Recent submissions

Comment · 7 years ago
Comment · 7 years ago
It's not about the language, C# is generally fine if you know how to work the GC (which admittedly many people don't). The kind of C++ that is used for game code in UE4 isn't exactly "zero-overhead" either and it also uses garbage collection. Plus, on mobile C# in Unity is translated to C++ anyway. My guess is that the difference is negligible in most cases.

What really makes the difference is that Unity has light-weight rendering pipelines available, running on older GPUs. UE4 just ditches those devices.

Comment · 7 years ago
> Why? Unreal Engine has targeted iOS + Android phones for 5+ years now, successfully. (Fortnite, PUBG, Dungeon Defenders, Horn, etc).

Dungeon Defenders and Horn are not UE4 titles, UE3 isn't available anymore. PUBG and Fortnite only work on higher-end phones. UE4 is going the "easy" route by not supporting older devices. With Unity, you could still target fixed-function hardware up until recently.

Comment · 7 years ago
> I don't know why people are still using unity instead of UE4

How about not having to use the dumpster fire called C++ for game code? C# is far nicer to use. Also, in Unity code hot-reloads instantly and reliably.

> Meanwhile, UE4 is a really good deal and keeps getting better with every release.

So does Unity. I think people underestimate how much more development effort went into Unity in the last years. UE4 has more fanboys, less actual success. On the other hand, with the Fortnite windfall, maybe UE4 will pick up pace now.

> It's really just a better put together engine all around.

It's still a godawful pile of C++ that takes forever to compile. I'm sure the same is true for Unity's core, but they're moving to a subset of C# that can be compiled more efficiently.

Comment · 8 years ago
> Your commitment to the masculine is probably merely a habit, but you've inadvertently highlighted one of the problems exacerbated by the teachings of the average business school -- self-interest at any cost is acceptable, because it's an inherent property of capitalism.

I'm not committed to anything, would you have preferred I chose a woman to be put into the role of (from your perspective) "the villain"? What about a transgender person of color, would that not completely change the power dynamics of the situation? How about literally a red herring that somehow made it through business school?

The point is, if you want to just push an ideology into the heads of students in order to "fix capitalism", without any regard to the actual socio-economic environment, you're doing them a disservice and you will fail at your goal. These people will not survive in the market based on what you teach them.

"Self-interest at any cost" is a naive caricature of capitalism. You're probably indoctrinated too much for me to make an impact here, but just keep in mind that if you only ever fight a straw man, you're never winning an actual battle.

> Self-interest is fine and dandy, but the example you're citing -- dispense with a hundred people in order to obtain a half a million dollars -- is not an overly productive practice for most societies.

Unfortunately, you weren't even able to perceive the scenario as the dilemma that it is: In this scenario, either 90 or 100 workers will be fired for economic reasons. The question is, does the manager give up on his bonus to save 10 people for one year, voluntarily. If he does, it may have an impact on morale, boosting productivity, possibly leading to even higher long-term gain. If he doesn't, he immediately gets to be more wealthy. There's no obviously right or wrong answer even from the point of self-interest.

Contrary to what one might like to believe, productivity is not the same as production output. If there's a surplus, production must be decreased to the point where it meets demand, not well above. Laying off workers then can improve productivity, because revenue relative to cost increases. These are basic economic principles that exist even outside of capitalist systems, especially socialist systems (used to) struggle with this issue. As far as society as a whole is concerned, widespread misallocation of labor makes everyone poorer, because it creates a discrepancy between what is produced and what is necessary.

Comment · 8 years ago
So, an article in "The Guardian" laments the immorality of teaching capitalism to future would-be capitalists. Color me shocked!

What should we teach them instead? The importance of social responsibility, sustainability, diversity and warm feelings and how capitalism is really evil and how they should feel bad about employing its principles? In other words, shall we turn them into sheep to be let loose among the wolves (and charge them for it)?

There's an argument to be made against many practices taught to MBAs, but those arguments better be supported by some science (like behavioral economics). It all has to make sense and support the bottom line.

Let's take the example of the manager who fires a hundred workers and who pays himself a 500,000$ bonus (half of which will fall to taxes). He's in it for the money, just like those workers. Should he give up on his bonus and save ten employees for one year? Will that increase productivity or is he better off increasing his own wealth? We're talking about a man who rose to the top, someone whose education (or indoctrination) will not have destroyed his sense of self-interest.

Comment · 8 years ago
> It's not about easy or hard, the point is that it is under your control.

My point, if that hasn't been clear by now, is that your emotions are not under your control. Your physical reactions may or may not be.

> If your emotions are subconscious and you yourself aren't fully in control then how could you possible blame someone else for them?

People stimulate each other's emotions with their behavior, some behavior can certainly be measured to to elicit certain emotions. If I follow your argument, clearly people are in control of their behavior and they are also responsible for it (agreed). So, under certain circumstances, it should be possible to "blame" them, though I'm not focusing on that.

Your "solution" boils down to: "If you're so sensitive and not in control of your emotions, just go away." That's fine, but not every community needs to have such "low" standards.

