Terms and Conditions 


1. Entry is open to anyone owning or having access to a PlayStation 2 Linux Kit, except for employees, agents, contractors or consultants of Sony Computer Entertainment companies or their families, professional PlayStation 2 games developers or other persons assisting with this competition.

2. To enter, create a graphical demonstration using Vector Unit 1 in accordance with the attached technical specifications ("Demo"). Submit the Demo code including the source code, along with your name and the Demo name by e-mail to coding_competition@scee.net. Please also state whether you agree to have your playstation2-linux.com username displayed next to your entry on www.playstation2-linux.com.

3. No purchase necessary. One entry per person only.

4. Closing date for entries is midnight GMT on 21 July 2003. 

5. By participating, entrants agree to be bound by these rules.

6. All entries received by the closing date will be judged by a panel of staff within Sony Computer Entertainment Europe ("SCEE") and Sony Computer Entertainment America ("SCEA"). The votes will be counted by SCEE whose decision is final. In the event of a tie, three members of SCEE's Technology Group will cast a tie-breaking vote. Entries will be judged 50% on creativity and 50% on originality. SCEE reserves the right to disqualify entries deemed not to be in accordance with these rules or any entries it deems unsuitable, including but not limited to entries featuring gratuitous depiction of violence or sexual behaviour or other inappropriate material. The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

7. Entrants warrant that the Demo is their original, unpublished and sole work.

8. One grand prizewinner will win a black 18" LCD monitor model SDM-X82/B and the runner-up a limited edition colour PlayStation 2.  All other entrants will receive a PlayStation branded gift (with approximate retail value of 5.00)

9. The winner and runner-up will be notified by e-mail within 14 days of the closing date.

10. The grand and runner-up prizes may take up to ten weeks to deliver. The winner and runner-up will be contacted immediately prior to delivery and must confirm their postal address by return. SCEE will bear the cost of delivery but neither SCEE nor its affiliates, subsidiaries, divisions or related companies shall be responsible for any taxes, duties or other expenses which may be incurred by the winner/runner-up as a result of this competition or receipt of the prize.  The prize will lapse if not the subject of a valid claim by 21 October 2003.  Gifts will be delivered 4 to 6 weeks after the closing date. 

11. Prizes are subject to availability and SCEE reserves the right to substitute for alternative prizes of similar or greater value. Prizes are non-transferable and no cash or other alternatives will be offered.

12. The name and country of residence of all entrants will be posted on www.playstation2-linux.com.  Where entrants have registered on www.playstation2-linux.com and have agreed to receive additional community mailings by ticking the relevant box, or where they have given their permission when submitting their entry, their playstation2-linux.com username will also be displayed.

13. SCEE gives no warranty or guarantee in relation to the prizes and entrants hereby release and hold SCEE and its agents harmless from any and all liability, injuries, loss or damage of any kind arising from SCEE's (or its agents') participation in the competition or the acceptance or use of any prizes. 

14. All entries will become the sole property of SCEE and none will be returned. In return for receiving their prizes, entrants hereby agree to execute an assignment transferring and assigning all of his or her rights, title and interest in the Demo and any drawings or other documentation on which the Demo is based.  If the winner and/or runner-up is a minor, the prize will be awarded to the their parent or legal guardian.

15. SCEE shall not be responsible for lost, delayed, corrupt, illegible, incomplete or misdirected entries or for any technical, hardware or software failures of any kind or for lost, unavailable or failed network connections. 

16. By submitting their Demo, entrants acknowledge that SCEE or one of its affiliates may be independently developing, now or in the future, material that resembles their Demo and they hereby waive any rights or claims against SCEE or its affiliates concerning any Demo they submit.

17. These terms and conditions will not affect the statutory rights of entrants. Nothing in these terms and conditions excludes or limits the liability of SCEE for death or personal injury caused by its negligence.

18. Name, likeness and photographs of the grand prizewinner and runner-up may be used for publicity purposes. 

19. SCEE reserves the right to modify these rules, suspend or discontinue this competition at any time. 

20. These rules are governed by English law. The offer to participate in this competition does not extend to persons resident in countries where local, state, provincial or national laws prohibit the promotion of, operation of or participation in sweepstakes, lotteries or similar competitions.

21. Promoter is Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited of 30 Golden Square, London W1F 9LD, UK.

Privacy Statement

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd will use the details you provide for entry into the competition only. Any address details provided will be used for the sending of prizes, and then deleted within one month of distributing prize goods.

E-mail addresses and names for each entry will be retained, but only for use with respect to this competition.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

General Criteria

The object of the competition is to create the most graphically impressive and unique demo program just using Vector Unit 1.  There are infinite things that can be done graphically, but squeezing it all into the VU memory and making it appealing to your peers who will judge it will be the trick.

Sponsor will supply the harness for entrant's Demo code to execute from.  Technical specifications are provided to comply with the harness.

Code, data, and a help file are stored as binary on disk.  The data and help files are loaded at the start of the demo and the code is executed every frame until the next demo is loaded.

As all the demos have to cooperate with the host program, no changes to the host program are permitted.

Submission Materials

All entrants submitting a Demo must provide 3 files and a string.  

Data File

A data file to be loaded into the vector unit at address 0.  This is not loaded by DMA but rather by a direct copy operation so no dma or vif information should be embedded in the data.
The data file can fill VU1 memory except for the last qword.  This qword is updated every frame by the host program and provides the address of the current and previous frame buffers.  It also provides a random number every frame and digital pad input from controller 1.

Code File

A code file to be loaded into the vector unit at address 0.

The code file can be made using VCL (encouraged), hand written vu microcode or any other means.  Object files made from VU assembly code using ee-dvp-as should be converted to a binary using ee-objcopy that can be loaded at run time.  An example showing how to do this under Linux is provided in the submission distribution.

The code file can fill the micro memory entirely.

Help File

A help file to be loaded into main ram and displayed whenever the user presses the Select button.  This should be a plain text file with up to 20 lines of text, each line being 75 characters or less.  If the demo is non-interactive, the first line of the help file should read "This demo is non-interactive".  If the demo is interactive, it should display help text in the following format:

Pad:  <control description>
X:  <control description>
Triangle: <control description>
Circle: <control description>
Square: <control description>
Start: <control description>
R1: <control description>
R2: <control description>
R3: <control description>
L3: <control description>
Left Stick: <control description>
Right Stick: <control description>

The remaining lines may be used for any useful information such as flavor text/description of technique used/etc.

Text String

The text string can be up to 50 characters in length and should contain the name of the demo as well as the name of the author.

When the demo is running it will display this string as well as the entry number it was assigned at the bottom of the screen.  This information will be used to distinguish between demos in the judging process.

Notes on the Host Program

The host program sets up a display environment in much the same manner as the SCEI sample code.  Four 640 x 224 buffers are allocated in VRAM for use by the host.  The first three buffers are for the frame buffer and z buffer.  The fourth 640 x 224 buffer is allocated for the help menu, which is created once at load time and rendered via the pcrtc merge circuit.  Since the fourth buffer is considered part of the host program, any changes or uploads to vram such as screen effects/texture uploads should be done outside of this memory area.

The host program should be relatively self-explanatory.  It parses an ini file which provides a list of all the demo entries.  These are then loaded into memory.

Notes on using the pad in Demos

Please note that the following pad buttons are reserved for the host program and should not be used in the application:  Select, L1, and L2.


www.playstation2-linux.com Public 2003 VU Coding Competition

