Rune Skovbo Johansen

On closer inspection the error message is not just confusing but outright incorrect. Broken into two, both parts imply an "external function" is called *from* Burst rather than calling *into* Burst.
"structs cannot be passed to (...) external functions in burst"
"structs cannot be (...) returned from external functions in burst"
Both actually say the exact opposite of what's meant. *facepalm*

2026-10-26 14:30:40 GMT

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No it logs this error if returning a struct from an entry point method:
"structs cannot be passed to or returned from external functions in burst. To fix this issue, use a reference or pointer."
It just took me several other puzzle pieces to piece together that "external functions" just means the non-Burst-compiled function that calls the Burst entry point function.

2026-10-26 08:59:07 GMT

I've been using Unity Burst compilation for years to great effect, but only now learned that the supported function signatures are completely different depending on whether they're entry points (marked with [BurstCompile]) or non-entry points (no attribute, but called from another Burst function).
So just adding [BurstCompile] to everything that should be Burst-compilable doesn't work, as you lose the ability to return structs on all such functions.
Not easy to tell from the docs or errors.

2026-10-16 15:33:18 GMT

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The procedural lakes are really taking shape now! No more trees or grass under the water! (Still some towers and paths though; one thing at a time...)
I only used existing splat-maps and textures here (grass, cliff, forest, gravel) but it's fairly serviceable.
#ProcGen #GameDev #IndieDev
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/451/311/884/518/865/original/a117e84d5d3a6883.mp4

2026-10-12 13:26:48 GMT

I'm working on lakes for my procedural landscape. So far the terrain just continues down under the water with trees, grass and all. But just having the ground and water surface generated such that the water edge is never above-ground was a hard-won achievement. 😅
#ProcGen #GameDev #IndieDev
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/428/165/393/947/092/original/eac1ef47b9aed933.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/428/165/399/654/804/original/e6c9cd71f7792863.png

2026-10-10 21:23:02 GMT

"In my joke blog post (during my time at Unity) I invented the Semantic Game Builder Interface as a silly cautionary tale."
Unity 12 years later: "At long last, we have created the Semantic Game Builder Interface from classic April 1st blog p-
https://web.archive.org/web/20120501131830/http://blogs.unity3d.com/2012/04/01/semantic-game-builder-interface-to-be-integrated-into-unity/
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/418/713/454/945/852/original/e5dd588865272549.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/418/713/456/172/854/original/0c6f0595ecdfd979.webp

2026-09-03 20:46:44 GMT

Tone mapping investigation / tool showcase / rant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1dJGVgCB7c
#GameDev #IndieDev #Graphics

2026-08-30 09:29:41 GMT

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Four more sunrise shots from the mountain forest.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/183/753/599/840/771/original/0c5bf1ef36ae6c28.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/183/753/731/169/510/original/3a4ce3263b37053a.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/183/753/705/644/369/original/71b5505ab1f6bccf.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/183/753/651/517/378/original/8b8932cc9150b2b4.png

2026-08-29 17:02:15 GMT

Sunrise in the mountain forest.
#GameDev #IndieDev #ProcGen
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/179/870/964/202/703/original/e76ff0f14be335a6.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/179/870/931/907/232/original/59c6d51e944ed43c.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/179/870/990/505/810/original/26a40b48af87c95d.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/179/870/930/771/181/original/25c14f1112848985.png

2026-08-19 09:17:30 GMT

RE: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@runevision/117065360971989529
I've now implemented atmospheric scattering that's based on the same spectral raymarching as the sky color, and everything fits nicely together.
The next problem then is that a realistic night is way too dark (just amping up camera exposure doesn't look good), and a realistic sunrise is way too brief. Gotta find a nice way to combine an artificially bright night with otherwise realistic values.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/121/420/400/032/786/original/f8f6a150fb0904e6.png
#note1f3q…uqmt

2026-08-09 11:40:49 GMT

I've been implementing the 2023 physically-based sky (with spectral rendering) by Fernando García based on his Shadertoy: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/msXXDS
The challenge then is to make the atmospheric scattering of objects like mountains fit color-wise with the sky. 1/?
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/065/360/752/223/989/original/7706c8fa291d707a.mp4

2026-08-02 14:03:03 GMT

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Here's a video showing the distortion pulling the clouds down. I feel like I'm committing rendering crimes. :D
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/026/283/963/577/757/original/98e68116cd5186f9.mp4

