Hauke Thiessen
@haukethiessen.bsky.social
Tech Artist @Deck 13, previously Limbic Entertainment
Gamedev Tools Enthusiast
📝 Blog: https://haukethiessen.com/
🖼️ Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/haukethiessen
Also on Mastodon: @haukethiessen@mastodon.gamedev.place
Gamedev Tools Enthusiast
📝 Blog: https://haukethiessen.com/
🖼️ Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/haukethiessen
Also on Mastodon: @haukethiessen@mastodon.gamedev.place
Pinned
Hauke Thiessen
@haukethiessen.bsky.social
· May 19
I use my Steam Deck regularly on long train rides, so I'm very aware of how games can impact its battery life🪫.
I looked into ways to improve the energy efficiency of games and wrote a list of helpful techniques (not just for the Steam Deck): www.artstation.com/blogs/hauket...
#gamedev
I looked into ways to improve the energy efficiency of games and wrote a list of helpful techniques (not just for the Steam Deck): www.artstation.com/blogs/hauket...
#gamedev
Waiting for the inevitable Microsoft ad campaign announcing that the upcoming Steam Machines are, in fact, also Xboxes.
November 12, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Waiting for the inevitable Microsoft ad campaign announcing that the upcoming Steam Machines are, in fact, also Xboxes.
The Mip Explorer now also works on Linux🐧🥳
There was never a good reason for it to be Windows-exclusive to begin with, and today I finally had some time to fix this.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS, but it should work with basically every distribution out there.
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
There was never a good reason for it to be Windows-exclusive to begin with, and today I finally had some time to fix this.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS, but it should work with basically every distribution out there.
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
GitHub - HaukeThiessen/Mip-Explorer: A tool to display how texture information is distributed between mips, using a Laplacian Pyramid
A tool to display how texture information is distributed between mips, using a Laplacian Pyramid - HaukeThiessen/Mip-Explorer
github.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:05 PM
The Mip Explorer now also works on Linux🐧🥳
There was never a good reason for it to be Windows-exclusive to begin with, and today I finally had some time to fix this.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS, but it should work with basically every distribution out there.
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
There was never a good reason for it to be Windows-exclusive to begin with, and today I finally had some time to fix this.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS, but it should work with basically every distribution out there.
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
With many games nowadays reaching sizes of 100GB or more, this is really a critical update. Not sure why it took so long, but I'm just happy that it's finally there!
store.steampowered.com/news/app/167...
store.steampowered.com/news/app/167...
Steam Deck - Display-Off Downloads - Steam News
Steam Deck now has a display-off low-power download mode
store.steampowered.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:30 AM
With many games nowadays reaching sizes of 100GB or more, this is really a critical update. Not sure why it took so long, but I'm just happy that it's finally there!
store.steampowered.com/news/app/167...
store.steampowered.com/news/app/167...
Most people don't know this, but before he founded a city in the Forgotten Realms, Baldur had a successful restaurant in Germany.
November 5, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Most people don't know this, but before he founded a city in the Forgotten Realms, Baldur had a successful restaurant in Germany.
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
Do you want to improve the performance of your il2cpp Unity projects, without changing your code or your assets? My il2cpp build processor cpp2better is now officially available (on request). Reach out to me, details here: blog.s-schoener.com/2025-11-04-c...
cpp2better, an il2cpp postprocessor | Sebastian Schöner
It’s been a while since I last talked about cpp2better. Time for an official “here it is” post. What is cpp2better? cpp2better is a tool that hooks into your build pipeline for Unity to achieve better...
blog.s-schoener.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Do you want to improve the performance of your il2cpp Unity projects, without changing your code or your assets? My il2cpp build processor cpp2better is now officially available (on request). Reach out to me, details here: blog.s-schoener.com/2025-11-04-c...
New blog post: haukethiessen.com/why-you-shou...
It's about best practices when adjusting material parameters for individual mesh components in Unreal. The information itself isn't new, but most tutorials covering this present the most inefficient way to do this.
#gamedev #Unreal
It's about best practices when adjusting material parameters for individual mesh components in Unreal. The information itself isn't new, but most tutorials covering this present the most inefficient way to do this.
#gamedev #Unreal
Why you shouldn’t use Dynamic Material Instances – Hauke Thiessen
haukethiessen.com
November 3, 2025 at 5:51 PM
New blog post: haukethiessen.com/why-you-shou...
