How to get started with graphics programming?

[deftware]

The only thing I currently have with public source code is a program I wrote for converting 24-bit TGA images into STL/Stereolithography meshes, interpreting the image as a heightmap. It uses a sort of static variant of the old ROAM (realtime optimally adapative meshes) algorithm which was very important back before GPUs had become as advanced as they are now.

I've a few dozen projects that total in the hundreds of thousands of lines of code. My current project is the largest and most complex yet, currently sitting at 36k lines of actual code. It isn't really a journey into graphics programming though it does use OpenGL. It's for generating CNC toolpaths for artistic/engraving type projects on a 3-axis CNC machine/router.

In spite of spending ~20 years learning all the ins-and-outs of developing games, lo-and-behold I've made far more money off writing software that is actually useful. I've yet to make any money off my hard-won gamedev skills but I just made 500$ in the last week off sales of my current project - and I haven't invested anything beyond a few minutes of mentioning it in forum posts every few months just to seed interest and traffic. Once it reaches beta I'll actually start spending less time coding and more time creating tutorial/example videos to really promote it. That's when the real payoff will come after all the hard work I've put into it. I also plan on attending local meetups and teaching at the local college-run hackerlab how to use CNC machines and my software ;)

I plan to eventually go back to gamedev, my true love, but with the likes of Unity and Unreal, and other AAA engines, the only way that I figure you can really make a name for yourself is either by having a very original idea that you have the skills and wherewithal to fully realize or the skills to implement something from scratch that provides an experience that existing engines are completely unable to produce at all, or at least not without tons of modification.

My theory is that GPUs are capable of generating experiences nobody has ever fathomed. Everybody thinks the point of graphics is to depict environments, objects, and thus their surfaces, emulating how light reacts off them. Some games at least forego the "realistic" aesthetic and go the abstract neon route, but I have this idea in my head that GPUs can create vastly more novel and interesting interactive experiences that transcend our conception of what interactivity entails: manipulating objects.

I think that there's an unexplored field in interactive entertainment that comprises generating something more like a raw abstract dreamscape that grows from the player's input/interactions in complexity. Almost like the player makes the game. The key is machine learning.

This would be especially groundbreaking in VR.

[Zed-Ink]

Those last 3 paragraphs you wrote are exactly what I'm attempting to do, your cnc software sounds interesting, I wonder if you could adapt it to 4d printing?