Mikina

joined 2 years ago
[–] Mikina@programming.dev 3 points 6 months ago

It was only two years, and it was basically half nornal computer science classes, and half working with engines, making a game with classmates and mentors from the industry throughout the year, and learning about rendering, AI behaviors (the videogame kind, not LLMs). The graphics part was about shaders, lighting, post-processing, global illumination, renderers and math, not modeling. It was mostly technical, but we had some game desing classes.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Having AI not bullshiting will require an entirely different set of algorithms than LLM, or ML in general. ML by design aproximates answers, and you don't use it for anything that's deterministic and has a correct answer. So, in that rwgard, we're basically at square 0.

You can keep on slapping a bunch of checks on top of random text prediction it gives you, but if you have a way of checking if something is really true for every case imaginable, then you can probably just use that to instead generate the reply, and it can't be something that's also ML/random.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is my favorite sentence from his replies.

I've learned today that you are sensitive to ensuring human readability over any concerns in regard to AI consumption

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I forgot to add that I had a Masters in Game Development and Computer Graphics, which definitely helped, but I still learned most of my gamedev skills by regularly attending gamejams and working on my own projects. I've also started working in gamedev for the past year, and I wouldn't say that it teaches you much, since you are missing out on 80% of actuall development and only crunch JIRA tickets and bugfixes, as a junior that is, without being exposed to the more important parts or other skills. Assuming you join a larger studio with game in progress, in an indie studio with team of 10 people, you'll probably have a lot more responsibilities and impact on other stages of the game's development.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 6 points 6 months ago (5 children)

This isn't true. If you can get by while working part-time, you still have at least 40 hours every two weeks to work on your game.

It's one of my biggest regrets, that after school I immediately jumped into full-time job, even though I realistically could live comfortably with 1/3 of the pay I was getting, since young+no familly+no car+shared living reduces your living costs by a very large margin. My best friend did that and has been working only 2 days per week since. I was trying to keep up with him, working on our game in my free time, but it's simply not feasible to build on top of 40 hours per week of regular job, and then do anything meaningful on your side projects. I barely struggled to get myself to do at least 20h of work per month on the project, missing deadlines, and it sucked.

He, on the other hand, kept our game project afloat and moving forward, with 60+ hours per month, while also writing and running a large LARP for 100 of players, directing his own theater group, and in general successfully working on a lot of projects, including several smaller games.

The best advice I can give, if you want to be a game developer, is to 1) not work in gamedev and 2) work part-time. The IT salary should net you a comfortable life even on part-time pay, assuming it's not gamedev. Smaller studios will have difficulties keeping afloat if they need to pay you, and in larger AAA studio you will be the same code-monkey crunching JIRA tickets as you would be in any IT job, but for a lot less money. And the design freedom you get when your livelyhood doesn't depend on your art's success, be it games or anything else, is totally worth it.

For example, this game has been developed solely in free time, without anyone getting paid for working on it. It's not AAA and the development takes a long time, but it definitely doesn't need to be a fulltime job.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 4 points 6 months ago

I just ignore everything, avoid news, especially local or politics. I just don't care, don't plan to ever have children and just hope I'll get to live the rest of my life with my circle of friends playing games without having to deal with any kind of large crisis that would affect me.

Since I have slightly above avarage salary as someone working in IT, I'm counting on not being rich enough to be of interrest, while also not being poor enough (taking my lack of any expenses on family/car/etc into account) that if the living conditions worsen significatly, it will have already been a problem for more than half of a population way earlier and something will have to be done about it. And even if not, I can still comfortably get by even if prices of everything got 3-4 times as much as they are now, so IDGAF. It's a privilege, but I'm at a point where I don't really care what happens to others. For my part, I'm not bringing children into this hopeless mess, and while it's sad that a lot of innocent will take the fall, I also take solace in that a lot of the people who brought it on themselves will suffer for it.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 1 points 6 months ago

What I mean by that is that it doesn't shove the AI summaries into your face, and they are only generated if you actually click on a different tab.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I just use Kagi, which seems to be pretty good at filtering bullshit by default, and have mabually downranked reddit and twitter, ot any other site I found and don't like. But it's been a long time since I used other search, so I can't compare it much since I'm used to it. Never really had any problems with not finding what I need.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm using Kagi, but as of right now I'm not sure if I can recommend it. The last year with it was amazing, but for the past few days I've been getting blocked searches from my VPN out of nowhere. That would be a dealbreaker for me, but I hope it was just a mistake and they will fix it. It's the first time it has happened in the year or so I've been using it.

Apparently, they are also adding a bunch of AI features, but I only noticed it when I was looking up the feature page, and I haven't noticed any of it in my feed before that - so I guess they don't push it on users and it's optional somewhere out of the way, so don't let that discourage you. (Though, it would've discouraged me, if I saw that before I started using it. But as of now it doesn't affect you unless you look for it, I guess)

Other than that, the search is awesome. But since I'm using it exclusively for like a year, I can't really compare it with other engines, it's possible that I'm just used to it.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 22 points 6 months ago (17 children)

I've never had issues with looking anything up. By downranking Reddit and using a search engine with a good indexer that downranks bullshit and generated websites, which mine is really good at, I haven't noticed much change from how it was before.

But I agree with the second part. That's something that never occured to me, and it makes sense. I was usually trying to answer questions I knew, and never had the urge to reply "just google it", so it doesn't change much for me, but it's a really good point I never realized.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I highly recommend reading Digital Minimalism, which deals with exactly what you are talking about. It's a great and inspiring read, even if you don't actually go through with it.

From what I remember, it mostly talks about how to approach any kind of technology as a tool, though a pretty simple process - honestly think about what your goal is (networking, getting information about new topics, keeping up to date on events...), and properly decide whether the technology is actually The Best way how to do it, while minimalizing any drawbacks.

Some examples I remember are:

  • I have to use social networks to stay in touch with my friends and family. - Is that really the best way? Isn't it better to make sure to visit or call them regularly, so they can tell you what they have been up to, instead of you passively seeing it from soulless posts? If your goal is to have a meaningful connection with them, is chatting in a group-chat the best way and better than talking less often, but in person?
  • I have to stay up-to-date on news. - Is endlessly scrolling through clickbait articles for hours the best use of your time? Wouldn't just subscribing to a physical newspaper/journal, that you get to read every day/week/month, accomplish the same thing while also saving you an immense amount of time?
  • I need to have a smartphone so I can be reached at any time. - Do you need to have a smartphone for that? Isn't dumb phone way better, since you don't get distracted with other stuff? And are you sure that you have to reply immediately, and it won't wait until the evening? Will setting up regular 30 minutes per day, to check and answer your personal mails/IMs be sufficient, and if someone needs to reach you immediately, they can always call you.

Most of the arguments in the book were thought-provoking, and from what I've tried implementing, it has made my life a lot better. For example, switching my phone to a dumb phone (and carrying a powered off smarthphone that I can make a hotpost for, if I really need an app for something) made my away-from-computer life a lot better and peacful, and it was really easy to get used to that. Once you start considering anything you do on a computer from the pragmatic point of view, and ask yourself what your goal is, and if there isn't a better way - the answer usually is yes, there is.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 22 points 6 months ago (2 children)

If I ever wanted to fight against my local regime, it would definitely not be through US and CIA, lol.

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