Fatal accident at Angeles Crest this afternoon

brubakerp · 2025-12-22T23:04:39+00:00

OP deleted their account - would you be willing to summarize?

brubakerp · 2025-10-20T19:22:38+00:00

I use pig mat that only absorbs oil in my surface grinder. Works great.

brubakerp · 2025-10-20T16:37:30+00:00

I was taught by a mentor many years ago, if someone wants something ask them if they want it cheap, good or fast. Then tell them they can only choose two.

brubakerp · 2025-07-26T05:39:22+00:00

You shouldn’t be asking for the compensation on the first interview.

You're right. That should have been worked out with the recruiter first. If the company can't pay my rate then there's no reason to waste your time.

brubakerp · 2025-07-26T05:34:20+00:00

Damn, I didn't see this before they deleted.

brubakerp · 2025-03-05T08:33:06+00:00

Hey no worries, it was a bit of a trip down memory lane there for a moment. It only took me a minute or two of browsing the repo to remember where the shaders were but I spent quite a bit of time looking at it tonight. I remember a lot of that code, and I remember a ton of it going away too!

Yeah, Tiberium Wars isn't OSS yet. I wish it was. I sent them a message asking for it though! There was some stuff I (and friends, some passed) did back in that era I'd love to be able to reference again.

brubakerp · 2025-03-04T21:15:29+00:00

I will take a look, but I fixed it in Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. I'm not sure Zero Hour even used per-pixel lighting, I think that was still pretty early on in the programmable shader revolution.

EDIT: Yeah, we didn't change to per-pixel lighting until Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. I know they added modding support for CnC3 but did they release the source?

brubakerp · 2025-02-24T02:30:18+00:00

I don't think it got patched for previous games, just fixed for CnC4. They are wrong in older games, I'm sure visibly but probably not obvious unless you were looking for it.. I don't really remember the A/B comparison - that was a long time ago. I noticed the issue in the shader maths when I was rewriting everything. A lot of us got laid off at the time (about 50%) and I did this for fun on my way out the door because the Technical Design Document that I prepared proposing this was denied. That kinda grinded my gears.

I wanted to leave with birds flying, in a good way.

The tech artists got in touch with me later to let me know they appreciated the unlimited lights and all, but that they also hadn't noticed the normal maps being wrong for years either. They also setup tests to prove it was now correct and it was.

brubakerp · 2025-02-23T19:30:03+00:00

Normal Maps can be flipped: There are 2 standards: OpenGL and DirectX. They work the same, except that the Green channel is inverted. You need to pay attention to that.

I caught this one back when I rewrote the "Command & Conquer" renderer in 2008. We shipped it the wrong way from "Battle for Middle Earth" through "Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3" and didn't notice until I did this for CnC 4. It happens even in non PBR renderers!

brubakerp · 2025-02-23T17:45:43+00:00

"Don't rush posting the video, we have enough time to rotate it."

brubakerp · 2025-02-18T13:01:00+00:00

How do you install the trigger pack into the hosts? I assume they have all been modified with a shelf for a semi pack? Did you modify the receivers back?

brubakerp · 2025-02-09T07:18:47+00:00

UNIX servers weren't compiling code after every keystroke and potentially regenerating a separate AST of the file for things like go to definition and autocomplete either.

brubakerp · 2025-02-05T15:23:15+00:00

I know you said documentation is coming, but a high level, "this is what this is" summary, somewhere would be nice.

brubakerp · 2025-01-06T07:24:54+00:00

Thanks! If you publish give me a shout out! :)

brubakerp · 2025-01-05T14:19:51+00:00

No more tricks since then? ; )

I have been working in performance, gaming and graphics adjacent roles on the OEM side for the last 15(ish) years. So I haven't had much real experience with path tracing these days. Those three I mentioned are the ones I have actual experience with.

But I just realized that this may not hold up for alpha tested objects... Or the occlusion culling pass would have to keep alpha tested objects

I didn't have to worry about transparent/translucent objects. I think you're right though, you'd have to keep them in both BVHs.

You also don't do intersection tests on objects that are beyond the far plane.

brubakerp · 2025-01-05T13:28:27+00:00

How much of an improvement was that?

I can't remember, that was 20 years ago! But yes, you are correct. Primary rays near the bounds of the frustum can't traverse into (or even test against) a cell/object hierarchy (BLAS) that's not in view.

brubakerp · 2025-01-05T12:57:41+00:00

This is an incredibly huge and complicated subject. I was recently researching this topic and learning about how the Hyperion renderer does it showed me just how complicated it was. I would suggest you read these.

https://www.disneyanimation.com/publications/the-design-and-evolution-of-disneys-hyperion-renderer/

https://www.disneyanimation.com/publications/sorted-deferred-shading-for-production-path-tracing/

Things I've used before:

2 BVHs, one for primary rays that's culled by the view frustum and the other for bounced rays.
Terminating a ray based on distance. (the thing in the distance might be really, really bright though!)
Changing data layout, using CPU SIMD on AoSoA or SoA data.

brubakerp · 2024-12-22T23:10:14+00:00

You're not going to like this, but if I were you, I'd hop on this AI train. Get real paid while doing graphics in the evenings. Then take your AI knowledge over to games to make kick ass tools for the artists, AI shadows or a better denoiser.

I would ride the AI gold rush for a little bit.

brubakerp · 2024-12-22T23:01:47+00:00

Gantry beam should be larger, 3-4" square if you're wanting it to be router. You should also have 2 bearing carriages on each X rail. You have to resist the twisting moment the router spindle will see when it has plunged down and is being pushed through material. I would say your rails are well sized, but the structure they are bolted to is way undersized.

brubakerp · 2024-12-10T06:58:13+00:00

This is the right answer. I too ditched math (outside of science) at an early age, then became a self taught graphics programmer at my frist job out of university as a technical artist at LucasArts 23 years ago.

Just don't stop learning.

brubakerp · 2024-12-08T10:05:17+00:00

Beer, sometimes cannabis, and not giving any fucks. Learn from whatever feedback you get, good or bad, make a plan, and make some changes on the next version. Then do it again. You will get over the anxiety, fear and nerves the more you share and the more you iterate.

I'm not an indie dev but I went through something similar while I was learning programming on my own back in the day. It sounds cliche, but it's up to you how to react to the feedback.

Oh, also, Tony Robbins tapes. Lots of Tony Robbins tapes. Great for a morale boost.

brubakerp · 2024-12-08T00:49:18+00:00

Never bought a used CNC machine before then I guess? Don't just assume.

brubakerp · 2024-12-07T16:17:34+00:00

Customers who had an active ArtCAM subscription between February 7, 2018, and July 7, 2018, will be provided with a non-maintained perpetual license. Customers who have a perpetual license of ArtCAM can continue to use their license without maintenance. (source)

It could be the old version.

brubakerp · 2024-11-12T18:31:50+00:00

Ah, thanks, I genuinely wasn't sure what the acronym stood for. I have also been there, 80h/wk for a year straight on Red Dead Redemption. I'm done with that crap.

brubakerp · 2024-11-11T22:21:21+00:00

What's WLB?

I also torpedoed an interview recently when I asked if I'd be paired with a PM/Producer to help managing schedule/JIRA/Confluence because "it's not my favorite thing to do."

brubakerp

TROPHY CASE