#Program implementation

[mochakissedgold]

Willow's making it known that she wants to lay hands on any of these guys and if I'm personally Tony Khan, I'm letting her through an intergender four way with zero hesitation.

[tanadrin]

finally got to construction robots in factorio and decided to refactor (ha ho) my whole setup and implement a bus system like the wiki describes, and now i've completely wrecked my sleep again

[gimmick-blog-bracket]

oh no

[birrdify]

I giving you guys yummy crackers and yummy hot chocolate

sorry if this looks Weird i dont know sam and jade's exact designs yet huhuhu

[code-tryperse]

Sky using all your CPU? It's more likely than you think.

I wrote this in a comment on a Reddit post of someone complaining that Sky isn't using their GPU properly and that it's stuttering for them. However, it's detailed enough that I feel like it deserves its own post in this blog. As always, this is a very technical post. But if you like seeing how games work behind the scenes, then this might be for you.

There are many reasons why Sky doesn't use your GPU as much compared to other games. It's actually a common issue in many games, and while the general reasoning is the same, the details of it can vary. The short version is that it uses the CPU a whole lot more than your GPU. Hence, it's not using a lot of power because increasing it won't have much of an effect. The bottleneck isn't on GPU speed, and that's what higher power draw tries to address. It also does most of its work on one thread, which means that it won't display a high CPU usage, as that counts work done on all logical processors. The long version is a technical explanation of how Sky was designed and the resulting implementation decisions that were done because of it.

Disclaimer: I cannot confirm these because I do not have access to Sky's source code. All of these are hypotheses based on the game's visible behavior and general development decision making.

Long version below the cut. (This isn't in the actual comment, but this is a blog post. Come on now.)

A lot of things that Sky does is CPU-bound. As an example, unless it's been updated along with the AURORA concert which used GPU-bound procedural animations, the animations of the butterflies are done on the CPU. They created the butterfly animation system long before the AURORA concert, and with only around 80 butterflies at any given time instead of 100 thousand, it doesn't make sense to go through the trouble of making their animations run on the GPU. Stuff that requires network requests to do (e.g.: forging candles, buying spirit items, etc.) are also done on the CPU because there's no way for it to be done on the GPU. This means that unless you have a weak GPU, your CPU usually dictates the frame rate of Sky.

As an additional point, Sky does not have a lot of advanced rendering features which will use the GPU more. Remember that Sky was first designed for iOS as a casual, social game. While the option for adding advanced rendering techniques like raytracing and HDR rendering are available, doing so used more power, which isn't good for a mobile game that you play with friends. Sure, you can play it with the phone plugged and have no issues with it running out of power, but that's not as fun as playing it with your friends around you. As such, there's not a lot of tasks for the GPU to run, reducing its power usage.

Sky also does not run some things asynchronously, even if it could. What this means is that, instead of performing some tasks in a separate thread, it does them in a single thread. This means that what really matters most for Sky is single-core performance rather than multi-core performance. It's not completely single-threaded; you can see that it uses more than one logical processor when you open Task Manager. However, it's not using multithreading to its maximum capability. In particular, it does not load resources asynchronously.

Asynchronous resource loading just means that resources (e.g.: models, terrain data, textures, etc.) are loaded in a background thread, allowing the main thread to continue updating the game and continuing rendering. You can tell this behavior is happening because, when you switch areas, the game becomes unresponsive for a moment while it's loading the next area. The main thread is occupied with loading the resources, which means that it's not responding to window events and it's not rendering anything. This could actually be the reason for some stuttering that happens. When the game tries to load something, it will freeze because the game stops doing any updates and renders. I don't think this happens a lot — Sky seems to always load all resources it will need for an area when you enter it — but it's a possibility.

Because the GPU isn't being used as much, it's also not drawing as much power as other games. Doing so would just be wasteful since it'll still do just as much work for higher power usage, lowering its utilization. Better to have lower power draw but higher utilization since that gives you more power efficiency, which is beneficial for a laptop.

There's not much you can do to improve Sky's performance in this case. A lot of the bottlenecks here are on Sky's implementation rather than its settings. Most you can do is lower the game's target frame rate down to 30 FPS, but that's not going to help much. Frame rate limiting is generally done to reduce GPU load, not CPU. Plus, gaming in 30 FPS nowadays generally isn't desirable. It's still in the realm of "playable", but I wouldn't recommend playing in 30 FPS unless there's a specific reason to.

[roakkaliha]

idk how to tell minecraft horror mod devs that "sitting silently in a bunker/roof/boat for 10 minutes" isnt like. fun n engaging gameplay.

[killjoy-prince]

This has been my experience with my replay so far

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

i have no plans to go into game development because i have no artistic direction but if i ever did i'd make a magic shop simulator. there would be 3 levels of mechanics (procurement, construction, distribution) and certain items / recipes / crafts locked behind character story quests... i think of her often

[bluemanedhawk]

I want to make this piece of software. I want this piece of software to be a good piece of software. As part of making it a good piece of software, i want it to be fast. As part of making it fast, i want to be able to paralellize what i can. As part of that paralellization, i want to use compute shaders. To use compute shaders, i need some interface to graphics processors. After determining that Vulkan is not an API that is meant to be used by anybody, i decided to use OpenGL instead. In order for using OpenGL to be useful, i need some way to show the results to the user and get input from the user. I can do this by means of the Wayland API. In order to bridge the gap between Wayland and OpenGL, i need to be able to create an OpenGL context where the default framebuffer is the same as the Wayland surface that i've set to be a window. I can do this by means of EGL. In order to use EGL to create an OpenGL context, i need to select a config for the context.

