at least play a lot of influential games
you said in the favorite games thread that you “never heard of/played 99% of the games mentioned in this thread”.
play 'em.
Senioritis? (Hits just about everyone. I can’t recall if you are a senior yet, though.)
Yup Senioritis hitting me HARD. Hopefully things look better in college.
Deferred shading: There are a huge amount of papers and slides on this, for example this: http://www.slideshare.net/blindrenderer/rendering-tech-of-space-marinekgc-2011
Orbits: I have no idea how to do this, but I want to do it. =S
Missiles: They’re missiles! Who doesn’t like missiles?!
Volumetric lighting: I came up with the algorithm myself, only to discover it had already been discovered and was currently implemented in Stalker: CS and Stalker: CoP… -_-’ I pretty much saw the effect in Crysis and was like “That is insanely ugly. Why would you do a radial blur with almost hundreds of texture samples when you can use those samples to raytrace over the shadow map and actually get accurate volumetric lighting?”. It’s already up here on JGO, but it has some weird bugs I need to fix.
Particle rendering: I’ve got most of the basics working (transform feedback, geometry shaders). I just need to figure out how to do a radix sort on the GPU and the math behind approximating a function with fourier coefficients. I have no idea what I just wrote.
Bragging on JGO: 1. Create a new thread under a fitting sub forum. 2. …
I’ve just collected funny words from graphics settings in games like SSAO and HDR from games and Googled them.
Oh, ouch. I just started uni and I can say I’ve never been more motivated to study, hehe. Well, I also have more free time than in high school since there are less lectures and they aren’t mandatory, plus that I really don’t need to attend the Java classes. xD
Describe your dream game!
Try join a compo with prize? Github’s shining iPad may tempt you.
Enjoy your senior year. You earned it!
Things will pick up again, in good time.
…well then…looks like I have lots of studying to do myself ;D
I’m still on Chapter 10 on the arcsynthesis tutorials! :persecutioncomplex:
Have you ever though of making a list of games you want to program, just write down the idea and then work on them? or try and redo something you really enjoyed creating.
It’s hard to concentrate on a long project. Maybe break it up to parts? Maybe get someone else to help? It makes it easier with others pushing you to work.
I guess I’m lucky that I have art to offset programming… so whenever I get burned out of programming, I switch to art, and when I get burned out of art, I integrate my artwork into my programs…
On the other hand, my current job has been excellent motivation for busting my ass in the hopes that my game will allow me to retire from all the bull-crap I currently put up with.
-Pickle
I’m not even sure if it is desireable to motivate oneself for hobby projects. If you lose motivation with a hobby, it means your interest has turned elsewhere, and it might be good to follow the new interest for a while.
Otherwise I do it similar to what Pickeninja said, switch between art and programming. And at times artwork also means do turn off the computer and work with “real” materials.
What helps for me:
- Starting early. I only code in my spare time, but if I do not start coding right when I get out of bed chances are that I won’t code at all for that day, but instead continue what I was doing at the start (e.g. gaming).
- Exercise. For two reasons: gives me more energy, and more importantly: it’s a way of learning a little bit of discipline. I like to run long distances, and there’s a significant mental challenge in that (e.g. ignoring my subconscious yammering “waah, I want to stop now, I’m so tired, the grass looks so inviting, I can just take a shortcut here, etc.”)
- Choose a single project. I tended to try to work on a dozen projects at once, which predictably resulted in me completing none at all. Now I try to focus on a single project, and not allow myself to work on anything else until I’ve completely finished the project.
Anyways, it’s quite impossible for me to have 100% discipline. Or even 50%. But for me that’s healthy, too: there’s other things that are important in life, such as having fun. ;D
Programming is an art!
Judging, from what I have just experienced myself:
Ideas and Inspiration is the biggest source of productivity!
Point 1 is not possible for me due to school 
Point 2: I’ve tried and given up so many times. I need to exercise more (mostly due to my weight…) but I just can’t 
Point 3: I’m currently focusing on fully learning OpenGL before I focus on any project. However, I’m getting really lazy in learning it, causing the stagnation in productivity…
[quote=“ra4king,post:56,topic:38898”]
Is “fully” learning OpenGL even possible? Maybe its more fun to learn OpenGL while accomplishing some other goal? Like making an awesome OpenGL demo ;D
I completely agree… But it’s a different type of art
-Pickle
Doing something with fast sensory feedback is a win.
Man…and I wonder why I create mass menu screens…but damn do they look good.