Hello!
After a few days figuring out Mastodon with the help of the folks at QOTO, I will formally introduce myself in order to pin this in my profile :)
My name is Abde and I am a computer scientist. My main domain is #NumericalCalculus and #ParallelComputing. I am currently a PhD student at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (#belgium) and working on porting numerical solvers for simulations on the GPU using #CUDA. You may find my first paper here: https://etna.math.kent.edu/vol.55.2022/pp687-705.dir/pp687-705.pdf
Other research interests are #complexity #computability #graphtheory #geometry #discretemath
I also work as a #VirtualReality developer. My current professional interests are #simulations #numericalcalculus #geometry. We also contribute in several #opensource projects. Most of my work is done in #Unity3D, so feel free to ask any questions!
As a hobby I do some #gamedev and also #musicproduction. I will share some snippets of what I do here, but for now I am focusing in crafting my art by producing #housemusic in #bitwig.
Please enjoy! I am not the most active but I am looking to build my Mastodon network, so feel free to follow and I will follow back :)
#introduction #mastodon #newcomer #developer #music #programming
@davoloid Thank you 
@abde "...feel free to ask any questions!" I am content if you can redirect me to someone "adjacent" within your field, but is there any notion of "hydrodynamic simulation" within games? By this, I mean #Minecraft has a fixed ocean level, no tides. Rivers are created at the same level. "Erosion" is "Kinda-sorta" implemented in terrain generation. Ark:Survival Evolved's terrain is all human crafted with a water plane set for a given area. #Valheim, same as #Minecraft: Terrain generation with water at a set plane. SimCity iterations, same.
Would you know of work being done to have lakes over oceans, streams, flooding due to weather, tides, and so on? I would love to see this be more common in games featuring terrain generation.
@Romaq this is a complex question, I would be glad to answer it tomorrow evening! Not an expert, but can give some tips.
@abde Thank you! I'm *far* from being in that business except as someone who plays games and thinks about terrain. I think such simulation may be "prohibitively expensive," but as that is *not* my wheelhouse, it's cool to ask someone for whom it *is.*
Basically, is dynamic hydrology "somewhere out in the future" for games? Is it *really* that expensive? Do developers figure it's simply not worth bothering with? Perhaps nobody would really notice?
I *will* say that #Valheim has the ocean behavior I only *WISH* Ark Survival had. #MInecraft, you can place water where you think it ought to be to create the appearance you are looking for in terrain. But... still, I don't know unless I ask. :)
@Romaq Well, now I have some time.
The thing is that I'm not a scientist in #geography or #geology, so I don't think I can help, but here are my assumptions with a #computerscience approach.
What I can see about that is that it can be challenging to have different "bodies of water" with different heights, tides, etc... The thing is that when you have a fixed value for things in general, you don't have to do tests about things that can be underwater or not...
"if position.y < water_level: swimming"
If you start adding more complex bodies of water, you can have to implement #collision detection which can be pretty expensive.
In #gamedev in general we rarely use real simulations, so we try to model things in a simple way to make it performant and make it "look good" with transformations on water, etc.you can check how Sea of Thieves deals with water:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMb_FUmr0Ts
#seaofthieves has the effects you look for like tides etc.
There are many problems and challenges also with #multiplayer games and #physics. How would you synchronise something at a large scale like the global state of the water?
I hope I gave you a little glance of what I think about all this!
@abde Thank you for your time. Overall, the reason I doubt we are in a "simulation" is because there are so many incredible (if completely useless from a practical perspective) complex, interconnected relationships... and what would be the point for a game?
I think #dwarffortress has this to some extent... I've just not played with it recently. But of course, DF is on an entirely different level.
@abde Welcome, excellent way to introduce yourself.