Authored by: jjd on Saturday, March 10 2007 @ 06:43 AM NZDT

Hi David,

hope you enjoy uni. Some advice from an old codger ;)

(1) it always starts easy, and if you stay on top of the work it can stay easy. If you don't, it'll can easily get away from you in a big way.
(2) don't spend all of your time in Shadows (assuming it's still there). I spent my first semester there, which was a lot of fun, but it didn't exactly help me get off to a flying start ;)
(3) get to know your lecturers. They are definitely an odd bunch, but they can open up more opportunities than good grades will.

What courses are you taking?

-Josh

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Authored by: Razor on Saturday, March 10 2007 @ 03:54 PM NZDT

I'm taking engineering. Just general so far, planning on specialising in software, unless something else is far more interesting than I gave it credit for.

Thanks for the the tips. As to #1, does that mean I have to stop procrastinating? Because I generally get things done, it's just easier to do them when I feel I have to. I don't have to worry about #2. Shadows is still there (and doing fine), but I'm not really the type. In fact I was already invited to a different bar, but decided to turn them down and go home (people who can't accept that aren't friends anyway). About #3... Why should they know me, as opposed to the other 200 people in the room? I mean maybe I could get to know the graphics lecturer, seeing as I'm probably the only first year that could ace his course without even attending the lectures (and I'm definitely the only first year who crashed one of his lectures lit up like a Christmas tree), but other than that I don't like my chances.

By the way, I'm curious. Who are you?

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Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, March 11 2007 @ 03:29 AM NZDT

Hi David,

I'm one of the developers in the New Zealand Game Developers group form The Great Games Experiment (I guess my note didn't have much context to it :-) ).

About the procrastination thing. Putting things off really can bite you an the arse. Especially in engineering (at least that was my experience - I did a bachelors in engineering science at Auckland). I had some friends doing computer science, and they kicked arse in their first semester without attending the lectures. If you have some clue about programming (and you clearly do) it is a very easy course. My advice is probably more applicable when you start doing courses where the topics are completely new to you. When I did engineering, I didn't have much of a clue about the stuff I was learning and found it quite hard.

Getting to know your lecturers in large classes is difficult. They aren't going to notice you without reason. Talking to your graphics prof would probably be easy since it looks like a topic you know something about. One of the most valuable things you can take away from Uni is the contacts you make. Those can be your peers or the profs. Both are very useful, but the profs are most helpful early on. Suppose you want to do a course of special study later on, or take a selection of the courses that you normally can't take in conjunction, having someone on the faculty who will support you means that it will happen. In the calender, in many sections, you'll find that a course has a bunch of rules and regulation but the final caveat is that all of those rules can be ignore by the dean. If you have someone supporting you, getting that permission is easy. That's just one way they can help you, but they are also sources of info like scholarships, special courses, and jobs.

They also write and grade the exams :-)

Anyway, it's clear I'm getting old because I'm rambling, giving advice ;-) More importantly, those renders you've created are absolutely fantastic! Is that work you created yourself?

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Authored by: jjd on Monday, March 12 2007 @ 06:45 AM NZDT

Whoops! The above post was mine :-)

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Authored by: Razor on Monday, March 12 2007 @ 09:41 PM NZDT

Ah! Initials. I get it now.

About the renders, they were made in terragen. So although I did make them, they're not that special. Not real-time or anything. The stuff I've done from scratch is much more modest.

Oh yeah, you were right by the way. Putting stuff off just bit me. Not hard enough to matter at all, it just felt unpleasant. Guess I'll try not to be like Mandrew (pulling all-nighters while drunk). To give him credit, he passes all the same. And I can't just breeze through like the compsci students you mention. It's general engineering so far, so I haven't taught myself any of it, although my subjects at school did set me up fairly well (and they said 2 maths and 3 science subjects was a bad idea!).

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