Today I finally got my laptop development environment fully up and running. There was one last stubborn issue related to saving downloaded files, and getting that fixed was a tremendous relief. To be honest, the last few days have been rather stressful.
It started out with losing personal data due to a corrupted laptop harddrive. After restoring my system, I discovered that many critical applications no longer worked. It took me several days of reinstalling the OS before I tracked this problem down to a recent system update which my graphics drivers. On top of all that, I’ve been triple-checking that I’m correctly transferring my code-signing keys so that I can make code-signed executables on my laptop. Also, my plane flight was cancelled and rescheduled.
Thankfully, with all that excitement behind me, I am now ready to get back to work. The first order of business is putting together my project plan(s) for the next few months. Organization has never been easy for me. So when it comes to project planning, I usually rely on making exhaustive notes and to-do lists. Then, I slowly refine them down until I have something that fits on a single notecard or notepad page.
In terms of organizational tools, my most used tool is the hierarchical numbered / bullet list. I write down ideas as bullet points. Then I make multiple passes through the entire list, ordering them and putting them into groups. Some people may be more efficient with mindmaps, but I tend to overlook items and forget about them. For me, a hierarchical list allows me to systematically visit each item with each pass and never overlook or ignore anything.
Once I have my hierarchical list, I then put it into a project management system. Prior to 2010, I used sticky notes, a cork board and a white board. In recent years/decade, I’ve been trying to modernize myself. Now I run a private Restya server which is only accessible through an offline wired network, because I am paranoid. I’ve been trying to migrate to Trello to increase “user engagement”. It’s not bad, but I don’t use any features that aren’t in Restya.
My preferred project management style is based on agile development practices. I divide my work into 5 main categories: (1) Design, (2) To Do, (3) Doing, (4) Done, (5) Backburner. After something is designed, I put it into the To Do pool and move items into Doing / Done / Backburner as needed. I try to be mindful of any productivity slow-downs and reassess feasibility and time estimates per task often. If I get fatigued with one task, I will switch it with something else in the To Do pool. If I find that something is a dead-end or needs major redesign, I put it into the Backburner and plan to reassess it in the next release cycle.
Anyway, that’s the basic gist of the workflow that I’ve used for most of my projects over the last couple of decades, whether it is programming, writing, art, relationships or other nonsense. I’ll probably do more detailed posts with planning decisions as I work on future projects. Let me know if you found this completely boring and useless.
Here are some of the projects which I will be working on in the next 3 months:
- yaluxplug, Daz Studio to LuxCoreRender plugin. This is a LuxCore based render engine for Daz Studio with support for OpenCL-based GPU rendering on Windows and Mac. It is designed to be a drop-in replacement for the Iray Render engine and will seamlessy support Iray shaders and materials. Currently, it is still in alpha development phase. However, it is already making very nice renders, supporting SSS and dual lobe specular. I will be making some small updates in the coming months, including:
- Top Coat support
- Tonemapping, Burn Highlights / Crush Shadows support
- Render-level Subdivision support
- Project Planning on Trello
- unofficial DTU, Daz Studio to Unity Bridge plugin. I may be biased, but I think the uDTU bridge is an amazing time-saving tool to get your Daz content into Unity. This project started out as just a few tweaks and bugfixes on top of the official, open-sourced DazToUnity Bridge. (Thanks, Daz!!) Then, I added in URP and Built-in Render Pipeline support. Since then, I’ve been continually going back and adding more and more features and usability tweaks. Here are a few things on the to-do list which I will be prioritizing:
- Strand-based Hair support
- Built-in Standard Shader support
- Material and Shader bulk editing and management tools
- Optional integration with Daz Decimator and Unity LOD plugins
- Centaur Simulator, indie game. I’ve always wanted to play an openworld RPG sandbox, where you play as a centaur. After making the first demo, I realized the impact of the game was coming from the atmospheric visuals and the incredible animation of the horsebody. (Thanks, Malbers!!) For my next demo, I will be leaning hard into atmosphere and responsive animations:
- Expanded, moddable Forest Level
- Centaur Race Track
- New models based on Genesis 8 Centaurs
- Retargeted animations from Malbers Horse Animset Pro
- Project Planning on Trello
- travel-stained-pants.com, nonsense and inde game development. I will try to add regular content focused on game development, digital art and science. Expect technical detail, tutorials and lots of opinions.