Unity 5.4.1 initial pros and cons, from someone learning it
Pros (in order of importance):
1. The documentation is pretty good, but the forums are awesome. With so many users, nearly any question you have someone else already had. The forum users are active and helpful, and will often paste the code answer directly.
2. Because the basics are easy, it’s easy to debug basic errors. For example, drawing rays so you can view the normals on a mesh, rendering to a texture, or throwing debug buttons in the editor.
3. The price is amazingly cheap for a game engine of the quality. Back in the old days game engines with a complete toolset were hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. You don’t get source at the cheaper levels, but so far I haven’t felt the need for it.
4. The asset store is great, which a wide range of tools, and extremely cheapl. It’s programmer time for free to (usually) under $100.
5. Many major companies have official add-ins for Unity, so you aren’t too limited in major 3rd party support.
6. Unity is relatively friendly to beginners. For example, if you delete all lights from the scene you aren’t just left with a black screen. You are helped through common mistakes such as using material instead of sharedMaterial.
7. Direct support of native file formats for major artist tools is great. I think in practice you will want to export for faster speeds, but during prototyping it’s very convenient.
8. Despite the price, it is possible to make high-end graphics for high-end games.
9. Supports a huge number of platforms.
Cons (in order of importance):
1. GameObject is the basis of everything in your scene, but GameObjects are slow. Because all subcomponents are part of GameObject, this leads to conflicting requirements. For example, if you want to render a lot of terrain it’s better to break things up for rendering but for Physics it’s better to use fewer large colliders.
2. The standard shader is conditionally compiled such that it is optimized for the target platform (which is great) but you can’t extend it without losing that, especially important for mobile.
3. Not sure if Unity is still using RakNet, but many superior features of RakNet were left out. For example: automatic peer to peer host migration (no handshaking necessary), UPNP (which removes the need to pay Unity or limit concurrent players), and hosting your own servers without a source license.
4. The Visual Studio integration is buggy.
5. Unity uses a left handed coordinate system, which doesn’t match Max or Maya
Except for the GameObject performance, the cons are minor compared to the pros. Overall Unity is a good choice for game development.
I have to replace a 32 3/8 x 54 5/8 x 3/8 pane of tempered glass in my shower. The Glass Guru quoted me $467.08. The Glass Doctor quoted $800 even.
As I wrote about in http://www.rakkar.org/blog/?p=619 I’m really surprised at the range of prices when getting quotes. You’d think that since material and labor costs are similar, prices would be comparable between competing companies. With car shopping you don’t see one dealership sell a car for $46,700 and another dealership across the street sell that same car for $80,000 but that is essentially what is happening here.
Suppose I want to retire early with an income of $100,000 a year after federal tax. Because I’m retiring early, I want to live on my returns only, without touching the principal. In order to do that, my investments need to make $128K a year, as approximately $28K will go to tax. Divide $128K by the rate of return of an investment, and that is how much you need invested.
That would be the whole story were it not for inflation. I once heard Ron Paul say inflation is an underhanded tax, and I agree because it is hidden double tax. For example, if inflation is at 4% and an investment gives me 4%, I would be losing money because I still have to pay tax on the 4%; I would end up with 2% to 3%. Stating that numerically, an investment of $100 would be $104 after a year, but I am taxed on the $4 gain regardless of inflation. I end up with $102. That $102 can only buy 96% of what it could the prior year, so it’s the same purchasing power as $97.92. I would have been better off just spending the money.
The market as a means of retirement:
Officially, inflation is currently at 1%, but according to Shadow Stats it is 5% or 9% depending on what metric you use. Even believing the government’s metric, inflation was as high as 5.6% in July of 2008, with an average of 3.22% . It depends on your tax bracket, but an investment that returns less than 5% is probably losing you money after taxes and inflation. Even if you get a tax-exempt investment such as municipal bonds, you still have to subtract 3.22% to get your adjusted rate of return. VWAHX has a 5.43 10 year rate of return, subtracting 3.22% gives a inflation adjusted yield of 2.21%. Using this investment, I need $4,524,887 to hit my $100,000 yearly income goal. While one can invest in higher-yield returns, they carry more risk that those retiring do not want to be exposed to.
Home ownership as a means of retirement:
My prior house, which I am now renting out, returns rental income of about 4% after expenses. Because the house appreciates with and the rent prices are fundamentally based on real inflation, that 4% is exclusive of inflation. Since I am taxed on this income, I need to make $128K a year at 4%, which works out to $3,200,000 were I to try to live solely off rental income.
