James Heslop (@_james) header
James Heslop (@_james) profile picture

BeamNG Gameplay Design. "Own it, make it flawless." Opinions are my own and RT ≠ endorsement.

Toronto, Canada
Joined April 2009
Photo by James Heslop (@_james)Photo by James Heslop (@_james)Photo by James Heslop (@_james)Photo by James Heslop (@_james)Photo by James Heslop (@_james)Photo by James Heslop (@_james)Photo by James Heslop (@_james)Photo by James Heslop (@_james)Photo by James Heslop (@_james)Photo by James Heslop (@_james)
Being part of the game and engine dev community, there’s an easy trap we all fall into early on: Putting together a decent renderer, calling it a "game engine", and claiming it runs faster than this or that industry standard tech. Sure, those mainstream engines are so bloated that hardly anyone enjoys using them anymore. We’ve all been there, and I believe that's why we do what we do. But the reality is that we can’t evaluate an engine's true performance without an actual game running on top of it (or at least part of it). Early isolated test scenes (that damn Sponza...) do a decent job simulating GPU load, but they don't tell the whole story when it comes to real world game production where a bunch of systems come together. Assuming that your renderer is indeed a capable one that meets certain standards, a complete game has to handle far more than that... Physics, audio, UI, localization, asset streaming, editor tools, complex gameplay logic, you name it... And all that compete for CPU and cache bandwidth. Getting 500 FPS in an isolated test scene is great as an academic exercise, but it's the classic case of lab vs real-world data failure. So forget about test scenes and before you declare war on the giants, at the very least prove your tech can drive a small but real, modern game concept without falling apart. To avoid any misunderstanding (given that I'm also building my own engine) I say this out of a genuine hope to see more decentralized, transformative gamedev tech again. Especially now, when the playing field appears to be somewhat equalizing for independent game devs.
32
9
3
224
13,076
I know that the moment of recognition is coming, but it always floors me. Just beautiful television. After Life 💔
20
41
4
529
87,820
James Heslop retweeted
Enough foreplay. Let’s get Serious! I’M BACK IN THE THIRD ENCOUNTER, BABY! 😎
403
1,296
433
7,356
437,465
James Heslop retweeted
Get comfy and split the screen, Version 0.40 is here! 🔥Here's what's new: 🎮BeamNG debuts on PS5🎉 ✨Split-Screen multiplayer 🚛New Vehicle 🎨UI improvements ...and much more! ⤵️ bng.gg/040
107
193
16
1,776
48,749
Get behind the wheel with BeamNG drive, available today on PS5 -> play.st/4yAR6fH
42
32
3
372
52,166
James Heslop retweeted
BeamNG trending above GTA 6 before GTA 6
16
79
6
1,553
38,320
James Heslop retweeted
We got modders replicating flying cars in BeamNG before... - All credit for the video goes to /u/Senior_Wing_2121 on reddit @Tesla reddit.com/r/BeamNG/comments…
24
108
7
1,525
41,110
We added scripting support! the video below was mostly made with scripts!
Blick 0.4 is out! Huge new features: We added scripting support! Also image sequences, markers, clip sync, flip and mirror, and a long list of editing improvements.
3
3
139
2,206
James Heslop retweeted
Perseverance has set a new off-world record! 🏅 On Oct. 11, the rover's odometer hit 28.10 miles (45.22 kilometers), eclipsing the distance record set by NASA's Opportunity rover. 1/2
182
1,495
138
10,297
792,664
Nails it 🥸😄
556
1,140
315
11,585
778,822
James Heslop retweeted
Мне удалось нащупать сочетание разных методов бросания лучей, которое рисует в реальном времени воксели, объемные гауссианы и сложные гладкие поверхности (SDF) — все сразу, в одном кадре, с отражениями, преломлениями и освещением Программирую я с десяти лет, и любимой темой всегда была и остается компьютерная графика, особенно та часть, что связана с играми. В игровой индустрии я отработал какое-то небольшое кол-во лет и может быть чуть-чуть разбираюсь в разработке игр Последнюю неделю я обдумывал сценарий видео для ютуба об истории трассировки лучей и о том, как работают рейкастинг, реймарчинг, рейтрейсинг и прочее. Надо было освежить знания и попрактиковаться, но меня, как обычно, унесло в дебри и детали реализации Скорее всего, я не открыл Америку. Но картинка получается непривычная: объемный дым, который отбрасывает тень и сам освещается, лиминальные пространства, фракталы, довольно странные существа Самое интересное вылезло дальше. Когда весь мир обсчитывается лучами и полем расстояний, те же механизмы закрывают не только картинку. По полю считаются столкновения и направления сил, отдельного кода физики почти не понадобилось. Со звуком то же самое: лучи от источника обходят сцену так же, как световые, и дают отражения, задержки и поглощение по материалам Да, в упрощенном виде, но такого нет в подавляющем большинстве игр. Тот факт, что один механизм закрыл сразу три составляющие виртуального мира, поразил меня. В итоге простой рендер за несколько вечеров разросся до небольшого движка, пусть и демонстрационного Теперь мне важно понять, есть ли интерес к теме. Это не самый быстрый подход и не такой универсальный, как классические полигоны с аппаратной растеризацией, но что-то в этом есть) Кароче, сделай ретвит, поставь лукерк и оставь комментарий. Если этот пост соберет много внимания — я скорее всего займусь разработкой полноценного демо какой-нибудь сурвайвл песочницы на данной технологии
54
332
18
3,520
165,464
James Heslop retweeted
Tony Stark vibe coded his entire stack 🤔 nitter.cf/theeSuperVegeta/status…
3
2
1
24
2,910
You asked for it, you’re getting it. Coming soon to BeamNG.drive: DLSS and FSR. 🚗💨
70
69
10
1,777
119,949
James Heslop retweeted
1
47
2
303
12,282
Today I implemented underwater effects, like volumetrics and caustics. 🌊 The caustics aren't a fake projected texture, they're generated from the FFT ocean, so they respond to the wave simulation.
Today I added buoyancy. 🌊🔼 I'm using PhysX, which doesn't include buoyancy, but even if it did, I still would have implemented my own. This solution reads directly from the FFT ocean data by copying it to a lower resolution texture (to keep memory and performance in a good place).
7
6
126
5,692
James Heslop retweeted
I took a conference talk from Dennis (@voxagonlabs), transcribed it, told fable to make the same tools that he spoke about, and then we drove down the time per frame aggressively. Big credits to both Dennis & Erin for teaching how this stuff works. 80% of the perf ideas were fable porting what Erin did. I corrected fable's wrongs a lot of the time, but not because I knew it was wrong -- instead, I was skeptical and told it to check using profiling tools Music in the video is from Cynthoni's newest album, check it out on bandcamp
8
8
3
368
22,202
James Heslop retweeted
Sunny with a chance of new stuff! ☀️ #Teaser #WIP
28
98
8
1,279
52,878
James Heslop retweeted
Forza Horizon 6 intro recreated in REAL LIFE 🔥
31
479
19
6,160
271,433
James Heslop retweeted
A bit more of the Volumetric stuff Failed miserably during driving part so many times, I've pretty much built that one infamous tutorial level ;)
11
13
2
182
6,110
James Heslop retweeted
Check out this soft body tire system for Unity by TheLancaster, using sphere colliders and joints to simulate tire deformation and suspension movement. 🚜 Read the breakdown: jettelly.com/blog/breaking-d… #unity3d
3
10
140
6,920