Oops

I think I have to write about 15 programs in the next 2 weeks. Almost double that if you want to think about porting the code from GLSL to HLSL... which is funny because the labs are mostly done in HLSL first before porting to GLSL. For the project, it's the opposite since all the tutorials I've found are for GLSL instead of HLSL. At least I have a lot of resources to draw from, including from my own games! Because the developers were "kind" enough to leave the shader code alone while also having their binaries/compiled versions in the same directory.


I have a lot of reading ahead of me to do. Not that I mind. The topic is rather fascinating (normal mapping, practically essentially to games nowadays), although I'd much rather be reading about anti-aliasing techniques right about now. You can blame the screenshot thread on neoGAF for that. And inFAMOUS Second Son. My god that game looks nice... Can't wait to see what new techniques are developed this generation.





And someone should really remind me that oolong tea expands like nothing is their business. Some of the leaves have reached the top of my teapot's lid. Whoops.

Been reading

Kinda noticed that a lot of things are happening in Seattle and San Fran this year. Kinda makes me wish I would be in the city for a good chunk of the year, but I doubt I'll even get near it. Most notably the GDC, which is coming up pretty fast. About 2 weeks from now. One of the bigger talks that I just caught wind of was about DirectX 12. Just a brief look at the comments over at Kotaku, and there seems to be someone that's really for it. At Polygon, it's quite the opposite. They like OpenGL/OpenCL more. No word on Mantle that I can see so far. There's very likely going to be a talk about that since AMD is going to be there (the list is quite long, and I don't really want to sift though it).

I don't really have a preference at the moment. There are some things in terms of syntax that I think Direct3D does better, and there are things that OpenGL does better. Both have pretty funny quirks to deal with. But Microsoft being Microsoft, they're probably going to be pushing for DX12 on their next Windows iteration. Maybe 2015? Either way, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with 3 major APIs in the mix. Kinda rooting for OpenGL because it's x-platform.



It's also really funny. My sister thinks there's nothing to do in Seattle other than to check out the original Starbucks location. Whereas I would love to visit because of all those software related ventures hiding around, and some marine based research if I'm not mistaken (there was something about starfish tearing themselves apart).

At the MaRS Building

Pretty fun "lectures". Don't care for the Microsoft things though, but at least I know that they have an office here for porting/coding related questions should I pursue those platforms. Still interesting to hear about the porting processes though. Kinda had an idea. The Wii was poked fun at a lot. Unsurprisingly, since it was one the weakest of the main platforms in the previous generation. This generation, it's still Nintendo in terms of computing power. Still early to really call anything.

It's really too bad we didn't get into too much code. Wanted to see more about scripting, AI, shaders, etc. You know, getting right into the heart of the engine for customizing it for specific projects. Asked one of the speakers, Carl Callewaert, about it and he said that there might be another meetup about those topics later on. Awaiting an email about that~ And maybe someone from Unity will show up at Seneca at some point later on. They've apparently been meaning to show up again either for promotion or recruitment. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I have someone at UofT looking out for anything from Ubisoft. Because they have an office here and that means not having to move out of the city. Although I'm not opposed to ending up in Washington because of all those software companies hanging around in or near Seattle... But I would like to stay in Canada.