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PC Competitions

General Information

  • The exact hardware specs of the Compo Machine are :
    • CPU: Core i7-2700K@3.5GHz
    • Mainboard: Mainboard Asus P8Z68-M PRO
    • RAM: 16GB RAM
    • Graphics: nVidia 680GTX w/ 2048MB
    • OS : Win7 64bit with then latest DirectX and stable NVidia drivers.
  • Name the graphics hardware that your entry is compatible with on the submission form ("Compatibility Chart"). If not we will choose and/or declare your entry as non-working.
  • Limit yourself to the following resolutions: 640x480 (4:3), 1024x768 (4:3), 1280x720 (16:9) and 1920x1080 (16:9) pixels at 60 Hz. For any other resolution/refresh rate we'll have to configure the beamer while your demo is playing. And you probably don't want that.
  • All entries will be shown using aspect-ratio preserving stretch; that is, 4:3 and 16:10 video modes will be pillarboxed (with a black border at the left and right sides), while 16:9 images get to use the full area of the big screen. We will not stretch 4:3 demos horizontally to fill the whole screen. Most importantly, do not set a 4:3 video mode then perform letterboxing yourself (it will needlessly cause your entry to be shown smaller than it needs to be).
  • Pressing either ESC or Alt-F4 has to end the demo instantly.
  • The entry has to be delivered as single .zip or .rar file.
  • We will not install any additional redistributable packages. For your demo it's good to be sure that any additional dlls are packed into your release
  • Provide the graphics settings you want used, as we don't have time to try out multiple configurations for each production. Best is to set sensible defaults for the compo.
  • If you're nice, please also provide a video file of your production for the people who can't watch it in realtime. Please make it an mp4 file with h.264 video (30fps, Main Level <=4.1, two pass encoding, either 1280x720@>=3mbps or 1920x1080@>=6mbps) and AAC audio (stereo, at least 128kpbs). And please don't put it into your release archive.

Windows Specific

  • The compo machine will be installed with Windows 7 64bit, however all entries have to be supplied in 32bit exe format and be able to run in a 32bit environment!
  • We will provide the then-latest DirectX distributables.
  • The "Media" and "Music samples" directories will be deleted from the compo machine.
  • DotNet Entries: We will install the then-current version and patches of the latest DotNet runtime.
  • And in case someone might still have this mad idea: We will not install any drivers or virtual machines to provide or improve DOS compatibility.

Linux Specific

  • For Linux entries we will use the then recent 32bit version of WuBi (http://wubi-installer.org/) with the default selection of packages.
  • We will install the then-current NVidia Linux driver.
  • You will get 10 (ten) minutes to get your production to run on the compo machine.

Mac Specific

  • Exact Mac compo machine will be announced at a later date.
  • Make sure that your entry works on an external display.

Demo

  • No maximum filesize.
  • Maximum running time: 8 minutes (including loading/precalc).
  • Java entries are allowed but you need to provide your own runtime in the submitted archive. This runtime will not be installed on the compo machine so you will have to start your production using the command line switches.

64K Intro

  • Maximum file size is 65536 bytes for the executable. All other files in the archive will be deleted before showing the entry in the competition.
  • Maximum running time: 8 minutes (including loading/precalc).
  • We will not install any additional Runtimes, SDKs, codecs, drivers etc. on the compo machine. This means that, among others, msvcr70.dll, msvcr71.dll and msvcr80.dll will not be available.
  • You may not use the contents of the Windows "Media" or "Music Samples" directories. These directories will be deleted on the compo machine.
  • Java entries are not allowed
  • DotNet entries are allowed when they follow the rules listed above.

4K Intro

  • Maximum running time: 8 minutes (including loading/precalc).
  • Import by ordinal for DLLs with non-fixed ordinals is forbidden (don't even think about directly jumping into DLLs with hardcoded offsets!). Please use alternative, more compatible techniques like muhmacs import by hash to save on executable size or just use a 4k packer like Crinkler, which does this automatically.
  • It is okay to deliver bigger versions of the 4k along with the compo version (which must be <=4096 bytes) in the same archive. We will not show the bigger version in the compo. If your packer doesn't work on the compo machine, it's your problem. We will be able to provide you with details about the compo machine, though.
  • We will not install any additional Runtimes, SDKs, codecs, drivers etc. on the compo machine. This means that, among others, msvcr70.dll, msvcr71.dll and msvcr80.dll will not be available.
  • You may not use the contents of the Windows "Media" or "Music Samples" directories. These directories will be deleted on the compo machine.
  • Java entries are not allowed
  • DotNet entries are allowed when they follow the rules listed above.

Overview