Stress & Health Regeneration

This is something I’d like to address here at the public Urho3D forum as well.

For roughly one year I’ve experienced at times intense stress and aggression related to work, which has also resulted in some hardware damage including an innocent Jackson electric guitar. Last week it got particularly bad. After a visit to a doctor and reorganization of tasks I believe the situation is on the way to improving, but nevertheless I’ll have to be watchful of my condition and make sure I allow myself to recharge. This likely means less working on Urho3D on my free time. Don’t be alarmed; that certainly doesn’t mean a stop to Urho3D activities. The coming release should be unaffected, considering that I now work on Urho3D anyway as part of my day job, as it’s used in this project github.com/realXtend/tundra-urho3d .

On a related note, I recognize that Urho3D development is still in the hands of a relatively small group of people. Obviously, a change to this cannot be forced but I’d like to remind everyone who has been doing good work with pull requests: if you feel like you’re up to taking the next step and becoming an Urho team member with push access and ability to work on development & issues on your own, do not hesitate to get in touch with me (email to loorni at gmail dot com preferred).

Just to be clear. If the jackson had a ‘licenced’ floyd rose and locking nut instead of locking tuners, it wasn’t innocent and probably deserved it

Guitar jokes aside thanks for the engine. I havn’t gotten as much done on my game as I would like but working on this project has really helped me start to grasp lower level concepts and increased my awareness as a programmer greatly.

I am lead on a web project, and we are launching our website we have been working on for over a year and a half in a few weeks. I am trying to get the SpritePacker done but it might be until after we launch the new site where I get a nice block of concentration.

You have been putting an insane amount of work into Urho3D, it’s about time you step back a little for some breathing room.

I have been grasping for time lately, major changes at work stresses my time as it is. However I have several large additions in-progress that I will be contributing to Urho3D once I have a bit more free time myself.

I am curious about your other project. Are you also working on a server-side software as well, or only the client-side stuff?

Hey Lasse,

No worries at all, you’ve done so much amazing work!
I passed in a similar situation in my life/work and it was close to a burn-out, so I clearly understand what you’re living on.

This said, I would love to contribute more but similarly as “friesencr”, I’m more in mixed world between Web development and system administration so C/C++ is not my cup of tea although I would love to take my hands into this (eg.: cryptography implementation). I’ve read some books and looked into many codes on Google Codes and Github for around 5 years now, I might have a chance there.

I’m currently working on a side project for a development workflow (Server, tools, workflow/standards, etc.), so when this will be done, I would like to integrate Urho3D as a possible (and suggested) game engine for our team.
So for any modifications I would add directly in it, I will contribute for sure!

Hi Lasse, now I understand why they have the “Air Guitar Championship” (airguitarworldchampionships.com/) at your home town. It’s because the guitar is virtually indestructible. Sorry for yet another guitar joke.

On top of what I have said earlier, don’t worry too much on the Urho3D development while you are recharging. We won’t let the legendary “Urho” die easily the second time.

First of all feel well! this is the most important thing.
this is amazing engine , its really is and it will be shame to lose it or let the cross platform development slowly die
i can offer my help as im professional cross platform c++ developer (day job) for the last 15 years but i have 0 experience in 3d and i do want to contribute to gain 3d experience.
so if you like just say so ,

Thanks all! Indeed, it was a licensed Floyd bridge, which are from Satan.

About realXtend: in dark past we used OpenSim as a server. Now, when talking of Tundra and its Urho-based derivative, the same codebase is capable of running as a client or a server. The immediate thing we’re focusing now is a (mobile) client, but as we’re porting all the necessary core APIs, theoretically it will be fit to run a server as well. So it’s really client and server development at the same time.

umen: You’re welcome to start contributing with pull requests first.

Whishing you all the best for this challenge Lasse

I knew a programmer that went through a few keyboards, especially around deadlines.
Sounds like you need time off and some balance in your life… maybe pick up the guitar more often ( to play it ).
You have an impressive list of devs/contributors and a helpful community right now and growing.
It’s easy to say don’t stress, but try avoiding the situations which triggers you, ie too many hours on one thing, set a limit, have breaks or leave it for the day etc.
Stay positive!

