Game Development

brug

00:00

OMG that Cellular Autonoma GIF is so cool. And opening up an alternative maze dimension sounds like a Zelda game.

DMGregory

Yeah. I really want to find a way to use that in a game sometime.

And thanks! :)

OKprogrammer

What GIF?

@DMGregory Can you solve this CAPTCHA? For proof of no SkyNet stuff happening: uh.edu/engines/3043-Captcha-smwm.svg.png

brug

An actual sentient being could solve a CAPTCHA

It's the non-sentient ones that those are meant to subvert.

OKprogrammer

Dang. I might not be sentient then, cause I can’t tell what that is.

brug

><

smwm

OKprogrammer

00:15

DMGregory

If you want your captcha to fool a robot, maybe don't have the correct answer in the file name...

2

OKprogrammer

Didn’t see that. Now I’m stuck in desktop chat on mobile.

Never mind.

@DMGregory dies of cringe

DMGregory

Also, the gif in question was this one from earlier

OKprogrammer

That. Is. Amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it!

brug

ohh my. I didn't even see the file name.

Seems like the sort of thing a sentient AI bent on global domination would notice, but what do I know?

OKprogrammer

00:24

I might be a robot because I no joke didn’t know what it was. I was asking hoping you folks would find out for my next generation, uhh, I mean as a joke.

DMGregory

Hahaha. Wouldn't be the first time I've been accused of being a robot.

brug

SkyNet wouldn't get caught. Guess I was wrong.

OKprogrammer

My dad once asked me, “What is up with you? You have no emotion whatsoever and only do anything when an objective is set? Are you a robot?” Good times.

Vaillancourt

00:43

@brug Sure, something needs to be done for changes to happen. Maybe you have had more success at this than I had; every time I went on and did it, it came out as "we agree we disagree" at best.

OKprogrammer

That’s where we ended.

How are you doing today?

Vaillancourt

Good, I think.

DMGregory

I've had different experiences. For instance, some years ago when the abortion question came up here, I'd initially been on the side of "well, we should have some law saying when it is/isn't allowed" (we haven't had one since our supreme court struck down the last one). Then the woman I was speaking to pointed out "we don't do that for literally any other medical procedure" - so why should politicians interfere with doctors' professional judgement in this one case? That changed my mind.

Vaillancourt

Yeah, then maybe a "softer" approach is more efficient.

Almo

01:11

@DMGregory yeah, that's true.

holy shit DMG an Orz reference on your tweet

DMGregory

01:37

Hahaha, I'm glad someone got it! :D

brug

What is Orz?

DMGregory

Play Star Control II - it's worth it. :)

brug

Googling now

@Vaillancourt I've had a myriad of experiences on both sides. Both the confronter and the confronted. All with a myriad of success. I have even had ideas that were directed at me take months and years to change my perspective.

ahh very Space Empires

Almo

SCII is DEFINITELY worth it.

Old as it is, it has some of the best writing I've seen in a video game

brug

But is the writing better than Zero Wing?

DMGregory

01:47

Also way ahead of its time in terms of its open world game structure.

Almo

02:22

^

never heard of zero wing

DMGregory

02:38

Just under a day left to suggest questions for the moderator election:

5

Q: 2021 Moderator Election Q&A - Question Collection

Game Development is scheduled for an election next week, 12 April. In connection with that, we will be holding a Q&A with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic of moderation. Participation is completely voluntary...

OKprogrammer

03:32

Is saying “Participation is completely voluntary.” really necessary? Thousands of Stack users aren’t going to contribute anyway.

Free Internet Points

3

Q: Workflow for accountable file transfers between freelancer and developer

I'm an indie game developer and I often hire freelancers for artwork. We sign an agreement to basically state that I'd get ownership of the resources they produce. I'm a fairly picky person when it comes to formalities in these agreements, and I can't find a good system to document file transfers...

legal workflow

Almo

11:18

"We are spitting the fun words for many *pieces*"

Was how I remembered it. Pretty close! It's "Let's *spitting* the fun words for several *pieces* and then surprising things!!!"

Almo

11:35

looking through some of the dialogue... I must have been close to finishing that game

@OKprogrammer Good point on that one!

Maybe feels "nicer" to make it explicit I guess. :)

nwp

11:48

"Participation is mandatory, non-participants' accounts will be deleted. This is another measure to drive our number of users down in an effort to save on server cost."

Almo

:D

doppelgreener

@OKprogrammer it at least makes it clear that e.g. active users do not have any obligation to engage

OKprogrammer

13:18

I suppose so.

Vaillancourt

13:30

I suppose they added this for similar reasons that they add "Warning, hot content" on coffee paper cups...

Almo

hahah

OKprogrammer

Any of you drink iced coffee?

Vaillancourt

Rarely. Mostly during the summer.

Almo

@brug I've changed perspectives slowly and suddenly depending on what the subject was. In the case of science type stuff, it can be instant.

