Paul Melamed

Does being a software engineer make you caffeine resistant? had a 6 shot espresso and feeling just as sleepy as I was before

Wordle 1,801 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩 🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

@SageCanaday They are participating for the money. $250k for a win. The 50m backstroke winner is not on any PED and says he needs the money to help him train for the 2028 Olympics. Looks like this is some kind of promotional event for their products.

I mean performance enhancing drugs can only take one so far 😅… (especially in a more technique based sport)

Wordle 1,800 5/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟨⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 1,799 4/6 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

@109mae Yeah a lot of those people don’t really have an opinion they just post whatever they think will get them more views

This fund manager turned youtuber (nice career jump) is the same guy that mocked Musk for the idea of buying Twitter. So smug, so wrong. Not even the decency of an "I was wrong" click bait video. Nice British accent though (I guess)

Wordle 1,798 5/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 1,797 4/6 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟨🟨⬜ 🟩⬜⬜🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 1,796 3/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 1,795 4/6 ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 1,794 4/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨 ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 1,793 6/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

@109mae Dx11 to dx12 ports usually lose performance for similar reason, because dx11 drivers are good. But going from GL to Vulkan supposedly almost always improves performance because maybe GL drivers were always bad? I was just curious if it was true for you too.

This was a porting session that had to be done anyway, simply because GL ES is considered obsolete. We'll see about performance later on with a more proper 3D game. I don't have regression testing for performance now, because the game are already meant to run well on 15 years old hw. However, in case od FF, I got a report of very slow frame rate on some specific phone. I think the vendors are starting to simplify the GL ES drivers, or simply not care about paths that used to work well. FF was running well on an iPhone 3G ages ago, but because it relied on very good GL drivers that had a good immediate rendering abstraction. I since removed most of that stuff, but it's still not optimal.

Ports of Final Freeway and FF2 from OpenGL ES to Vulkan are almost complete (mostly common engine work). I used Codex with GPT 5.5. A few days as a distracted supervisor vs 2-4 weeks as a full-time programmer. Does that count as 100x productivity ?

Wordle 1,792 5/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

@109mae You can still do some profiling and see if Vulkan version is faster than gles even if they both run under 60fps. One of the requirements for upgrading to a more modern rendering api should be that there are no performance regressions =)

@melamedp The game is too simple and my phone is too modern for that 8) We'll see when to Fractal Combat X, but even there I'll have to add complexity because it already runs at 60 fps

@109mae Vulkan is supposed to offer better performance too, did you notice any performance improvements?

@melamedp OpenGL ES is on its way out. If I want to keep improving the games it's better to have a Vulkan and Metal backend. for Metal for now it may be enough to use MoltenVK (Vulkan -> Metal translation layer)

@109mae So then why did you port to vulkan?

@melamedp No Vulkan knowledge. I never wanted to learn it... it seems unnecessarily complicated and it's not even a very useful standard (no consoles, no iOS/macOS)

Wordle 1,791 4/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

@109mae But no Vulkan knowledge?

@109mae What did you learn from it?