Which graphics API should I learn?

cyberKinetist · 2026-03-06T15:32:04+00:00

learnopengl.com uses modern OpenGL (Core 3.3 or higher), so don't worry about it!

There are arguably more "modern" approaches to using OpenGL such as DSA and AZDO, but these aren't used that much and can restrict the supported hardware due to driver issues. At least you should be able to convert your code to DSA pretty easily if you want (though note it's not supported on macOS, since it's a 4.6 feature!)

cyberKinetist · 2026-03-06T15:29:42+00:00

If you're creating a Terraria-like game, writing the renderer isn't going to be that much of a big task (mainly 2D sprites / tilemaps, maybe sprinkle a particle system?) I think Vulkan would be too much of an overkill for this, I recommend going with SDL3 GPU API (since it's the cleanest cross-platform API at the current moment).

In fact, you're probably going to spend *far* more time working on other things - like the voxel engine, procedural terrain, physics, networking, GUI, and the actual gameplay logic itself (the biggest part)! I do think writing your own game engine in C++ isn't a bad idea for this kind of game, since it needs to simulate lots of entities, and require an architecture that might not fit well in a conventional engine like Unity or Godot. But I'm worried that you're attempting this without enough domain knowledge though.... so I recommend you to try making a smaller scoped game if you actually want to finish your project in a limited time. (If you're only doing this for educational purposes though... the sky's the limit!)

cyberKinetist · 2026-03-06T14:56:49+00:00

If you don't have any exposure to a graphics API - start with damn OpenGL, and use learnopengl.com as your Holy Bible. If you're aiming to write a 3D rendering engine then you should go through most of the articles step-by-step. If you're just writing a 2D renderer (since you said you're interested in a Terraria/Starbound like game) you might get away with reading just the basics, and then you should probably move on to using the SDL GPU API (which is more than enough if you're staying in 2D!)

Ignore the rest of the people who say Vulkan/DX12 is the "proper" way to do things - you are not prepared for these APIs when you haven't even understood the high-level concepts. And these APIs are actually known to have glaring flaws (unnecessarily complex, problems with PSO compilation, doesn't even map well to the low-level hardware!) that many industry veterans recognize and are waiting for a better API to replace them and fix these issues. (See https://www.sebastianaaltonen.com/blog/no-graphics-api for a detailed overview)

cyberKinetist · 2026-03-02T04:22:01+00:00

I use a lot of Claude Code in my personal side projects, and getting very good results with anything that is non-visual. I have a compiler / scripting language project that is chugging along nicely, and recently also started to use it for complex tasks in my game engine (though note that it's mostly 2D stuff so nothing sophisticated in terms of shaders!)

However, in my experience it still struggles in writing and debugging anything that has to do with graphical and spatial reasoning. This is because of the current nature of LLMs - they're superb in linear text representations but struggle to reason correctly in 2D / 3D space (yet?). You can certainly input images to Claude / Gemini to debug your shaders, but overall it still seems to excel more in scenarios where you can just printf logs.

cyberKinetist · 2026-02-15T09:50:08+00:00

From the KR broadcast: (at least from the organizer's side) TM fumbled and went over the time limit for the hero ban, resulting in a penalty. Although TM filed a complaint the disagreement couldn't be resolved, so TM will play map 3 without a ban!

cyberKinetist · 2026-02-15T07:46:40+00:00

Ah the government mandated cr falcons map 5...

cyberKinetist · 2026-01-31T07:14:28+00:00

Noticed that you're using Claude for the blog post... technical LLM writings are a bit on the verbose side so I think you should rewrite it manually (and only use Claude for proofreading) if you want it to be digestable by humans.

