Posts of "Alan Zucconi"

📝 Principal Component Analysis for Programmers ● Tutorial

Hi everyone! 👋Today I want to share with you the latest tutorial I worked on! It's one of my longest and more complex articles so far, and it's a about a subject I really like: Principal Component Analysis. This is a simple, yet powerful technique used primarily in Data Analysis to reduce the dimensions of large datasets. 💐My aim with this first instalment was not to provide a mathem...

👾 AI and Games Conference 2024

Hi! 👋Last Friday we run the first AI and Games Conferencein London, and it was an absolute blast! 🤩With over 200 attendees, it was one of the largest European events dedicated to Game AI in the past few years!The event was a collaboration with Tommy Thompson (the voice behind the AI and GamesYouTube channel), and was made possible thanks to Duygu Çakmak (Creative Assembly), Gabriel Robert (...

🏷️ "Game AI" ● Discount Code (20% off)

Hi! 👋As promised in my previous message, here's a discount for "Game AI", the online course about classical AI in modern videogames! Using this link within the next 30 days, you can get a 20% discount at the checkout, which is roughly four times the value of your current tier! And in case you're interested, Patrons on the $25 tier are getting a 50% discount! 🏷️Thank you aga...

🎮 "Game AI" ● Course Preview

Hi! 👋After a long wait, I can finally announce the project I've been hinting at for the past year! 🎉"Game AI" is an online course designed for game developers and programmers who are keen to learn how Artificial Intelligence is applied in videogames. It focuses on Classical AI, covering popular techniques such as Behaviour Trees, Pathfinding, Goal-Oriented Action Planning, Evolut...

👾 AI and Games Conference 2024

Hi everyone! 👋On Friday 8th November, we are hosting the first AI and Games Conference in London! This is the first event dedicated to Game AI in Europe since 2017, built with the goal to allow for networking, knowledge exchange and supporting the Game AI community! 🎮The event is in partnership with Tommy Thompson, who runs the popular YouTube channel AI and Games, with over 210K subscribers...

⬇️ Minecraft Plugin Development ● IntelliJ Project

Hi everyone! 👏This is the full IntelliJ IDEA project for the Telecompass Minecraft plugin. This is part of the Minecraft Plugin Development tutorial, which you can read here. It explains how to create special compasses which can teleport players to their linked lodestones.If you do not know how to import, build, test and deploy Minecraft plugins, I'd highly recommend having a read the artic...

📝 Minecraft Plugin Development ● Complete Tutorial

Hi everyone! 👋Back in 2021 I wrote a series about creating Minecraft data packs to add functionalities such as guns and fireballs. Three years later, I am writing about Minecraft again to cover a much more advanced topic: plugin development.This is a complete guide that explains how to get started, code, build, test, build and deploy a Java-based plugin using the Bukkit API for Spigot/Paper ser...

🎥 A Cruel Engine's Thesis

A short present to celebrate April Fool's Day. 🐰(It's also on Twitter if you feel like sharing it!)

📅 What's coming in 2024...

Hi everyone! 👋2023 is almost over, and I think is a good time to let you know what to expect from 2024, and to recap the content I created this year!🤖 Game AI CourseIf you've been following me for a few years, I hope you've noticed a gradual shift in my content. When I started this journey, back in 2015, I posted short articles twice a week. Now, I post long and deep tutorials once e...

🎥 Games, Sex & Romance ● Conference

Hi everyone! 👋These are the busiest weeks for all the Lecturers like me who work at a College! But I take this opportunity to share some of the work that I've been doing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Last week I organised a small conference as part of the Games Library Night, a yearly event that gives voices to underrepresented folks from the game industry.This year the theme was Gam...

📝 Creating 4D Objects ● Unity4D (Part 4)

Hi everyone! 👋This is the fourth, and final part of the new tutorial dedicated to extending Unity into the fourth dimension.In this instalment, we will see different techniques to create various 4D objects, such as tesseracts, hyperspheres and 600-cells (the 4D equivalent of an icosahedron).All articles in this series are publicly available, and can be read here: Part 1: Understanding the Fourt...

🎥 The Fourth Dimension ● Documentary

Hi everyone! 👋I'm reaching out to let you know that my latest documentary about the Fourth Dimension will finallypremiere TODAY at 6pm BST / 1pm EST! The video covers thehistory of the fourth dimension through Art, Movies and Games. It also explains some of the Maths behind hypergeometries, and it ultimately turned into a love letter to a game that is very dear to many: "FEZ".For th...

📝 Rendering 4D Objects ● Unity4D (Part 3)

Hi everyone! 👋This is the third part of the new tutorial dedicated to extending Unity into the fourth dimension.In this instalment, we will tackle the most important issue: rendering 4D objects!The first three articles are now public, and the rest of the series is available on Early Access to all $5+ patrons: Part 1: Understanding the Fourth Dimension 🔓 Part 2: Extending Unity from 3D to 4D ...

👁️ The Fourth Dimension ● Video Preview

Hi everyone! 👋During the past few months, I had the chance to work on a new documentary. It will focus on the Fourth Dimension: from its representation through art, movies and video games up to the more Mathematical details.The documentary will be released in September. In the meantime, this is the intro—for your eyes only! 👀The documentary will be about 33 minutes long, and somehow ended ...

📝 Extending Unity 3D to 4D ● Unity4D (Part 2)

Hi everyone! 👋This is the second part of the new tutorial dedicated to extending Unity into the fourth dimension.In this instalment, we will start writing the code necessary to represent and manipulate 4D objects.The first two articles are now public, and the rest of the series is available on Early Access to all $5+ patrons: Part 1: Understanding the Fourth Dimension 🔓 Part 2: Extending Uni...

