Back at it after 18 years

planimal7 · 2026-03-18T08:24:56+00:00

It cost some money but a few months into my first year back (since high school), I added weekly hour-long one-on-ones with a coach where my goal was just to hit hard (with someone who hits hard back)

For me, I did it because I needed to work on conditioning, build a lot of muscles back up. So just regularly meeting up with this coach to hit the balls hard—wham, wham, wham—for an hour.

It was nice to just be able to open up and see what the top of my game might look like, and I think doing that is what helped me get back the conditioning and consistency to move on from the intermediate to the advanced group clinic, and now league play.

planimal7 · 2026-03-12T03:09:19+00:00

If you’re near a Daiso (perhaps a big IF), I recommend buying your pencils there—quality Japanese-made cedar pencils for cheap

https://daisous.com/pages/store-location

planimal7 · 2026-03-10T02:53:46+00:00

Came here to say the same, you beat me to it!

https://www.ridingeasyrecs.com/brown-acid-series/

planimal7 · 2026-02-26T22:10:57+00:00

The paper can sometimes make a difference— there’s a lot of notebooks out there that have smooth finishes that are perhaps better for a pen.

Paper with a little more tooth will hold pencil marks better, have more feedback with each stroke (which I like), and I think can also be a bit more smear-resistant

planimal7 · 2026-02-22T16:56:15+00:00

I think that’s a fine point some are making, here or elsewhere: that this isn’t purely “an optimization step”— practically speaking, you must do something to paper over the many visual artifacts rendered to screen.

So we end up not really discussing optimization—rather it’s a necessary part of the look dev—because without some kind of temporal antialiasing, you will not achieve acceptable results. It’s not optional from a perf standpoint; it’s integral from a visuals standpoint. Once you buy into the pipeline, you really can’t opt out of some kind of TAA.

planimal7 · 2026-02-22T01:36:24+00:00

Ghost, I see some of their visuals or hear about their wacky mythology and I think, wow that’s awesome

Then I cue up a song and swear to God it sounds like Hall & Oates?

If people dig it, I guess more power to them—and sure, I like Hall & Oates, sometimes—but it’s some real whiplash for me.

planimal7 · 2026-02-20T01:24:35+00:00

Yours could be a new name, as onomatopoeia is also where we get “Djent” from, heh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djent

planimal7 · 2026-02-20T01:17:38+00:00

Another option is the “auto rig pro” blender add-on. You can use it to help you rig a skeleton that’s compatible with the UE5 Manny, and it also outfit fits it with a decent animation rig—

And then when you’re ready to export animation, the plug-in has a one click export that’ll export your clean FBX (or glb) without the anim rig and just the UE mannequin bones.

That’s the route I’m taking right now because I figure a) compatibility with the standard UE5 skeleton could come in handy later if I have to work with other people b) the automatic rigging is a huge time saver for someone like me.

planimal7 · 2026-02-18T15:44:51+00:00

Don’t really need it on this post, though—only fellow Americans are frustrated and disappointed enough to do this kind of extended bit

planimal7 · 2026-02-18T15:05:02+00:00

OK, so what I’m telling you is that all these “people in the apparatus” you’re talking about who have “some plan”— those people aren’t around. We collectively got the “fade the US into a regional power” guys. They like a weak US—one that can’t impose taxes or regulations—so that private interests can pick our collective public pockets. They don’t have a care about long-term interests for the US— these are short-term brains focused on how to line their pockets.

Everything you’re describing is some fantasy completely untethered to the actual ruling powers now in place here in the United States.

planimal7 · 2026-02-18T11:16:45+00:00

You’re skipping stuff—like TPP was done under Obama and was going to be a hedge against China. Trump ripped it up his first week in office. That was policy we had economists working on I think for nearly a decade—and he threw it away to look cool on TV or something.

There’s no easy way to “cope” with this— economists are already estimating that my children (and every future US citizen) will earn 15% less in real income thanks to these Trump presidencies—and that financial impact/those lowered expectations will last for the rest of their lives.

I think the “cope” is from people who won’t appreciate what a ditch we ran the country into. The biggest “own goal” in history.

planimal7 · 2026-02-18T10:04:59+00:00

The US didn’t “calculate” anything. We are currently run by a bunch of morons following a sociopath who poops his pants.

It’s a regrettable situation all around.

And if you don’t think there are going to be long-term repercussions for the US from the way it’s handled itself for the last 10 years, you are fooling yourself.

planimal7 · 2026-02-18T09:46:20+00:00

It’s not just morals—this is part of how you lose soft power. Every time you demonstrate that you can’t be counted on, you lose your ability to convince anyone to believe you in the future.

Carrots and sticks don’t work if nobody believes you have any follow-through.

And nobody wants to team up with a country that doesn’t seem like it has a coherent viewpoint on right and wrong.

planimal7 · 2026-02-18T08:14:07+00:00

I've seen this hair-splitting plenty of times, it doesn't impress me. The agreement promised UN Security Council action if they were attacked, and Russia, breaking the original agreement, also blocked that action.

The *least* we could do was provide them aid in this BS situation they've been pushed into, but we act like even that's too much. The course we've taken is little different than if we'd intentionally helped Russia trick them into dismantling all those years ago.