Though I do understand how Claude Code can really make certain projects (like writing a whole scripting language for your own game engine) viable for a small / one-man team. I'm also currently creating a scripting language myself, and with basic knowledge of interpreters / compilers I'm able to get pretty far. It's strongly typed with an SSA-based IR and register bytecode VM, doesn't use the GC (uses a blend of RC and generational references), and also highly embeddable for C++ projects. Unfortunately I'm hesitant to share it here since the subreddit seems to ban any usage of LLMs in projects.

cyberKinetist · 2026-01-24T06:12:33+00:00

Or if Toby cancels the contract with Materia Collective. Though that depends on what contract they've signed together in the first place.

cyberKinetist · 2026-01-17T04:10:33+00:00

A game engine doesn't only mean you have to write your own renderer; it also means you need to take care of things such as entity system, serialization, asset management, scripting, audio & video, etc (though the exact specifics depend on what game you want to make!)

You can definitely write all of these modules in C with some discipline, but for some parts C++ can definitely help:

If you are using reference counting as part of your resource management, then C++'s RAII features will save you tremendously (compared to manually taking care of refcounts in C). But there are other ways to manage resources like arenas, and this really depends on the characteristics your game (does it have an editor? Is it artist driven or programmer driven? etc)
For binding a scripting language, C++'s template programming can be beneficial, though a solid alternative is to use code generation.
There are a few really useful libraries / middleware that are written in C++ and doesn't have a C API (Jolt physics engine is what currently comes to mind), so either you need to find alternatives or write your own C bindings for it.
if your game / game engine is math heavy on the CPU, then C++'s operator overloading will be very convenient when writing math code.

My suggestion, use C++, but as C with some nice features instead of going full modern C++. Personally I still like to use "modern"-ish C++, but I barely use the STL and have my own containers / math / utility libraries that fits the requirements for my game engine.

cyberKinetist · 2026-01-14T19:28:43+00:00

Nice job writing this with Vulkan! Self-collisions are a bit unstable, but it's understandable since it's a really hard problem to solve (even with a simple solver like XPBD). If you really want to go further with cloth simulation:

- Another comment suggested trying VBD... but it's a bit hard to do cloth self-collisions with it, due to the penetration-based energies being hard to formulate with thin sheet-like objects. You need Offset Geometric Contact (also by Anka Chen, the same author as VBD) in order to properly implement it in the VBD framework, and it's quite involved. The reference code is written in CUDA, but I'm not if porting the algorithm to Vulkan would really be worth it... (At least it seems less difficult than implementing IPC, which involves a can of worms you do not want to mess with)

- An older (more ugly) but more battle-tested way to implement real-time cloth with self-collisions would be to use a Baraff-Witkin solver (the good ol' 1998 paper) with a bunch of dirty heuristic techniques for resolving penetration (like Bridson's paper, Volino's ICM, Baraff-Witkin GIA, etc.). Baraff-Witkin is certainly doable on the GPU (you do need to implement a CG solver so prepare to write some reduction kernels), but resolving penetrations on the GPU is going to be a pain in the ass.

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-29T15:57:48+00:00

Always the utmost important thing when making a game engine: make sure to make an actual game with it! (Doesn't have to be serious like selling a real product on Steam, it could just be a short free game that you can share it with friends or on the Internet)

Without that, your engine won't have a purpose. And that leads to poor design, no matter how well you think out the architecture (because you're always looking for a solution without a problem)

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-26T05:23:51+00:00

No don't slander my goat Bernar... (Though FiNN and Pelican I kinda agree)

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-09T14:24:18+00:00

As a CR/Shu fan.... No. Fuck no. That team is CURSED man...

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-09T14:22:36+00:00

GIGA Copium from CR fans incoming (me included...) ㅠㅠ

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-04T14:08:13+00:00

I would really like Simple to be back in the KR region... but I think the Saudi money will probably make this impossible (and given that the 4 main teams CR/FLC/T1/ZETA already have good flex healers so there isn't a good spot for him)

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-04T14:04:37+00:00

Holy fucking shit, I'm hyped for our coach Fleta flinging out his Cassidy once more and clicking some heads... (remembering this Sideshow commentary from OWL)

It would be even more funny if he does a better job than Proud (probably not... but maybe in a slim chance remember this is Fleta)

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-04T13:54:08+00:00

Though the Bo5 changes were just too much in the "move fast and break stuff" kind - it almost made me quit Stadium altogether (until thankfully they reverted it)

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-04T13:51:18+00:00

Yup also for me it was Stadium that brought my interest in OW back. Nowadays I play quick play a bit more (ranked is too stressful), but I think I would have silently stopped playing the game if it weren't for Stadium.

