Comments on: Perfect Data Pipelines Yeah, a while back (argh - it's an entire decade - I'm suddenly ancient) I wrote an asset engine that could bake multiple textures together using custom transforms (TransformIntoNormalMap, etc), pack different channels together into a single texture, etc. Today you'd do that new-fangled generation of SH ambient occlusion factors from local raycasts through displacement maps. You ended up with a DAG for each final asset that had to be tracked back through modified dates or checkin status or whatever. It actually wasn't that bad - I mean it's basically just a dynamic makefile for assets rather than code. I even did de-duplication so the arts-folk could copy textures on their HDD to their heart's desire and not bloat the disk image. Yeah, a while back (argh – it’s an entire decade – I’m suddenly ancient) I wrote an asset engine that could bake multiple textures together using custom transforms (TransformIntoNormalMap, etc), pack different channels together into a single texture, etc. Today you’d do that new-fangled generation of SH ambient occlusion factors from local raycasts through displacement maps. You ended up with a DAG for each final asset that had to be tracked back through modified dates or checkin status or whatever. It actually wasn’t that bad – I mean it’s basically just a dynamic makefile for assets rather than code. I even did de-duplication so the arts-folk could copy textures on their HDD to their heart’s desire and not bloat the disk image.

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By: Rachel 'Groby' Blum/2011/03/12/perfect-data-pipelines/#comment-1640 Rachel 'Groby' Blum Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:47:36 +0000 Interesting thought about the multiple Tier 0s... would those really be sideways/lateral moves though, rather than a branch at Tier 1 (such that you have to melt back to Tier 1 in order to freeze the other way)? I guess technically zipped vs unzipped of the same format can be thought of laterally; would you consider it this way in practice rather than treating the unzipped form as a (usable) intermediate step? Interesting thought about the multiple Tier 0s… would those really be sideways/lateral moves though, rather than a branch at Tier 1 (such that you have to melt back to Tier 1 in order to freeze the other way)?

I guess technically zipped vs unzipped of the same format can be thought of laterally; would you consider it this way in practice rather than treating the unzipped form as a (usable) intermediate step?

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By: Perfect Data Pipelines » #AltDevBlogADay | The Daily Conservative/2011/03/12/perfect-data-pipelines/#comment-1539 Perfect Data Pipelines » #AltDevBlogADay | The Daily Conservative Sun, 13 Mar 2011 02:37:48 +0000 Interesting insight about code having tiers as well as data - like it. There's multiple sideways directions as well. A texture can have a "tier 0" format for the GPU (BCn), but also a very different "tier 0" format for the DVD (e.g. zipped BCn). I'm a big fan of both runtime conversions between formats, and of doing those conversions on-demand. Does make life more complex though. Interesting insight about code having tiers as well as data – like it.

There’s multiple sideways directions as well. A texture can have a “tier 0″ format for the GPU (BCn), but also a very different “tier 0″ format for the DVD (e.g. zipped BCn). I’m a big fan of both runtime conversions between formats, and of doing those conversions on-demand. Does make life more complex though.

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