Higher-yield stocks and diversification
Despite home ownership being a better investment, in cities with a heavy tech industry there are signs of a housing bubble. Housing prices are about double what they should be for the incomes in those areas, driven by shadow demand from investors. With the last housing bubble “the S&P 500 declined 57% from its high in October 2007 of 1576 to its low in March 2009 of 676” according to http://www.investopedia.com/features/crashes/crashes9.asp
If true, the best thing to do now is to hold investments that are not affected by a housing or stock market bubble. Wait for the bubble to pop, then when prices are normal invest in VFINX . Portfolio managers will not recommend this stock because they cannot make a profit from it: you have to buy it directly from Vanguard. However, it is the best investment due to its low expense ratio and 10.80% return.
Using a long-term 10.80% rate of return, then subtracting 3.22% for inflation, yields an average real return of 7.58%. I need to invest $1,688,654 to retire in this case (actually it’s even better than that because capital gains is lower than income tax).
While VFINX is clearly the most obtainable choice, the best strategy is to diversify with a combination of a high-yield fund and property ownership. The high-yield fund is sensitive to inflation and won’t return consistently, but over the long run is a higher-yield investment. Home ownership is resistant to inflation and will be more consistent.
I met a very friendly and open Uber driver recently who shared with me his financial situation working with the company.
He bought a Toyota Prius for $30K, specifically to work with Uber
In one year he put 48,000 miles on it
He makes about $1 a mile after Uber’s fee and works 10 hours a day
He spends $60 a week on gas
He has to change the oil every two months
It costs about $4000 to replace the hybrid battery, and this needs to be done about once a year at the rate he is driving
He expects the car to last 4 years.
Assuming he is right about the car lasting 4 years (which I doubt) it would work out as
— Over 4 years —
Income:
$192,000
Expenses:
$12,480 gas
$1,200 oil change at $50 each time
$12,000 for three batteries (first one comes with the car)
$30,000 the car itself
$2,000 in tires, $500 for 4 tires once a year
Total: $57,680 assuming no other major costs
Pre-tax income per year, after expenses: $33,580. At 50 hours a week, AT BEST this works out to be $12.91 an hour. More likely the car will break down sooner past where it is worthwhile to repair. It also assumes no vacations over 4 years, and does not include health care.
The driver was complaining about his old job only paying $35,000 a year. But actually he was making more before AND that included vacations and health care.
In Uber’s defense, the driver loves being his own boss, and that is certainly a great thing.
According to Reveal News “[groundwater] now accounts for about 60% of California’s water supply. But unlike its rivers, lakes and reservoirs, the state does not consider groundwater part of the public good. It does not regulate groundwater like it does surface water. Landowners can pump as much water as they want.”
PBS Newshour does a better job of explaining this including a link to an op-ed on LA Times by Jay Famiglietti, a Hydrologist and UC Irvine and a water scientist. Written March 12, 2015 “Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing.”
We use four times as much water for agriculture as urban use, 80% of the state’s water According to Water used to make various crops it takes 13.8 gallons to make ONE orange, 5.4 gallons to make one head of broccoli, 1.1 gallons of water to make one almond, and so on. Yet Why aren’t farmers being forced to cut back?
Undisputed facts:
It’s like if you spent $100,000 a year, of which $60,000 a year was from your savings account while you have no idea what your remaining balance is.
Groundwater running out would be a worldwide disaster as CA is the 8th largest world economy. Home values would plummet as areas of the state become uninhabitable. Businesses would have to move or go out of business, causing unemployment and a further drop to home values. Agriculture would be devastated, leading to further job loss and rising food prices.
It’s worth practically any effort to avoid the groundwater running out. We should cut back on golf courses first, which “an average 18-hole course uses 90 million gallons of water each year.” We should migrate away from high water use agriculture, especially the most egregious usages such as oranges and almonds. Farms should not be located in regions that do not get enough rainfall to sustain them, especially deserts.
https://www.spud.com/
Price: Looks to be about 150% typical from a quick browse-through. Otherwise no delivery charge, no contracts.
Delivery speed: Only delivered on a set day
Selection: Very limited. They carry the most common items, but you’ll still need to go to the grocery store.
Delivery areas: Very limited, certain major cities
https://www.helloenvoy.com/howitworks
Price: Cheapest plan is $10 a month + a 10% surcharge on the groceries. According to the site tipping is not expected, but some clients do tip.
Delivery speed: Two hour service window selected on signup. I don’t believe this is delivery on demand.
Selection: Trader joes and whole foods only
Delivery areas: 7 states, limited cities
https://www.instacart.com/
Price: Depends on the store, 15% markup for some stores. $6-$12 delivery fee, or $149 a year unlimited. Tips are expected.