> The world happens. You react. Equip and train yourself to react differently if you don't like the outcomes.

An online community is not "the world", we get to design such environments. In "the world", there are tigers and lions, but you wouldn't argue to set them loose on main street just to make people stronger and more vigilant, would you?

> Predictability does not mean causation, especially when it is not accurate 100% of the time and therefore subjective.

That's a pretty weak argument though, in "the world" you always have to go by approximations, even in science we struggle to remove subjectivity completely.

> Sure, when you yell at someone, they might become upset. But another person might not care at all.

Let's say I had the desire to punch a random person in the face, there's certainly an off-chance that some masochist would love to have this happen to them. It's clearly a subjective reaction. Yet, it's not acceptable to go out punching people, don't you agree?

> So are you now causing both anger and apathy in these individuals with the same statement? Or is it that they react as individuals instead and it's really under none of your control?

I must appeal to your common sense. If some behavior of yours causes, for example "50% anger, 30% apathy, 19% annoyance and 1% joy" across a selection of subjects, then the chance that any of it is not negative is 1%. Yelling at people probably isn't so far off from that, DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I MEAN? Sure, I can't predict with 100% certainty what the reaction will be, but if something is 99% bad, it'll better have some strong upside for me to accept it in my community. Yelling at people doesn't have that upside, it's generally frowned upon, so it's reasonable to not allow it. Of course, most people generally understand and follow that without it having to be made a rule.

Comment · 8 years ago
> Exactly, if you are more prone to sunburn, wear more sunscreen. Same as handling your own feelings.

If you could "handle your feelings" as easily as putting on sunscreen, literally every psychotherapist would be out of work.

> And yes, feelings are completely in your head.

Anything you will ever perceive is "in your head". You don't control a lot of it. "Positive thinking" doesn't cure depression or schizophrenia.

> Nobody else knows how you will react nor do they have any control of your consciousness.

Human reactions are actually fairly predictable. Being rude, arrogant or condescending is generally off-putting. Some amount of control can be exerted as well, for instance, it will almost certainly be impossible for you to not briefly picture a TINY PINK ELEPHANT after having read this sentence.

Comment · 8 years ago
> If you have less tolerance, how is that anyone else's problem?

Call me a radical, but people should have a modicum of social responsibility towards each other.

> Some people are also more prone to sunburn than others, but we don't say the sun needs to be less bright.

Luckily, we don't need to, having invented sunscreen.

> You are in control of your own feelings.

No you're not. Feelings are sneaky that way.

> Also why is it that minorities always comes down to not being male or white when half the planet is female and most of the planet is not white?

The blog post doesn't refer to anyone as "minority", but as "marginalized".

Comment · 9 years ago
They haven't dropped any language yet.

They're planning to update to a newer version of C# and they will drop the other languages as a part of that update.

Comment · 9 years ago
I'm not sure that's really much of a problem, this guy may have just encountered some self-important pricks (and it's good he found that out early).

On the other hand, if the position is about <X> and the applicant has half his experience in <Y> instead, that's going to be a negative (not necessarily a deal breaker) no matter what.

Comment · 9 years ago
It 100% depends on the company and the hiring process.

It probably helps with some of the "cool" places. I would certainly value it as a plus in "general skill level", but that's because I'm cool.

It will probably not help or even be held against you with the "uncool" places. If it comes down to it, why would they hire you instead of the clown that has experience in <related enterprise crap> instead?

Comment · 9 years ago
I think this is less true today with all the game engines doing 90% of the hard technical work for you, otherwise I would agree. However, the question isn't whether it can show skill (it definitely can), but whether that results in a payoff (i.e. is being recognized).

> Do you want to work for people who are too to small-minded to realise the benefits of game programming?

Some people can't judge the merits of game programming, that doesn't make them small minded. Depending on where you want to work, you may not have much of a choice in those terms anyway.

Comment · 9 years ago
> So, if they are successful and call themselves communist they are not really communist.

China is still very much communist in every way but economically. I don't mind calling them communist, it's just that if we're talking about an economic system and I'm looking for success story of socialism, you can't bring up China. Ever since China abandoned planned economy and employed capitalism, its economy has grown by leaps and bounds.

> I suppose you agree that there are not pure capitalist states. What we see in the world is normally called "mixed economy".

Whatever you want to call it, does "more socialism" or "more capitalism" correlate strongly with wealth? What about individual freedom?

Comment · 9 years ago
You're talking mostly about military intervention, mostly before socialists got the chance to even implement their policy.

Now, wherever you start, a functioning economic system should be able to lift even a destroyed country up eventually. Just look at what Germany accomplished after WW1 (too bad they went for another war with what they gained).

What about all the Eastern European countries that abandoned socialism without a single bullet fired? What about all the former African socialist countries that few people ever talk about?

> Did you really mean economy or landmass, or population?

I'm talking about roughly half the world (people). I may be off with that figure, but suffice it to say it should be big enough to work autonomously.

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