It's about best practices when adjusting material parameters for individual mesh components in Unreal. The information itself isn't new, but most tutorials covering this present the most inefficient way to do this.
#gamedev #Unreal
It's about best practices when adjusting material parameters for individual mesh components in Unreal. The information itself isn't new, but most tutorials covering this present the most inefficient way to do this.
#gamedev #Unreal
Finally updated my blog's robots.txt, it's now blocking 119(!) AI crawlers.
For anyone interested, I'm using wordpress.org/plugins/bloc... with automatic updates enabled. Additionally, I used github.com/ai-robots-tx... to add missing entries.
For anyone interested, I'm using wordpress.org/plugins/bloc... with automatic updates enabled. Additionally, I used github.com/ai-robots-tx... to add missing entries.
Block AI Crawlers
Tell AI (Artificial Intelligence) companies not to scrape your site for their AI products.
wordpress.org
November 3, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Finally updated my blog's robots.txt, it's now blocking 119(!) AI crawlers.
For anyone interested, I'm using wordpress.org/plugins/bloc... with automatic updates enabled. Additionally, I used github.com/ai-robots-tx... to add missing entries.
For anyone interested, I'm using wordpress.org/plugins/bloc... with automatic updates enabled. Additionally, I used github.com/ai-robots-tx... to add missing entries.
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
🚨Matt Waltz, Ambassador to the UN, is called OUT during a General Assembly by Cuba’s Foreign Minister! 🚨 Sound ⬆️. 1/2
October 30, 2025 at 6:39 PM
🚨Matt Waltz, Ambassador to the UN, is called OUT during a General Assembly by Cuba’s Foreign Minister! 🚨 Sound ⬆️. 1/2
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
October 27, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Got reminded how important it is to visualize the data you're working with🙈.
The normal map normalization in the Mip Explorer was incorrect, causing deviations of ~10 percent.
Only when I added the option to display the generated mips, I noticed the colors were off and had a reason to investigate...
The normal map normalization in the Mip Explorer was incorrect, causing deviations of ~10 percent.
Only when I added the option to display the generated mips, I noticed the colors were off and had a reason to investigate...
October 21, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Got reminded how important it is to visualize the data you're working with🙈.
The normal map normalization in the Mip Explorer was incorrect, causing deviations of ~10 percent.
Only when I added the option to display the generated mips, I noticed the colors were off and had a reason to investigate...
The normal map normalization in the Mip Explorer was incorrect, causing deviations of ~10 percent.
Only when I added the option to display the generated mips, I noticed the colors were off and had a reason to investigate...
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
If you regularly use the PC Gaming Wiki, for example as reliable source to get older games working on modern systems... consider backing up the pages you are interested in ⚠️
According to staff members on their discord, none of the active staff members have full access to the backend anymore.
(1/?)
According to staff members on their discord, none of the active staff members have full access to the backend anymore.
(1/?)
www.pcgw.com
October 20, 2025 at 8:28 PM
If you regularly use the PC Gaming Wiki, for example as reliable source to get older games working on modern systems... consider backing up the pages you are interested in ⚠️
According to staff members on their discord, none of the active staff members have full access to the backend anymore.
(1/?)
According to staff members on their discord, none of the active staff members have full access to the backend anymore.
(1/?)
Even though it was released 25 years ago, I still wonder about about the lore of the Legoland game. It's about building Lego theme parks, but set in the world of Lego. So I'm watching Lego minifigures visit a park about Lego.
October 19, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Even though it was released 25 years ago, I still wonder about about the lore of the Legoland game. It's about building Lego theme parks, but set in the world of Lego. So I'm watching Lego minifigures visit a park about Lego.
The first step to any impressive optimization work is to really mess up the original implementation.
Originally, my Mip Explorer created the thumbnails for the file browser at the resolution of the original images, creating copies of all textures in all directories visited in the current session😬.
Originally, my Mip Explorer created the thumbnails for the file browser at the resolution of the original images, creating copies of all textures in all directories visited in the current session😬.
October 19, 2025 at 6:17 PM
The first step to any impressive optimization work is to really mess up the original implementation.
Originally, my Mip Explorer created the thumbnails for the file browser at the resolution of the original images, creating copies of all textures in all directories visited in the current session😬.
