INCEL OFF / INCEL ON

I was asked to give my thoughts on generative AI usage in games - here they are!

It is *fascinating* to me how quickly some people have gone completely from “we all must work in the office! human collaboration is vital and only happens in person!” to “I can replace all these pesky people with chatbots!” Definitely some commentary there about our society and who gets to choose.

GPU Tracing Participating Media alextardif.com/Participatin... Just some HLSL this time :-) Not a long form post, I've been reading PBR and maybe this will be helpful to share!

Earlier Zoe asked if we could get an ‘intendo Switch 2 for her birthday so she could play Pokémon. So that’ll be here Wednesday 😎

the dialogue in this photo is literally beyond parody

Zoe asked what we could do this evening. I told her the new World of Warcraft "update" came out. She got *very* excited. So I played through the intro while she sat on my lap and called out when my health was low 🥰🥲 That's my girl!

[BLOG] A frame analysis of Dark Souls III blog.simonrodriguez.fr/articles/202... A detailed look at how the FromSoftware game renders a frame, with step-by-step comparisons and explanations.

Anyone know if D3D12's modern bindless tech (ResourceDescriptorHeap + _HEAP_DIRECTLY_INDEXED root sig flag) works on Windows 10? I can't find details on specific OS requirements, but my students are running into issues.

It's ✨ Ray Tracing Day ✨ once again!

Good read! "How Michael Abrash doubled Quake framerate" fabiensanglard.net/quake_asm_op...

State of HLSL: February 2026 www.abolishcrlf.org/2026/02/10/H...

Started playing around with mesh shaders and they've got me feelin' like

Figured it was time to officially cover bindless resources in my D3D12 class. I played around with it a little pre-SM6.6, but now that we can just poke around in the descriptor heap? Bonkers cool 🤯 So long, complicated root signatures!

No one has yet talked in depth about Mamdani's play- as in, a childlike wonder and ceaseless fun and joy. That is rooted in what he learned from his mom about acting, which is pure play. Everything he does is rooted in encouraging US to be more playful, too. It's wonderful.

Take me down to the Parallax city where the far moves slow and the near moves quickly

Every day I wake up and resist the urge to start a new Satisfactory playthrough

Choice quote from GDC's state of the industry report:

I paid 12 million for the email summary machine that tells me I am good at stuff and I am shocked I have yet to make a return on my investment. The email summary machine that tells me I am good at stuff told me it was a good decision too. Shocked. Shocking.

Graphics APIs – Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow - a new article on my blog (in English and Polish version) asawicki.info/articles/gra...

I've been running an indie games studio for 15 years now, and it felt like a good time to boil down what I've learned into 4 pieces of advice: www.pentadact.com/2026-01-08-1... I hope it's of use, not least because goddamn I forgot how long blog posts take to write.

this video still has not left my head, "I thought I smelled something burning..." "A monarch's job is never done!" "Focus, M" It's just nail on the head after nail on the head I should show this in every class I teach just so I get to use "aaa mario-ing" as a critique shorthand

"ai is going to take your job" was just the capitalists admitting they can give us trash and we have to take it

We showed Zoe a few episodes of Invader Zim during a bout of college nostalgia and now we get asked daily “why is there bacon in the soap?!” I’m so proud 🥹

As the prophecy foretold

New post up! Bindless Oriented Graphics Programming alextardif.com/BindlessProg...

"Academics literally cannot make genAI go away" we also can't make underage drinking go away and we're not advocating for installing bar carts in every classroom.

Been thinking on the use of GenAi for mood boards. Ethics and legal risks aside, I truly believe using GenAi as references deprives one of many pivotal things. Here’s a blurb on what I mean:

My "No Graphics API" blog post is live! Please repost :) www.sebastianaaltonen.com/blog/no-grap... I spend 1.5 years doing this. Full rewrite last summer and another partial rewrite last month. As Hemingway said: "First draft of everything is always shit".

I’ll be streaming with famed American Girl Shoe Doll Designer Brennan Lee Mulligan!! Make sure to tune in Monday, Dec 8 at 6:30 PM CT on Twitch or YouTube! Drop any snack-related questions I should ask below : ) @brennanleemulligan.bsky.social

Great read: "Video Game Blurs (and how the best one works)" blog.frost.kiwi/dual-kawase/

It's not this platform. It's all of society that hates AI

evergreen

This study is the most cyberpunk thing that has ever existed.

lately i've been thinking about how LLMs must feel really amazing to use if you're a dumbass, but incredibly frustrating if you're just basically competent in life.

In 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write to a famous author & ask for advice. KURT VONNEGUT - born 103yrs ago today - was the only one to respond. His reply was a doozy.

I wrote a lil post about AI, bubbles, and unions 👻 brooklyn.bearblog.dev/ai-futures/

the nyt posts this stuff like avoiding AI for 48 hours is hard and meanwhile i have literally never once intentionally used an AI program for anything ever

Some information about Ghost of Yōtei's rendering systems blog.playstation.com/2025/10/23/g...

At first I thought this would just be baking a 3d animation, or just using a simple palette swap, but it actually goes a bit further. Clever technique, basically UV mapping sprites into texture space. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsOK...

Bit the bullet and finally removed my all-in-one shader and constant buffer management helper library from my graphics class. It ended up hiding too many details that were important when we move to D3D12 in the next course. But hey, now I have materials on proper constant buffer management!

It's happening!

Sorry we couldn't help you, Sam.

Zoe came home talking all about “cake pop demon hunters”. Probably going to need Netflix again soon, huh?

Using this piece by @reallygoodwizard.bsky.social in my introductory lectures for my design students.

Zoe and I play Disney Dreamlight Valley (think Animal Crossing with Mickey Mouse) pretty regularly. Earlier today I handed her the controller while I ran to another room for something. A minute later I hear "Dad! I bought a couch! It's green!" She was very excited.

A guy at Zoe’s kindergarten orientation told me I look like a streamer. I guess I have backup if this whole teaching thing doesn’t pan out.