Jimmy Carter Walked The Walk.....

This is what principled leadership looks like. I'll be adding the Python Software Foundation to my list of open source foundations to support financially.

It seems a domestic terrorist destroyed part of the White House today. By "terrorist" I mean a horrible person working to destroy the United States. The suspect's name is "Donald Trump". I hope this criminal can be apprehended soon, and face the justice he deserves.

I've used @blender3d.bsky.social for years for 3D modeling and animation, but only recently began learning its video editing features. It's very different from single-purpose editors. Video clips are "just another data type" to Blender, from which springs the learning challenge AND the power.

7 million protesters, 0 arrests. Man we suck at terrorism.

"We've got news for you, Ted Cruz. We all hate you for free!"

I am not sure which moves me more: the words on the sign, or the face of quiet determination as she carries it. This is what real strength and real love look like.

Tallying the score of us "America-hating terrorists" versus the "patriotic" MAGA faction with respect to #NoKings rally in Jackson Twp., Ohio: Protestors: Responded to obscene gestures, thumbs-down, etc., with smiles and peace signs. MAGA: Struck (apparently on purpose) a protester with a vehicle.

Freaking BRILLIANT sign. I wish I had thought of this.

Some of my favorite signs from today's #NoKings rally in Jackson Twp., Ohio. (Part 1)

I was afraid Christmas advertising would not start until *after* Halloween, but I am relieved to have just seen a Christmas-themed commercial on TV. What a relief! Evangelicals ignore it, but the *real* "war on Christmas" is from commercialization and greed, not "happy holidays" greetings.

A protester was struck by a motor vehicle at this #NoKings rally in Jackson Township OH. I do not know if it was accidental or intentional, but the driver attempted to leave the scene. Others got a plate number.

More from #NoKings in North Canton OH.

No Kings rally, North Canton OH. People are still arriving, and it's only a few minutes into the scheduled time.

@proceduralminds.bsky.social just pushed a really cool intro to #PCGEx filter ecosystem which is hand down one of the anti-pattern I’m the most proud of introducing into PCG :D youtu.be/lqS9u3ll48s?...

I have just learned that both of my technical session proposals have been accepted for GDEX this year! This will be my third consecutive year as a presenter, and I can hardly wait for this excellent conference.

From our doorknob, I just plucked a notification that our ISP is bringing fiber optic to our block. The notice says "in the coming weeks", but my wife saw a crew a few houses away. We've lived 200 meters away from their fiber service for over a decade. Happy dance!

It's not fully functional yet, and the input pins need to be reordered, but my first custom C++ #UnrealPCG node can be compiled, added to a graph in the test project, and doesn't cause a coredump of the #UE5 engine. I've created many custom nodes in Blueprint, but this is my first in C++.

This week I've set up a headless #Linux build server for #UnrealEngine C++ plugins, for my code and to support open source projects like #PCGExtendedToolkit. My employer is generously sharing spare CPU cycles on an ESXi physical host. It's background priority, so there's no impact to production.

What a great idea, and a lively and interesting model! This will be a fun animation challenge, too.

Still working on my procedural mesh query library (extending #GeometryScripting in #UE5 to add some app-specific functions). I've got it working in Blueprint but am converting to C++. As I was testing, I was reminded that sometimes developer scaffolding can have its own (admittedly odd) aesthetic.

I often refer to the current occupant of the White House as "Pumpkin Spice Perón" because he reminds me of the Argentinian populist (among other things, both of them provided refuge to Fascists). If Melania dies and PSP has her stuffed and put on display in his dining room, we'll know for sure.

The materials and lighting here are so good that I legit thought this was a photo, at first glance. The grunge, edge wear, and modeling detail are spot-on.

I love #UE5 Blueprints, but sometimes it's easier to express the logic in handwritten code, so I'm ramping up my C++ skills. Today's project involved converting this huge node graph to a set of reusable, Blueprint callable C++ functions. It took hours of work, but my new node worked *first try*.

Quote from some anti-patriot who hated "America"? No, this is a quote from the Declaration of Independence, signed by people who helped *create* the *United States of America*. ("America", btw, is two whole continents. Another arrogant attitude from the right wing is to pretend it's just USA.)

This is probably not a true story, but I'm going to repost it for the sake of political satire. Think of it as an editorial cartoon with an extra long caption.

💡 #UnrealEngine productivity tip: From the #UE5 main menu, Tools...Class Viewer shows the inheritance tree of all Actor classes in the project. Turn off the filter to see all project classes. Where applicable, you can create a new #Blueprint subclass, new #C++ subclass, or open the source code.