Vaillancourt

@brug Oh, well that's good to know :)

Almo

13:37

I asked my grad-level quantum prof about hidden variables; I still assumed that was the real thing.

he said, "sorry, the Bell Inequalities have already proven hidden variables isn't possible". Boom, instantly the universe became probabilistic

Or the Kersey-Bates temprament sorter. Thought that thing worked for decades. Was presented with evidence that it works like Astrology. Took me a few months, but I came around to discarding the system as there's no evidence it works. Which is a shame; it seemed pretty good.

OKprogrammer

14:33

Arqade really needs help. We get answers of gibberish a lot.

For example:

0

A: What to do when surrounded by more than one enemy in Free Fire?

are bhai itni backchodi se accha chrono khol and gobhi khod de sabki sabko pelna chrono khol ke

Vaillancourt

@OKprogrammer looks like someone who posted in another language.

Should be flagged as rude or abusive or not an answer...

OKprogrammer

I know. I always do that. I found it on my review posts job.

nwp

It looked like spam to me too, but apparently it is not.

At least it's not gibberish.

I can't tell if the Hindi doesn't make sense or if Google translate is bad at translating.

OKprogrammer

I’m not sure. But it isn’t an answer in English either, based on the question.

Almo

14:57

wow man

Vaillancourt

@OKprogrammer With enough users flagging with "rude or abusive", the system removes the post automatically, without moderators intervention.

Pikalek

15:20

@Almo what was the system being used for?

OKprogrammer

Oh. It appears it has been removed.

@Almo "wow man" is right my friend.

DMGregory

17:06

Aha, I was looking for an attribute to call a method on Unity load earlier...

Apr 8 at 13:57, by DMGregory

Re: where to put that code... I thought there was an attribute to mark a static method to call on game start / enter play mode, but now I'm having trouble finding it. Maybe I got it confused with the one to trigger on editor reload...

Looks like the [RuntimeInitializeOnLoad] attribute is what I was thinking of. Thanks to a question in today's feed for digging that up. 😁

0

Q: Saving settings when exiting the application

I created a static class CustomPlayerPrefs, it has a WriteToDisk() method that writes the saves to disk. For saving I am using Application.quiting event: [RuntimeInitializeOnLoadMethod(RuntimeInitializeLoadType.BeforeSplashScreen)] static void Init() { Application.quitting += WriteToDisk; } ...

unity c#

OKprogrammer

What do I do when a specific user finds one small thing wrong with my answers and then just downvotes with a vague comment?

One user has been doing this to my old answers.

DMGregory

Edit the answer to improve it if you can. Otherwise, I'd advise not worrying about it.

Vaillancourt

@OKprogrammer You fix the error and add a comment thanking them to have pointed it out. You can also suggest them to propose an edit fixing the issue if they want in the future.

OKprogrammer

I do everytime. Nothing appears to change though.

@Vaillancourt I might have to try that.

Vaillancourt

If you get "too many" downvotes from a single user, the system could track it as "serial voting" and retract the votes.

OKprogrammer

17:15

One time I got serial upvoted a lot.

Then Stack said it wasn't my fault, so it was OK.

Vaillancourt

Yes. That happens.

OKprogrammer

Did they get banned?

Vaillancourt

I don't know.

Not sure what the system does to the faulty user in this case.

Maybe for the first offense it only sends a friendly message like "hey, you can't do that".

OKprogrammer

Because one user (I'll use MG for privacy) I believe upvoted every one of my answers. It might have been because I answered one of his more difficult questions.

He gave nice comments too, which made me feel good cause those are few and far between. 😅

Vaillancourt

Yeah, I don't know what happens there. If you notice that you get a lot of upvotes, then check your rep in a day or two, maybe you'll see that you've lost it all because the votes have been retracted by the system.

Almo

17:57

@Pikalek I don't know how prevalent kersey-bates was used in businesses, but it's very common in social circles

if you've ever seen someone say I'm INFJ or ENFP or similar 4-letter things, that's Kersey-Bates.

it's based on the Myers-Briggs thing, which just has 4 types, NF, NT, SP, SJ.

KB has 16 by using the I/E split as well

turns out you can assign people random results and they're happy with it.

Vaillancourt

20:09

The 2021 Moderator Election is on!

6

Almo

@Vaillancourt hey man, I would consider running again, but I'm not sure I'd be around as much as you and DMG seem to be.

do you consider that a problem?

OKprogrammer

@Almo I think you'd make an excellent moderator. You participate greatly in areas such as chat and the meta, you give high quality answers, you are very friendly much of the time, and you just seem all in all a good person.

Almo

ok, I'll put in an app again. thanks for the vote of confidence.

OKprogrammer

You're welcome. Good luck!

And also, I'll speak for most people, they will take any help, no matter how great or small it is. And you seem to participate often, so that's not a problem in the first place.

