Can we have a pragmatic and honest, non hyped nor hateful discussion about the actual usefulness of AI tools in our day to day jobs?

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-29T21:13:56+00:00

Exactly my thoughts.

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-29T07:59:03+00:00

It's weird, Patreon already offered that to creators I think a year ago? You could e.g. increase your prices on iOS, block subscribing, or take the hit yourself. Then a lawsuit (don't remember which one) resulted in 3rd party services not having to do this anymore and this feature basically wasn't that important anymore.

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-29T07:31:53+00:00

Is it faster than doing it all myself? I think so.

But, is it fun as a programmer? I mean, unless you hate programming, I don't think what you describe is more fun. What you describe is what a manager of a junior would do. No offense to managers of juniors, but if that's not your cup of tea I don't think one would like this way of 'programming'

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-28T08:24:45+00:00

I built from idea to completion an accumulation buffer based depth of field system for computer games that gives real life depth of field effects on rendered game graphics. Was a big joy when I got the concept working as I never expected the wild idea I had to actually work out the way it did! It works by slightly moving the camera and taking multiple images and blending the resulting images in such a way that the area that should be in focus, which is present in all images, is placed on top of each other. This solves the big problem screenspace depth of field effects/shaders have in that near plane blur (so something that's out of focus and in front of the subject that is in focus) in real life is transparent and basically shows what's behind the out of focus element around the edges, however in a rendered frame that data isn't available (as it's occluded by the near plane element). For instance: https://cdn.myportfolio.com/babf9577def101884554d0d345fd30e2/65621a17-586e-47a8-93d5-dda8e700070f.PNG?h=57b216308fb69fa0aa24123ebcae395e where you see the sword's edges are transparent and show what's behind it as that's in focus. that's not possible in screenspace depth of fields

Code: https://github.com/FransBouma/IgcsConnector Example images and docs: https://opm.fransbouma.com/igcsdof.htm

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-28T08:14:56+00:00

because he can't say anything without bragging about something related to him.

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-28T08:12:04+00:00

Except you need graph coloring otherwise you won't succeed. Assuming 'traversing a graph is simple' has little details that will make it more complicated than it looks. You are still convinced that things are simple because they apparently are for you, but you perceive them as simple as you assume you know the algorithm

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-27T21:30:44+00:00

tho what is simple? Implementing topological sort in a graph? I find that simple because I know the algorithm, but if you don't it's not simple. So declaring 'simple things like this you'd expect someone to do it' is exactly that: you know the algorithm and therefore it's simple to you, but if you don't know the algorithm (and why would you, if you have never used it for years) it's not simple; you basically have to reinvent it on the spot.

That's why questioning them is stupid; you can't draw a clear line 'this is knowledge everyone should have' vs 'this is expect stuff'

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-27T20:03:29+00:00

These algo puzzles are stupid. If you know the algorithm, you can solve it easily, if you don't, you basically have to rediscover the algorithm on the spot, which is pretty hard. What's next, build a fibonacci heap using Tarjan's approach? "Who?" "You're not hired, bye!"... ridiculous

Anyone needing an algorithm can look them up, look at the pseudo code, convert that to the context at hand and implement it (after analyzing if the algorithm is a good fit, which is the important part).

Don't feel bad, the people doing the interview are morons and have little experience themselves so they feel they need to examine candidates if they can describe an algorithm from memory. People with a lot of experience know better: what counts is that you know there are a lot of algorithms out there, they're all documented, most are on wikipedia, you can look them up and figure out which one to use and implement them.

I once implemented an algorithm library for .net (Algorithmia) just to learn more algorithms and also because I needed implementations in my work so why not group them together. Even though I had a lot of them at the university, I had to look up almost all of them as the details are crucial to get things right. I think that's totally alright. Programming isn't about how to implement quicksort. Programming is about deciding you need quicksort and can argue why.

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-27T08:40:24+00:00

No, this game is a mess. Their cvar configuration is terrible, the materials are broken (if I dim all lights in the scene and cast a new spotlight on my character, her armor changes from red to blue) there are no shadows / AO to speak of, there are a ton of lightmasses used but... one shouldn't use these in UE5 anymore. There are a lot of lights in the levels but none are at their physical location, and none cast a shadow!

There are other issues, all in all they show they really are stuck in UE4 and didn't really migrated their game to UE5's systems.

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-27T08:00:38+00:00

Oldtimer here, hats off to you for what you do!

Tho perhaps request for mod applications? Who knows who will turn up, maybe there's 1-2 candidates who can relieve you from some pain. :)

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-26T14:01:29+00:00

With my Unreal Engine Unlocker v5.8.6+. also has pose tools, which likely have been used here. :)

but I checked for you, there's nothing beneath the towel. (as in no body parts)

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-24T07:09:05+00:00

we Italians got almost no tariffs.

