Ether

Complexity vs simplicity

An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity.Terry A. Davis

Gonzo journal

I was always an advocate of writing simple, readable and almost machine-like code when it comes to syntax and structure. But lately i applied this principle with great care and obsession in various code bases and it gave birth to some new ideas and projects.

Simple code is readable. For everyone.
The key is to learn how to name things based on the context. That’s all. And it turns out that you don’t need well thought-out paradigm or pattern.
It’s easier to go into flow state and express your crazy ideas in more natural and accessible way. Zen state included.
It’s also timeless. Open the file, have a glance and you immediately know what it does. And it does exactly what it says.

To this day i use some large chunks of code digged from really old projects. And i use them because i know what they do, how they do it. I can easily add or remove. Or move to other language or code base. With ease. And this is why i have a such a problem with current software engineering state. It’s such a twisted and tangled mess. Layers upon layers upon layers of mostly useless abstraction. It’s cat poop mixed with dog hair. And the whole javascript-oriented ecosystem is just plain cancer.

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And this is where this new brutalist blog/journal software comes in. It’s a small web experiment/prototype software. Child of one, long and passionate weekend.

Gonzo journal is more-or-less blogging cms which can be described to your grandma as a lightweight WordPress alternative. Brutally compact. Directed towards smaller projects and teams. For hackers. And Artists.

WordPress was simple once and did one thing really great. Then scope got larger, years of development and new ambitions happened and its kinda something else. So i asked a question – what is the essence of WordPress and what made it such a great tool for me and many others?

It all boils down to some key ingredients and the recipe is as follows – Content/post management api, themes and plugins. Similar theming api with almost identical set of template tags. Actions (aka events) and filters.

And in reality Gonzo journal is just a bunch of simple functions and small files acting kinda like WordPress. It offers barebones, hassle-free content managment. Good for web prototyping or hacking new ideas. Designed from the start as a tool – not a solution.

errpr

Sector/portal editor

Retro 3d engine

I have been fascinated by the old school id tech engines (DooM, Quake 1) and always wanted to make something similar in spirit for that age. I sat down 3 years ago (yeah, shit takes time) and started crafting my doom-quake love hybrid.

Some things:

• basic cross-platform framework
• fixed point math library
• terrain rendering
• sector based level structure with portal rendering
• level editor
• physics engine (soft and rigid bodies)
• entity component system (scriptable)
• steering behaviors
• vehicle physics (in progress)
• procedural locomotion/animation system(in progress)

Web Snooker and Get Rigged! revived

Just finished uploading and setting up two old projects that went offline some unknown amount of time ago. These games were specifically crafted for Mozilla GameOn.

You can now access Web Snooker and even play online with your friend. Also, don’t miss the chance and drift around in the Get Rigged! desert.

RTS WIP

Over the past few weeks I’ve been busy implementing and testing some of the ideas behind the RTS like game model we’ve come up with a while back ago. Things may look cryptic still but here are a few snaps of some modules, without getting into more detail.

battles overview

battle overview

players units settings

players technologies settings

Update

My perception of the world has kept changing gradually after I grasped the basic concept behind quantum mechanics years ago.

What if the industrial revolution of humankind is the natural step of evolution of mother nature. We’re not parasites. It’s just the way things were meant to be. We are mother nature evolving.

In the way humans are wired, there’s no other way around growth and development of civilization and mankind. There’s only one direction and general fate of things cannot be changed. Small details can vary.

No creature apart from us, humans, has capability of passing information through generations other than via DNA. Sufficient information ensures general improvement and capability to survive of humans as an independent entities and communities. Too much information enforces specialization. Too much chaos prevents evolution. Too much distraction prevents evolution.

Proper management of data is just as important as research. Too much of disorganised data causes chaos.

Competition drives everything in this world. Tech research, entertainment and construction are all products of competition between humans. Within communities and between communities. As effort required to stay competitive gets higher and higher, we need to perform faster. This has good side effects for some and bad for some others. Where is the limit? What happens when it is reached?

I wonder if polarization of intelligence of mankind changes over time in general. In the old days, was the gap between educated and uneducated as big as it is now?

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Game development.

We are establishing general guidelines and mechanics of the RTS game we’re working on. On paper, things make sense, however, no simulations have been tested as of now.

I haven’t spent so much time on game mechanic, or mechanic of anything else for that matter ever before. Even if this project is never finished, there will be a clear guideline available to pick up by anyone with the right mind to try and implement it.

It’s not a million dollar idea but it holds together, as of now, and this in itself is quite satisfactory. But it may be a delusion of autistic mind just as well.

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Living under such assumptions is grotesque.

Prophecy

If you truly knew what the gods have in store for you, you would go down now and dance naked on the beach.

Ether Forms 1.5.7 Update