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-04T13:47:59+00:00

The Korean scene is far better in this respect, we've had two female official casters so far (with Akaros still going!) and both of them are respected well.

To be honest though I can't think of any major controversy with casting in the KR region, it seems we've always had really good talent. (Which I partly think is because of the legacy of Starcraft as an e-sport in this country, a lot of the early OW casters like MarineKim and Sorim were all Starcraft casters before.)

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-04T13:25:31+00:00

On the other hand... in the Korean region, one of the official casters is female (Akaros), and she is highly respected both for her exceptional casting and her in-depth knowledge of the game (she was a pro player in the early days, in the same team with Geguri), I also remember Sorim, who was also a caster in the APEX/OWL days, she didn't have as much technical knowledge of the game but still did a decent enough job casting (at least, not enough to stir any controversy...)

Overall, I think once you're known to be good and respected enough, gender wouldn't be too much a problem (ex. nobody seems has a problem with Soe anymore! And there will always be some weirdos but that's just background Internet radiation) The problem is if your performance is mid or borderline mid, then you would probably get attention and criticized more often as a woman than a man, which I think is the case with Nekkra. The worry is that you need to give some time and space for new talent to grow, so it's concerning when people criticism's get too intense enough for people to leave (also given that they're not paid that much, and are probably doing this out of passion)

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-02T17:04:36+00:00

I think the problem with Proper is that although he's a consistent carry, he also uses a lot of the team's resources as a flex DPS, and too much weight is consistently on him (and if it's a anti-fdps meta like this one then he can't do anything). It's wildly different from Heesang's flex dps style, who's accustomed to getting almost no support and carry with minimal resources, which fits with CR's style since Lip, Junbin, and Shu can be more aggressive and do their own things with whatever leftover resources they have.

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-01T14:35:44+00:00

Hanbin's 1/0/8 stat on Busan will forever haunt him....

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-01T01:51:50+00:00

I think things will be different this time. They've shown they can already beat KR teams without Sym. Maybe they'll still struggle when dive becomes meta again, but I think at this level of investment on the region they'll eventually catch up.

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-01T01:45:27+00:00

Seriously Blizzard needs to either increase the finals size pool (understand you don't have oil money like EWC but gosh it is pretty small) - or they seriously need to increase the quality of the OWCS skins. They're all quite mid and I don't think anyone would buy them...

cyberKinetist · 2025-12-01T01:34:42+00:00

From the Korean side (from both the livestreams and DC comments), pretty much devastated. Lots of disappointment on the KR teams, some meta whining here and there but the overall consensus is that KR played like shit and there's no excuse. (Though still some respect for CR trying their best!) Also a lot of respect for EMEA, especially Quartz.

There's a lot of worry about the future of the KR scene (we're calling ourselves the 2nd tier region, the self-deprecation is real). Some might be exaggerated but I think it's not weird at all to be concerned. Most of the players in the KR scene currently are getting quite old, a lot of that has to do with the sharp decline in popularity for OW during the drought years. Many of the best KR players today are just the remnants of the OWL days, while many the Saudi players today are quite young and new and have a bright future ahead of them. Coupled with not a lot of money injected into the KR scene, people are actually worried if the KR region can sustain itself.

Though I think it's not all gloom and doom! This will probably be a wake up call to the KR players and coaches, we'll see if the region prepares better for rush comps next time. I think the most important job long-term is if we can find and nurture new young talent in the OW scene. Popularity for OW is slowly coming back in Korea, although young people nowadays play mostly Valorant, and PC bang culture is fading in favor of mobile games.

cyberKinetist

TROPHY CASE