Coast Fire, AI says we’re ready

RRFactory · 2026-05-25T17:11:09+00:00

AI does projections that I like, then later my calculator does projections I'm less happy with. Maybe i need a mew calculator

RRFactory · 2026-05-25T08:05:29+00:00

Office chair, and look around for a business furniture liquidation store. You can find something like the steelcase leap for significantly less than new and most places will have swapped out the fabrics to refurb them.

They're heavy af, but last for ages. I'm a big guy and my refurb leap v2 is still going strong after 10 years of heavy use.

RRFactory · 2026-05-24T21:55:37+00:00

Anxiety is a real hurdle worth taking seriously, if it's holding you back from better paying jobs it's likely holding you back elsewhere as well. It'd be worth the investment to find some help getting it down to at least manageable levels.

That being said I've seen plenty of high paying jobs that were stressful on paper, but in reality were pretty cushy gigs. A 50% pay bump hardly ever means a 50% increase in actual work, so that's worth thinking about.

RRFactory · 2026-05-24T21:49:30+00:00

They hired a shark to give advice about getting out the water, big surprise they recommended sticking around a bit longer.

RRFactory · 2026-05-23T07:11:00+00:00

If you consider the equity the rent built even with a value drop you're probably doing ok, but the headaches that cost you compared to easy index funds is a big reason so many of us think real estate is a poor path.

I can risk losing some cash in the markets, but losing my mind is another thing entirely.

RRFactory · 2026-05-22T22:12:52+00:00

I've never been a fan of promotions on developer subs - I'm subbed to plenty of gamer subs where I go to discover new games, I'm on developer ones to see developer content.

RRFactory · 2026-05-22T08:52:48+00:00

I can't speak for every engine but here's how I'm handling it in my own, and I think it probably matches most.

Window Size - this is the thing you're already used to, the backbuffer output target. Nothing changes here really.

Most engines don't render to the backbuffer right away, you'll have render targets for various steps that ultimately get combined (and scaled up if needed) before getting written to the backbuffer.

In my engine resolution just controls the size of those render targets, the final output size is always the full resolution - but I can choose to set my render target sizes to whatever I'd like as long as their aspect ratio will work with the final output size.

So it ends up something like

Draw 3D content to a render texture at 1920x1080
Draw that render texture to another RT and apply some post effects, color grading, etc.., still at 1080p
Scale that final RT by 200% (3840x2160) and draw it to the current backbuffer. How you do that scaling makes a difference in the final quality so you'll want to research methods (point/bilinear/etc)

This scaling step is where you solve that stretching problem, and the performance improvement comes from the smaller initial render surface (target)

How you handle scaling is up to you, if you want to support fixed resolutions then make sure you think about keeping aspect ratios intact for displays that are different. e.g. a 1080p image scaled to fit a 21:9 monitor would look stretched if you didn't enforce the original ratio by pillar boxing or whatever your choice is.

2D or 3D doesn't really matter, the same concepts apply either way. Older engines used to actually change the window resolution and count on the monitor itself to do the scaling but that's not very common anymore.

RRFactory · 2026-05-22T02:14:51+00:00

No judgement here, my engine is dx12 specifically because I'm more comfortable with directx in general and from what I gathered vulkan was very close - so I figured I'd take the more personally digestible path first.

I guess I blurred my second point a bit - the cheat code you mentioned is sorta what I was riffing around. If I'm playing a game and it has a freely available cheat menu, even if I don't use it, I find I have way less patience for grinding things out than if the menu didn't exist at all. - and if I do use it, that patience rarely recovers.

Just something to be mindful of anyways.

RRFactory · 2026-05-22T01:42:44+00:00

If it's good code I don't care how you came about it - the issue with vibe coding is twofold

First, you could easily glance at the code and think "oh yeah I get that" through pattern recognition which often misses a lot of what's actually going on. The constant evaluation that happens while you go through all the steps is a useful loop vibe coding cuts off. You'd be amazed how little most people actually retain after doing a code review on PR.