Originally, my Mip Explorer created the thumbnails for the file browser at the resolution of the original images, creating copies of all textures in all directories visited in the current session😬.
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
This is cool. How to make wood stronger than steel, but use 90% less emissions. This should be front page news. This is nobel prize worthy skillz.
edition.cnn.com/science/supe...
edition.cnn.com/science/supe...
Scientists create ‘Superwood’ that’s stronger than steel | CNN
A US company has engineered a new type of wood that it says has up to 10 times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel, while also being up to six times lighter.
edition.cnn.com
October 16, 2025 at 9:32 PM
This is cool. How to make wood stronger than steel, but use 90% less emissions. This should be front page news. This is nobel prize worthy skillz.
edition.cnn.com/science/supe...
edition.cnn.com/science/supe...
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
Stuff like this should be the top story, not today, but for weeks, until we actually start giving a fuck. Runaway climate change will make everything happening in the current wars look like a rounding error. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Planet’s first catastrophic climate tipping point reached, report says, with coral reefs facing ‘widespread dieback’
Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C ‘as fast as possible’, warm water coral reefs will not remain ‘at any meaningful scale’, a report by 160 scientists from 23 countries warns
www.theguardian.com
October 13, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Stuff like this should be the top story, not today, but for weeks, until we actually start giving a fuck. Runaway climate change will make everything happening in the current wars look like a rounding error. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
One of the biggest flaws of the Mip Explorer was the missing support for tga files, caused by Open CV not supporting that format.
Turns out, it does support it, as long as you read it as a video and extract the first frame of it as an image. Sounds weird, but, hey, as long as it works...
#gamedev
Turns out, it does support it, as long as you read it as a video and extract the first frame of it as an image. Sounds weird, but, hey, as long as it works...
#gamedev
October 7, 2025 at 8:18 PM
One of the biggest flaws of the Mip Explorer was the missing support for tga files, caused by Open CV not supporting that format.
Turns out, it does support it, as long as you read it as a video and extract the first frame of it as an image. Sounds weird, but, hey, as long as it works...
#gamedev
Turns out, it does support it, as long as you read it as a video and extract the first frame of it as an image. Sounds weird, but, hey, as long as it works...
#gamedev
New update for the Mip Explorer:
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
There's now a dedicated mode for (tangent space) normal maps which compares normalized vector directions instead of averaged channel diffs. The results aren't that different, but it's just the proper way to deal with them.
#gamedev
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
There's now a dedicated mode for (tangent space) normal maps which compares normalized vector directions instead of averaged channel diffs. The results aren't that different, but it's just the proper way to deal with them.
#gamedev
September 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
New update for the Mip Explorer:
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
There's now a dedicated mode for (tangent space) normal maps which compares normalized vector directions instead of averaged channel diffs. The results aren't that different, but it's just the proper way to deal with them.
#gamedev
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
There's now a dedicated mode for (tangent space) normal maps which compares normalized vector directions instead of averaged channel diffs. The results aren't that different, but it's just the proper way to deal with them.
#gamedev
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
It's understandable that Unreal needs to touch a lot of files when starting the editor. But what if I told you that >5500 of those files are not needed for the editor to start at all and are just adding seconds to the editor launch time?
(Fix included!)
#u5 #gamedev
larstofus.com/2025/09/27/s...
(Fix included!)
#u5 #gamedev
larstofus.com/2025/09/27/s...
Speeding up the Unreal Editor launch by … not opening 5500 files?
In my last article I wrote about some tooltip optimization to reduce the start time of the Unreal Editor by 2-5 seconds. Turns out people do really care about their editor start time. So much that …
larstofus.com
September 27, 2025 at 5:36 PM
It's understandable that Unreal needs to touch a lot of files when starting the editor. But what if I told you that >5500 of those files are not needed for the editor to start at all and are just adding seconds to the editor launch time?
(Fix included!)
#u5 #gamedev
larstofus.com/2025/09/27/s...
(Fix included!)
#u5 #gamedev
larstofus.com/2025/09/27/s...
