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Alex Evans at Umbra Ignite 2015: Learning From Failure

Media Molecule · talk · Watch on YouTube

Computer graphics & renderingGame programming & engines

What it is

Media Molecule's Alex Evans recounts the journey, including the failures, of finding the Dreams engine, based on his Siggraph 2015 talk. It covers the signed-distance-field and splat-based rendering approach and the artistic goals behind it.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN calls it an inspirational must-see on SDF rendering and a favorite tech talk for graphics programmers.

  • 7 people recommended it
  • 6 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2017, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “the Dreams presentation which is an inspirational must see”

    Inspirational Dreams presentation on SDF-based sculpting.

    stephomi, 2020-10 · Strong recommendation · in “A 3D sculpting web application”

  2. “Alex Evans (Media Molecule) Dreams talk is awesome.”

    Media Molecule's Dreams rendering talk on signed distance fields.

    Impossible, 2017-11 · Recommendation · in “Making WebGL Dance: How, Where, and What to Draw (2013)”

  3. “talk on developing the renderer for Dreams”

    Talk on developing the renderer for Dreams.

    Mr_P, 2018-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”

  4. “uses constructive solid geometry and sparse distance fields to describe and manipulate 3d geometry”

    Detailed tech talk on Dreams' distance-field geometry.

    veli_joza, 2018-05 · Recommendation · in “How Voxels Became ‘The Next Big Thing’”

  5. “The Learning From Failure talk [2] was quite inspiring on lengths they went to achieve their artistic goals.”

    Inspiring talk on artistic goals driving Dreams' tech.

    jmiskovic, 2021-01 · Recommendation · in “Metaballs and Marching Squares”

  6. “excellent talk from 5 years ago”

    Talk that sparked interest in distance fields.

    rsp1984, 2021-01 · Recommendation · in “Raymarching Distance Fields (2008-2020 compilation)”

  7. “The Dreams team made a nice talk at SIGGRAPH 2015, if you want to check it out”

    Dreams team SIGGRAPH talk on their SDF engine.

    turtledragonfly, 2026-01 · Recommendation · in “I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: dreams, sdf, media molecule, siggraph, graphics, game engine

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