- #1
0kelvin
- 50
- 5
I was enrolled in meteorology but after so many failures, low grades, I decided to drop out. Some friends of mine who were admitted in the same year as me loved the field so much that they are already doing their PhD, in some cases abroad. For a long time I've been day dreaming about computer graphics and game design. Just about the last few weeks I looked back and asked myself "what am I'm doing? I do care about climate and how it overlaps with all the life forms around the world. However, do I really want to be a researcher in this field? Or work in weather forecasting?". The answer is no.
At the same time I don't want to waste the knowledge in calculus, linear algebra and classical mechanics. To study the atmosphere one has to learn thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, the maxwell's equations and statistics. It's a huge beast that requires as much computing power as one could get to process so much data. The program at my uni has over 4k hours of lectures and work spanning 5 years. As a side note: in my uni it's not uncommon to see students that were dreaming about working at the Large Hadron Collider or studying something such as Quantum Levitation, but the course is so harsh and dry that they abandon physics. Meteorology isn't that much different because the complexity of the problems that it has to solve is overwhelming too. What we learn about climate at school is about the seasons, rain, snow, winds and some connections with biology without any calculations involved.
Grades mean nothing in the game dev world. However, I tend to agree with math teachers about understanding the math behind a problem. The software dev world is full of ready to use libraries. Nonetheless, I believe that there are many more people who know how to use a library than people who know the theory behind the equations that those libraries solve.
What if I take all the knowledge in linear algebra, calculus, elementary statistics and build up a portfolio of solved problems? My personal impression of the game modding communities is that either people focus on programming and can't do art or the opposite. People who create great pieces of art while knowing nothing about programming. I want a bit of both sides. I began to watch GDC's conferences, read about level design and even write about it. That just made me see that I was never going to be great professional in meteorology because it wasn't really aligned with my dreams. Looking at myself and I believe I'm not the classical artist, in the sense of being a Rodin or a Picasso. Among all sub-fields that exist within game design I'd more inclined to do game mechanics, game physics and/or design of environments.
I already have a very small portfolio of level design to start with. Now I want to invest more in the "equations side" because they serve a lot of purposes in many other fields as well.
At the same time I don't want to waste the knowledge in calculus, linear algebra and classical mechanics. To study the atmosphere one has to learn thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, the maxwell's equations and statistics. It's a huge beast that requires as much computing power as one could get to process so much data. The program at my uni has over 4k hours of lectures and work spanning 5 years. As a side note: in my uni it's not uncommon to see students that were dreaming about working at the Large Hadron Collider or studying something such as Quantum Levitation, but the course is so harsh and dry that they abandon physics. Meteorology isn't that much different because the complexity of the problems that it has to solve is overwhelming too. What we learn about climate at school is about the seasons, rain, snow, winds and some connections with biology without any calculations involved.
Grades mean nothing in the game dev world. However, I tend to agree with math teachers about understanding the math behind a problem. The software dev world is full of ready to use libraries. Nonetheless, I believe that there are many more people who know how to use a library than people who know the theory behind the equations that those libraries solve.
What if I take all the knowledge in linear algebra, calculus, elementary statistics and build up a portfolio of solved problems? My personal impression of the game modding communities is that either people focus on programming and can't do art or the opposite. People who create great pieces of art while knowing nothing about programming. I want a bit of both sides. I began to watch GDC's conferences, read about level design and even write about it. That just made me see that I was never going to be great professional in meteorology because it wasn't really aligned with my dreams. Looking at myself and I believe I'm not the classical artist, in the sense of being a Rodin or a Picasso. Among all sub-fields that exist within game design I'd more inclined to do game mechanics, game physics and/or design of environments.
I already have a very small portfolio of level design to start with. Now I want to invest more in the "equations side" because they serve a lot of purposes in many other fields as well.
