Comment by forrestthewoods | Hacker News Reader

Comment by forrestthewoods | Hacker News Reader

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forrestthewoods

I don't think the web's complexities are intrinsic. It's layers and layers of crap built on top of crap. Computers are so mind numbingly fast that in some respects it's impressive we've made the web as slow as it is.

Which isn't to say that the crap mountain wasn't the best choice. It may very well be the pragmatic choice. The highest net benefit choice. But I don't believe it's intrinsic. I don't believe it has to be this way. Which means it's at least worth considering alternate paths. Even if in the end we picked the same way.

I work in video games. Currently working in VR. Where you absolutely must hit 90fps and never drop a frame. A certain degree of craftsmanship is required to ship. Layers and layers of abstraction on abstraction need not apply.

Sort of unrelated, but any suggestions for experienced backend developer who wants to get into VR? I'm working on learning 3D graphics and c++, but could use a bit of direction.

What's your goal exactly? Depending on your goal there's a few routes.

If you want to produce compelling VR experiences then I'd recommend you download Unity. You should be able to start making real, valid prototypes for different types of VR interactions in under a week.

If you want to graphics then I might recommend you poke at http://humus.name/index.php?page=3D or https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx. But graphics isn't my specialty so my thoughts aren't the strongest.

If you want to learn C++ then... that's an interesting question I've not thought of before. Maybe I'd start with "Learn C the Hard Way"? http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/ I'm not as much of a C fanboy/C++ hater as other game devs. I quite like C++11 lambdas and move semantics. But I hate boost and it's ilk. So starting with C and later adding a dash of C++ seems like a good way to start.

Just as a side note I will add a piece of advice I wish I knew back in the day: learn C++ itself, not what I did which was to think I was doing that, but actually really only learn MFC (this applies to any framework or library, Qt etc etc). Having said that, the STL will stand you in good stead whatever you decide to do.

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