2026-08-02 13:20:10 GMT

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I was going down the route of hacking the sky coverage to curve, but while I had some success, there were glitches and NaN errors I didn't understand. It's not my codebase, so hard to figure out all details of how it works.
But then I tried to just manipulate the ray direction. Behold! Clouds curving down to meet the artificially low horizon. It's really just "stretching" the image in 2D, like pulling an elastic hemisphere so it covers a bit more than half. But who's gonna notice?
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/026/115/296/032/263/original/b57fc626b1a393b3.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/026/115/257/377/913/original/ef877d2a4d8c1375.png

2026-08-02 10:09:12 GMT

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It turns out Unity's skybox draws the horizon way too low, and that's why there was a huge gap between the furthest clouds and the "horizon". Here's three images showcasing it; see the alt texts.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/025/364/322/382/397/original/89eb8ab6137ca3be.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/025/364/412/072/409/original/cd2ae163d4e41cde.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/025/364/299/411/076/original/e6b73749a7b4483f.png

2026-08-02 08:04:55 GMT

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Assuming they’re orbiting at the same distance as the Moon?

2026-08-02 07:58:56 GMT

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At 262 meters above sea level, the horizon is almost exactly one moon lower than where it'd be if the Earth was flat.

2026-08-02 07:49:44 GMT

I wondered how far down the horizon is in our field of view, and did the math.
At two meters above sea level, the horizon is 5km away and 0.05 degrees below horizontal in your field of view.
At 100 meters up it's 36km away and 0.3 degrees down. At 1km up it's 113k away and a full degree down.
For reference, the Moon (diameter) is about half a degree in the sky.
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/0l0mtwy0cb

2026-08-01 10:42:40 GMT

Experimenting with volumetric clouds. This is based on Enviro 3 from the Unity Asset Store, hacked to work with my atmosperic perspective, and other tweaks.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/019/833/659/523/935/original/717b0a5060432054.png

2026-06-14 08:03:19 GMT

In video game development, we're used to sound coming from single positions in space, but how do we handle sound coming from an irregular shape?
In this article (with plenty code snippets), I go into details with the Point Cloud Sound technique I'm using for water streams and foliage:
https://blog.runevision.com/2026/06/point-cloud-sound-for-irregular-shaped.html
#GameDev

2026-05-09 21:48:13 GMT

Mountain flight through my mountain forest terrain at a few different altitudes. This one has the improved erosion on the cliff sides, and tweaked camera flight behavior.
#ProcGen #GameDev
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/546/816/341/960/536/original/1bd047093f40af9d.mp4

2026-04-17 10:06:49 GMT

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Here's an aerial view showing the terrain shape more clearly.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/419/487/816/821/088/original/67b4dac0a3587203.jpg

2026-04-17 09:25:21 GMT

For my game's terrain, I've long mulled over how to combine the epicness of grand mountains with the "what's around the corner?" intrigue of smaller cliffs and hills.
On top of that, how to meaningfully integrate my erosion technique into it.
After a lot of fiddling over the past two days, I think I may be onto something.
#GameDev #ProcGen
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/419/324/306/692/594/original/f8d707968aabc37e.mp4

2026-03-30 14:49:22 GMT

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Here's the Shadertoy where you can paint eroded mountains and islands with your mouse, right in the browser:
https://www.shadertoy.com/view/sf23W1
#ProcGen #vfx #GameDev
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/318/676/974/582/673/original/1618446d7e95de28.mp4

2026-03-30 13:40:44 GMT

My erosion filter is out! Video, blog post, and shader source.
It emulates erosion without simulation, so it's fast, GPU friendly, and trivial to generate in chunks.
Explainer video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4V21_uUK8Y
Companion blog post:
https://blog.runevision.com/2026/03/fast-and-gorgeous-erosion-filter.html
#ProcGen #vfx #GameDev
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/318/406/903/982/804/original/4793a811d361d3b6.mp4

2026-03-21 11:34:36 GMT

‪Archipelago
#ProcGen
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/266/950/417/614/768/original/afd2a97dd7fac7df.mp4

2026-02-04 20:20:37 GMT

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This comic looks quite different to me than your others (also before I read your description). Less traditional cartoon-like and more painterly. Somehow even the facial features and expressions seem quite affected. Both styles are nice, but there’s a certain charm and expressiveness to this one here.

