suXin space

<p><strong>Sasha / suXin</strong></p> <p>I&#39;m generalist developer focused on getting things done. I&#39;m currently most experienced at frontend web development and writing JavaScript code. I can also do regular backend work, database design, make basic native desktop applications. I&#39;m capable of getting into complex codebases and maintaining them. I&#39;m also long term interested in reverse engineering practicies, sometimes these allow you to do things no one else ever did.</p> <p>Due to huge variety of finished projects, I learned to stop obsessing over tools and best practices, focusing on finishing the job and getting desired results instead, while making solutions easy to maintain only when it makes sense to.</p> <p>I always look for some value for myself or other people in every project approached, be it solving a problem or a learning opportunity.</p> <p>Occasionally, I help people with programming in Discord server: <a href="https://discord.gg/BQN6BYE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Programmer&#39;s Hangout</a>.</p> <p>Aside from programming and development, I&#39;m also interested in video game design. I enjoy travelling, motorsports, and birds.</p>

<p>RetroAchievements is a community focused on developing and earning achievements for various emulated consoles, like Sega Genesis, NES, Playstation and many others.</p> <p>I took note of this in the middle of 2021, first by replaying <a href="https://retroachievements.org/game/11320" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gran Turismo</a>, then making my first set for <a href="https://retroachievements.org/game/11562" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Colony Wars: Vengeance</a>. Since then I became part of the community: making new sets, or <a href="https://retroachievements.org/game/11391" target="_blank" rel="noopener">improving existing ones</a>.</p> <p>My best work includes achievement sets for <a href="https://retroachievements.org/game/20580" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gran Turismo 4</a> and <a href="https://retroachievements.org/game/2830" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec</a> for Playstation 2, both of which required reverse engineering efforts and also made me create my first JavaScript library - <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/@cruncheevos/core" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cruncheevos</a>, to assist in maintaining the sets. I&#39;m most proud of set for <a href="https://retroachievements.org/game/11308" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ace Combat 3</a>, which I consider the most creative all around.</p> <p>You can read details on what the <a href="/notes/retroachievements-development-experience/">initial work</a> felt like. I also wrote a big blogpost on <a href="/notes/tracking-down-playstation-pointers-using-debuggers-ghidra/">debugging and reverse engineering</a> specifically for RetroAchievements community.</p>

<p>While working on <strong>Half-Payne</strong>, I had to modify existing 3D models or export the others. Initially, the workflow was like this:</p> <ul> <li>Modify model in <strong>Blender</strong></li> <li>Export SMD with <strong>Blender Source Tools</strong></li> <li>Import SMD in <strong>Milkshake 3D</strong></li> <li>Export SMD again, but now it can be consumed by <strong>studiomdl</strong></li> <li>Process SMD with <strong>studiomdl</strong>, model is now ready to use in-game</li> </ul> <p><strong>I could not stand this waste of time</strong>, and I had no idea how others could if they would end up in simillar situation. <strong>Blender</strong> is such a great 3D editor and there was no other alternative when it comes to exporting.</p> <p>The reason why SMD files produced by <strong>Blender Source Tools</strong> could not be used by <strong>studiomdl</strong> was the incorrect <strong>bone output</strong>. Fixing this issue wasn&#39;t too difficult and I saw this as an opportunity to contribute and <a href="https://github.com/Artfunkel/BlenderSourceTools/pull/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">try out GitHub Pull Requests</a>.</p> <p>In the end, <a href="https://steamcommunity.com/groups/BlenderSourceTools#announcements/detail/484538095737201475" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the changes were officially included in 2.9.0 update</a>.</p>

<p>Originally created to moderate and ban for disgusting chat messages, <strong>Secretary bird</strong> was then transferred to a certain <strong>Discord community</strong> I&#39;m no longer a part of.</p> <p>This bird bot used to answer the dumbest questions, announced <strong>Twitch streams</strong> and was also available to use <strong>Twitter</strong>.</p> <p>By interacting with the bot we&#39;ve found out that it&#39;s rather angry and loves <strong>pepsi</strong> and <strong>kit-kat</strong> alot.</p> <p>On <strong>MAY 12th 2020</strong> bot was shutdown due to it&#39;s services no longer being required and hosting expenses not worth it.</p> <p>Nothing impressive, but it always got the job done, <a href="https://github.com/suXinjke/SecretaryBird" target="_blank" rel="noopener">source code here</a>.</p>