Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Monday Apr 4, 2011

Next PostLet's Code Part 16: Fun with Shaders 

So you’re curious about the math involved in graphics programming. Well, someone is. People ask me about this stuff now and again. But a subject like “the math of graphics programming” is large enough to fill one of those great, big reference books that nobody likes to use because they’re so heavy and they take up so much space.

Years ago I had a devil of a time learning this for myself. Most tutorials are dense with Greek symbols and mercilessly heavy on jargon. It’s one of those situations where you have to already understand the subject before you can comprehend the lessons to teach you the subject. So I offer my own explanation here for the curious. This won’t teach you everything you need to know, but it might help give you a frame of reference so the other lessons make sense. Or it might just be a fun way to blow five minutes. Whatever.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Transformation Matrix”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Let's Code Part 8 & 9Previous Post

Next PostLet's Code Part 16: Fun with Shaders 

192 comments

Shatner Of The Mount

By Shamus Posted Sunday Apr 3, 2011

Filed under: Movies 113 comments

 The Rise of Gabe NewellPrevious Post

Next PostYelle "Que Veux Tu" (Madeon Remix) 

Some people have strongly-held beliefs on this whole Kirk vs. Picard business. Perhaps this will settle things…

Link (YouTube)

Also, I apologize.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 The Rise of Gabe NewellPrevious Post

Next PostYelle "Que Veux Tu" (Madeon Remix) 

113 comments

Wrex.

By Shamus Posted Saturday Apr 2, 2011

Filed under: Pictures 55 comments

 Fuedal BattlesPrevious Post

Next PostStatistics Question 

Well, lookie what I found during a Google Image search!

It’s impossible for me to imagine this face having some other voice besides the voice of Commander Shepard. But of course, in reality that voice belongs to another face:

Link (YouTube)

Reality is confusing. And disappointing.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Fuedal BattlesPrevious Post

Next PostStatistics Question 

55 comments

Experienced Points: MAXIMUM COLOR

By Shamus Posted Friday Apr 1, 2011

Filed under: Game Reviews 74 comments

 Shogun 2: Bug ReportPrevious Post

Next PostCities XL 2011 

There’s this scene in Star Trek: Voyager, where the character Neelix realizes that his era of usefulness has come to an end. He was guiding the crew through a section of space, but eventually they reached the edge of his knowledge. Going ahead, he didn’t know any more than they did. (The fact that he was an annoying idiot regardless of his navigational knowledge was not discussed.) I think I have reached the same point.

Up until Half-Life 2, and even as recently as Fallout 3, I would have technological insights on the games that I played. I could spot walls that had been placed, not for the sake of the gameplay, but to cull unwanted details from the scene and give the computer a break. I could identify and explain visual glitches, artifacts, misaligned textures, and other problems. My years of 3D modeling and coding gave me an unusual perspective on what games were showing us. But my knowledge has stagnated in the last five years while the industry has charged forward, and I have almost no understanding of today’s engines and how they do what they do. For me, the Cry Engine 3 is now indistinguishable from magic.

I can still comment on the game from an artistic standpoint, though.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Shogun 2: Bug ReportPrevious Post

Next PostCities XL 2011 

74 comments

Stolen Pixels #247: Her Price is Right

By Shamus Posted Friday Apr 1, 2011

Filed under: Column 51 comments

 Extra Consideration: The Rest of the StoryPrevious Post

Next PostStolen Pixels #248: HI MOM! 

Yes, Stolen Pixels returns! I’ve decided to kick things off with a news story from… last week!

I know some people were looking forward to the rest of my comics on New Vegas, so let me say a bit more about that…

I only had one more joke written, and I’d planned to write more as the series ran. Of course, that was months ago. I haven’t touched New Vegas since then, which means I no longer have funny things to say about it. If you’re that curious, here is the other joke I had written:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Stolen Pixels #247: Her Price is Right”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Extra Consideration: The Rest of the StoryPrevious Post

Next PostStolen Pixels #248: HI MOM! 

51 comments

Spoiler Warning: Railroad to Nowhere

By Shamus Posted Friday Apr 1, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 136 comments

 Spoiler Warning Season 4 Finale: Don't Fear the ReaperPrevious Post

Next PostSpoiler Warning S5E1: The Death and Life of Reginald Cuftbert 

It’s Spoiler Warning as you’ve never seen it before: In glorious 1D!

Link (YouTube)

Truly, one is the loneliest dimension.

This was unplanned. We’d already recorded our April Fool’s Day show. It was in the bag. Then I started telling the crew about Trainz 2010: Engineer’s Edition. Everyone insisted that we record another show for April Fool’s, featuring this game.

I want to be clear that while this game is hilariously bad, it’s not as bad as it looks…

Point: The game is not as slow as you see here. Normally, it runs at a nice 50 frames a second on my machine.

Counterpoint: Okay, that’s the same framerate that I get from Crysis 2, which looks about six graphics generations better.

Point: But still, the game is smoother than you see here. The extreme low framerate was an artifact of recording.

Counterpoint: Other games don’t have this problem.

Point: I made no effort to educate myself on the game. I just jumped in and started pushing buttons. The results would be not all that different if you tried the same thing with a flight simulator.

Counterpoint: Flight simulators involve travel in more than one dimension.

Point: It’s probably not fair to pick on games like this one which have niche appeal.

Counterpoint: It’s not fair to allege that this game has “appeal”, niche or not.

Point: Okay, you got me there.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Spoiler Warning Season 4 Finale: Don't Fear the ReaperPrevious Post

Next PostSpoiler Warning S5E1: The Death and Life of Reginald Cuftbert 

136 comments

Atari Basic

By Shamus Posted Thursday Mar 31, 2011

Filed under: Personal 91 comments

 Stolen Pixels UpdatePrevious Post

Next PostThe Virus 

This week’s episode of Extra Credits contained a mind-blowing blast from the past. This:

I would say I saw this image for the first time at some point in 1979 or 1980, which would have made me 8 or 9. I remember it so vividly because this image is what made me want to learn to program. Or rather, it made me aware that such a thing could be done. Way back in one of my oldest posts, I said:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Atari Basic”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Stolen Pixels UpdatePrevious Post

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