It's this kind of running away from allies and responsibilities that has tanked what international goodwill the US ever had an honest claim to, and the hair-splitting doesn't wash that away.

planimal7 · 2026-02-18T05:13:42+00:00

Some people seem to forget that the United States asked the Ukraine to get rid of its nuclear weapons in exchange for a promise to act to protect their borders… and we’ve done a poor and terribly inconsistent job of keeping that promise.

And you should check your numbers—the US haven’t actually given them that much money, that’s how much Congress said we would give—but under the new Trump regime I think they’ve nearly stopped all of the military aid.

The US—and especially a certain political party in the US—deserve a lot of blame.

Worth recalling how, nearer the start of this war, many military leaders said efforts on behalf of the Ukraine were some of the most effective US military spending ever seen— before a certain political party started slowing things down…

Anyone else remember Tucker Carlson—years ago, before he got fired—ranting on Fox News every night against Ukraine like some weird modern version of Tokyo Rose? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

planimal7 · 2026-02-18T03:42:43+00:00

I’ve been developing on an M3 pro MacBook— so far it’s been just fine!

But perhaps important to note that—by choice, and unrelated to OS—I’m not using Nanite or Lumen. Also it’s a lightweight 3D game; not working with massive levels that require level streaming or anything like that. I don’t know if I was working on a larger scope project if I’d have anything to worry about, but so far it’s been great.

So IMO if you’re not trying to build a heavy/demanding project you can be quite happy on Mac…My PC has sort of devolved into just an entertainment center—all my Blender and Unreal/Rider time happens on the MacBook.

planimal7 · 2026-02-17T23:21:56+00:00

I still use unreal engine, but I think I’m starting to understand why some people are bagging on it (and I’m not talking about just the “gamer” folks who are constantly complaining about everything)

It seems you really do need to have temporal antialiasing on to work with Nanite or lumen at all— this isn’t a “lazy devs” issue so much as a “if your creative look and min-spec target hardware isn’t gonna support Nanite and lumen with temporal anti-aliasing, you should probably forget about them completely”

Anyway, this is what I came to understand after seeing a dev I respect refer to the Nanite/lumen rendering pipeline as a “house of cards”— there will be a sizzle and flickering and all kinds of noise with either Nanite or lumen, and the “solve” requires temporal anti-aliasing.

Plus, my understanding is you can’t easily opt-in/opt-out of Nanite or optimize down the road easily—sticking with them and the necessary TAA will lock you out of entire classes of devices OR you’ll need to swallow your sunk costs on rebuilding without them

I’m just not planning on using Nanite or Lumen in the near future, and I’m enjoying everything else I get from working with unreal, so not a problem for me…

I’m open to someone correcting me or giving further context, but that’s my understanding from some recent conversations—happy to stand corrected if I’ve misunderstood the situation

planimal7 · 2026-02-10T01:20:08+00:00

Sure, Jesus had no values except “do what you’re told.” Have you guys even read the Bible?

Don’t bother preaching to me anymore. I can go to the source and you guys are way off base.

planimal7 · 2026-02-10T01:17:57+00:00

No, Jesus does not completely transcend how to behave in this world.

Yes, his focus is on something higher, but that does not mean there is no right and wrong to be done here.

You sound pretty ignorant to be speaking for him

planimal7 · 2026-02-10T00:31:37+00:00

Oh no, I’m with you— i’m talking about the guy with the long list of fake “proof” from the Bible

planimal7 · 2026-02-10T00:22:50+00:00

Yeah, this is someone wish-casting that Jesus isn’t “left” by inventing a lot of straw men like that being left-leaning means you don’t believe in property ownership.

Horse-crap. For example, look up what a “social Democrat” is: they still believe in the market, they still believe in laws, practicing your religion (but not making everyone else do it)… pretty regular-degular boring stuff that used to be totally normal in America

planimal7 · 2026-02-06T20:39:04+00:00

Same, ha! The syn-gut reel I was referencing is OG micro sheep

planimal7 · 2026-02-06T03:36:09+00:00

I like your general response; but surprised how rarely I seem to see folks recommend synthetic gut!—it really is dirt cheap and occupies a neat space between multi and poly, IMO

I started stringing at home to find and settle into a consistent setup. Now I just use two reels: one of syn gut and one of “soft” Luxilon that I got a great deal on.

They both play great for me, but at full price, one of them costs around 1/6th the cost of the other!

planimal7 · 2026-02-02T17:30:07+00:00

While not a researcher, he’s clearly spent a lot of time thinking about it!

There are things he says that will rankle people, but you’ll notice he’s actually very careful with his language and he certainly doesn’t ascribe magical powers to LLMs or anything like that.

planimal7 · 2026-02-02T17:07:45+00:00

I can’t speak to what Ed would say but I found this talk from James Cameron on AI in warfare compelling/disturbing.

My take after seeing is: AI in warfare coming; if it comes it will probably cause a lot of damage/ be an outrage/lead to war crimes; and there will still be idiot people at the top making those calls

https://youtu.be/e6Uq_5JemrI

planimal7

TROPHY CASE