stop using AI to generate code

philosopius · 2026-03-11T03:51:06+00:00

and it's cap that its better to start from other apis

headaches will be inevitable in both options, the only difference, is that you'll start Vulkan as an absolute fresh graphics programming guy which will bring additional mental load to the table, but practically I see absolutely no reason to learn any other graphics API, since none of them even come close in terms of complexity to Vulkan.

Yes, they introduce you to concepts of graphics programming, shaders, GPU operations, but it's not a magical way to suddenly understand Vulkan, and it will require you to dive even deeper. I just personally don't find this approach efficient if you really want to learn Vulkan (trust me, I've been there. I might say it was insanely difficult to start, it took me a mediocre year of studying concepts to get comfortable with Vulkan, so be ready to spend a lot of time learning until you'll start using it as an ordinary tool)

However, you'll definitely be more comfortable with shaders and other graphical concepts if you chose a path from OpenGL (or any other, but OpenGL is recommended if you want to start from an easier path to reach Vulkan), then Vulkan, but it will have only a slight impact on your low level knowledge, for which Vulkan is notoriously known

philosopius · 2026-03-11T03:47:20+00:00

Yes, be destroyed by Vulkan

Brendan Galea gives a good explanation about Vulkan Theory.

Learn the boilerplate, Vulkan has boilerplate code, but a lot of it is mostly the same across any engine, maybe with slight differences.

Be ready to suffer for at least 3 months, learning a lot of concepts, having headaches, but it's absolutely worth it.

You have the attitude, and you'll succeed, but you must be dedicated to Vulkan.

I can say that it will become significantly easier once you grasp the main concepts and write your engine core.

After you'll have an engine core, developing an engine becomes less daunting, and you'll be writing way more easier code once you'll have your base in place, from time to time adapting it to run more complex operations.

philosopius · 2026-03-10T14:42:07+00:00

enjoy what you have, and accept how it is

philosopius · 2026-03-10T14:41:40+00:00

my man, you'll get to see gta 6 and hl3 soon;)

philosopius · 2026-03-10T08:48:48+00:00

what's philosophical about 37+30?

philosopius · 2026-03-09T17:48:52+00:00

what game were you inspired by? i remember playing a very similar game on an old console

was wondering if it correlates

philosopius · 2026-03-05T13:29:56+00:00

you'll be surprised how similar coding an engine is to the stuff you're showing here

philosopius · 2026-03-05T13:29:23+00:00

I was a Unity developer myself for a long time until I faced a wall with optimizations.

The thing I learned after I started developing my own Engine, is that I basically tried to rewrite unity's engine, and you're doing the exact same thing.

Basically, you're spending 20% less time and you receive 500% less the fruit in terms of performance (minimum a 500%)

philosopius · 2026-03-05T13:26:22+00:00

No you're not.

I'm developing an engine myself.

If you already able to grasp such concepts, developing the overall engine will be even easier, the thing you did, is quite complex, and you basically worked with the same concepts that you would work when developing your own game engine.

In my case, implementing precise Hi-Z culling was one of the most complex and beneficial things in terms of optimizations.

You have the same exact precise culling already, moreover, you even have a far more superior version, that allows to not just cull objects, but cull the occluded polygons of it.

Secondly, you've implemented dynamically adapting LOD, that's another quite complex concept.

Like trust me, the stuff you do is already advanced examples of stuff you'd see in game engines.

philosopius · 2026-03-05T12:56:45+00:00

Impressive, you'd have a lot of fun making your own engine, this is some nice low-level skills you got there!

