Today work was hard. Very hard. But also rather productive. Let’s just say I gave up on the manufacturers debugging tools and ended up writing my own. Their were more problems with the debugger than I had in my code. Managed to trace a few problems quickly and got things sorted. I’ve still got a hell of a long way to go and a load more hard work in the coming weeks.

Worked through lunch, but went for an eight mile run early evening. Didn’t stop at all, kept going all of it, felt really good. Came back and done a couple more hours, then did a bit of flying on the simulator.

Now heliguy.com…..I bought a helicopter from you a few weeks ago. I crashed it, knowing that you say you stock all the parts. I ordered parts, they don’t fit. Apparently they can’t help. This is going to be interesting. If you buy a brand new car and three weeks later you prang the wheel into a kerb and need a new stub axle, then go back to the dealership and they say ‘sorry we don’t stock that any more’, wouldn’t you be a little pissed off? I think it’s time to get heavy and start suing people, it’s been a while, I’ve missed it. I may look at upgrading the whole headset to alloy though, as it’ll be stronger and all the same bloody size.

Spent all day trying to get something to work. Even though I solved various problems along the way it still continues to piss me off. Very frustrating.

Went to combat, came back and tried again. Cancelled tomorrows helicopter lesson and rescheduled for Wednesday. Mind is not in the right place for it at the moment.

Will have an early night and do battle again tomorrow.

So yesterday mainly consisted of riding various roller coasters at Alton Towers. ‘The Smiler’ was very good. Although the 100 minute wait for the second go was rather tedious.

Today mainly involved sleeping, walking the dogs and picking up dog poo. It was the first time we let Dillon off his lead and he was very good. Came back and then went to the Harvester with Jamie’s mother and stuff. I ate a rather nice burger. Drinking in the afternoon always sends me to sleep. Today was no exception. So I snoozed, did the accounts and repaired my helicopter, although it still needs another part as one is the wrong size. Nothing else done, so fun weekend, had by all.

Today was very much the same type of stuff, debugging a renderer. It wouldn’t be see bad if it wasn’t an ultra complex deferred renderer. Still, the more hours I spend on it, the more of it works, so can’t complain.

Briefly walked the dogs. I did it individually, as I feel Sasha has the right to feel slightly pissed off, when she walks nicely and Dillon pulls like a tractor. They did have fun in the morning though, it was raining and they both spent ages playing in the mud. They then came in covered in it, but with the look of, “We’ve been nowhere near it”.

Work was very busy, its been a very long week work wise, and mentally very hard going. Still, progress has been made.

Picked up Megan from the station. Jamie came home on time, so we packed up and drove to Alton Towers. Checked in to the “Splash Landings” hotel. Ate at the buffet restaurant, which was far too overpriced. Had a beer at the bar and now in bed. When we got here, there was a birthday cake and beer. Jamie is now insisting on a back massage and a blow job….well it is his birthday.

Once again straight into it, after the small diversion of dropping Sasha off at daycare. Started tracing through stuff and came across a cube map. I’ve then basically spent the whole of the day trying to render stuff to it and then generate mips from itself. It doesn’t want to play ball it’s very annoying.

The dogs ate my cucumber, they must have taken it off the worktop. I now have even less salad.

Went for a quick run, had a shower and then still got nowhere with cube maps. Annoying.

Do have all the parts to fix my helicopter now though. Also got another little helicopter that’s fun to fly as it’s actually stable.

Today started a bit later than I planned, but soon got stuck in. Carried on from where I left off. My first issue was actually caused my a rogue video player. After I disabled that then everything started falling into place.

Late afternoon I started a data build and went out for a run. Did a home check in the evening for a dog, then did a bit more work. Think I’ll try and have an early night tonight and do some helicopter reading. I must spend some time during the day tomorrow to go on the simulator, leaving it until last thing at night is too tiring. Need to get the flying hours in.

Couldn’t really get into work first thing, not until at least two cups of coffee. I added shader debugging until my brain switched on. Weather was a bit crap. Ended up walking the dogs in light rain. Came back and did more work. Now I was having an issue with constant buffers when bound to both vertex and pixel shaders.

I went to combat and spent most of it working out how I could solve the problem. Then came home and found out that that wasn’t the issue anyway. Spent many hours then trying to work out what’s wrong with it. After sitting down now I think I’m looking in the wrong place. It’s all a bit complicated. I’ll crack on with it tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll work it out.

So today was heart attack free and really a hell of a lot of work to do. No breaks. Started fairly early, shopping arrived, put away then just ploughed on. Went to Pump early evening. Was scheduled to do a home check, but they decided against it.

Came back, only had about 20 mins left of the shift, so two hours later…it’s just one of those things in game development, you just need to try ‘one more thing’ and see what it does, doesn’t matter about iteration time. You think, okay, just try this, and that leads on to just try that etc. It’s a pain, but it’s the way it works. Another hell of a busy week next week I’m sure.

Anyway, I really am now done for the week. Need to phone mother, better get wine and an ambulance on stand-by.