Jason Thor Hall / PirateSoftware / Maldavius Figtree / DarkSphere Creations / Maldavius / Thorwich / Witness X / @PotatoSec - Incompetent Furry Programmer, Blizzard Nepo Baby, Lies about almost every thing in his life, Industry Shill, Carried by his father, Hate boner against Ross Scott of Accursed Farms, False Flagger

[Elite Kipchak]

Wasn't Pirate Software a sponsor of the Godot Engine at one point?

i swear he used to be on their website homepage as a top contributor at one point but I can't find him there anymore.

 

[U+200B]

"My code's not shit, it's just because I want nontechnical people to hack the game"
View attachment 6988725

Man JaSON, if there would just be a way to structure both the data you use in game and the save file, so that it isn't a long list of numbers that nobody can understand.

 

[bremer]

Wasn't Pirate Software a sponsor of the Godot Engine at one point?

Yes! It seems like he was removed on January 3rd.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250102081441/https://godotengine.org/ - January 2nd, still there as a Gold sponsor.

https://web.archive.org/web/20250103145249/https://godotengine.org/ - January 3rd, no longer there as a Gold sponsor.

Added local copies in case the snapshots just disappear.

 

[potato sack]

Man JaSON, if there would just be a way to structure both the data you use in game and the save file, so that it isn't a long list of numbers that nobody can understand.

the ideal for this would be to use a binary buffer file or set of files but your heart is in the right place

saving the entirety of a game's story decision tree in memory including choices you haven't taken yet is beyond retarded

bonus points you can "hack the game" just the same by changign the save file.

 

[Scorpion From MK]

https://web.archive.org/web/20250102081441/https://godotengine.org/ - January 2nd, still there as a Gold sponsor.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250401000000*/https://godotengine.org - January 3rd, no longer there as a Gold sponsor.

https://archive.fo/wip/vdghC

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/ELAYo

Man JaSON, if there would just be a way to structure both the data you use in game and the save file so that it isn't a long list of numbers that nobody can understand.

Source: 5:33:28-5:37:10

 

[Black Lodge Baby]

Spoiler

Yes! It seems like he was removed on January 3rd.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250102081441/https://godotengine.org/ - January 2nd, still there as a Gold sponsor.
View attachment 6989520
https://web.archive.org/web/20250103145249/https://godotengine.org/ - January 3rd, no longer there as a Gold sponsor.
View attachment 6989522
Added local copies in case the snapshots just disappear.

Found a vid about Godot and Ratware. Seems to be flip flopping and ban waving as usual.

 

[0gh]

global variables can be up to 20% more performant if youre accessing them thousands of times per frame.

I think this sort of hyper optimization is pretty useless in the vast majority of cases. Maybe somewhere like ffmpeg where you need asm, but that's the exception to the rule. Usually it's just faulty logic that could be made better. I highly doubt there would be any difference in performance for most big games if you change every single object, associative array, whatever to a regular array.

If you really want to optimize something, you need to first see what needs optimizing. Use some sort of analyzer to see exactly what's using your resources. I'm not a gamedev, but I'd assume any engine worth its salt can tell you how long your functions are taking.

Not to mention that in games like heartbound performance should never be a problem. It's just 2d platformer bullshit. I really hate games like these because they lack any gameplay other than moving to the left or right and, I guess, attacking with one button.

I'm sure great 2D games can be made, but everyone making them seems to just want to present some "artistic expression" rather than a fun video game.

 

[The News Crews]

I’ve been thinking about this one, I wonder what the actual story of this is (if he wasn’t just lying of course). Even back before I knew Jason was a massive faggot I thought “you can’t just deny to give them the results of the test of the task they told you to perform”

 

[potato sack]

If you really want to optimize something, you need to first see what needs optimizing. Use some sort of analyzer to see exactly what's using your resources. I'm not a gamedev, but I'd assume any engine worth its salt can tell you how long your functions are taking.

im not super versed in game engine either BUT you make a fantastic point here

if someone claims their thing is 20% more performant from their secret sauce they better put their money where their mouth is and show a real time measurement of it in action

 

[fukkit]

Uh oh. Looks like Jason's pissing off his base audience again First post (Archive) Second Post (Archive)

The game in question being Ashes of Creation, the $100 early access MMO that has been in development for over 7 years which pirate has the largest zerg guild and receives preferential treatment by the developer. The developer, who is funding this game with money from his MLM vitamin company.

