<a href="https://smidgeo.com/notes/deathmtn">deathmtn</a>

8/21/2024, 12:47:14 PM

Real-world graphics demo
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8/21/2024, 12:31:28 PM

I thought that a pool near the ocean was stupid when we got here, but it turns out that it’s hard to swim safely in the ocean.

The ocean is cool as hell but it has riptides (so-called because they are tides that “rip” you out to sea) and undercurrents (currents that — I assume — that suck you under) and stuff. So, it’s nice to stand in the ocean and experience the waves and weird birds, then go to the pool with all the tides and currents turned off, so to speak.
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8/21/2024, 10:09:14 AM

Dag, there be dolphins. I don’t think I’ve seen them in the wild before.
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8/20/2024, 9:23:01 PM

Today's basic Godot revelation: You can set a node's groups in the editor. Before I thought metadata had the advantage of being available in the editor, while groups make nodes accessible to handy methods like `tree.get_nodes_in_group()`. Now that metadata advantage is gone. (It still has the advantage of being able to be types other than boolean.)

With that, I've been able to get rid of a lot of `_ready()` implementations that were all group-setting.
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8/20/2024, 9:18:12 PM

Sun rain
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8/20/2024, 5:22:11 PM

The ocean has water particles moving in all sorts of crazy directions!
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8/20/2024, 5:19:13 PM

I think feeling the sand moving under you is the key to the parallax illusion that you’re moving though it’s actually the water that’s moving.
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8/20/2024, 3:53:14 PM

This bird’s walk is cool. Such a style!
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8/20/2024, 3:12:10 PM

There’s a parallax scrolling illusion that happens if you watch your feet while waves go by. I guess it unfortunately doesn’t work in video.
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8/20/2024, 3:06:23 PM

Water is reflective a.f. as they used to say.
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8/20/2024, 12:55:12 PM

& VAPE
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8/20/2024, 12:31:24 PM

If you’re robbing Bojangles, and you’re 4’6”, they won’t be able to identify you by height!
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8/19/2024, 11:45:49 PM

I generally try to make sure that every commit in a repo can be built and run without what I call "unexplainable weirdness" because you might end up just building over unexplainable weirdness if you allow yourself to commit it. With this game, though, quite possibly because of bad design on my part, sometimes a lot of stuff has to be done in different places to get rid of unexplainable weirdness. So you end up with huge commit messages like this:
Liminal space correctly decides when whole throng is in, and level_usher clears level, sets up new one, and moves everyone over. - liminal_space: - Use level_completed flag to avoid emitting level complete signal more than once per level completion. - Emit signal deferred so that respondents don't have to worry about being with a physics update. - throng_root_node: - await physics_frame before concluding clear_current_level, so that deleted nodes are gone before any following code runs. - Factor move_to_place out of add_at_random_place. - exit: - Emit signal deferred so that respondents don't have to worry about being with a physics update. - Sync presentation after sending a guy to liminal space. - level_usher: - Set throng position to the position of the first individual in the throng after moving guys to the new level. - Reset level_completed flag after setting up new level. - Use thing.exit_liminal_space instead of directly calling remove_child because it handles the visual representation and the in_liminal flag. - thing: - Update remove_visual_presentation() to do a queued move of the sprite_root from the sprite_presenter back to the thing instead of freeing it, so it has it for add_visual_presentation() later. - sprite_presenter: - Check for the presence of arg with == null instead of not so args that equal Vector2.ZERO aren't counted as missing.
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8/19/2024, 11:10:15 PM

When you run this in Godot:
if not Vector2.ZERO: print('V0 is false.') else: print('V0 is true') if not Vector2(0, 0): print('V0,0 is false.') else: print('V0,0 is true') if not Vector2(0, 1): print('V0,1 is false.')
The output is:
V0 is false. V0,0 is false. V0,1 is true

So, Vector2(0, 0) does actually get coerced to false. That's not unreasonable, after all, it's a 2D zero, but I was surprised. It's the root of a bug in which a function checked for the presence of each argument for an operation with `not`, so it counted a Vector2.ZERO argument as missing.
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8/19/2024, 10:21:57 PM

I actually had a smooth trip to the airport and a smooth flight this morning. I feel I should note that because of all the terrible ones I talk about.
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8/18/2024, 9:31:05 PM

I've been watching The Double Fine PsychOdyssey in the background while doing boring work. It's a documentary about a company in San Francisco making a video game. Two people so far have left the Bay Area because it was too expensive for their families.
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8/18/2024, 8:23:53 PM

Porting Tetris to all platforms
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8/18/2024, 4:38:37 PM

Starting on the Tetris
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8/17/2024, 11:52:11 PM

Physical: 100 infinite squats
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8/17/2024, 3:30:33 PM

I wonder why grenades never became popular with street gangs. Availability? I guess it’s better that they didn’t.

Still, the gold chains packed with gold grenades would have been cool. And all the talk about “dropping’ pineapples.”
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8/17/2024, 10:56:24 AM

Here’s some memes I had to create to get a new heat pump quote.
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8/16/2024, 3:37:16 PM

I sent my heat pump quote cancellation letter by certified mail today just to make sure I didn’t forget it completely, but looking at the quote document, it appears I had to do it within three business days. So, if I had waited, they could have had me in a bad place if they had wanted to stick it to me. Not that I think they do because no money or work changed hands, but it would have bothered me if they were able to.
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8/16/2024, 12:17:19 PM

Middle school strings at this camp are tight. Maybe more impressive is that they’re actually imparting feeling and style into their playing. A lot of middle school kids never get past the mechanics of playing the right pitch at the right time.
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8/16/2024, 12:12:42 PM

Elementary/middle school guys already sounding better than last May.
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8/16/2024, 11:30:43 AM

We Will Rock You, Despite Having Started Band Two Weeks Ago
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