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I started my career working on VR apps and soon pivoted to webdev due to the better market. Articles like this one make me miss the field - working with 3d gr

I started my career working on VR apps and soon pivoted to webdev due to the better market. Articles like this one make me miss the field - working with 3d graphics, collisions, shaders, etc. had a magical feeling that is hard to find in other areas. You're practically building worlds and recreating physics (plus, math comes up far more practically and frequently than in any other programming field).

chefandy 2y ago
Well, in web dev, people vacuuming up all of your code to feed a NN creates something that eliminates the tedious annoying parts and leaves the more interesting work. Conversely, even in the technical end of art, people vacuuming up all of your output to feed a NN eliminates the interesting, fulfilling parts and for professional tasks, leaves the existing tedious annoying parts, and even adds a few more, while devaluing the entire skillset. And then everyone in tech pretends they know more about your job than you do, and calls you a jerk for not being happy that SV companies killed your job market by offering C- results for F prices without the inconvenience of any of the people that created the initial “data” getting paychecks. So, considering the pros and cons, I think you made the right choice.
superconduct123 2y ago
I know exactly what you mean I went the other way from webdev to working in games and in my experience it really is as fun/interesting as it sounds, the satisfaction of the work is so much higher and the ceiling/depth of the topic is very high. Been doing it for 4 years so far and I've never hit a wall of boredom like I did in webdev Nothing beats coming in to work on monday, opening up the engine editor, seeing the mini world you're working on being rendered, and thinking about what cool feature you'll add next
- jayd16 2y ago
  Personally I think opening up steam and see your game (shipping) can beat opening up the editor but I agree that it's a very fulfilling industry.
- torben-friis 2y ago
  Yeah, the ceiling part is key for me. There are interesting challenges in web dev, but it's mostly related to scale, architecture and organizational complexity - realistically, no one is going to have their mind blown reading your loginController. Game programming does have a lot more space for wizardry, you can code a shader or a mesh splitting algorithm that feels like black magic to others, and it's just you with a code editor. There are still many reasons for me not to regret my move, mostly related to the realities of the market - lower salaries, crunch, the seasonal/project based employment, limited choice of OS/dev tools, etc. But credit where credit is due, that field is super fun.
- nickpadge 2y ago
  How were you able to make the transition?

chefandy 2y ago

Well, in web dev, people vacuuming up all of your code to feed a NN creates something that eliminates the tedious annoying parts and leaves the more interesting work. Conversely, even in the technical end of art, people vacuuming up all of your output to feed a NN eliminates the interesting, fulfilling parts and for professional tasks, leaves the existing tedious annoying parts, and even adds a few more, while devaluing the entire skillset. And then everyone in tech pretends they know more about your job than you do, and calls you a jerk for not being happy that SV companies killed your job market by offering C- results for F prices without the inconvenience of any of the people that created the initial “data” getting paychecks. So, considering the pros and cons, I think you made the right choice.

superconduct123 2y ago

I know exactly what you mean I went the other way from webdev to working in games and in my experience it really is as fun/interesting as it sounds, the satisfaction of the work is so much higher and the ceiling/depth of the topic is very high. Been doing it for 4 years so far and I've never hit a wall of boredom like I did in webdev Nothing beats coming in to work on monday, opening up the engine editor, seeing the mini world you're working on being rendered, and thinking about what cool feature you'll add next

jayd16 2y ago
Personally I think opening up steam and see your game (shipping) can beat opening up the editor but I agree that it's a very fulfilling industry.
torben-friis 2y ago
Yeah, the ceiling part is key for me. There are interesting challenges in web dev, but it's mostly related to scale, architecture and organizational complexity - realistically, no one is going to have their mind blown reading your loginController. Game programming does have a lot more space for wizardry, you can code a shader or a mesh splitting algorithm that feels like black magic to others, and it's just you with a code editor. There are still many reasons for me not to regret my move, mostly related to the realities of the market - lower salaries, crunch, the seasonal/project based employment, limited choice of OS/dev tools, etc. But credit where credit is due, that field is super fun.
nickpadge 2y ago
How were you able to make the transition?