Birds of a feather, I suppose

 

[Ducks Sorted in a Row]

I want to make this clear: for a basic-ass 2D game, with no complex physics or anything, CPU-side performance LITERALLY does not matter and can be disregarded in its entirety. You can write your entire game in fucking PyGame and you will still bottleneck on GPU, and not even the actual rendering itself, just the latency on the draw commands.

Jason's game is a walking simulator with like 4 active entities on-screen at once, and most of them have no behavior, and if they do, it's moving around on the screen playing basic animations. You do not need to optimize that.

 

[412-L]

After 8+ years of development, it seems to me like the bigger problem is not how fast the code runs, but the code being a complete nightmare to work with. No one cares how little CPU your shitty Undertale clone uses if it’s not fucking done.

 

[ADHD Mate]

https://archive.fo/wip/vdghC

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/ELAYo

View attachment 6989592
Source: 5:33:28-5:37:10

It's so fucking retarded. It assumes that languages are translatable 1 to 1.
No maldy, Languages don't differ only by syntax and words, sometimes you need to change a little bit more based on cultural norms.

I finally see why it's 2D array. He uses it to swap displayed character. Also the function sets dialogue in global array, which is not as bad as I originally though.
He does not hardcode entire dialogue inside single array, just hardcodes current event inside function that sets global dialogue array, which is somewhat fine.
But still, adding something new or removing dialogue requires you to go through entire array changing indexes.

Using some kind of serialization format (not data structure!) could be loaded the same way, and free him from manually having to ensure correct indexes, and maybe not forcing every language to have the same line count etc.
Which we saw was an issue when dealing with sign text.
And it would only matter when loading data to global_array.

 

[Is_A_Chair]

It's so fucking retarded. It assumes that languages are translatable 1 to 1.
No maldy, Languages don't differ only by syntax and words, sometimes you need to change a little bit more based on cultural norms.

I finally see why it's 2D array. He uses it to swap displayed character. Also the function sets dialogue in global array, which is not as bad as I originally though.
He does not hardcode entire dialogue inside single array, just hardcodes current event inside function that sets global dialogue array, which is somewhat fine.
But still, adding something new or removing dialogue requires you to go through entire array changing indexes.

Using some kind of serialization format (not data structure!) could be loaded the same way, and free him from manually having to ensure correct indexes, and maybe not forcing every language to have the same line count etc.
Which we saw was an issue when dealing with sign text.
And it would only matter when loading data to global_array.

He reminds me of the kid I had the misfortune of being paired up for a project in my data structures class. We were tasked to make some kind of custom data structure model. I forget exactly what it was, but this brilliant mind decided to just store everything in a string and convert it back and forth to access from it. Sometimes it makes me wonder why I stuck myself in a service job when retards like that are in the industry.

 

[SlyVMan]

Uh oh. Looks like Jason's pissing off his base audience again First post (Archive) Second Post (Archive)
View attachment 6987870View attachment 6987879
Edit: Apparently (Archive) he's going to make a video... oh boy! This is gonna be fun
View attachment 6987894

lmao he deleted that first tweet (thank god I archived it) because he was getting shit on in the Quote retweets. too bad for him just searching url:piratesoftware (or url:1890903235885437166 if you want qrts from that specific tweet) still shows them in the search.

 

[riu]

"My code's not shit, it's just because I want nontechnical people to hack the game"
View attachment 6988725

That was a load of bullshit. If he really wanted nontechnical people to hack it, he'd make it easy for them, not an obscure array .
Easiest shit you can do is to save your save file as ini or toml (or whatever is easy to read) and give good names to section/variables so that nontechical people can actually do shit.
I directed a nontechnical friend of mine to such a save file (I think Snow Runner was the game) and he immediatly had a blast fucking around with the file.

