This Dumb Industry: What is Vulkan?

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Nov 22, 2016

Filed under: Column 92 comments

People have been asking me about Vulkan. Maybe you’ve seen it in the gaming news: Vulkan is coming! Vulkan is the next big thing! Developers are excited about Vulkan! Being a naturally curious gamer, you want to know what this new thing is and what it means. So you look it up, and you find something to the effect of:

Vulkan is a graphics and compute API from Kronos Group that provides high-efficiency, cross-platform access to modern GPU.

It’s a definition that explains one thing you don’t know in terms of half a dozen other words you don’t know. All you know is that it has something to do with graphics, and figuring out what this is and why it’s happening is starting to look like more trouble than it’s worth.

Sorry about that. We programmers are really bad at explaining things. We over-use jargon and are generally bad at adjusting explanations for non-technical people. But you’re in luck. While all the other programmers are min-maxers who dumped their skill points into logic and mathematics or whatever, I actually snuck a few points into communication skills. So I think I can untangle this for you.

But we are going to need just a little bit of jargon. Going back to that original definition of Vulkan, there’s at least one mystery term we need to sort out. That’s this one:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “This Dumb Industry: What is Vulkan?”

 


 

Diecast #177: Gaming News Hot Takes

By Shamus Posted Monday Nov 21, 2016

Filed under: Diecast 94 comments



Hosts: Josh, Rutskarn, Shamus, Campster, Jin. Episode edited by Rachel.

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #177: Gaming News Hot Takes”

 


 

Shamus Plays WoW#10: Murloc Madness

By Shamus Posted Sunday Nov 20, 2016

Filed under: WoW 15 comments

“So Marshal Dughan sent us to the other side of the forest to investigate this Murloc business,” I ask. I do this because sometimes I stop paying attention when master is doing something really, really stupid.

“Yes. He said the reports of Murlocs are ‘sketchy’.”

“Even though he could walk around back of the building where he’s standing and see Murlocs?”

“Yes. But remember, we’re talking about the other side of the forest, here. He won’t send troops until he can be sure.”

We reach the edge of the the forest and find Guard Thomas stationed at one end of a wooden bridge. Norman explains the deal.

“Yes,” Guard Thomas tells us, “Murlocs have settled around the streams of the forest.”

We're FINALLY moving away from the farmlands around Goldshire. At this point a typical player is about level 10.
We're FINALLY moving away from the farmlands around Goldshire. At this point a typical player is about level 10.

“Okay,” says Norman, “Just write that down and I can take it back to Marshal Dughan, and he can send you some troops.”

“Well, see…” Guard Thomas wavers.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Shamus Plays WoW#10: Murloc Madness”

 


 

Until Dawn EP6: Bath Time

By Shamus Posted Friday Nov 18, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 95 comments


Link (YouTube)

Here is the story about freezing pipes I promised in this episode.

Chris takes a moment to hate on the show Heroes. I agree. That show was terrible and frustrating. It had all of these interesting ideas, but they were buried under awful ideas, then undermined by inconsistent characters, before being ruined by directionless writing. The first season of the show had no idea what it wanted to be about or where any of the plot threads were going. It took me a long time to realize the writers had no plan. They would introduce an idea, toy with it, then wander off and do something else. I kept waiting for all those ideas to come together. I couldn’t believe the show was as random and scattershot as it seemed, which is why I hung around so long.

Despite the title, there weren’t any “Heroes” in the show. Nobody dedicated themselves to helping people. They just fought each other. Or rather, they spent 99% of an episode talking about fighting each other, and then there would be some embarrassing special effects as the fight began, and then we’d cut away and return once the fight was over, because if there was one thing this superhero show hated more than a coherent plot, it was excitement. You’ll see more action watching old Perry Mason reruns.

I think a big part of the problem is that I was really hungry for superhero stories. The Spider-Man series had just been run into the ground. Same goes for the X-Men movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was still a year or so away. If I’d realized we were on the threshold of a new age of brilliant cinematic superhero adaptations, I never would have bothered with this cheap, sad, dull, incoherent, idiotic band of no-name non-heroic mopes.

I guess the Japanese guy who could travel through time was pretty cool sometimes.

 


 

Until Dawn EP5: Corndogs?

By Shamus Posted Thursday Nov 17, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 50 comments


Link (YouTube)

There’s a jumpscare right around the 14:30 mark here, and it doesn’t make any sense. It’s a jumpscare for the audience and not the characters, which is a problem I’d just been complaining about a few seconds earlier. Mike is looking through the binoculars and a face appears. For one thing, the face is very close. Since the characters are standing on top of a steep slope / small cliff, I have no idea how anyone could stand that particular distance in front of the binoculars without hovering above the ground. More importantly, Mike gives no reaction whatsoever. Either Mike is in on this murder (in the style of Scream) or the storyteller is engaging in flagrant shenanigans.

Josh suggested that maybe it was Jessica jumping in front of the binoculars for a second, but if you freeze the frame you get:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Until Dawn EP5: Corndogs?”

 


 

Crash Dot Com Part 2: The Art Coder

By Shamus Posted Thursday Nov 17, 2016

Filed under: Personal 56 comments

It’s now 1999, and I have an odd job. Our product is a multi-user social environment. In four years, Second Life will show up and make a more successful version of this idea, but for right now we’re doing pretty good. Sometimes clients come along and ask us to build custom environments for them. A lot of these projects land on my desk.

I’m technically an “artist” in the sense that a lot of my job involves creating models and textures. But I’m more an engineer in terms of inclination and skill set. I don’t have a solid grip on aesthetics and I really envy my fellow artists who can nail a particular architectural style like “Gothic”, “modern”, “whimsical”, or whatever. I don’t have the flair for that sort of work. When I need to make something, I have a very literalist, brute-force approach to designing stuff. If someone sends me sketches or reference photos for what they want, I’m likely to just build exactly what I’m shown, while the real artists on the team are able to get the “vibe” the client is going for.

In any case, I see myself as a bridge between artists and engineers. I make tools to help automate some of the drudgery work of the art pipeline and sometimes I come up with solutions to time-consuming problems.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Crash Dot Com Part 2: The Art Coder”

 


 

Until Dawn EP4: Guest Starring Wolverine

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Nov 16, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 84 comments


Link (YouTube)

So let’s talk about this wolverine. Apparently the wolverine went into the house and lived there without tearing up the furniture, knocking stuff over, or leaving droppings all over the place. Then it went to the bathroom where there is no food or water or anything else that might be of use to a small mammal without opposable thumbs. And then it somehow closed the door behind him. Then it went into the space under the sink, and also closed that door.

What I’m saying is that this wolverine is still smarter than every last one of these teenagers.