Becoming obsessed with adding QoL features to the Mip Explorer:
- Navigate directories with the arrow keys
- Taskbar notification when directory scan ends while app is in the background
- Resizable UI
- Support for single-channel textures (ok, not just QoL)
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
- Navigate directories with the arrow keys
- Taskbar notification when directory scan ends while app is in the background
- Resizable UI
- Support for single-channel textures (ok, not just QoL)
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
GitHub - HaukeThiessen/Mip-Explorer: A tool to display how texture information is distributed between mips, using a Laplacian Pyramid
A tool to display how texture information is distributed between mips, using a Laplacian Pyramid - HaukeThiessen/Mip-Explorer
github.com
September 21, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Becoming obsessed with adding QoL features to the Mip Explorer:
- Navigate directories with the arrow keys
- Taskbar notification when directory scan ends while app is in the background
- Resizable UI
- Support for single-channel textures (ok, not just QoL)
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
- Navigate directories with the arrow keys
- Taskbar notification when directory scan ends while app is in the background
- Resizable UI
- Support for single-channel textures (ok, not just QoL)
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
Goddamn, Metal Gear Solid 2 with texture filtering turned off is a hell of a vibe
September 21, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Goddamn, Metal Gear Solid 2 with texture filtering turned off is a hell of a vibe
With the latest update for the Mip Explorer, it now also reads and compares the alpha channels if existent, and can process entire directories, returning the results in a sorted list.
The goal is to turn this from a toy into a tool for actual production.
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
The goal is to turn this from a toy into a tool for actual production.
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
September 14, 2025 at 6:40 PM
With the latest update for the Mip Explorer, it now also reads and compares the alpha channels if existent, and can process entire directories, returning the results in a sorted list.
The goal is to turn this from a toy into a tool for actual production.
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
The goal is to turn this from a toy into a tool for actual production.
github.com/HaukeThiesse...
#gamedev
Exactly my type of humor. The developers at Epic know better than to allow AI-generated slop in their code base, but Unreal 5.7 will ship with AI code generation tools.
September 12, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Exactly my type of humor. The developers at Epic know better than to allow AI-generated slop in their code base, but Unreal 5.7 will ship with AI code generation tools.
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
There are a lot of reasons why starting the Unreal editor can be slow. In my latest blog post I fixed 38,000 of them.
#ue5
#gamedv
larstofus.com/2025/09/02/s...
#ue5
#gamedv
larstofus.com/2025/09/02/s...
Speeding up the Unreal Editor launch by … not spawning 38000 tooltips?
If there is one thing the Unreal Engine doesn’t suffer from, it is it’s lack of features. Over the past years it has been transformed from “just” a game engine into an ̵…
larstofus.com
September 2, 2025 at 8:53 PM
There are a lot of reasons why starting the Unreal editor can be slow. In my latest blog post I fixed 38,000 of them.
#ue5
#gamedv
larstofus.com/2025/09/02/s...
#ue5
#gamedv
larstofus.com/2025/09/02/s...
I wrote an article about how to disable camera motion blur in Unreal, which is a good idea for city builders/RTS games, etc.
You only need to change a single line of code, so I won't hold it against you if you only read the TLDR (also just one line).
haukethiessen.com/how-to-fix-m...
#gamedev
You only need to change a single line of code, so I won't hold it against you if you only read the TLDR (also just one line).
haukethiessen.com/how-to-fix-m...
#gamedev
How to fix Motion Blur for RTS Games in Unreal
TLDR
Open Unreal's SceneView.h and change the default value of bCameraMotionBlur to false.
If you're using Unreal, you're probably aware of the engine's history and how it started as an engine for...
haukethiessen.com
August 31, 2025 at 6:39 PM
I wrote an article about how to disable camera motion blur in Unreal, which is a good idea for city builders/RTS games, etc.
You only need to change a single line of code, so I won't hold it against you if you only read the TLDR (also just one line).
haukethiessen.com/how-to-fix-m...
#gamedev
You only need to change a single line of code, so I won't hold it against you if you only read the TLDR (also just one line).
haukethiessen.com/how-to-fix-m...
#gamedev
Reposted by Hauke Thiessen
what framerate is perceptually halfway between 30 and 120 fps?
A: 75 fps
B: 60 fps
C: 48 fps
A: 75 fps
B: 60 fps
C: 48 fps
August 30, 2025 at 1:13 AM
what framerate is perceptually halfway between 30 and 120 fps?
A: 75 fps
B: 60 fps
C: 48 fps
A: 75 fps
B: 60 fps
C: 48 fps