Here's a 3D modeling tip for those new to #GameDev. Vertex colors, easily painted in Blender or other tools, don't have to be interpreted as such by your game; they're three arbitrary uint8 (unsigned 8-bit integers). Here's a piece I'm making for #UE5 in #Blender3D. (1 of 4)

I'm giving this a huge shout-out, especially today when this ultra-talented open source developer helped me improve a challenging PCGEx cluster-graph filtering issue. Awesome plugin, awesome dev, awesome ecosystem around it. And hell yeah, it builds on Linux!

Post by Bill Roper (THAT Bill Roper) over on LinkedIn.

Early prototype for some #UnrealEngine runtime level generation using PCG and #PCGExtendedToolkit. Only the yellow-framed square wall blocks and the orange columns are hand modeled; everything else is parametric/procedural.

I would certainly not want to offend the Pumpkin King! So when I post this *text* to BlueSky I'll try reeeeeallly hard to make sure I delete the image. I apologize in advance if I goof and let the image come through. Accidentally. By mistake.

"Hello, Vera C. Rubin Observatory? Yeah...sorry to bother you, but could you check the view to your right? It's probably nothing to worry about, but...well, take a quick look, okay? Thanks." (Credit: Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Source: img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/e...)

First published visuals from the Vera C. Rubin observatory. Amid all the bad news and suffering lately, we can at least celebrate this moment in astronomy. skyviewer.app/explorer @maddow.msnbc.com, I hereby nominate this occasion as the Best New Thing in the World.

Public institutions should spend their budget as efficiently as possible to deliver maximum public benefit. This is a very different goal from trying to minimize their budget. Tangible and intangible "profits" are realized by all the people -- and businesses -- that share the benefits.

JUNETEENTH in Harlem. This is what America is about. Perhaps the most American holiday of all, Juneteenth honors the very best of what this country can be. It’s a celebration of the courage to fight for freedom, even when the cost is steep. It’s sad that the president gets angry over this

I wish the industry would refrain from the phrase "artificial intelligence" in reference to LLMs. To some, it ascribes sentience and/or self-awareness and motive, distracting from essential public discourse about ethical provenance of training data and appropriate use of these mathematical tools.

First successful test of procedural holes in my prototype level for a side-project game. The landscape is runtime generated, including holes for tunnels and mine elevators. #ShaderWorld plugin for #UE5, with lots of #UnrealPCG to connect hand-modeled rooms with procedural map layout and tunnels.

Best protest chant I've heard so far. Ain't no power like the power of the people, And the power of the people don't stop!

It was a nontrivial amount of work and some UBT help from the "Dev Hub" team at #UnrealFestOrlando, but I have #ShaderWorld plugin working for runtime and editor on Linux x64 platform. It's fast and versatile, and I'm using it for a project with runtime-procedural terrain. Screenshots are test maps.

I missed being part of the #NoKings protests today due to business travel, but I am so very thankful to those who have carried the banner today. I was at the first two protests here and will be at the next, and the next, and the next, until Trump's travesty of incompetence and corruption ends.

In America, we have no Kings, no Queens, no nobles, no dictators, and no emperors. We have no slaves, no serfs and no subjects. Just us—‘We the People.’

Truth! This also applies to state and local governments, schools, libraries, public universities, and taxpayer-funded research labs. Their mission is not turning a profit. It is, rather, to efficiently and fairly aggregate and apportion the necessary cost of shared services and infrastructure.

This morning, I searched frantically for our calico cat, Leela (from Futurama char). Not in closets or under furniture. Doesn't come for food! Did she slip past the basement door during my plumbing project yesterday? Anxiety! Then... She was standing at her water dish the whole time. Little shit! 😂

I'm asking here (and other venues) seeking help with a third party C++ plugin in #UE5 #Linux. Their code compiles but at link time fails to find "libc++.a" and "libc++abi.a", even though these are both in the engine's ThirdParty tree. Other plugins find these with no issues. (continued...)

Finally got round to posting the work I did on my most recent uni team project! Empyrean - Materials www.artstation.com/artwork/6LDGZr Empyrean - Trim Sheets www.artstation.com/artwork/BkDLO6 #screenshotsaturday #gameart #gameedev #indie #materials #substancedesigner #ue5 #unrealengine #indie

This looks like a real timesaver. I didn't know what Hotspots were, until now. It's a technique for setting UV coordinates on a mesh face to pull the closest texel density match from an atlas texture. Check the author's feed for details.