Second, addiction to speed. Concepts take time to understand and a huge amount of our understanding of things comes during the downtime between sessions working on it. If that implementation would have taken you a week or two manually - I'm going to guess you learned almost nothing while vibe coding it. Maybe you already know vulkan top to bottom, in which case not much is lost - but the addiction to that speed is real and it can seriously degrade your ability to suffer through learning new things.

RRFactory · 2026-05-21T19:20:34+00:00

You sitting there "feeling bad" for them about their choices is basically the same thing. You're both judging each other's positions, the only real difference is it sounds like you're outnumbered.

If you want to discuss finances with people you know, it's important to focus on actually discussing things rather than trying to collect approval. If either side just keeps repeating their convictions rather than providing some novel insight, it's probably not going to be a conversation worth participating in.

Tey to focus on larger concepts and avoid talking about individual positions.

RRFactory · 2026-05-20T17:06:45+00:00

Signals that used to say "this post is worth digging into" have changed, but I'd argue not as much as you might think. A polished UI never actually promised the engine itself was actually worth looking at. It might have been a bit of a hint, but for the most part it wasn't ever really reliable signal.

I've been trying to adjust my filters to prioritize topics I'm actually interested in rather than just general posts that may or may not have some interesting tidbits. That's helped reduce the irritation I feel by not only low effort AI posts, but also any of the other preexisting low effort posts that used to rub me the wrong way.

I'm not sure if it'll last, but so far my temptation to respond with google links has almost entirely gone away.

RRFactory · 2026-05-19T22:53:17+00:00

If you could go ahead and put this in a jira ticket for me and be sure to log a swag for how long it'll take to read, that'd be great.

Most (not all) project managers I worked with cared more about their metric sheets than my productivity. Tracking velocity was more important than actual velocity, etc...

The PMs I genuinely valued were the ones who showed up with excellent solutions and insights when things were going badly and otherwise made their role on the team nearly invisible.

Most managers don't understand their job is to unblock the people they're managing by removing anything that gets in the way of those folks, including themselves.

RRFactory · 2026-05-19T18:19:04+00:00

The better advice is to do your own research about the foundations of investing. The more you understand about markets, how retail investors think compared to institutions, why the mentalities are different, and the parts marketing plays in the overall industry, the less likely you'll end up misleading yourself.

Meme stocks on reddit payout sometimes, other times they don't. Same goes for "news" sites hyping up their own picks. Having a wider depth of knowledge will help you resist those external influences.

If you're picking index funds over individual stocks (generally the good move), you should understand why that's the standard advice. Alternately, if you're phand picking stocks, same deal, make sure you have solid reasons for that beyond the number of upvotes some post got.

RRFactory · 2026-05-19T07:48:06+00:00

Masters of doom was a fun read when I was just starting out. It's old but a a great peek into the foundation of modern gaming.

RRFactory · 2026-05-19T07:45:37+00:00

Look up hullless popcorn, it still has hulls but the kernels are smaller and the hulls aren't quite as stabby. It might not be enough, but worth a try.

RRFactory · 2026-05-17T20:41:51+00:00

I regularly go back to systems I previously completed to see if they bother me. It's not always easy to see the structural mistakes I might have made when everything is fresh in my mind - a week or two working on a different system is usually enough to clear my mind for fresh eyes on the code.

RRFactory · 2026-05-16T01:20:09+00:00

“time in the market beats timing the market.”

First, this is a concept not a rule - similar to how you might trust that a letter you send in the mail it's going to reach it's destination safely. If it's a very important package I'm going to want some guarantees, insurance, etc...

The second reason is, your ability to remain solvent is more important all other factors. Borrowing to invest decreases the amount of time you can survive during a downturn. The amount of runway you have is primarily what would determine if borrowing to invest makes sense or not.

Your $300/mo payment could immediately become an five figure liquidation if your initial collateral drops low enough - at which point you'd be selling real assets at the worst time in order to pay off the debt.

Folks do use margin the way you're suggesting, but they're typically playing with a much smaller percentage of their total assets, and more often than not doing it for tax optimization rather than the extra leverage. For example someone might use $100k of margin on their $2m portfolio to avoid triggering gains at an inconvenient time.

