It gets the dev work done! (and why it's here at all)

madscience2728 · October 25, 2019

Greetings everyone,

I am here today to share my build. Fancy? Not particularly. RGB, no. Blue yes! This is a story. I have been up all night programming, forgive any rambling feels.

Ok so the beginning. When I was a child I used to play this awesome word game. A few years ago I felt like playing it again but sadly there was no app for it, the ripoff apps where horrid, and the 3DS/2DS version sucked (it was missing so many words and other fun features). It was at that point I decided to make my own version.

The first version was well, spaghetti code. I had been a bit out of practice in coding, and still did not quite have an intuitive understanding of how to structure code. It was playable, but never released and eventually forgotten as life went on to be busy. Fast forward a few years and it is a handful of months ago. Until then I had been working with Processing (Java wrapper language) almost exclusively. I spent a good amount of time working on a GUI/menu system to act as a reusable code framework, and base for the app. The app was 98% complete and I released it to the Play Store, but it still had a small bug I could not fix, and big one that was Processing's fault (WQHD+ would drop to 16fps even with blank code). I quickly unpublished it. It was at this point I knew I needed to change my ways. I needed to leave the comfort zone of what I knew (Processing) and move on to something bigger, better.

I started using Unity. Unity sometimes gets a bad rap for it's shitty games. From my experience that is 90% shitty developers. Although if I could get the physics engine working without things exploding or phasing through floors in my simulations that would be great. Anyhow, I spent a few hours following Brackey's unity game making tutorial and within a week had the core of my game down. I must say C# is so much better that Processing/Java imho.

At this point I had started releasing my game to the Play Store, but was getting frustrated with my current setup. I have been using Linux for years, but it had problems, namely the lack of compatibility, and regular freezes. No matter what distro that laptop running it was getting annoying to use with Linux. The laptop btw, also hates Windows. It couldn't even run Windows when I bought it. It would also take a little longer than I'd like for it compile whenever I wrote code. One of the worse parts was the laptop's limited screen options. I was stuck with two: the built in and an external. Keep in mind I used to rock five monitors at a times all 80's hacker style. These pitfalls were all contributing factors to my upgrade, but I must mention Linus's "Reasons Windows is Better" videos definitely helped (I hate Windows with a passion, if it weren't for him I may still be on Linux). So it was decided, I would be making a new build that could meet my needs.

I need to mention gaming cases. They are the best. No cut's, beautiful, designed for airflow, lots of hardware, proper spacing, tempered glass to monitor dust, cable management for airflow/contact-prevention/peace-of-mind, dust filters, etc.. They are all around amazing. I got the Thermaltake Versa H18 for $56, fantastic.

While the parts were in the mail I decided to upgrade my desk. My old setup was small, and had no room for the new PC. So $10 in screws and some old shelving, and I had myself a desk. Best part is the gaps in the wood forces you to keep down clutter. The pull out keyboard/mouse is fantastic and the beast feature. I work at night alot because it is so quiet and peaceful to code at night. However I have neighbours below me and rolling chairs can be loud down below, but with the pull out system my chair no longer has to roll. I can just push it in and turn around.

Finally to build the PC. I was very worried that my particular motherboard would not contain a recent enough BIOS update and my Ryzen 3 would not work, requiring a 2 to do the update. Luckily it worked. My budget was $600, and RAM is the only thing left I need more of. PC specs here:

AMD Ryzen 3 3200G with Vega 8 Graphics @ 3.6GHz
Patriot Viper Elite Series DDR4 8GB (2x4GB) 2666MHz PC4-21300
Thermaltake Smart 500W
Kingston 240GB A400 SSD
GIGABYTE B450M DS3H
1TB HDD from the laptop
MSI R7 250 for two extra monitors
Windows 10 Pro
Some extra LED fans and strips

It runs 3 times faster than my old PC, and I finally have more monitors. I can finally game (well smooth GTA V), and have compatibility and as much stability as Windows can muster.

Development of my app (the entire purpose of this) has been so much better, I am so glad I have this.

Thanks for listening to my rambles. If anyone is curious the app that started all this is called Word Wise, it's on the play store here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madsciencelabs.wordwise3. You can see an action shot of its development with the new system up here.