2 ms·

> The pro argument is always quantity based, yet we never get to see the actual gain in quality. It's always "I'm doing SO MUCH more". Never "I'm doing better,

> The pro argument is always quantity based, yet we never get to see the actual gain in quality. It's always "I'm doing SO MUCH more". Never "I'm doing better, with less effort." For me, it's "I can do this now; yesterday I could not." I am not a developer - I am a hack with some experience in a smattering of languages who hits very real obstacles very quickly. AI has allowed me to overcome those obstacles and build things that literally I could not do before. Yesterday I could not differentiate quake 3 matches within a single demo file. Today I can split them into separate files and have the server stream them to me so I can watch them on demand.

everforward 2mo ago
It’s basically the same thing as AI generated art, whichever side of that you fall on. I do IT, I can’t make any kind of art to save my own life. The art the AI generates is neat to me because I get to feel in control of making something beyond my own skills. The flip side is equally true, though. The things I make are derivative, and not particularly neat to other people (and actively irritate actual artists). AI software is a lot like that. I’m happy people who aren’t software engineers can make their own thing and be totally in control of that. I’ve also yet to see much AI software that blows existing stuff out of the water. Most of is derivative of something that already exists, if not an outright clone with a slightly different emphasis (think Jira but for a very specific workflow).
flogistonical 2mo ago
> For me, it's "I can do this now; yesterday I could not." Yeah. More. Better? How would you be able to tell? Can you show us better? Or only more?
- sedawkgrep 2mo ago
  To me, being able to do something I could not, is unequivocally better.
  - flogistonical 2mo ago
    Cool. Can you show us some great new things you have done with AI?
    - sedawkgrep 2mo ago
      I'm not going to show you but I'll tell you, because I'm hoping you're asking in good faith and not just being snarky. With AI, I now have tools to analyze recorded demos from quake 3 and pull metadata from them, match them against recorded match statistics, and most importantly, split a large multi-match demo file into multiple separate matches/files which are all self-contained. Doing this required the LLM to review the source for q3 to determine how to re-create gamestate and correct various aspects that were non-trivial due to huffman encoding. I also patched the server to be able to stream demos to attached clients, so multiple people can watch a demo simultaneously. It can now seamlessly switch between demo-playing and game-serving. I've had multiple PRs to the main repo merged for this. All these are far, far beyond my ability to do by myself, and none of these features/functions were really available in 2026. There are some long-abandoned demo tools out there, but they either don't work, don't compile, or otherwise are windows-only. My demo tools are python, and of course the q3 server code is c++. These aren't great new things. They're not ground-breaking. They're merely new things I made for me and my friends. And I think it's great.

everforward 2mo ago

It’s basically the same thing as AI generated art, whichever side of that you fall on. I do IT, I can’t make any kind of art to save my own life. The art the AI generates is neat to me because I get to feel in control of making something beyond my own skills. The flip side is equally true, though. The things I make are derivative, and not particularly neat to other people (and actively irritate actual artists). AI software is a lot like that. I’m happy people who aren’t software engineers can make their own thing and be totally in control of that. I’ve also yet to see much AI software that blows existing stuff out of the water. Most of is derivative of something that already exists, if not an outright clone with a slightly different emphasis (think Jira but for a very specific workflow).

flogistonical 2mo ago

> For me, it's "I can do this now; yesterday I could not." Yeah. More. Better? How would you be able to tell? Can you show us better? Or only more?

sedawkgrep 2mo ago
To me, being able to do something I could not, is unequivocally better.
- flogistonical 2mo ago
  Cool. Can you show us some great new things you have done with AI?
  - sedawkgrep 2mo ago
    I'm not going to show you but I'll tell you, because I'm hoping you're asking in good faith and not just being snarky. With AI, I now have tools to analyze recorded demos from quake 3 and pull metadata from them, match them against recorded match statistics, and most importantly, split a large multi-match demo file into multiple separate matches/files which are all self-contained. Doing this required the LLM to review the source for q3 to determine how to re-create gamestate and correct various aspects that were non-trivial due to huffman encoding. I also patched the server to be able to stream demos to attached clients, so multiple people can watch a demo simultaneously. It can now seamlessly switch between demo-playing and game-serving. I've had multiple PRs to the main repo merged for this. All these are far, far beyond my ability to do by myself, and none of these features/functions were really available in 2026. There are some long-abandoned demo tools out there, but they either don't work, don't compile, or otherwise are windows-only. My demo tools are python, and of course the q3 server code is c++. These aren't great new things. They're not ground-breaking. They're merely new things I made for me and my friends. And I think it's great.