Delivery speed: 1 hour
Selection: Whole foods, costco, safeway, QFC, PCC, petco, Central co-op
Delivery areas: Certain major cities
https://shop.safeway.com/ecom/home
Price: $49 minimum order. $10 delivery fee on order of $150 or more. $13 delivery fee on order under $150. No tipping. Safeway prices which are higher than Trader Joes, Costco, but cheaper than Whole Foods.
Delivery speed: 1-4 hour window for same-day most days
Selection: Safeway only. No hot foods.
Delivery areas: Certain major cities, covers my city though so better than most
https://fresh.amazon.com/Gateway
Price: $299 a year plus $79 a year for Amazon Prime membership. Delivery free on orders over $35. Items prices are comparable to Safeway. Tip expected.
Delivery speed: Same day
Selection: Good, however the CNET review said the tomatoes that were delivered were mushy.
Delivery areas: Certain major cities, covers my city though so better than most
I just bought a 1.12 million dollar house in Seattle and was looking for work to be done. Its crazy how much prices can differ from one contractor to the next. And how expensive some companies are. I think some people take a look at the house I got and get the idea I will pay any amount they can dream up.
Install L6-30R plug for car charger, 5 feet from the electrical panel.
Estimate 1: $750
Estimate 2: $4000
Estimate 3: $350
Install 3 electrical outlets, one in each upstairs bathroom
Estimate 1: $1500
Estimate 2: $500
Sand and refinish 10×10 section of floor
Estimate 1: $1000
This should be like $3 a square foot.
Refinish cabinets, stain sun faded cabinets:
Estimate 1: $8000
Painting, 3 rooms
Estimate 1: $650, I bought my own paint
I got LASIK this Saturday. It was $3000 per eye but I paid half of that because of insurance and a discount. They gave me an equivalent to Xanax which took the edge off but the process was still moderately scary. First they put a ring on my eye. They used Intralase to cut a flap. The doctor lifted up the flap with a metal tool, moved me to another machine, and the other machine removed about 10% of my retinal tissue over 20 seconds. The doctor then put the flap back down and smoothed it. I did not feel pain exactly, but I had discomfort until the painkiller took effect the same as if you touched your own eye.
The actual operation took maybe 10 minutes. But the whole procedure was 2 hours with the waiting and paperwork.
The doctor told me I had a scratch on my right eye, so the first day my right eye had a moderate amount of pain. I could see right away but things were blurry, for example I couldn’t completely read my phone to text my ride. A lot of the blur was from my eyes watering. I went to sleep right away and after waking up 50% of the pain was gone.
The next day I had no pain. I had and still have a halo effect. It’s pretty much like what you would see in a game if they wanted light to halo around a bright window. The brighter the light and the darker the surrounding area the more noticeable the halo is.
I’m going to an eye doctor tonight for a followup. But just from looking around my vision is good enough I don’t need glasses, but still not as good as when I wore glasses. My near vision is also not as good as it used to be. Where I could easily see fine details of fingerprints now I have to struggle to do so. Over the next week my vision is supposed to improve so I’ll know the final result then.
I am buying gaming PC with an Intel Core i7 5930, a Titan X video card, 32 GB of RAM, Windows 7, noise reduction, and a 512 GB SSD harddrive. I priced out this system from 4 different builders to find the best deal that matched the configuration I wanted.
I ended up buying from iBUYPOWER for $3783. Not only were they the cheapest, they offered the fastest build time. The runner-up was AVA Direct, and while I bought from them before I didn’t feel confident with their system builder because there was not enough information on each part. I felt like I could easily make a system that did not work, or did not work well. Alienware and Velocity Micro were both about $1000 more expensive, neither offered noise reduction, and both had long build times.
http://www.ibuypower.com/: Gamer Intel X99 Special – $3783
Build time: 12 days, however for $109 I can pay for next-business day rush shipping, which would reduce it to 3 days.
(Update) Their next-business day rush shipping is misleading. It only applies after they gather the parts, which itself takes one or more days. In my case they were out of the CPU, so after a week I changed the CPU to get the order started.
http://www.velocitymicro.com/: Raptor™ Signature Edition – $4754
Noise reduction not available.
Build time: 20 days from when I specced the system.
http://www.alienware.com/: Alienware Area-51 – $4820
Noise reduction not available
Build time: 1 month.
http://www.avadirect.com/: Core™ i7 Extreme X99-chipset 2-way SLI® / CrossFireX™ Custom Gaming Desktop – $3830.65
Note: This is less accurate because AVA Direct only provides terse text descriptions for each part as opposed to full-detail specifications.
Build time: “Orders that require assembly: 7 to 14 business days for regular systems, 2-4 weeks for systems with special customization options.”