PS: +1 for the floating bridge can’t be beaten on solos and looks, if you hate tuning it, cheat and lock it down

Your work on Urho is definitely paying off with a growing number of contributers and users. Urho3D just passed 300 stars on GitHub, which is quite respectable !

Sorry to hear about work stress, but it’s good that you are doing something about it ! Best of luck with your recovery.

Stress is always a hurdle so I hope you can relax, recharge and feel better soon.

Yeah, this sucks. I have it too quite frequently.

For me when you code some specific project at work and do it for months on end, this is where I start to feel “fuck not this thing again” in the mornings and the motivation to do anything goes down the drain. It’s not even working on some same feature for a long period of time. Its that + N other tasks and things you need to worry about. Replying to emails, attending meetings too often, guiding and giving opinions on bigger architectural things to N other developers (in your company) and getting questions from boss, PMs and other devs constantly that stops you from focusing on code. I’m sure we both have this in common as lead developers in our firms.

I’ve started to recognize the signs of stress or (in my case mild) depression. That’s when I take a step back, stop working another 5-8 hours from home computer on top of the 8-10 hours that I just did at the office. I literally do this + weekends sometimes for 1-2 weeks in a row, even if there are no high demands or impossible deadlines, there is a compulsion that wont let myself leave something half assed. Watching movies in the evenings and trying to clear mind from works stuff was something I try to do in these situations. Even trying to avoid sitting on the computer at home completely, which is very very hard

Anyways, you are a great guy and one of the most competent programmers I know. Your employer and the Urho community will lose much more if you truly burn out. I’m sure your boss and everyone here understand that. Clocking in ~8h of work each day and doing open source stuff when it feels right might be the good start

P.S. I’m terrified of touching Urho internals as it’s so clean and elegant But if I do see something in the future I’ll create an issue describing it first. So there is some discussion before doing any coding. Also PRs seems like the safer way for me personally. I appreciate some good peer review from the true Urho experts if the code is legit.

Really sorry to hear about your problems, Lasse, but taking care of yourself should be the first priority! Burnout can be a real PITA, but I hope you make a swift and full recovery! Just remember that the work you have done on Urho3D is very much appreciated, as this engine stands out as one of the best IMHO. Now take care of yourself and I hope you find time to relax! Cheers!

Thanks Jonne. I’m not actual lead programmer by title like you, but let’s say “lead developer of evil future and 3D internet things” anyway

Sure, it’s fine and preferable to work by issues / PRs. And of course seek discussion, that goes for every developer. My point was mainly aimed at those who already have gotten a shitload of Urho PR’s accepted into the codebase.

On the original topic, doing stuff that’s as far away from the day work as possible can also be refreshing, even though you’re still sitting at the computer. Yesterday I got a full player character customization system (code + art) for my Commodore64 shooter+platformer game done in about 2 hours. Try that on a modern 3D title Well, to be honest, the whole system consists of just 2 alternate sprite sets (male / female) and ability to change sprite color, but neverthless it turned out quite nice.

You rocking that C64 on your free time? Man, a part of me wishes I began development on older machines like that, my first programming started with DarkBasic

Yeah. For many people that are active on C64 it’s heavily about using crosscompilation and modern toolchains (unless one intentionally wants to be a masochist), also the emulators are so accurate by now that you don’t necessarily need real hardware to test, but naturally firing up the real HW is a lot of fun.

I remember Sinbad from Ogre3d was also having some health problems… is working on a 3d engine a jinx?!
Jokes aside, Godspeed Lasse, play more, code less.

I remember the PEEKing and POKE-ing on those 8-bit computer systems are a lot of fun but I didn’t know they are also therapeutic . Hope you will recover soon.

SYS 64738 and you’re as good as new.

I hope you get well soon!

(I’m new to Urho and I had a lot of fun rediscovering C++ and 3D-stuff in the last weeks.
Urho makes a lot of things really simple and fun. So thanks to you and to all contributors, it’s a nice engine!)

Get well, let the stress out by writing some very aggressive lyrics
?rr.