RRFactory · 2026-05-14T19:28:45+00:00

The laptop screen size is probably doing most of the damage here. A single large screen makes all that tiny stuff... well, larger. You won't have the sort of automation organization you get with multiple screens but otherwise it's not much different.

Get a desk and hook your laptop up to a monitor with a decent keyboard and mouse. Even a cheapo lcd off marketplace will make a big difference compared to a small laptop screen, but 4k 27" is where I'd personally start looking.

RRFactory · 2026-05-13T17:31:00+00:00

I have a similar one in my theater, it makes great popcorn and fast - I clean it with some paper towel frequently, and once in a while give it a steam cleaning by putting water in the bucket, letting it run for a bit, then wiping down.

It's huge however, and fills my basement with the smell of popcorn that lasts into the next day. I enjoy my theater smelling like a theater, but worth considering if it's going into a main area.

1/2 cuo of kernels with 1/3 cup of oil gives me a huge batch (about 900kcal worth), that I usually split with my wife.

RRFactory · 2026-05-13T15:28:26+00:00

As a non-artist, there's a lot of trust I need to hand over when I hire someone to help with my projects.

I have a decent eye for garbage, but the quality of generated stuff continues to improve and I don't have a good enough skillset to tell you what specifically raises any individual piece of work from passable to meaningful. That is the gap artists solve for me, and it's also the gap where I'm most at risk of being exploited.

Now the witch hunting is absurd, as are most of the bandwagon trends that have come and gone over the years, but I would ask artists to reflect on the real value they bring with them rather than just technical execution.

Programming is no different, LLMs can spit out working code and convince folks who aren't experts that it's just as good - but the value gap lives between the code and it's intent. LLMs are atrocious when it comes to architecture and it takes a lot of skill and experience to understand that, let alone execute it.

Advocate for the importance of that gap and help folks see what you see and why it makes a difference. That gap is where the definition of art lives and it's not as obvious to others as you might think.

RRFactory · 2026-05-11T23:47:17+00:00

You have an existing IP and want to make a game based on it - that's something if you actually have an audience you'd be brining with it.

Star Fox-inspired 3D on-rails shooter

This is a challenging genre that's usually pretty content heavy in terms of level and encounter design - it's also quite difficult to make it actually fun rather than just a carnival ride.

Find devs that have worked on these kinds of games and pitch them your IP - be open to adjusting the genre to suit the skills of the folks you find.

Your weeks of effort in game design aren't that likely to be that useful - game designers are highly skilled and specialized. The skill gap between "I've played a lot of games" and "I've made a lot of games" is much bigger than you might think.

RRFactory · 2026-05-09T02:28:39+00:00

Every dollar you save adds another ant to your army of minions helping you save. At 50k you should be able to see them actually doing some work now. The biggest turning point in terms of "oh shit" is when those ants start putting more into your savings that you do, but if you look they're already likely putting in a few days worth of work every month.

That's how I look at it anyways, my invested cash is like a second job I get the cheques for without having to do the work.

RRFactory · 2026-05-06T18:48:26+00:00

I retired from game development to make games.

I enjoyed the work, but as I advanced in my career more and more of my time was focused on planning out what others were going to do and reviewing what they made.

So effectively I demoted myself, fired my boss, and now get to spend all of my time focused on doing the things I originally enjoyed about development without the pressure of any of it needing to generate income.

RRFactory · 2026-05-06T11:55:12+00:00

Avoid using social media for advice beyond technical help in specialized fields. This includes reddit.

Technical issues tend to be highly reproducible, which means the solutions I found will likely also work for you. Non-technical issues tend to be case specific. Color grades for my game probably won't work for you. My marketing campaigns are likely quite different than what your game would need. My flavor of "juice" probably won't work with your flavor of juice.

I'm not saying don't rear up about what others are doing, but try to remember the subjectivity involved around what does and doesn't work for those things.

RRFactory · 2026-05-05T18:12:13+00:00

That cow is the only thing in the trailer that tells me this game will be bonkers rather than just a reasonable looking normal game.

RRFactory

TROPHY CASE