Vaillancourt

As far as I know, there is no "minimum time spent" on the site moderating, and the fact that we (DMGregory and I) spend "more" time on the site is in no way an indication on what is expected for a newly elected moderator. As long as we see new moderators performing moderating duties, I think it's going to be all right :)

Almo

20:21

ok :)

OKprogrammer

I'd probably be better suited as an Arqade moderator, but they haven't held an election in years. :(

Mostly since I have more rep and some really helpful answers.

Almo

our last one was 2017... when was arqade's last one?

OKprogrammer

Oh, Arqade's was 2019 last time. One of the mods either stepped down or was demoted, because he (Frank) was known to be very rude to new users.

Bullied them, based on my research.

Vaillancourt

Frank was elected in 2019

OKprogrammer

I know. But his profile says he isn't a mod anymore. It doesn't have the diamond.

Vaillancourt

20:29

You're right

OKprogrammer

Several complaints were in the meta.

Vaillancourt

Yeah, okay. I don't hang in there so you're probably more informed than I am!

OKprogrammer

I just hang in this chat because you folks are cool and the Arqade chat is kinda a mess. (At least the last time I checked)

Vaillancourt

I suppose there are more people around.. ?

GDSE Meta

2

Q: 2021 Community Moderator Election

The 2021 Community Moderator Election is now underway! Community moderator elections have three phases: Nomination phase Primary phase Election phase Most elections take between two and three weeks, but this depends on how many candidates there are. Please visit the official election page at ht...

discussion featured moderators election

Pikalek

20:52

My commit log excerpt for the day: "code fails artistically".

3

DMGregory

21:10

Please tell us more.

OKprogrammer

I agree with DMGregory.

DMGregory

@Almo Reminded me of this older Q&A about using Myers-Briggs in a game

@Almo Re: time spent, I'm hoping with a larger moderation team, we can each spend a bit less time overall. 😉

2

DMGregory

21:30

@OKprogrammer Note that answering questions isn't necessarily a mod's job. We've had excellent mods who rarely answered questions, but did a good job in helping users learn how to use the site effectively, keeping the site organized, and resolving conflicts when they arise.

So just because I'm a bit of an answer addict doesn't mean a good mod must or even should be. 😉

brug

I know a mod on another site that hardly interacts with the community at all but the rest of the mod team loves him because he handles a ton of the behind the scenes stuff like flags and whatnot (I don't actually know what happens behind the curtain.)

DMGregory

Almo

21:50

@DMGregory yeah that makes a lot of sense :)

OKprogrammer

@DMGregory I know, but I looked and it said that participation is recommended a lot.

DMGregory

Mostly because experience using the site gives you a good sense for its norms and how to use it effectively, so you can resolve issues in a way that's consistent with those norms and practices.

That's why the rep contribution to the candidate score is capped. Good content contribution history helps, but only up to a point.

OKprogrammer

Also, another meme for you:

What's the difference between "destroyed" users and "deleted" users? I saw it in Game Dev Meta.

DMGregory

65

Q: What is the difference between a deleted user and a "destroyed" user?

Prompted by Generic-ize a user's name when their account is destroyed, it appears there are two methods of disabling user accounts permanently: deleting and "destroying" What are the differences between deleting and destroying a user? What determines which method is used? Return to FAQ index

discussion moderation deleted-accounts faq-proposed account-destruction

OKprogrammer

22:05

Does that mean you could "destroy" me?

With just the touch of a button?

DMGregory

> A user must have less than 500 reputation in order to be destroyed.

OKprogrammer

Dang that means you can. Please don't though. :)

DMGregory

Also, community management would not be too pleased if I went around obliterating users for no reason, and would probably revoke my diamond and roll back the change. 😉

We try to use a light touch with moderation. I've only ever had to delete a user due to serious problems with spamming or ban evasion, and I don't think I've ever had to destroy one.

OKprogrammer

What's ban evasion?

DMGregory

A user who earned a suspension or ban under one account, creating a new account to keep posting anyway.

OKprogrammer

22:12

How can they tell it's the same user? IP address?

DMGregory

This is one of those areas where the more I say, the more clues I could give an unscrupulous reader about how to evade our detection methods. So, for now I'll just say "we have ways". 😉

OKprogrammer

Ah. Someday I might understand, if I become a mod...

DMGregory

I used to perceive becoming a mod like "winning" StackExchange, but I don't think that's a good way to look at it.

Honestly, I think I had more fun on the site before I had the responsibility that comes with the diamond. 😉

You can be an effective and valued member of the community with or without mod powers.

3

Pikalek

23:28

I was working on a something to render object IDs to buffer. The full render looked like this:

Basically, each weird squiggly thing is an object in this case, so I expected to get a different flat shade for each. Instead I got this:

Interesting. But not even remotely correct.

Vaillancourt

@OKprogrammer sometimes, one can figure out a user is abusive only by looking at their posts. I've helped "catch" a couple of them before I wad a mod.

Transcript for