These demos are always so impressive.
I am always a bit disappointed though that such creativity is always restricted to demo comps while we are stuck with relatively mundane, static visuals in games.
I am always a bit disappointed though that such creativity is always restricted to demo comps while we are stuck with relatively mundane, static visuals in games.
In fact, many game programmers are also involved in the demoscene; For instance, the guys who created Max Payne were a part of the infamous Future Crew.
And once you do start incorporating other elements like AI, level geometry, physics, etc to make things interesting, you'll no longer have the luxury of allocating all your computational resources for graphical eyecandy.
Smash of Fairlight who wrote the 2nd placed demo is in the games industry (at Sony Europe IIRC): http://directtovideo.wordpress.com/about/
(And one can take shortcuts in games that cannot take in real simulations.)