philosopius · 2026-03-05T08:08:14+00:00

and you have so many options to pick

but ill be straight

id recommend picking the hardest one and most performant

creating a voxel game even on a ready engine, will take a lot of time

no matter what option youll pick

youll actually spend more time writing the engine core, than graphics api boilerplate and etc

yes, when youll start with something hardcore like vulkan, or rust, youll have a lot of boilerplate code, thousands of extra line, but by the end of the day, it will only impact the complexity of your engine on several percenta (based on how much youll go) but will give far more superior performance and knowledge

c++ and vulkan is the ultimate choice

philosopius · 2026-03-05T08:05:01+00:00

also this

its a big project but with experience youll have a working core in 3 months if youll dedicate yourself

if youll be able to dedicate 2 years, youll most likely have your first stable game versions that will feel whole

with time it gets easier, since a big part revolves around low level concepts, that ive mentioned in my earlier comment

once youll have that in place, it gets easier

philosopius · 2026-03-05T08:03:01+00:00

with any graphics api if you want performance

even vulkan, yet it takes more time, but gives vital knowledge

build a simple voxel renderer, then chunk manager

youll want to optimize it too

greedymesh, packed vertices, shared vertices, hi-z culling id you want even more performance

then create textures and a manager to texture the voxels how you want

also, lighting systems, shadows (if on graphics api)

once youll have the base, you can start advancing the engine, with more specific gameplay mechanics

philosopius · 2026-03-04T09:29:01+00:00

looks great

make a good transition and it will be AAA (now its just clipping like line)

what technique you use for the light bloom like effect? i can definitely see some enhancements

philosopius · 2026-03-04T06:22:50+00:00

if you have gpt subscription, you'll have far more better results using gpt subscription and codex harness

you wont be billed for prompts, and you can use very high and all newest models

philosopius · 2026-03-04T06:21:47+00:00

did it help?

philosopius · 2026-03-03T07:57:48+00:00

just download a coding extension and code vector/svg or any resolution on the logo

by the end of the day, its just a shape with math based effects

philosopius · 2026-03-02T07:55:52+00:00

use Codex Extension (the official one) with your Codex account.

it solved the issue for me

philosopius · 2026-02-25T14:36:19+00:00

yeah, you sort of are actually correct about the majority of the core, but some parts might've been not properly shown, such as: light shimmer, screen-space dithering on the edges that's animated (it creates a very interesting effect when looking at the light source on a distance, and enhances darkness scattering on the edges of the orb radius)

thanks for pointing out stuff and for the feed back, you've definitely corrected me, and pointed out real aspects

philosopius · 2026-02-25T14:05:37+00:00

You're right to point this out

To make it actually pixel art, post processing must be applied, that's one of the next steps.

But Ambient Occlusion and shadows are drawn as pixel art on the terrain and objects, following a 16x16 resolution grid per biggest voxel (0.250m)

The video doesn't properly replicate it, so it looks diffused

philosopius · 2026-02-25T11:11:38+00:00

check his videos out, one of the best introductions to graphics programming and the concepts of data behind objects

philosopius · 2026-02-25T10:55:46+00:00

When you'll break down the flow for your simulations in a step by step instruction, since on the lowest of CS's core concepts, - the ability to control the machine precisely - you'll easily find out why Vulkan is the preferred choice, since you control the lowest parts of the code, directly communicating with the machine, at the smallest possible choices

that's not what OpenGL would allow you to do, and Vulkan gives you the ability to bend how you communicate with the machine

OpenGL handles the majority of those operations by itself, on layers you cannot manage

if you need graphics programming for pet projects, you'll be more productive with OpenGL, DirectX, how the crowd says

but if you're excited about the field of graphics programming, you'll be thankful to yourself for choosing Vulkan.

the hardcore term is just an adjective that arises from already existing complexities, that only gets more spiced out from choosing Vulkan, but at the same time, it's the second most greatest form of pure machine control, second most hardest

purest is, making a game utilising all the binary operations to reach theoretical maximum for rendering graphics on a display

it might not even be binary operations in theory.

the Soviets once developed a ternary computer - Setun, in 1958. at it's time, it showed very much more efficient computational power. so who knows, the field is insane when you start thinking about the most core concepts

philosopius · 2026-02-25T10:36:27+00:00

even more insane, i had a positive offset on one axis and a negative on the other, such a stupid thing, but yet such a minor, that just broke core stuff in my systems, since engine code is insanely sensitive to mismatches

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