This allowed us to reduce the number of draw calls, which was a big concern due to both driver overhead and inefficiencies in OGRE. The core idea in this system was to dynamically batch meshes together, for characters this would be based on the character model hierarchy, and for everything else the grouping is spatial. Most of this code survived to this day but evolved over time, and is still used when instancing doesn’t apply. This was further optimized and deployed around November 2012. Otherwise known as “featherweight parts”. Initially added for “100 player” project, in October it evolved to render all parts and continued to be used as part renderer until the introduction of instancing in 2018. August 2012: Prototype new part rendering The rendering code back then was based on OGRE rendering engine, so I had to learn that, and this was also my first time using OpenGL professionally - prior to that I’ve used Direct3D 9 and proprietary console APIs, and Direct3D 10/11 as a hobby. Notably including half-pixel offset fixes for Direct3D9 which I guess is a rite of passage for rendering engineers. July 2012: Assorted fixes to rendering code I don’t think I could have done it without you and I hope this continues for as long as possible despite the current trying and uncertain times. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. The reason why I still enjoy what I do is because whenever I write about a new big thing I’m working on or a small feature or even a bug fix, it’s usually met with excitement which keeps me going. Hopefully this will be fun!īefore we begin, I just want to conclude this by saying that I’m very grateful to the Roblox leadership for treating me well, for all the friends and colleagues I made along the way, and for the wonderful Roblox community. This is based on resummarizing and reliving the source control history, which tells me I’ve had 2752 changes that made it to our main branch, with merge commits counting as one, so, uh, this blog might be on a larger side. So I thought it might be fun to do what I’ve planned to do for a year or more now, and to go over all decently sized projects I’ve ever worked on at Roblox. I am really unsure of what the future holds but it’s hard to imagine what, if anything, comes after Roblox - I certainly don’t intend to leave any time soon… I was very fortunate to join at the time when I did and witness the growth of our technology and business. I think I could talk for hours about Roblox - it somehow became a huge part of my life. I don’t really understand why Roblox is so successful - you can invent all sorts of reasons in retrospect but it’s hard to validate them, and if you came to anybody back in 2012 and asked for an investment to build a platform where all games are user generated and run on a custom engine with a custom toolset and all users participate in a giant virtual economy and …, I think you’d have gotten a blank stare.īut I do understand that I found the perfect place for me, especially at that point in my career - I enjoy working on game technology but I never liked working on actual games, and Roblox maximizes the number of developers who can use the technology you work on while maintaining a good autonomy and a very wide range of problems you’d need to solve. However I don’t really remember what was going through my head in regards to my perception of Roblox - why did I join besides just thinking I want to do something else for a change? Who knows, but I am glad I did. I remember my interview pretty well, I remember having lunch at some place in San Mateo downtown near the Roblox HQ - a few people were at lunch including Roblox CEO David Baszucki and I remember him asking many questions about my thoughts about the engines and rendering, and distinctly remember not finishing most of my lunch because I talked most of the time. I started on my first full time job in April 2007 so at this point I’ve worked for 13 years in game development and 8 of them were at Roblox. The platform was so different (and so strange!) that I decided to take a chance - here I am, 8 years later, still working at Roblox and enjoying it. I knew absolutely nothing about Roblox, but California was nice and my friend told me it would be awesome. My work on FIFA was as a contractor and I got an offer for a full-time position, but I also had a friend who worked at Roblox reach out and offer me to move to California and work on Roblox. I joined Roblox at the end of 2012 as a rendering engineer I had just spent more than a year working on various titles from FIFA franchise after years of console game development and was becoming a bit tired of the “big game development”.
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