Martin Helmut Fieber

Blog

To create a world from scratch …

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A dark planet's surface with an overcasting moon. The landscape is rough, with sharp-edged stone formations in dark brown, gray, and black, partially covered by something that looks like snow but is actually ash. Some of those ash flakes are still in the air.

For a while now, I've been building my own fictional, retro-futuristic sci-fi world called Alsafi, also known as Sigma Draconis. Here I tell what it is, why I'm doing it, and what comes next.

Part 3 of 8 → show all

How to test your Lua

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Showing a VSCode window in dark mode, a Lua file open with showing test code written with LuaUnit. A sidebar on the left, showing the project files that get built in this part of the series.

Besides quick iterations on the command-line, having a test suite for Lua will be crucial for any serious project. This article will also cover mocking and a continuous integration setup.

Weekly 3D challenge, first results

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Image showing three things I created. From left to right: a retro lamp suitable for space travel, yet another sci-fi door, both created via Blender, and a ground mud texture created in Substance Designer.

To really get better at 3D creation, I will challenge myself to create something every week for a year. Six weeks in, I'm positive for what's to come, and this article will show what I've got so far.

TAP — Test Anything Protocol

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What is TAP, and why do I love using it? I'll show and tell how to emit and consume it in different setups and languages, like C++, Lua, JavaScript, or even PostgreSQL.

Building awesome internal tools

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A screenshot of the start screen one of my internal tools to manage content on my websites. The design is my own retro-pixel UI I love looking at; a dark base with bright blue, red, and green accents.

Internal tools often don't get the love and care they deserve. Here I'll share 13 general guidelines to build better internal tools that have helped me in the past.

2022–2023

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Looking back at 2022 — projects I did, things I learned, books I've read, and games I loved. Also, looking at a hopefully amazing 2023.

Cassette Futurism

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On the left is a Syd Mead drawing, a warm orange interior with beige colors forms a room with hard lines and technical gear in the background. On the right a closeup of the movie Alien, showing fingers typing on a keyboard.

A technological aesthetic reminiscent of late 1960s to early 1980s tech (regardless of the real time setting of the media) as codified by early microcomputers …

—TV Tropes, Cassette Futurism

Feed at its best

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Web feeds are awesome — getting the content I like directly from the source. This is how I add a feed to my website, including how to style it with XSLT.

Website style guide

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This post will showcase all available website components, how they are defined with CSS and HTML, and finally how they were used to create this website. Also, a bit about what I thought when creating them.

Goodbye snake, I go to the moon

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Showing the Visual Studio Code editor with an open Lua test file in the middle and the project setup with different files on the left.

Being more and more frustrated with Python, Lua became my go-to alternative for scripts, tools, and application extensions. This article will show how I set up and use Lua.

GUI Development with C++, SDL2, and Dear ImGui

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The final application that will be built in this post.

Always overwhelmed by creating GUI applications in C++, I finally found a way that works pretty well for me. That opinionated way will be shown in this post.

I started learning 3D

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Two examples of my Blender studies with light, simple forms and colors.

After going through many tutorials and creating some small experiments on my own, I started learning 3D with Blender, and I'm in love with it.

My blog

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What to expect here? Development-related articles and projects, 3D, games, keyboards, or whatever I want to try out next.