Alan Zucconi

Hi everyone! 👋 After a year of work, I can finally share with you my latest article about xorshift generators! If you have ever used Unity or JavaScript, you have likely used them without knowing. Many engines and framework rely on xorshift generators to produce random numbers. In this long article

Hi everyone! 👋 Over the years, I've worked on a lot of space-related projects, including the Exoplanet Catalogue (a list of all the confirmed exoplanets) and 0RBITALIS. I'm very happy to announce that the longest and most detailed tutorials I've written is a deep dive into orbital mechanics! 🛰️ Th

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 dime

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 starte

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 E

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

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

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

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

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 Filter They continue the journey into the secrets of Kalman Filters. In case you missed it, the first two posts are already out: Part 1: Ka

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 Filter These two posts introduce the super interesting topic of Kalman Filters. In case you have never heard of them, Kalman Filters

Hi everyone! 👋 The second part of the tutorial series about topographical maps in Unity is finally out! This article will cover the edge detection, which is the first step necessary to create real-time maps: Part 1: Topographical Maps: Terrain Shading Part 2: Topographical Maps: Edge Detection This

Hi everyone! 👏 A few hours ago Reddit exploded on discovering that Valve has been re-using the same flickering code for almost 25 years, from "Half-Life" to "Portal". The same code also appeared in "Quake" and "DoomED". This bite sized tutorial explains how the code works. A Unity package to replic

Hi everyone! 👋 If you are following my work, you know that most of my tutorials revolve around Unity. This time, I wanted to do something slightly different. Welcome to a series fully dedicated to Minecraft modding! The final part has just been released: Part 1: An Introduction to Minecraft Modding

Hi everyone! 👋 If you are following my work, you know that most of my tutorials revolve around Unity. This time, I wanted to do something slightly different. Welcome to a series fully dedicated to Minecraft modding! The first part has just been released: Part 1: An Introduction to Minecraft Modding

Hi everyone! 👋 If you are following my work, you know that most of my tutorials revolve around Unity. This time, I wanted to do something slightly different. Welcome to a series fully dedicated to Minecraft modding! The first part has just been released: Part 1: An Introduction to Minecraft Modding

Hi everyone! 👋 Believe it or not, one of my most popular tutorials is the one about Enums, Flags & Bitwise Operators in C#. For this reason, I have decided to cover another tricky—yet very powerful—aspect of C#: functional programming. Following a recent poll on Twitter, a lot of people were keen o

Hi everyone! 👋 This is the third (and final!) part of the tutorial series about one of my favourite Mathematical tools: linear interpolation! Part 1: Linear Interpolation Part 2: Piecewise Interpolation Part 3: Color Curve Correction This tutorial relies on Piecewise Interpolation (covered in Part

Hi everyone! 👋 This is the second part of the tutorial series about one of my favourite Mathematical tools: linear interpolation! Part 1: Linear Interpolation Part 2: Piecewise Interpolation Part 3: Color Curve Correction Part 3 is available for preview for $5+ patrons. This tutorial covers a power

Hi everyone! 👋 This is the first part of a new tutorial series about one of my favourite Mathematical tools: linear interpolation! Part 1: Linear Interpolation Part 2: Piecewise Interpolation Part 3: Color Curve Correction Part 2 & 3 are available for preview for $5+ patrons. The tutorial covers th

Hi everyone! 👋 If you are working in the field of Computer Science, chances are you might have encountered quite a lot of technical terms and foreign names, such as Dijkstra and Nyquist. And chances are that you have learnt a good part of them solely from books. And there is nothing more embarrassi

Hi everyone! 👋 This is the second part of the tutorial on catenaries. The second, and final post, has finally been made public! Catenaries for Gamedev Part 1. The Mathematics of Catenary Part 2. Implementing Catenaries for Games Two Unity packages are available for this tutorial: The Standard packa

Hi everyone! 👋 After a few busy weeks teaching, I finally had some time to work and publish a new tutorial series! It covers a subject that many of you are familiar with: hanging wires, cables and chains! This new series covers the mathematics and implementation of catenaries, the mathematical obje

