<html><head><title>Reviews of Blu and Era</title></head><!--(c) G.C. '98 A.R.R.-->
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<center><h3>Reviews of Blu and Era</h3></center>
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 The Xperience have only, so far, produced three graphics demos (in addition to one music compilation) for RISC OS, two of which are for the RiscPC. They charge almost fifty pounds for PD libraries to distribute their productions. Once you've seen their demos, however, you get a better understanding of why PD libraries have paid.
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 The Xperience's RiscPC demos have been produced for demo conventions, their first 64k intro, Blu, produced for Fried Bits 3, and the second, Era, for SILIconvention '97. Although neither of these <i>require</i> StrongARM processors, they are recommended for Era, but, in the case of both demos, very few sequences need that sort of power and my ARM 610 is quite capable of displaying most of the effects fairly fast. Both require at least 1 megabyte of VRAM and 4 megs of DRAM, with Era needing two more of the latter. Even though the two demos are roughly the same length, Era weighs in at 1.61 megs, compared with Blu's 72.3 Kb; understandably, you'll either need space on the hard drive or a large RAM disc to run the larger of the two.
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 The group was relatively new at the time they presented Blu and the deliciously nauseating, lullaby-inspired theme introducing the <i>Acorn scene text</i> for the demo may have convinced some foolish people that a 3D world populated with happy bunnies should be expected. Oh, dear. By comparison, Era launches itself into its introduction with a superb sequence, including variably light-sourced polygons, a lens flare effect and an original way to form their name.
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 Era has a distinctly spacey theme: it includes several segments with a starry background and the formation of planets in the solar system, something definitely demanding a StrongARM. Near the end, it becomes clear that the designers of the demo have been watching <i>Mars Attacks!</i> far too much, as a fleet of flying saucers cruises through space.
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 Both demos contain a fluid simulator, simpler in Blu, with dark patches moving over the blue backdrop, and more complex in Era, where the globules of liquid draw together and spring apart spontaneously. Both also include a fire effect, used in Era to burn down the logo, a 3D image of the title, with a well-coloured space background.
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 Blu includes a <i>cubic voxelspace</i> sequence, which does a remarkable job of looking like a coral reef, especially as the sea bed fades to blue in the distance.
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 In both demos, the whole affairs are linked with the Digital Symphony tracks, provided by Cry. The music is very well matched with each demo and superbly synchronised to the action in the foreground; it is clear musician and designer have worked very closely on getting the demo to link together.
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 What can I say? Both of these demos display complex effects fluidly, even with ARM 610s, are terribly well presented, look very professional and are two super elements, if not centrepieces, in any RiscPC demo collection.
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Name: Blu<br>
Authors: Twin, Spice, Lunatic and Skandor, with music by Cry<br>
Status: Freeware<br>
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Name: Era<br>
Authors: Twin, Spice, Zeeron, Lunatic and Skandor, with music by Cry, with some additional raytracing by Animal/SOD<br>
Status: Freeware<br>
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Availability: Some PD libraries will have a copy, in their demo collection; they can be obtained on PDCD5<br>
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