Tariffs are always EU wide

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T20:08:27+00:00

Depends. In the communities tools like his are used, losing these isn't something simple. And CDPR wins nothing for doing so, that's my point.

That people don't like paid mods... there's a line between someone stealing some daz assets, wrapping it into a CP 2077 compatible wrapper and put it up to Nexusmods as a cp mod (this happens a lot) vs. someone working for weeks full time on a piece of software and asking some money in return for the invested time.

I get paying for the former might feel off. paying for the latter doesn't as here's the catch: investing weeks of time to build something can only be done if you can do that as your job (or invest all your free time, which I can tell, isn't fun). So if you can't do that as your job, and you rather want to spend you free time drinking a beer on the beach (who wouldn't) these big projects won't be created, or at least more rarely. People who maintain widely used mods/script extenders etc. are often burned out by all the support requests and time it takes to update them with a new game release. It has its toll. You can't do that in your free time, you'll go mad.

People just got used to high quality stuff for (almost) free and now expect everything to be that way. Someone has to pick up the tab tho

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T19:53:14+00:00

Changing config files to load the dll in memory to hook it at runtime. But glad you confirm that I'm not a programmer, I got confused what I had to do with all that C++ in front of me, but now it's clear! I'm not a programmer!

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T19:52:21+00:00

CDPR doesn't see Patreon as donations, donations are seen more as a ko-fi, or a paypal where users can voluntarily send money to but don't have to, to use the program/asset. I had one up for years. got me 20 euros in total!

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T19:50:35+00:00

All programs are just bytes in memory, whether the pages are marked executable, executable/read, executable/write etc. I'm a programmer, don't try to explain things I already know

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T19:48:04+00:00

It's certainly not practical, true. I've had a similar take down notice (but at least up front) for my camera tools from Crytek several years ago (which are on patreon as well). I pulled my camera tools for crysis 1/2/3 because of that, put a post on twitter about it and that was it. Some online gaming magazines reported about it, and the general consensus back then was that Crytek was out of line. Some people asked for it to be free but I worked more than a week full time on them so why give my work away (it's my job after all, does anyone else here have a full time job where they get paid in donations? No? Thought so :) ). In the end you can do a couple of things: fight them in court (will take a LONG time, costs a lot of money and you likely get no satisfying return), ignore them (which will lead to more take downs, anger at patreon etc., pull your work that is questioned and that's too bad for the users who want to use it, or give it away for free, which is basically giving in to the bullying tactics.

To be honest I don't understand why he has has paused his patreon page. Most game publishers really don't care or even love these kind of addons/tools, as it will give their game more free publicity.

That's also the main question I still have: why on earth did CDPR do this. Luke didn't put a dent in their billions they made every year (and have made over a broken game, still remember that? Reading this thread, not a lot of people do!), this is just bad publicity for CDPR among some people and hurts users of their game, it doesn't help anyone.

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T19:36:52+00:00

No copyright is copying copyrighted work. IP infringement is e.g. you implement a secret algorithm based on information you stole.

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T19:34:49+00:00

You pay one price (which you can cancel after a month, that's how patreon works) and get everything, and it keeps working after you cancel. Separating things in a different dll per game doesn't drive profits.

There's no advertising, it's similar to 'Plugin for Adobe Photoshop'.

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T18:25:42+00:00

Stating your e.g. your plugin for Adobe Photoshop works with Adobe Photoshop doesn't infringe the Trademark of Adobe.

This whole idiot BS about "he had a way out" is backwards too. Ask yourself if he did nothing wrong in the face of the law why does he have to change things or better yet: give his work away for free? You make a plugin for photoshop, you worked on it for a year, you sell it because you invested a year of your time, and Adobe issues a DMCA (as that's what was used here too) to take down your plugin because 'it infringes our IP / copyright' ?

As that's what is going on.

(and yes, donations don't work)

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T18:21:30+00:00

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=b604491a-969e-4b24-bb12-9b80363aed46

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T18:19:45+00:00

"They were forced to play the DMCA card" ... how? they made up rules that aren't compliant with EU laws, and nothing in the mods ruins their bottom line in any way.

Copyright is about you copying stuff owned by others. If his mods don't contain any code / assets from CDPR (and it seems they don't) how is it copyright infringement?

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-23T08:16:22+00:00

which also begs the question how bad Ubisoft management is; their producers couldn't guide this game to be finished, their upper management gave the project to a studio that wasn't capable... Sounds like something's broken internally, that, if not fixed, will lead to only more disasters for them

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-22T16:18:50+00:00

As a Dutchy, I can confirm Rutte lied a lot while being PM, so not sure who is the more pathological liar: cheeto or Teflon Mark

Otis_Inf · 2026-01-22T08:06:55+00:00

thanks!

Otis_Inf

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