtu.be youtu.be

The early Glide/3Dfx ports were incredible. Literally everything changed for PC 3d graphics/games going forward.
 
Crossing Eden

Crossing Eden

Member
Oct 26, 2017
53,300
Even though there are better looking ones now I was flabbergasted at the sight of this.




Jakisthe said:
Infamously, this one:


Absolutely bonkers for 2005.
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This is CGI.

smurfx said:
wow we've actually surpassed this now. i remember being blown away by this and i refused to believe it was fake gameplay because i wanted graphics to look like that.
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Lol no we haven't. We just have games that don't look gritty and grey 100% of the time. That a CG trailer, doing stuff that isn't feasible at all in realtime when the engine is used for more than just rendering pretty visuals.
 
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MysteryM

MysteryM

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,748
I loved seeing halo 2 - Zanzibar multiplayer being demoed at E3. Still one of my favourite e3 moments ever.
 
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