2025-12-26 12:40:08 GMT

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I’m also curious if the population collapse of China will be as bad for the rest of the world as it will for China (especially its elderly) internally.

2025-12-26 12:38:19 GMT

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All right, comparing different time scales just makes it unclear if you mean eg. each year will individually be worse or the ten years will be worse in aggregate. But I think I get what you mean now.

2025-12-26 12:28:24 GMT

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Why are you comparing one year to a whole decade tho

2025-10-16 16:15:45 GMT

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Ok, I think this hair shader experiment is done for now.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/384/735/672/504/206/original/92c3aa0a16e24a21.mp4

2025-10-16 08:21:34 GMT

I had an impulse to see if I could make a basic hair shader that doesn't require any specially made meshes or textures.
The shapes below are just standard Unity spheres and capsules and only a simple normal map is used; no other textures. Left is Unity's Standard shader; right is the same, but with brute force anisotropic shading, running the BRDF function up to 50 times and taking a weighted average.
Of course, non-brute force approaches are possible too, but way harder to make look good.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/382/871/056/765/844/original/6ba3958767a3fa6f.mp4

2025-10-15 08:40:44 GMT

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I have most of my savings in ETFs and if I could easily move them to different ETFs with less tech exposure, I'd seriously consider that. Unfortunately, the fact that moving investments incur a tax event (34% on gains in Finland), the long term trajectory is hugely negatively affected due to compound interests suffering (combined with other effects).

2025-05-26 16:42:30 GMT

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Ah right, same in Denmark, come to think of it.

2025-05-26 14:30:51 GMT

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Apparently the origin of the term is about undergoing surgery without anesthetic, and using a bullet to bite on in lieu of a leather strap.

2025-05-03 08:16:41 GMT

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Sure. I’d say it’s all different kinds of creative blocks (where ‘creativity’ includes problem solving / development). Can often help to attack the problem from a completely different angle, or take a break from the project to think about something different.

2025-02-07 13:36:40 GMT

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By popular request I've added support for color RGB dithering, CMYK halftone, true 1-bit low-res effects, and much more to the Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering repo!
See it all in this groovy feature demo video (I spent a long time on it) and 🔊sound on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzjWBmhO_1E
#gamedev #vfx
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/962/869/866/679/126/original/89c1d412465c4737.mp4

2025-01-23 15:30:54 GMT

New dithering method dropped
I call it Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering and I've released it as open source along with this explainer video of how it works.
Explainer video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPqGaIMVuLs
Source repository:
https://github.com/runevision/Dither3D
#gamedev #vfx
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/878/384/474/685/084/original/8acd3a455024c786.mp4

2025-01-19 09:00:57 GMT

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I've resumed work on my explainer video of surface-stable fractal dithering. It looks like it'll be around 20 minutes long. I might be able to get it finished before February. Here's a thumbnail I made.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/854/202/200/330/018/original/b7bca96b4613fcef.png

2024-12-24 15:20:15 GMT

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Most browsers on Mac have the tabs at the top (with no separate title bar) these days.

2024-12-01 18:31:59 GMT

When I was around 11 I would draw "video games" on paper during breaks at school. Not sketches or design docs, but games that were fully playable using your finger to indicate where your avatar is, and following simple rules.
I just had 42 pages scanned. Now trying to remember all the rules...
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/578/994/392/819/801/original/266d19394604f95b.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/578/994/237/060/272/original/619c8a28a1440754.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/578/994/343/716/622/original/cec6e59c404993ec.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/578/994/206/057/456/original/01255cc0b1d29622.jpg

2024-11-16 16:31:32 GMT

I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison of my procedural animation to hand-authored animations on some models I bought. This is so I can better study what I need to improve.
When I got my comparison tool running for the first time, this is what I was greeted with! A bug with the step-height it seems. 😅
(Sound track: "Entrance of the Gladiators") #procgen
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/493/586/005/469/089/original/e24e62efb5ed0560.mp4

2024-10-24 14:52:10 GMT

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Ok, somebody told me dogs don't move all their legs in unison. I don't have a dog myself I can study so I'll have to take their word for it.
#gamedev #indiedev #procgen
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/362/962/148/289/574/original/05a7f40997c7a344.mp4

2024-10-24 14:27:10 GMT

It might be hard to believe, but this animation is actually 100% procedural.
#gamedev #indiedev #procgen
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/362/863/737/846/266/original/121ebcf621e96896.mp4

