Just dropped by the journals page and realised mine had fallen off the bottom into obscurity. Probably a subtle hint I should be putting more content in here [lol]
I've been crazily busy since the start of the year. I'm starting to feel the pressure with this book project as I've got around SIX WEEKS to finish my contribution.
My main potential sticking point is the example code - I don't really want to be using DXUT because of the way its a volatile codebase and any samples I ship on the CD may not compile inside of 6 months of the book being published. Therefore I'm trying to throw together a simple framework to act as a foundation from which I can demonstrate various techniques. This isn't difficult, but it does add a whole lot more work to the pile [headshake]
I'm confident I'll make the deadline, but it does mean that all of my spare time is consumed with writing - so far 17,000 words (about 60-70 pages when printed and with diagrams) and first-draft on 6 chapters and a framework the 7th. Still haven't started on the last three chapters yet [oh]
By going over a lot of the equations again I'm learning a lot more about them, which is pretty cool. I'm starting to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches which I didn't before - or, in retrospect, my thinking I did was obviously wrong!
A lot of noise was created about Paul Strauss' model when 3DMark2006 was released; mostly the hardcore GPU fanboys (etc..) finding a new buzzword to latch on to (no, I'm not cynical). I can't see why they'd be overly interested really as it introduces relatively little and the quality is still made or busted by the artist.
I do like Strauss' model a lot though - it focuses on usability for the artist rather than heavyweight maths and physics. In this sense I think it'll become a very popular choice given that games are ever more artwork-heavy. Having a powerful yet intuitive algorithm should make content creation all the easier without having any major trade-offs for quality... [grin]
On top of the book project I'm also looking to move house (contract on this one will be broken on 1st March), planning my holiday to Seattle (7th March) and holding down a regular day-job. I love having free time [rolleyes]
