Welcome to our site (last updated 9/2006)
Impulse Tracker III Pulse MP player Audio Mate engine Fire Component system Outer Visual Engine
Orcave communication (Pulse MP, Impulser tracker III, ...)
A long time
ago, 'Unreal' group was formed. The roots came from the C-64 scene, somewhere
around 1989. The group was formed from 2 existing groups, called 'Area team' and
'Bohemia'. The name had NOTHING in common with Unreal game or demo.
PC
production The first
thing after we got our PCs was to connect C64 and make nicer C64 production.
After a year, we also wanted to do something more, so, PG got an idea about
what we should work on... Game... What else? :o) So. We started to do an audio
engine. PMODE 32 bit DOS based of course... After a HDD crash we lost some
sources, so we moved to the dull world of Windows 95 and started again. We
were testing our audio engine on a small player. We named it "Pulse".
As time was pasing and we made few games to make some money, we decided to make
a freeware project IT3. Just for fun. Very soon we met some people. Anthony Bisset
and few others. They basically offered us to pay for the development,
We agreed and started working together. We worked with
one German company, before we met Anthony. We created 'DSPaudio' company,
registered com/net/org and and worked together on some stuff. For many reasons,
we broke with that German company and let Anthony use DSPaudio name, and make business around it.
You know DSPaudio site. At the beginnings, Anthony told us: Hey, I need MAC,
BSD, Windoze and few other executables. In different words, he requested 'multi
platform' thing and a very professional program, not a 'scene' thing. We told
him, if he understands that WE HAVE TO SCRATCH current IT3 sources and start
from ZERO. He seemed to understand. We basically
scratched old IT3 project and started from the beginning again.
Starting with 'platform independent layer' we named it 'Fire Component'.
A big thing was done. It had over ~70.000 lines of sources (don't
expect that it's just an enhanced auto configuration). It is really an independent component
based on a multi platform core, already ported to BSD systems (for testing purposes).
It allows us to make big projects without making different sources. But let's
skip technical details for now. For FC we have also done audio and video engine,
which makes from the base thing real 'development platform' in the right meaning
of the word. The major part of the audio system is finished, we are right
now working on visual engine, which helps to cover system differences and
makes powerful environment. Don't forget full scripting engine, which allows
user to use scripts *EVERYWHERE* in the end product (another ~20.000 lines).
In the meantime, due to Anthony's and our business mistakes, we had to work on old project
- Pulse player. We had to make install shield, web updating tool, video playback support,
playlist database and *many* other things. So in 2 years, we worked on
IT3 itself only about 17 months or so. It seems that Anthony never 'understood'
what he initially requested. What happened after?
We get many
emails a day, so, we prepared small FAQ to answer your questions about this topic.
Feel free to have any more questions and comments. Q: Is the whole
project dead? Q: Why did you leave
DSP audio? Q: What do
you think about FLAW? Q: Will be
IT3 freeware ? Q: Will IT3
work on Linux/BSD/... ? Q: Why is there
no public beta? Q: When is it ready,
when ?
Q: I am coder/gfxer/designer/.. And I want to help. How ?
Q: What is new goal of the tracker ?
Q: Where is
the official home page of Impulse Tracker III, Pulse player, Audio Mate and other? Our thanks
A brief history of Unreal
A: No, IT3 is NOT dead, we are still working on it. Please be patient with us!
A: You are right, our team has NO LONGER anything in common with Anthony's team, which
has NOTHING common with original team or something. We 'gave' DSP audio name
to Anthony. We wish him good luck with FLAW.
A: DSP audio started FLAW instead of working 100% on one product. It is NOT
based on our platform which we created for IT3. We can't say anything, because
we don't know FLAW. Technically (internally) it doesn't bring anyhing new. It
is standard one-shot application with 'hard' portable base (autoconf &
#ifdef style). On the the other side, it can be pretty nice in audio. IT3
is a bit "conservative" in audio. As we know, FLAW is completely
different. We can't say if FLAW will be ever done - it depends only on Anthony
and his new team. Good luck. We also don't think, it will be direct IT3 competitor.
It is just a 'normal' one-shot application, without any strong background/design.
FLAW will not surpass IT3 in features/portability. They are using IT3 internal
technology (EP's, IP's, ...), but the technology is used as-is, without "philosophy/technical
background". We are sorry about it, but FLAW can't be "soo"
different. All core design comes from IT3. We do not care if they will use
our technology or not. As far we know, DSPaudio have different structure of writing notes/song.
A: We will probably have a free version. We will let you know. On the
other side, we need to live from something, so, we will focus on professional
audio SW. We will publish all details on official pages.
A: Our 'portable' core will be probably GPL Open Source, and then
anyone can port the whole product anywhere. Porting whole IT3 stuff (megs
of binary files) requires only 300Kb of sources to be ported. All other files
stays untouched. But nothing of this information is final, wait
please for official pages.
A: More than 100.000 lines were already done for IT3. We had only one programmer
who worked for the whole time. Now the team is finally bigger :)
A: We tried to explain, this is NOT a simple project, we are trying to do
something like Maya is in graphics world. We have enough resources and we hope, we will
succeed. Keep supporting us, and we will try give you the best.
But it will not work without BUSINESS which makes money to do that. We are not happy with living in $ based world,
but there is no choice. Please, we are sorry that we had to turn to PROFESSIONAL
sphere. It doesn't mean we will not keep track of it2/community, it just means,
we have to make money somewhere. All these pieces of information, with dates,
products, etc. will be published when WEB site is done. We will keep
you informed.
A: We appreciate any offer. Send us an email with references to some your older work. We will also
welcome new members for our team.
A: We don't change the main goal. We still want to keep our support for the scene.
A: You will be able to find it on on the web site of big company called Orcave. When the site is ready, we will let you know.
The company focuses on hardware, software, solutions, ... Strong enough to make long term projects.
Please, feel free to ask Ray (ray@unreal64.net) any questions. We will try to answer your emails if we are able to. Please, read the questions above carefuly to prevent asking things that are already answered.