Unfortunately, it just so happens that on my Linux partition, the implementation of EGL does not support the config that i would need for this piece of software.

Therefore, i am going to write this piece of software for 9front instead, using my 9front partition.

[cheaploafs]

procreate has been acting very weird recently and im being very brave about it btw . not scared at all

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

once again furious at how AI has been implemented and fucking. hyped up and goddamn bullshit. the way its being used to steal creative works and fuck with artists and create porn of real people is fucking NASTY. but god fucking damnit it could be so useful. fucking. ai voice reader for my stupid incomprehensible textbooks where the voice isn't datamined against the person's will. ai npcs that didn't steal their fucking data. ai routine builders that can learn a person's typical day and preferences and help build checklists for people who struggle w tasks. they could be SO USEFUL. but no. no. we can't have useful things. improving lives??? nahhhhhh we've gotta make Pretty Pictures and Steal Fucking Everything to do it

[womanicdepressive]

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I'm really really curious for an answer. I saw an excellent post from a woman on here talking about her discomfort with male OBGYNs, and how she's going into practicing gynecology to be another woman in the field. It made me so inspired to think that I could potentially do work that could benefit women's rights and health... though I'm not med school material. So what other jobs/careers would let me help women tangibly? Other than I guess nonprofit jobs, which was my field previously* and could be an option but I have my reservations.

Tl;dr - what jobs or lines of work are ones that exist to better the lives, health, rights, etc. of women?

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

Between Nyelv Love Confession Simulator and Suga getting a song wherein he repeatedly tells the person being addressed to lie back and let him do his thing I think Toei may actually be trying to kill me.

[nice-bright-colors]

Thursday PM

The sun is shining and it’s currently 79°F in my apartment right now. Westerly facing glass and brick wall that retains its heat. Check.

Still no word about the five figures I’m owed. Nor the change orders that need to occur in order to process my invoices. Check.

Sore legs, butt, and knees from today’s ruck. As an added bonus blisters on a couple of toes. Check.

She overcooked the Udon noodles for tonight’s dinner. Read the package, cook 1 minute from frozen. Check.

(3) double G&T’s tonight to ease the pain. When I say T, I really only had (1) 5 oz can of tonic, so just a splash. Who loves you baby? Check.

She wants to go out for a walk after the sun sets, and would like me to come with. I guess I’ll crack over the 18K step count tonight. Check.

Too bad it isn’t Hump day, as I could use one.

[ssruis]

Going through a straight up comical amount of irritating situations to get the stupid 4* guaranteed ticket from the welcome to sekai campaign. It Will Be Mine.

[al-n-cartoons]

I drew this one a few days ago and never posted it for reasons I forget.

Here's the current reference sheet for the Ben of A Story Told. He has about a million different pseudo names (his friends generally call xer “Benj” or “Benja” whereas xer coworkers and family call him “Ben” or “Benjamin”). His hero name is “Ten Speed”, which he came up with at the age of ten for an email address and it he never outgrew it. His car is called it, his username is it, xe has tried to ‘anonymously’ use it to fly under the radar (and failed fantastically but xe was a child so it's to be expected).

Xe is closeted in public, around family, and just generally when in xer home dimension bit is openly omnigender and poly outside of it. Xer longest standing relationship is a comet with a rock musician in Danny's hometown.

He's not too crazy about dresses (and prefers pants) but does enjoy them on occasion. His preferred style is more geared towards athletic and loose.

-

His Omnitrix scrambled out of its outer casing when he was about ten years old but it went unnoticed until he tried to take it off. Without the outer casing's hardware, xe was unable to control/select xer form nor acquire easy charge. Xe went on to wear the casing sparsely, mostly just to keep the Omnitrix from putting a drain on his body. Transforming without the outer casing is difficult to do on command and near impossible to get right.

The Ultimatrix was supposed to replace the Omnitrix and correct the old programming. The Omnitrix makes the very mature and not tantrum-like decision to cannibalize the Ultimatrix from the inside out, using its parts for replacements and rewiring the Ultimatrix to suite its needs.

The latest edition of the Omnitrix is an attempt to compromise with the original, or so Ben was told. In actuality, it was a failed attempt to deactivate the Omnitrix and replace it with something closer to the intended design. Azmuth might have outdone himself in designing the original's AI…

-

Through trial and error, Benj found a secondary source of power for the Omnitrix so as to keep it from making him sick. At the same time, he learned that he can do and tolerate certain things previously believed exclusive to energy beings. This is how xe was able to get xer ectotattoos; a kind of body art practiced by ghosts and halfas. Eyed viewers might notice that Left and Right are labeled in this image. I a, certain that the artist did not get those confused several times over and that her immense decisiveness will not cause the design and placement of the tattoos to fluctuate across art pieces.

-

A decision from Rex in a desperate situation led to the Omnitrix's parameters to be irreversibly broadened. Whereas before it had cared only about protection of its data and a baseline frequency of transformations, now it monitors its host's (Benj's) vitals. A risk to Ben is a risk to the system; the Omnitrix must now generate defensive and offensive mechanisms for their shared wellbeing.

The amulet was a last ditch attempt to appease the Omnitrix after a freak accident lands Ben in an intensive care unit.