Hi everyone! 👋 This October we celebrate the 50th anniversary since Conway's Game of Life was published on Scientific American, back in 1970. Earlier this week I posted a short documentary on YouTube, which I know many of you have really enjoyed. This is the companion article, which expands on the

Hi everyone! This is the second part of the short series dedicated to floating-point arithmetic. After a lengthy introduction, this post shows how to go beyond the limitations of float, double and decimal types. Part 1. An Introduction to Floating-Point Arithmetic Part 2. Beyond Floating-Point in C#

Hi everyone! As a developer with a strong passion for gravity simulators, I often find myself in trouble due to the limited precision that languages such as C# offer. If you are a Unity developer, you probably know that most of Unity's back-end uses float variables, which have very limited precision

Hi everyone! Last month I published a short documentary about the game that changed my life: Creatures. The reception has been amazing, and even Steve Grand—the creator of the game—liked the video! Creatures is a very complex game, and there are a lot of things that could not fit into the video. For

Hi everyone! This is the second part of the online series dedicated to the creation of 360° videos. In this article, you will learn how to create them in Unity. Part 1. An Introduction to 360° Videos Part 2. How to Create a 360° Video in Unity Three additional articles are going to be released at a

Hi everyone! This online series will cover everything you need to know about 360° videos; from how to create them in Unity, to how to edit them in Premiere Pro in a format compatible with YouTube. Whether you want to create an immersive 360° video, or a trailer for your VR game, this is the tutorial

Hi everyone! With the recent outbreak of the COVID-19, many developers are unfortunately stuck at home. It really saddens me to see so many of my Italian colleagues in lockdown. Having worked from home for many years as an independent developer, I wanted to talk about my experience and share a few t

Hi everyone! The final part of the tutorial about Journey sand rendering is finally here! In the final instalment, I will focus on how to recreate the ripples that wind creates on sand dunes. I have kept this as the last tutorial as it involves more Maths, compared to the previous ones. I hope you h

Hi everyone! The first four parts of the Journey Sand Shade series are now available for everyone. The fourth part, Journey Sand Shader: Specular Reflection, focuses on reproducing the shiny reflections that you can see in the game. The developers wanted to make the sand look a bit like an ocean you

Hi everyone! The first three parts of the Journey Sand Shade series are now available for everyone. The third part, Journey Sand Shader: Sand Normal, focuses on reproducing the granular feeling of sand. This is done with the help of specially crafted textures, which allow simulating for how light sc

Hi everyone! In my blog, I tend to cover rather advanced topics, from the mathematics of inverse kinematics to atmospheric Rayleigh scattering. Making such complex subjects understandable to a larger audience is something that I find very rewarding. But the number of people who are both interested a

If you have been following my work for a while, you know that this blog has covered the topic of inverse kinematics extensively. This new series reviews the subject once again, this time focusing on 2D. If you are interested in learning how to move robotic arms in 2D as efficiently as possible, this

This is the seventh part of the series on Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering. The first posts are already available: Part 1. Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering Part 2. The Theory Behind Atmospheric Scattering Part 3. The Mathematics of Rayleigh Scattering Part 4. A Journey Through the Atmosphere Part

This is the third part of the series on Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering. The first posts are already available: Part 1. Volumetric Atmospheric Scattering Part 2. The Theory Behind Atmospheric Scattering Part 3. The Mathematics of Rayleigh Scattering The remaining parts are available to $5+ patrons

This post completes the tutorial on CD-ROM and DVD shaders. Part 7. CD-ROM Shader: Diffraction Grating (Part 2) Spoiler alert: Viking Villages and CD-ROM curtains. You can read the rest of the series here: Part 1. The Nature of Light Part 2. Improving the Rainbow (Part 1) Part 3. Improving the Rainb

The first post in this series, The Nature of Light, introduced the dual nature of light, exhibiting behaviours which are typical of both waves and particles. In this part, we will see how those two aspects are both necessary for iridescence to arise. Part 4. Understanding Diffraction Grating The fir