And others already said it, but his game isn't in need of that 20% performance, let alone his storyline array. It's not doing the heavy lifting. It's just premature optimization, which lead him into a bad design with no real upside, but all the downsides.

 

[el gordo]

I’ve been thinking about this one, I wonder what the actual story of this is (if he wasn’t just lying of course). Even back before I knew Jason was a massive faggot I thought “you can’t just deny to give them the results of the test of the task they told you to perform”

mt first question is why is he doing performance reviews if hes a QA and is only responsible for banning people in wow
if we are pretending this is real what happened is he saw someone else do this and pretended he did it. much like how he has 2 defcon black badges even though he was on a team of 9 then a team of 21

 

[BLTAnnihilator]

After 8+ years of development, it seems to me like the bigger problem is not how fast the code runs, but the code being a complete nightmare to work with. No one cares how little CPU your shitty Undertale clone uses if it’s not fucking done.

Even if he decides to support mods for it (lmao why), nobody's gonna want to do it, it's probably his omega-class intellect at play here to make a game with code so convoluted that nobody else will be willing to work on it.

IIRC, games like that usually end up forgotten after a decade and the inverse reality of that concept is why games like Doom and Quake are Immortal. Clean, simple and efficient code is very easy to modify and understand, so when a total noob comes along to add a new NPC to the game, it ends up being relatively simple to do and the dopamine treadmill begins, usually culminating in a new developer being born.
Meanwhile modding a game like Stellaris is a fucking pain in the ass because its code is fucking dogshit, ignoring the fact that troubleshooting a mod for Stellaris (really any game made by Paradox literally ever. (also ignoring how fucking unhelpful paradox modding communities universally all are)) is almost the programming-equivalent to flawlessly beating the Operation boardgame with parkinson's syndrome. Atleast Stellaris has the decency to separate its entities into files from buildings, traditions, technologies, instead of just doing what Jason is doing and shoving all the code into a single text file.
The more branching paths he adds, the slower development will progressively get because to add more stuff, you have to climb through your glossary (or even worse, the rest of the code) just to figure out the right variables because his variable naming system is also fucking horrendous, and all of that is nowhere close to normal let alone efficient.

 

[Black Willow Lurker]

The more branching paths he adds, the slower development will progressively get because to add more stuff, you have to climb through your glossary (or even worse, the rest of the code) just to figure out the right variables because his variable naming system is also fucking horrendous, and all of that is nowhere close to normal let alone efficient.

A thought occurs: if Jason wants to (at least somewhat) convince people that ShartBound is not a scam, and, as a bonus show everyone how amazing of a game designer he is, all he has to do is publish the design document (with all the routes mapped out and everything). Surely, he must have one. Now, he might claim that this is super-speshul eldritch lore or some shit, but it really isn't, and neither is his code.

 

[Shuhalo]

Atleast Stellaris has the decency to separate its entities into files from buildings, traditions, technologies, instead of just doing what Jason is doing and shoving all the code into a single text file.

I'm not into programming, but I do make mods for Total War from time to time. Malds complete lack of info (for lack of a better word) for what each thing does is what gets me. Total War modding is almost entirely referencing a million different tables, cross-referenced with each other. After a while it starts to make sense, but if you put the tools down for a while, you can get lost easily. You really need to be able to use the search tools, and to do that you need to understand the DLC codes and internal names the devs used to label functions/units/buildings/techs/etc.

I think about how much of a nightmare it is at the moment. Then I imagine how bad it would be if they used Jason's system: Everything is just dumped into a massive list with no signposts to tell you what something means.

It would be unusable without taking meticulous notes, and even then its going to be rough. I wouldn't be surprised if Jason makes no progress on Heartbound mostly because he can't remember what anything does. It really just boggles the mind how much he leaves things unlabeled.