2024-10-02 16:13:51 GMT

New blog post:
Procedural game progression dependency graphs
https://blog.runevision.com/2024/10/procedural-game-progression-dependency.html
This is a cleaned up collection of all my social media posts, images, and videos relating to developing my proof of concept of this tech.
#GameDev #IndieDev #ProcGen
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/238/712/497/263/224/original/36c7b7c9a284eea7.mp4

2024-10-01 13:57:57 GMT

The exploration-focused game I'm developing (working title 'The Big Forest') will use a lot of procedural generation tech. For people who haven't followed me for a long time, here's a compilation video sampling various experiments I've made for it and posted about. :)
#GameDev #IndieDev #ProcGen
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/232/515/428/817/330/original/4246be8c433f43b0.mp4

2024-08-21 11:40:06 GMT

My talk about Layer-Based Infinite Procedural Generation from Everything Procedural Conference 2024 is now online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oJGkx0K8UQ
The talk goes over how my LayerProcGen framework works, and could be of interest both to people interested in using that framework directly (it's open source) and people who'd want to implement the principles from scratch on their own. #ProcGen #GameDev

2024-08-16 11:04:43 GMT

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And today I found out that if an Itch page is made public prior to the game itself being available (generally good practice outside of Itch, and outright required on Steam), the game will essentially forego ever being on the Most Recent or other lists partially based on recency, such as New and Popular:
https://itch.io/t/4011432/games-released-well-after-page-creation-never-get-on-most-recent-it-sorts-by-page-publish-date-rather-than-actually-indexed-date
2/? #IndieGameDev #GameDev

2024-08-16 10:59:36 GMT

It's a good thing that Itch (@npub1lu8…v9tm) exists, but damn, some of the decisions they insist on for how the site functions make it impossible to take it serious as a game developer.
I've long argued why it's a travesty they refuse to have a wishlist button since it means there is simply no sensible call to action for games not yet released:
https://github.com/itchio/itch.io/issues/1218
1/? #IndieGameDev #GameDev

2024-08-15 14:59:01 GMT

I just released The Cluster, my experimental 2.5D exploration platformer set in an open world that's carefully procedurally planned and generated.
Get it for free on Itch:
https://runevision.itch.io/the-cluster
#GameDev #IndieGameDev #ProcGen
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/112/966/603/594/859/995/original/134488741c9df063.mp4

2023-06-20 09:08:04 GMT

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I'm working on a video explaining the surface-stable fractal dithering, but it needs to cover dithering more generally first. Here's some stills.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/110/575/744/799/343/320/original/df1aca52ff75b506.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/110/575/745/901/905/265/original/67be871630d72157.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/110/575/746/859/948/273/original/1b528aa0107b14c1.png
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/110/575/747/719/495/216/original/2760bf9bc6854194.png

2023-06-13 11:50:57 GMT

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Trying surface-stable fractal dithering on my game Eye of the Temple for a real-world test case (this will not go into the game; just a test!).
This is not a post-process effect; every material needs to use a dither shader. I made opaque, cutout, additive and skybox shaders.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/110/536/755/799/853/497/original/b5ab547949438d1f.mp4

2023-06-08 16:45:36 GMT

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Another test of surface-stable fractal dithering, now with texture and normal mapping.
I reduced the dot size a bit for this one; make sure to watch in full-screen. Video compression is also not kind to this effect.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/110/509/589/836/927/720/original/204c2fcc6fd8cce3.mp4

2023-06-08 13:30:35 GMT

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More work on surface-stable fractal dithering. The dots are now based on a (bayer) 8x8 ordered dither pattern.
Note how the dither patterns follow the surfaces from small to large, yet the dot sizes and spacing remain roughly constant in screen space.
I also replaced the hardcoded light with support for Unity's lighting/shadows/specular.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/110/508/824/953/951/641/original/f46ba463986ead72.mp4

2023-06-05 19:02:01 GMT

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I don't even need this for any project, it's just an idea I had since playing Obra Dinn, and needed to try out.

2023-06-05 19:00:55 GMT

Simple test of a surface-stable fractal dithering idea I had.
This initial pattern is not very good and doesn't produce even brightness across interpolation between fractal levels, but it's a start.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/110/493/127/998/462/230/original/38ca1596c4ff94a7.mp4