LMAO Aliens :)

Never hurts to ask Etus.

err...u mean us aliens couldnt enter before?

Wow, so it looks like the consensus is that there really isnt a consensus. It does look like there are a lot of good ideas though...

How bout a "Dats sum wak shit" contest. The theme would be open to the point where the goal is to make a "typical programmer" say "Dats sum wak shit".

We can also create a contest centered around some art (bc it seems like that is our week point). Everyone is given a piece of music and you have to make a demo that fits.

No cell shading, no such effects!
Leave theme free!! This is the best!
By giving cell shading theme you automatically excludes people who doesn't have GF 6800 or FX! I have GF4 and I made great effects (in my opinion) but giving "who can do the best effect" is really saying: "who have he best video card and more texture units to use".

The idea with music thas is given is not so bad, because theme is free. I don't know where to get music for my demo so :/ I know that music makes the whole impression. Demo without music is no so good (could you watch LOTR without music? or Matrix without music? I couldn't).

Wow. lots of ideas here.

As a first note, I'm NOT going to enter the contest ; so, just like Evil, I'm rather giving ideas to help entrents rather than giving ideas I'd like to implement myself.

I personnaly don't like the 28th apocalypse contest neither the 4th LOTR (yes, FOURTH). It's like we run out of ideas if we repeat the same themes everytime. :(

I like the good and evil theme (BTW, who is Good? ... nm) ; the dream theme is cool too, but I don't think they can drive a practical theme. It's just too vague as it is. Maybe some limitations would be better, like "heaven and hell".

I for one would never go for the music contest. First we will have lots of problems with copyrights (we already have problems when we leave the music capability free to the entrants) and not everyone know how to work/sync with the music. We're 3D programmers, not sound programmers. Then the quality of the content will be very subject to what kind of music the voters like, which may not match the entrant's likings.

The cel-shading theme is too open too I think. BTW, you don't need a GeForceFX to render cel-shaded models. I've submitted a program that does it with ARB_vp/fp/vbo but the initial tutorial runs on any graphics card that supports OpenGL1.0 (yes, 1.0!).

As a side note, I prefer effect-based demos rather than theme-based demos, like NeHe suggested. Themes are very subject to the likings of the entrant. For instance, could you be inspired by a Van Helsing contest if you didn't like the movie ... or if you just didn't see it ?

I think the time line should be around two months. Week-long contests are not reasonable for anyone not visiting the site daily. And half-year-long contests are just too much : not everyone can handle such long time work. Many of us have a life besides 3D programming ya'know :p

On Topic:
I probably wont be able to enter, but if I could, a non realistic theme or one with art assests as a starting point would be interesting.

Off topic:
Yeah, I've done cel shading with only simple opengl calls. It may not be as fast, but it isn't bad (80k tris, drawn twice each at 24 fps).

Quote:
Many of us have a life besides 3D programming ya'know :p

We're programmers, we can program as many lives as we want ;)

lol, a "bugs bunny and tweety show" theme would be cool bc all the music is free (all classical)...not too sure about the royalties though.

Ok, I`m here... I guess you`d all wanna see how my dream looked like huh ? :)

Anyways I`d propose a BulletTime theme, I`m just crazy about BulletTime & MotionBlur, that way I could get inspired to continue my work at a game that`s based upon that & more

or... Final Fantasy ? any FF Fan around ?

It sounds as if we are leaning toward another creative contest, where you pack in as many effects as possible. There are tons of previous examples to utilize from last time. I'm still pushing for a 3 month contest.