<html><head><title>Review of Xtreme</title></head><!--(c) G.C. '98 A.R.R.-->
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<center><h3>Review of Xtreme</h3></center>
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 Hailed as the first Acorn demo produced by multiple groups in different countries, Xtreme is a successful demo, which nicely manages to combine techniques requiring the power of the RiscPC and those for working at speed on lesser machines.
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 For a start, this demo could not really be described as small: it comes on four high density discs (if you don't get it on CD ROM), but won't run from these, requiring perhaps as much as five free megabytes on your hard drive, or, at least, on a fairly hefty RAM disc. Moreover, you'll need a two meg machine, unless you don't mind the <i>best bits</i> not appearing. This may not be such a problem, however, for Archie users, because the bigger bits of the demo are clipped out, if the machine isn't a RiscPC, sometimes due to the processing power required for the segments, but also the need for twenty four bit colour in some segments.
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 The demo is split up into more than twenty segments, split up over eight executables, each sequentially called. You can choose, from the icon bar menu, whether the to enable the smaller segments at the start of each absolute file, called, surprisingly enough, loaders. The entire collection is bookended by intro and exit sequences; the <i>credits</i> in the intro, the contributors' names flying into the foreground, are a very nice touch; I also have a particular fondness for the music on the closing credits, which are all very cleanly presented.
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 Each of the segments has been produced by one or more of the contributors, as a separate entity. A few feature particularly intriguing sprite transformation sequences, including one where a monochrome, cloud-like image has its edges spreading off from the edge of the screen in a very smooth, swirly sort of way; this section also incorporates a fly through a plane with the sprite mapped onto the sky and ground. Another bit I personally like is the voxel sequence; unlike most others (including another in the demos section of PDCD4), this one takes the viewpoint of a hiker, who appears to have inherited his speed at climbing hills from Superman.
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 One very good element, which was perhaps let down a little, was the set of 3D vector graphics objects, from composers to cows, some plotted with the standard gouraud light shading, some with a more advanced technique, known (erroneously) as phong, and one with a chrome surface. These were very nice objects, with fast 3D engines, but the design of the segments faltered: most of the objects only moved linearly, or rotated a bit, with some just staying fixed on the screen, complemented with light sources dancing around them, otherwise in darkness, an intentional effect and a good one, but sometimes making it difficult to make out the object itself. A demo needs design as well as code and having well-rendered objects remaining static, in most directions, for most of the time, did somewhat waste a good opportunity.
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 To see the whole of the demo, a RiscPC, with at least a meg of VRAM, is needed, although the segments left out for the slower machines aren't noticeable by their absence. My ARM 610 is very proficient at plotting almost all of the demo, with the possible exception of the phong segments, which do come out a tad slow. Most of the segments seemed to run very well, even when I turned the cache off, so I doubt that ARM 3 machines, or even those equipped with an ARM 250, would have any problems either, although some bits <i>might</i> just possibly be a bit sluggish on an ARM 2; don't consider this a reason not to buy the demo, however, because the speed lag just won't be serious enough to really spoil the graphics. Thankfully, ARM 2 users will still probably be able to see the penultimate segment, entitled <i>Billy's W.C.</i>; I'll leave you to figure out whos <i>that</i> is...
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 This is a worthy demo, presenting some unusual graphical oddities and swift code, but, overall, it is let down slightly by the same reason <a href="Dreams">Liquid Dreams</a> is: cohesion. These demo segments, apart from in one or two places, don't really seem to have a reason to be together other than as as common release; the themes change abruptly between sections, most seriously felt when music is cut off in the middle of the track to change to another segment, the monitor clicking as the mode changes. But, this is still a great collection of <i>demolets</i> to have in your possession.
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Authors: Gil/BASS, Excelsior, Phil/BASS, Armoric/Arm's Tech, Jo/BASS, Eddie xxx, Jan/BASS, with music by The DFI Crew, Bit/Eon, Master/Silents OK, Ascender/Ind, Balrog, Jester/Pygmy Production, Joker Team, Purple Motion/FC, Hydra/Devils, MW and RL, Dezecrator/Classic, Zodiac, Hellrazor/Trsi, Chorus/Majic Twelve, Bo Pamier, Pitty/Dytec, NHP/Anarchy, Mel O'Dee/Shadows and other unknown musicians, with models by Miller and other unknown modellers<br>
Status: Freeware<br>
Availability: Most PD libraries should have a copy, in their demo collection; it can be obtained on PDCD5 and PDCD4, although the version on PDCD5 does seem to be corrupted in places, clobbering some of the very best bits<br>
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