📹 A Guide to ChatGPT ● PREMIERE 6PM BST 🔴

Hi everyone! 👋Besides being a Lecturer and creating online content, I often work as a Science Communicator. I would like to share with you this talk I gave a few weeks, which briefly explains how ChatGPT works and focuses on guidelines that can maximise your performance and reduce the risks associated with this technology.The talk was part of "Evidence Week in Parliament", an annual eve...

📝 Understanding the Fourth Dimension ● Unity4D (Part 1)

Hi everyone! 👋This is the first part of a new tutorial dedicated to extending Unity into the fourth dimension.In this instalment we will start exploring hyperspace, from its representation in movies and games, to the best tricks to imagine and visualise what a 4D object would look like.The first article is now public, and the rest of the series is available on Early Access to all $5+ patrons: P...

📝 Unity4D ● Tutorial Series

Hi everyone! 👋It is with great pleasure that I can finally announce a new tutorial series! As you probably know by now, I like to write content that is a bit unexpected... and what is more unexpected than a complete tutorial to turn Unity 3D into Unity 4D? 😎This series is dedicated to extending Unity into the fourth dimension. This means that you will learn how to represent, visualise, manip...

📝 Slippy Maps ● Tutorial

Hi everyone! 👏If you follow my work, you know that in the past I have talked extensively about video games and maps. This month I want to show you how you can create your very own interactive web-based map with Unity and LeafletJS. 🗺️If you have a game and would like to create a zoomable slippy map for its world, that's the tutorial for you! Also, you can use this technique alongside s...

⬇️ Slippy Maps ● Unity Package

Hi everyone! 👏This package is part of the tutorial about slippy maps in Unity and LeafletJS! 🗺️You can find the full tutorial here!If you end up using this in a game, I would be more than happy to see it!🔧 The package was exported using 2020.3.14f1 for the Built-in Render Pipeline, but it should easily work with any recent version of Unity.🧔🏻

📝 Seam Carving ● Tutorial

Hi everyone! 👋A few weeks ago I posted a long article talking about the rise of generative AI, and what it meant for the many people involved in creative jobs (like artists and game developers).To balance things out, I wanted to talk about some more "classical AI" techniques which are still very relevant today. This new tutorial, in fact, focuses on Seam Carving (also known as Liquid Re...

⬇️ Seam Carving ● Unity Package

Hi everyone! 👏This package is part of the tutorial about seam carving (also known as liquid rescaling) in Unity.You can find the full tutorial here.If you end up using this in a game, I would be more than happy to see it!🔧 The package was exported using 2020.3.14f1 for the Built-in Render Pipeline, but it should easily work with any recent version of Unity.🧔🏻

👁️ Seam Carving ● Article Preview

Hi everyone! 👋A few weeks ago I posted a long article talking about the rise of generative AI, and what it meant for the many people involved in creative jobs (like artists and game developers).To balance things out, I wanted to talk about some more "classical AI" techniques which are still very relevant today. This new tutorial, in fact, focuses on Seam Carving (also known as Liquid Re...

👁️ The Rise of AI Art ● Article Preview

Hi everyone! 👋Since January I've been busy working on a new article about the controversial topic of AI Art! On my blog I talked at length about deep dreams, deep fakes and AI in general, and with so many artists following me I felt this was a topic many of you would be interested to read about.Incidentally, this is also my longest post ever, with a whopping 24 pages! 😅 I tried to cover ...

🌍 Global Game Jam 2023 @ Goldsmiths

Hi everyone! 👋Long time no see! 😅 If you have been following me from some time, you know that winter is the busiest time for me, so is usually when I am a bit quieter on Patreon!But rest assured, I have been working on quite a lot of cool project! Just to name one, I am currently organising the largest site in London for the Global Game Jam 2023! In case you are not familiar, the GGJ is a we...

📝 Thin-Film Interference ● Tutorial Series

Hi everyone! 👋The ones of you who have been following my blog for some time, might remember my longest series ever about iridescent shaders in Unity.The series focused on diffraction grating, which is one of the main optical phenomena responsible for iridescent reflections. The last two posts, however, have been under development for the longest time ever. 😅I finally managed to complete them...

📝 Modelling Kalman Filters ● Kalman Filters (3&4/5)

Hi everyone! 👋The content spree continues! 🤪 This week I am publishing TWO (2!!!) more articles! Part 3: Modelling Kalman Filters Part 4: The Extended Kalman FilterThey continue the journey into the secrets of Kalman Filters.In case you missed it, the first two posts are already out: Part 1: Kalman Filters: From Theory to Implementation Part 2: The Mathematics of Kalman FilterWith those four...

📝 From Theory to Implementation ● Kalman Filters (1&2/5)

Hi everyone! 👋This week I am publishing not one, but TWO (2!!!) articles! 🤪 Part 1: Kalman Filters: From Theory to Implementation Part 2: The Mathematics of Kalman FilterThese two posts introduce the super interesting topic of Kalman Filters. In case you have never heard of them, Kalman Filters are an important technique that allows to reduce the impact noise is having on sensor measurements...

👁️ Kalman Filter: From Theory to Implementation ● Series Preview

Hi everyone! 👋For the ones of you who have been following this blog since its very beginning, you may remember that one of my first tutorials was "A Gentle Introduction to Kalman Filters". After so many years, I decided it was time to re-visit the subject, with a PROPER series divided into 5 parts.The first four are already available for preview/early access to any $5+ patrons: Part 1: ...

📝 The World Generation of Minecraft ● Article

Hi everyone! 👋Last month the documentary about the world generation of Minecraft finally premiered on YouTube! 🥳 I would like to thank you all for such a warm reception, as it ended up being the best performing video on my channel so far! 😊As I always do, I am also publishing a written version of the documentary. This article includes the full transcript, along with some extra content.Thi...