The Verge пишет, что в компании Цукерберга вице-президент в середине сентября разослал сотрудникам письмо в духе: "Что-то по статистике наши разработчики сами почти не используют Horizon Worlds (VR-мир с мультяшными аватарами, который они делают, вы наверное видели в рекламе), нехорошо, начинайте использовать сейчас же!". А потом через две недели ещё одно письмо: "Коллеги, всё ещё никто не использует, буду штрафовать менеджеров. И вообще, мы начали разрабатывать план, по которому каждый обязан туда заходить хотя бы раз в неделю!". (Он писал не такими словами, это моя вольная интерпретация общего смысла, но про раз в неделю почти цитата).
Есть такое понятие dogfooding (Eating your own dog food — есть еду своей собаки). Оно обозначает практику использования продукта сотрудниками компании, которая этот продукт делает. Понятно, что всегда есть исключения: бывает физическая невозможность использования (например, мужчины в фирме по производству прокладок), бывают адекватные отличия в целевой аудитории (взрослые делают продукты для детей, но сами не являются потребителями). Бывают ещё, например, продукты определённого экономического класса: владелец АвтоВАЗ не ездит на ВАЗ, и это нормально с учётом того, что ВАЗ не производит премиум-автомобили для богатых людей. У них просто нет моделей под бюджет в 5-7 миллионов рублей.
Но если сотрудники компании входят в ЦА, то, конечно, возникают вопросы. Несколько лет назад был скандал: вроде бы сотрудника Samsumg уволили за использование айфона — мне это решение кажется верным. Вот ребята из JetBrains все сидят на собственных IDE добровольно и с удовольствием, потому что они реально лучшие на рынке. Ребята из VK иногда используют VK, а иногда нет. Некоторые чаты сотрудников VK создают в Телеграме. И блоги комментируют в Телеграме, даже если точно такие же есть в VK (привет :) ). Ну и ещё отдельно меня расстраивает, что сотрудники VK не ведут страницы сами. Вон раньше Дуров всем показывал пример и писал у себя на странице VK всякие новости и размышления. А сейчас он делает то же самое в Телеграме. А сотрудники VK не делают, особенно руководство. Вообще, отсутствие публичного евангелиста (главным образом среди руководителей) — важная составляющая текущей репутационной картины VK, на мой взгляд.
Но, если приходится издавать указ "Заставить сотрудников под угрозой штрафа заходить в свой продукт раз в неделю", то лично я бы вернулся к основам и задумался над тем, является ли продукт нужным и интересным.
#web
💾AMD Introduces New Game Optimization Technology🤖
The company has unveiled a technology that significantly reduces the final build size of games. Modern 4K textures can take up tens of megabytes of disk space, and AAA games can use hundreds or even thousands of such textures. As a result, projects often require 100 gigabytes of free space.
The technology is compatible with compression algorithms Block Compression (BC) — BC1 and BC4. NTBC can achieve better compression ratios than standard BC.
Compression processes have two approaches: conservative and aggressive. The aggressive approach offers better compression ratios at the cost of reduced quality, while the conservative approach does the opposite. NTBC allows users to choose which approach they need, including standard BC compression.
Original article.
#GameDevelopment
⚡️Steam Demo Update🔧
Improvements enhancing the appearance of demos in the store and their interaction with the library:
* Demos added to the library no longer need to be installed immediately. The new "Add to Library" button for demos is useful if you're not ready to install them right away, such as when using the Steam mobile app.
* You can now install a demo even if you have the full version of the game. This change will primarily help developers testing their demos, but it will also make it easier for other users to install and uninstall them.
* You can now remove a demo from your account by right-clicking on it and selecting "Manage" > "Remove from Account."
* Demos that are uninstalled from your device will now be automatically removed from your library.
Learn more here.
#Steam#GameDevelopment
🔧Update in Steam⚙️
Recently, the Steam store received an update regarding the placement of links.
As stated in the official announcement:
We recently updated Steam with a small but beneficial change to social media linking for your store pages. We've removed the cumbersome authentication loop for adding social media links and replaced that process with simple text fields.
With this change, developers will be able to establish a closer connection with the community thanks to a simpler way of linking social media accounts.
More info here.
#Steam#GameDevelopment
⚡️FLASH SALE in the Asset Store✨
A new sale has started in the Asset Store, lasting all weekend. New deals will be added every 24 hours.
During this sale, with discounts of up to 60%, you can find:
- 3D models
- Animation
- Sound effects
- VFX effects
And much more.
You can explore the offers and conditions of the sale in detail here.
#GameDevelopment#Assets
What to Expect from Indie Games in the Future?📈
The 6th version of one of the most popular game engines, Unity, brings significant changes compared to its previous non-numbered versions. A few years ago, Unity began reorienting towards data-oriented architecture and announced DOTS.
DOTS is a set of technologies designed to deliver maximum performance by default. It includes: the Entity Component System, which allows for more efficient data arrangement in memory, thereby improving game performance; the Job System, a safe multithreading system; and the Burst Compiler.
What does this mean for players? DOTS will enable the creation of games with a large number of interactive elements, as demonstrated in the demo scene for the early versions of the technology (you can check it out here).
Additionally, Unity 6 is actively integrating AI to speed up the development and prototyping process of games.
Currently, only a preview version of the 6th version of the game engine is available, but the first stable builds are expected by the end of this year.
#GameDevelopment#Ai
👾Why Games on Unreal Engine 5 Are Indistinguishable from Reality 🎮
Not long ago, Unreal Engine 5 was released to the public, allowing everyone to try out the new features of the engine, the main ones being the new global illumination technology, Lumen, and the Nanite rendering system, which we will discuss now. The demos and games made on Unreal Engine 5 look truly impressive; in some cases, the graphics are indistinguishable from real life. Let's take a closer look at these technologies.
Lumen is a fully dynamic global illumination and reflection system designed for use in Unreal Engine 5 on next-generation gaming consoles. By default, it is the global illumination and reflection system in UE 5. Lumen allows for diffuse interreflection with infinite bounces and indirect specular reflections in large, detailed environments that can scale from millimeters to kilometers.
Nanite is a micro-polygon rendering system. With it, the PC does not render each model based on the number of its polygons. Thanks to this, images are rendered with a resolution of one polygon per pixel, meaning the higher the resolution of your monitor, the higher the number of polygons (detail of the model).
Although, at the moment, the combined use of these technologies causes certain problems, for example with vegetation and other thin objects (Lumen degrades the quality of foliage rendered using Nanite).
Of course, lighting and rendering alone are not enough when it comes to ultra-realistic graphics. Textures and the detail of the mesh itself play a significant role as well.
#GameDevelopment#UnrealEngine5
🤖AI for Developers🎮
The trending technology of recent years is artificial intelligence.
Modern generative models are capable of creating images, videos, and 3D graphics from text descriptions.
Obviously, such technology will fit well in the field of game development.
Many companies are already incorporating AI into their development process. For instance, Ubisoft, one of the market leaders, has announced that it will entrust large language models with writing scripts for games. Additionally, one of the most popular game engines, Unity, will fully integrate its own chatbot starting from version 6. This chatbot will be able to create 2D sprites, animations, and 3D models directly in the engine editor.
Although it's not entirely feasible to delegate the entire development process to AI, game prototyping will now take significantly less time.
#Game#Ai#GameDevelopment