About Me

I am a full-stack C# .NET graduate of Tech Elevator in Pittsburgh. There we learned to develop apps using back-end, SQL databases, and front-end.

I am also a game developer on the side and have also received an Associate's Degree in Game Development from Raritan Valley Community College in NJ. I have received the Unity Certified Associate certification in the past. I have consulted with Merck on the side on some Virtual and Augmented Reality projects in Unity and have had the opportunity to work with Microsoft HoloLens there. I have also started working with Unreal Engine with plans to switch over to that for my future personal projects.

I am now a full-stack software developer at Development Dimensions Iinternational (DDI) in Bridgeville, PA working with C# .Net. DDI provides classes and tools for leaders of companies to test and improve thier leadership skills. I work on their web applications from back-end API's to front-end UI with some VR simulation work in the past.

Work

Own Work

As you can see from the projects on this site, I am primarly a Game Developer in my free time working in the Unity Game Engine however I have also started working in Unreal Engine now. While I have many ideas for games I found that I also have a lot of interest in developing generic pieces that would be used in any game.

Current Interests

  • Artificial Intelligence: I have interest in technologies such as AI and Machine Learning, however I have limited knowledge of the latter. I am also currently working on my own wildlife AI where one of my challenges are to try and develop my own AI on my own without looking up how others do it too much. It has a focus in modularity so you can easily add new creatures that can re-use same modules and you can add custom modules for custom behavior. Each module is a new component where you would throw it on the creature and the main script would find them and use them.
  • Virtual Reality: Another technology I am interested in is VR. I love how exciting some games can get and the fact that your physically doing everything makes it even more satisfying when you do well. I enjoy showing it off to friends and family and for that reason my favorite kind of games are cross-platform multiplayer and assymetrical multiplayer.
  • Assymentrical Multiplayer Games: My favorite type of game is assymetrical games. My interest in this type is from Evolve and more so with VR assymetrical games. I like how in assymetrical VR games you can get others not in the headset involved by allowing them to play with/against the person in VR on the monitor. As well as it adding more re-playability when there are vastly different playstyles for different sides.

Merck

I was working with Merck as a junior consultant from Diversant. I was straight out of community college where I was going for video game develeopment. My instructor was the one who got me and two other classmates the opportunity. We were hired as "Unity experts" being that the innovation team we worked with had little to no experience with it.

We worked with the innovation team where we developed a couple prototype applications for Hololens for internal use with their scientists.

Projects

  • Model Viewer (Hololens): The first project we worked on was basically a model viewer. Thier use cases were to be able to allow their scientist to view 3D molecules and place 3D objects in an empty room to plan a new room's layout. This was my first time working with communicating with a server via REST where all the models were located. They were downloaded as Unity Packages and loaded during runtime and can be moved around and scaled.
  • Colony Counter (Hololens): The second project we worked on was a colony counter. The idea is for scientists to be able to snap a picture of a petri dish and communicate with their server where they had an AI count the colonies in the dish. It then returned the count and would show the count and image as a floating window.
  • VR Tour (Oculus Go / Google Street View): The final project was a VR tour that we continued from the last team that was working on it. It was a tour of thier Austin location via 360 images they took. It also had videos (one 360 and one traditional) that played a tour of Austin. Later we decided to set up a Google Street View as well that I worked on. Thier Praque location later had us set up a tour of their location on Google Street View as well.

Development Dimensions International (DDI)

My latest experience is a position at DDI in Bridgeville, PA. This is my first full-time job in the industry. They work with many major companies to provide classes and tools to improve their leaders.

Here, I began as a full-stack developer working with C# .Net. I was working on their web applications for both internal and external users. Now I am on their VR team working on developing VR sims in Unity.

Hobbies

Gaming

As you may notice from my work, I am also a gamer. My favorite kinds are RTS, FPS, and open-world games. I unfortunately haven't played many different games but, hope to play more in the future. I have a tendancy to shift in habits. I would play a lot of games and over time would shift to more development and do more of that. So I'm more of an off/on kind of gamer/developer in my spare time.

I don't really have a favorite game specifically but what is definitely one of my most played games is Monster Hunter: World. I've been a fan of the series since Freedom Unite and have played every other main title except Generations before World. Other games that I play include The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as my first Zelda game, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and games like Starcraft II and Minecraft that I would come back to every now again. Returnal I have also enjoyed with its fast paced gameplay and map design that is very similar to my random map generator that I've worked on.

