Ignacio Castaño

Master swimmer, mountain climber, and stand up coder.
I work on texture and mesh processing at Ludicon.
Formerly at Roblox, Thekla (The Witness), NVIDIA, OddWorld, Relic, Crytek.

Public Key

npub13uagxzh57wvuvawdagf9j0da9er6wrl9zth8sf8xk4nc5992hjpql48fjh

NIP-05 Address

castano_at_mastodon.gamedev.place@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsg7w5rpt608xwxwhx75yje8k7ju3a8plj39mncynnt2eu2zj4teqs52mx8s

Author Public Key

npub13uagxzh57wvuvawdagf9j0da9er6wrl9zth8sf8xk4nc5992hjpql48fjh

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Last Notes

2024-08-27 01:39:55

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@npub1ykd…6j2y The joys of working on a live service?

2024-07-30 23:10:31

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@npub1qw9…r0g7 no one cares about? 😆

2024-07-13 06:45:42

What a crazy day. Went to South Lake Tahoe to take my daughter to camp and during drop off my wife started having major abdominal pain out of nowhere. Went to the ER thinking it could be a kidney stone, but turned out it was a major ovarian cyst that had to be removed right away. 3 hours later we are walking out of the hospital still shaken by how quick everything was.

2024-06-25 07:22:33

I already spilled the beans here a while ago, but I've finally checked all the items required for the Spark 1.1 release, so it's finally out today!
https://ludicon.com/spark/
What's new in this release? We have been listening to your feedback: This update is focused on the needs of PC developers.

2024-06-20 00:19:29

Sigh, looks like my M1 may be approaching its end of life already.
A few days ago the fans started spinning randomly and with no apparent reason.
Today it crashed for the first time after the fans started spinning again.
Maybe it's time to get an upgrade? I don't have time to investigate and diagnose the problem right now, but I was hoping to pass this machine to one of my kids.

2024-03-01 17:13:32

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@npub1pu3…8r76 This an old 6-core Skylake (Intel Xeon W-2133).
I'm certainly due for an upgrade, but as long as I can build my code in a few seconds I don't feel much pressure to do so.

2024-02-29 23:18:18

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@npub1pu3…8r76 Yeah, OoodleTex is certainly on the Pareto boundary. Spark is too, but I'm targeting an entirely different part of the curve.
Note this is the reference CPU implementation, the GPU version is +200x faster.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/112/017/295/096/105/204/original/51d44a1db97269da.png

2024-02-29 19:42:07

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@npub1pu3…8r76 I'm still on 2.9.10. Not critical to upgrade for my limited use, though.
That sort of combined property maps is actually what's motivating this work, but I have very few actual examples to work with, and it's hard to get source assets before compression!

2024-02-29 19:23:52

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@npub1pu3…8r76 Ah, thanks for the clarification. I was a bit surprised OodleTex was so much higher quality than all other codecs at its lowest quality setting!
At Low it's running ~7 times faster and still surpassing all the other codecs in terms of quality.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/112/016/400/705/755/948/original/315dab8fb4b84584.png

2024-02-29 19:07:54

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@npub1pu3…8r76 Oops. I didn't realize the OodleTex line was there. I can take the post down if you would prefer me not to advertise it publicly.
This is effort level set to 0. I wish you exposed lower quality settings. At this setting it's running 10x slower than ispc_texcomp fast profile, but 4x faster than Basis at cPackUASTCLevelSlower.

2024-02-29 17:54:15

My new BC7 encoder is looking pretty good. I'm approaching the quality that can be achieved offline with Basis (UASTC/non-rdo), but with real-time performance.
The kodak set is not very representative of game textures, but it has a good variety of blocks that are difficult to encode.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/112/016/007/089/193/013/original/f3540d9b33ecbd54.png

2024-02-22 18:44:39

I don't get why IHVs hide their tools within layers of security and identity validation steps, that then don't work as intended and prevent developers from using those tools. What are they trying to protect?
On the other hand, AMD's approach is so refreshing.

2024-02-06 12:38:46

I'm excited to announce that Spark 1.0 is finally out!
https://ludicon.com/spark/
Spark is the culmination of over a year of dedicated research and development, built upon a solid foundation of years of experience in GPU compression technology.
What sets Spark apart?

2024-02-04 19:52:35

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@npub1ykd…6j2y @npub1gax…20w3 I often run into unexpected equipment in the wilderness. Not exactly on mountain tops, there’s not much to study there, but on rivers, meadows, and goat trails. They are usually government projects. I bet the permitting is not trivial to obtain.

2024-01-25 01:33:11

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@npub1ykd…6j2y hey, it’s Linux, I should not be surprised.

2024-01-24 23:00:03

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@npub1ykd…6j2y Yes, GH work just fine.

2024-01-24 22:32:02

Connected Bluetooth keyboard to SteamDeck, but ASDFJK keys don’t work. Everything else works fine, including special keys. Any ideas?

2024-01-18 19:59:38

It seems the RDNA3 compiler has some trouble saturating packed instructions.
I wonder why doesn't it set the CLAMP bit of the fma instructions and instead outputs that monstrosity.
Any ideas?
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/111/778/720/165/534/600/original/6d1fafe76d7044f0.png

2023-12-11 05:33:32

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@npub1pu3…8r76 that sucks. I rely on physical activity to move past those episodes and don’t know how could I get by without it.

2023-12-09 01:38:25

Android demo is coming along well. UI, touch controls, basic view options, and benchmark all work. If all goes as planned I'll upload to google play next week.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/111/547/887/457/743/926/original/625d7f4485761f12.jpg