tylermw

8 ms·

61.
by tylermw 4y ago
R is not constantly breaking. R Core does a remarkable job ensuring backwards compatibility. There are only a few prominent examples of significant "breaking" behavior across decades of the language existing, and those can often b
62.
by tylermw 4y ago
The modern "data science" solution, however, is to make your 3D animated rollercoaster in R! Much more efficient :) Link: https://www.tylermw.com/datacoaster-tycoon/
63.
by tylermw 5y ago
Note: the 4th edition of this book will likely be out by the end of this year, and cover GPU pathtracing. (I believe the free web edition will be released a few months after the hardback) The Early Release (still in-development) version of
64.
by tylermw 5y ago
I used and extended this tutorial to write the rayvertex [1][2] package, which is a deferred parallel software rasterizer in R. Explicitly building the rendering pipeline really helped me understand the underlying data flow and rasterizatio
65.
by tylermw 5y ago
Check out the rayshader R package for lots of methods for hillshading terrain maps (original HN post mentioned here as well, but it's evolved well beyond that original post) Website: https://www.rayshader.com
66.
by tylermw 5y ago
Thanks!
67.
by tylermw 5y ago
For doing this type of work programmatically in R, check out the rayshader package: https://www.rayshader.com It has a high-quality pathtracing renderer built-in ( https://www.rayrender.net ) that only requires a singl
68.
by tylermw 5y ago
This really isn't a big deal. I switch between C/C++/R all the time and mixing zero/one indexing isn't some huge mental burden or source of intractable bugs--you get used to it after a few days.
69.
by tylermw 5y ago
While writing in C is one way to speed up R code, you can also get pretty close to compiled speed by writing fully vectorized R code and pre-allocating vectors. The R REPL is just a thin wrapper over a bunch of C functions, and a careful pr
70.
by tylermw 5y ago
> Julia's DF library is generic and allows user defined ops and types. You can put in GPU vectors, distributed vectors, custom number types etc. Julia optimizes all this stuff. These features aren't of interest to practicing st
71.
by tylermw 5y ago
"Massively better performance" is a bit misleading: Julia is only massively better at certain workflows. The fastest data.frame library in ALL interpreted languages is consistently data.table, which is R. For in-memory data analys
72.
by tylermw 5y ago
Once your Rcpp code is compiled, it's almost indistinguishable from base R (when you're calling it). All R functions eventually end up calling R primitives written in C, and Rcpp just simplifies the process of writing and linking
73.
by tylermw 5y ago
Not much an argument at all, if you ask me. There's definitely a benefit to only having to learn a single language (rather than R and C++), but the library/package ecosystem in R is hard to beat; unless you're doing truly bes
74.
by tylermw 5y ago
I learned more than I ever needed to know about whaling when I decided to read an unabridged version of Moby Dick. The book goes: Plot -> 100 page guide on hunting, killing, and dismembering and processing a whale carcass -> Plot.
75.
by tylermw 5y ago
ephtracy (the creator of MagicaVoxel and now MagicaCSG) doesn't open source their tools, as far as I know.
76.
by tylermw 5y ago
John Stossel really shows his hand in that piece when he uses "wheelchair access" as an example of government spending run amok. Why shouldn't disabled people should be able to access facilities they pay for with their tax do
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by tylermw 6y ago
No, scientists who are eager to take out mosquitos want to do it because it will save millions of lives. People have been dying of malaria for millennia—climate change has nothing to do with this particular issue/solution.
78.
Building 3D Rollercoaster Tours of Your Data in R(tylermw.com)
2 points by tylermw 6y ago|0 comments
79.
by tylermw 6y ago
The data on that USB drive will deteriorate over a couple decades. NAND memory generally isn't an adequate format for archival purposes.
80.
by tylermw 6y ago
> good experiments change a single variable at a time Although this is a tangent from the above conversation, this isn't actually true: well-designed experiments can indeed change multiple variables at the same time. There's an
81.
Cartography in R with Rayshader and Open Street Map: A Tutorial(tylermw.com)
2 points by tylermw 6y ago|0 comments
82.
by tylermw 6y ago
I don’t know about MATLAB, but everything you describe is trivial to do in R. Being dropped into the debugger is standard on most R installs (it’s an option you can turn off) and everything you mentioned can be done in the REPL.
83.
by tylermw 6y ago
What snake oil is being sold here with a free book? Who exactly is a hack? Sure, there's some technical differences between the two terms, but outside of the research community they are used interchangeably.
84.
by tylermw 6y ago
This book series is great—I built an entire pathtracer in R (rayrender)* following this series. I'd recommend reading these books and then reading Matt Pharr's "Physically Based Rendering", also available for free online
85.
Visualizing 30 Years of Polar Sea Ice Data in 3D(tylermw.com)
1 points by tylermw 6y ago|0 comments
86.
Plinko Statistics: Insights from the Bean Machine(tylermw.com)
1 points by tylermw 6y ago|0 comments
87.
Loading and Visualizing OpenSky Network Flight Data in R(tylermw.com)
2 points by tylermw 6y ago|0 comments
88.
Raybonsai: Generative Fractal 3D Trees in R(tylermw.com)
2 points by tylermw 6y ago|0 comments
89.
by tylermw 6y ago
Really enjoyed reading this level headed discussion, thank you
90.
by tylermw 6y ago
The main benefit of raytracing is primarily for the CG artist pipeline/workflow. Complex, realistic lighting effects just drop out of the integrator, and changing scene lighting is much more akin to a lighting director on a movie set.

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