I've never played many board games growing up until I found some friends that do. Now that I have finally tried some more modern ones, I have become more insterested in board games as well.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

I became very interested in VR and AR as soon as I first tried it. Since then I have gotten multiple Oculus headsets and a Microsoft Mixed Reality headset.

I didn't agree with the original adoption predictions for VR and saw them to be outrageous and believe that VR has been growing as expected. New technology doesn't grow instantly, it takes years of improvements and innovation to solve common issues to wide-spread adoption. I believe the biggest issue for adoption is the cost for "real" VR. That VR requires a gaming PC which ontop of the headset itself becomes expensive and the entry-level VR I feel has hurt peoples' opinion on it because of it's lack of a full VR experience and more of a media viewer, it is simply entry-level. For this reason I believe the upcoming Oculus Quest will be a huge advancement for the industry as it truly provides a full VR experience for the total cost of a new game console.

AR however, should be a much bigger hit. It is further away than VR at this point but, it has a much larger use case than VR does. I believe VR will remain for entertainment with its ability to isolate you and transport you somewhere else and AR will be used for just about anything via augmenting our everyday lives and work.

Cars

I enjoy cars and have a 2015 Mustang GT that I drive as a daily driver. I'm not exactly an expert on cars but, I do clean and change the oil on my car myself. I got it pretty loaded with options with all the ones that didn't remove any parts from the options I already had. The only option I didn't get that didn't change anything else from the other options was the Adaptive Cruise Control with rain sensing wipers.

My current list of mods:

  • GT350R Steering Wheel
  • Black and Red Racing Stripe
  • Red Wheelbands on the Gloss Black Factory Performance Pack Wheels
  • 255/40-19 Michelin Pilot Super Sport (F) and 275/40-19 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S (R) tires
  • Corsa Extreme Catback
  • Charcoal AMR Rims with All-Season Tires for Winter (19x8.5 245/35-19 F, 19x10 275/40-19 R)
  • Roush spoiler
  • Ford Racing Power Pack 2

Computers

I also became interested in computers. I have learned how to build a computer from scratch through the years. Started with an Alienware Aurora R4 and have learned from upgrading it which has led to me moving to a custom built PC. I also have a HTPC that will be getting hand me down componenets from my desktop as I upgrade that.

My Desktop Components:

  • Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL ROG Case
  • Intel Core i9-9900ks
  • ASUS ROG Maximus XI Code ATX Motherboard
  • G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 RAM
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition
  • Lian Li O11DXL-1X Vertical GPU Bracket
  • Samsung 980 Pro 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD
  • Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD
  • Corsair RM 850 80 Plus Gold PSU with CableMod C-Series ModFlex Full Cable Kit
  • Corsair Hyper X XC7 RGB CPU Water Block
  • Corsair Hyper X XG7 RGB GPU Water Block
  • Corsair Hyper X XR5 360mm Radiator
  • Corsair Hyper X XR7 360mm Radiator
  • Corsair Hyper X XD5 RGB Pump/Reservoir
  • Corsair Hyper X XT Softline 10/13mm Tubing
  • Corsair Hyper X XL5 Performance Coolant
  • Corsair ML140 Pro RGB Fans x2
  • Corsair ML120 Pro RGB Fans x6
  • Corsair RGB Fan LED Hub x2
  • Corsair Lighting Node Pro x2
  • Corsair iCUE Commander Pro
  • Corsair RGB Lighting Pro Expansion Kit
  • StarTech 4 Port Quad Bus PCIe to USB 3.0 Card
My Desk Setup:
  • LG 27GN950-B 4K 144Hz Monitor
  • LG 27UD68-W 4K 60Hz Monitor
  • VIVO Dual Monitor Mount up to 32" Monitors
  • Logitech G915 Wireless (Tactile) Keyboard
  • Logitech G502 Lightspeed Mouse
  • Logitech Powerplay Mousepad
  • Logitech Z906 Surround Sound System
  • HyperX Fury S Pro Gaming Mouse Pad
  • Astro A50 headphones
  • XBOX Series-X Controller with XBOX Controller Gear Universal Xbox Pro Charging Stand – Carbon Black
  • Corsair iCUE LS100 Starter Kit Controller
  • Corsair iCUE LS100 350mm Strip
  • Corsair iCUE LS100 1.4M Strip
  • GDrive 1TB External HDD for Backups
  • RazerBlade 15 Advanced Model 2021 Laptop
  • CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock
  • NETGEAR 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch
  • IOGEAR USB-C 10Gb to 2-Port USB-A + 2-Port USB-C 5Gb Hub for front IO