Friday Facts #61 - Into India

[slpwnd]

Enjoy the news from the background: http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-61

[tecxx]

if you already have the models in 3d (which i expected), could you please consider a 3d render engine for the game in the future? i am not disliking the current 2d graphics, but a nice and shiny crispy clear rendered world would be highly appreciated. and i would even pay a little extra for it, e.g. if it comes in form of an optional "expansion pack" or something. but thats of course no priority right now, just a "future whish".

[Nova]

So I am going to India. Next Thursday. For two months.

What? Developer are human beings and need holidays like normal people??? But that's impossible! I though you're just machines which convert coffeine into code!!!



Oh, and the boost link doesn't work.

[semTex]

So I am going to India. Next Thursday. For two months.

What? Developer are human beings and need holidays like normal people??? But that's impossible! I though you're just machines which convert coffeine into code!!!

what he said! i paid YOU to entertain ME, nothing else

yet, stay safe down there and get some rest! i am a bit jealous!

[Cordylus]

The high-res image of the tank is great!
Could we get more tank shots from the Blender? These shots would be great to advertise the game!


I think that "artwork" page would be ideal to publish the high-res model images: https://www.factorio.com/artwork

[Drury]

I follow quite a few game devs on the internet, but you've got to be the first to practice yoga so religiously as to book a flight to India just to practice more yoga.

Although who knows, maybe Notch has had done the same. Maybe even multiple times. Hard to keep track.

[Drury]

The high-res image of the tank is great!
Could we get more tank shots from the Blender? These shots would be great to advertise the game!


I think that "artwork" page would be ideal to publish the high-res model images: https://www.factorio.com/artwork

As Mining Drill Operator I second this. More of those juicy 1440p official Factorio wallpapers never hurts.

[cpy]

So I am going to India. Next Thursday. For two months.

What? Developer are human beings and need holidays like normal people??? But that's impossible! I though you're just machines which convert coffeine into code!!!



Oh, and the boost link doesn't work.

What is this holiday you speak of? I work as the only IT everything from admin to app support 24 hours a day available for past 7 years and i had one 2 week holiday. I think i lost my humanity 2 years ago.

[GewaltSam]

Nice to hear the Wube team gets an addition I hope your new romanian colleague is kovarex stable

Are there any news on 0.11.4?

[Pouf]

if you already have the models in 3d (which i expected), could you please consider a 3d render engine for the game in the future? i am not disliking the current 2d graphics, but a nice and shiny crispy clear rendered world would be highly appreciated. and i would even pay a little extra for it, e.g. if it comes in form of an optional "expansion pack" or something. but thats of course no priority right now, just a "future whish".

I am not sure they can as they would have to re-write almost everything. And even if they could, I hope they don't. The game would start lagging and stuttering and it would be impossible to play with many other players. Optimisation above all ! Displaying a hundred thousand sprites at the same time is quite an achievement and it would be impossible with 3D models. Perhaps with voxels in 10 years..

I started yoga this year too (only one hour a week, it is very expensive in France). It helps so much ! It is a great idea of a holiday ! Just don't destroy your chakra / karma by checking factorio-related stuff every 5 minutes

[Nova]

I don't want to pop your bubble, but most new games use 3D elements to render 2D pictures because it is much faster than the standard 2D renderer.

No idea how you come to "hundred thousand sprites", but rendering the amound of sprites in 2D Factorio should be no problem.

[Pouf]

I don't want to pop your bubble

Go ahead, I am a 3D technical director in the video games industry


Can we get yoga pictures in the FFF ?

[Nova]

Err, already done.

[Drury]

I don't want to pop your bubble, but most new games use 3D elements to render 2D pictures because it is much faster than the standard 2D renderer.

No idea how you come to "hundred thousand sprites", but rendering the amound of sprites in 2D Factorio should be no problem.

3D would save a lot of VRAM which I'd say is Factorio's #1 performance issue at the moment, due to ditching a TON of sprites used to fake 3D projection from multiple angles, but at a cost of increased CPU load, at which the game is quite heavy as well due to it's nature. GPU might relieve some of that load, but it'd still be pretty bad.

It'd bring relief to one HW part at a cost of putting extra heavy load on another. I think overall 2D is the better option for performance. Maybe not as much better as with different types of games but still quite a bit better.

[Gemoron]

Hey Tomas,

you said you use codility to test coding skills.
Could you give some examples on which level is required if someone wants to work at your company?
I am an apprentice in software developement and I want to know which level is required to work in game developement.
Tanks

[slpwnd]

Hey Tomas,

you said you use codility to test coding skills.
Could you give some examples on which level is required if someone wants to work at your company?
I am an apprentice in software developement and I want to know which level is required to work in game developement.
Tanks

We made a custom test combining 5 tasks. 2 easy, 2 medium and 1 hard. It is difficult to define a level for game development. We are looking for people who would be passionate about pushing the game forward and who can produce good quality C++ code which does that

[Voqar]

Two months for a vacation? Must be nice to be rich and shameless.

In the US you're lucky if you get 3 weeks of total vacation all year, and with most companies you can only save so much vacation if you don't use it in a year. Two months of vacation would be unemployment. :p

Clearly, here in the US, we are not all that civilized, and slavery isn't dead, it was just transformed to ALL citizens (well, 99%) being slaves. The real civilized people live in other countries - where work isn't your whole life.

[kovarex]

Two months for a vacation? Must be nice to be rich and shameless.

In the US you're lucky if you get 3 weeks of total vacation all year, and with most companies you can only save so much vacation if you don't use it in a year. Two months of vacation would be unemployment. :p

Clearly, here in the US, we are not all that civilized, and slavery isn't dead, it was just transformed to ALL citizens (well, 99%) being slaves. The real civilized people live in other countries - where work isn't your whole life.

The problem is, that our working hours are more than the normal working hours. And Tomik will most probably work in india as well

P.S. In Czech republic normal employees have 6 weeks of vacation per year.

[Martc]

P.S. In Czech republic normal employees have 6 weeks of vacation per year.

That is not right, only 4 week are guaranteed by law. But employer can give you more, they usually get 5 weeks, but I don't know how many people have that.
According to wiki 6 weeks have only Cops, Firefighters and some other government employees.

[Drury]

The workload of these guys is probably comparable to that of policemen/firefighters, and they don't even play monopoly during their working hours. As much.

I think of all people who go on multimonth vacations these guys actually deserve it. They're crazy determined, you don't need these blog posts to see. Just look how consistently they fix tons of bugs on a daily basis.