Handmade Network»Blog

[News] Podcast #1 Live, Community Showcase, Cached Software Rendering

Hey, everyone!

I hope everyone is staying healthy throughout these troubling times. Currently, many of us are either not working or working from home and are subject to local restrictions on movement and activities. While the world is in a very worrying position, I have found a silver lining: there's a lot of stuff to do for programmers stuck at home. This includes, for example, doing amazing work and posting it in the Handmade Network Discord server's #project-showcase channel, or writing valuable technical information for others to read. Additionally, if your name happens to be Ryan, it might be recording some podcast episodes...


Podcast Episode #1 Live

Actually, funny I mention that, because my name is Ryan, and I have a podcast episode prepared for you! In this very first episode of the Handmade Network Podcast, I speak with a long-time community member, and artificial intelligence industry veteran Demetri Spanos. Check it out here! Alternatively, hit the Podcasts link at the top of the page, where you'll also be able to find future episodes. You can also subscribe to the podcast series on major podcast apps, including both Google Play and Apple Podcasts.

The next episode will be released in two weeks from the date of this post.


rxi's Software Rendering Blog Post

Community member rxi, known for amazing showcase posts in the Discord server and seemingly creating high quality, polished software on a whim, recently posted a blog post that briefly outlines the technical structure of a cached software renderer. The techniques outlined in the article are particularly useful for UI applications, where little-to-no content of the screen changes across frames. It is a very interesting read; I recommend you take a look!


Community Showcase

So much amazing work, all written from scratch, has gone through #project-showcase this month. As usual, I can't highlight everything, so if you want to browse all of the work that people have been doing, I recommend [url=]joining the Discord server[/url] and seeing for yourself!

Chen's Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion in Monter
Chen showed off some work that has been done on the visuals in Monter recently. In this image, we can see ray-traced ambient occlusion being used to create higher-quality lighting visuals throughout the scene.


rxi's 2-bit Tile Map Editor
rxi manages to continue to amaze all of us. In this image, rxi demonstrated a 2-bit tilemap that is used to construct a final output tilemap, selecting tiles based on a set of rules, performing automapping. Several variants have been shown, including similarly interesting scenes with just a single bit per tile.


Bokkob's Gameplay of Nirion
Bokkob showed off some gameplay on Nirion in this short clip. The game looks like it is coming along super well... I can't wait to play it!



Closing Remarks

That's all for now, everyone. Stay safe, stay healthy, and take care!

Ryan
Hello, I was wondering why the podcast is an "Episode 1" of a new series, instead of continuing Handmade Shows?
Ben Visness,
Mainly because it’s a different medium! We wanted to do a podcast because we love the shows and think they’re a great way to bring the community together, and to hear interesting new perspectives. But many potential interviewees are uncomfortable with being put on the spot in a livestream format, and many just don’t want to appear on video at all. Video production is also a lot more involved, and we wanted to be able to put out episodes on a consistent schedule no matter what else we have going on. And finally, we just think podcasts are a format that works well for people.

All the episodes of the Handmade Dev Show are still up and aren’t going anywhere. And we may continue the show in the future! But we think the podcast is the format that will work the best for us going forward.
The podcast was a great listen! Thanks Ryan for doing it and Demetri for your interesting thoughts. I've been wishing for this kind of podcast for a while. "On the Metal" kind of scratches that itch, but it has a different angle. Looking forward to future episodes.

Btw is there any dedicated place for podcast discussion in the forums?