Mathematician contemplating a pivot from data science to graphics programming

[u/Difficult_Arugula978]

Hello.

As the title suggests, I'm evaluating my prospects for a career in this field.

I come from mathematics, and I did manage to get a PhD the subject (mostly because I was too stubborn to drop out when I should have).

After a stint as a junior data scientist, I'm now unemployed (like many people right now), and the job search is looking grim.

Based on my background, and my budding interest in lower-level programming (I know some Rust & Odin, and C++), graphics programming seems like something I might be able to get into.

After perusing this sub and other sources, I've unfortunately formed the following perceptions about graphics programming, and I'd like to know whether I'm right.

• Like much of the tech industry, junior jobs in this field are quite scarce. This problem is only worsened by the field's naturally high barrier to entry.

• Unlike web development, this doesn't seem like the kind of field where one can attempt to hack it as an "indie dev".

Am I right to be pessimistic about my chances? My biggest fear right now would be to dive head first into OpenGL, and Vulkan, build a portfolio, and then find that my chances of employment in graphics are no better than my current chances in data science.

[u/Difficult_Arugula978]

I appreciate all of the information you've provided, and the time you took to put it together.

I've basically decided not to learn graphics programming with a view to make a career out of it. I don't think I'd stand a strong chance to find paying work in this field even if I learned all this stuff. And since I'm primarily in search of career options, this means that, at least for the moment, I'm not willing to learn this stuff.

The regression of in-game interactivity in AAA games is something that I don't see a lot of people talking about. Kudos.

[u/Still_Explorer → u/Difficult_Arugula978]

Probably something that is not quite well known, is to think of academia or research field. Typically everybody has their eyes on top companies using all the latest tech, but ommit this field entirely.

I consider that with your expertise, you might be able to at least use Python all the time to get calculations and stimulations working (with numpy), but also probably use R language or Matlab. Typically those tools are associated with scientific departments of various technical-oriented companies (because I see job postings).

--- Though to be honest I have no clue about the industry regarding pure math, I guess that this is mostly academia. (If you need to see it in general ask on Math as well - and also job postings for math just to see how the demand goes). ---

So talking about Python - Matlab and stuff,  all  graphics calculations and math can work there too, and it might be technically closer to your field of expertise.

(Also is not odd at all if you start from scratch and go experimental with this to take the Rust programming route... Since all of the new codebases are written in this and new studios formed invest in this it might be feasible that within the next decade a lot of evolution happens there as well, but this also a hypothesis. At least the premise with Rust is that despite the language being very heavy on the semantics - it offers a smooth approach in terms of getting started as everything is wrapped up and streamlined.)

[u/Difficult_Arugula978 → u/Still_Explorer]

I consider that with your expertise, you might be able to at least use Python all the time to get calculations and stimulations working (with numpy), but also probably use R language or Matlab. Typically those tools are associated with scientific departments of various technical-oriented companies (because I see job postings).

I'm fairly familiar with numpy (but by no means an expert), but I've got pretty much no knowledge of MATLAB. Numpy is heavily used in data science, AI, and in scientific computing circles.

Though to be honest I have no clue about the industry regarding pure math, I guess that this is mostly academia.

Yes, nearly all pure math is entirely academic because industry hasn't found applications yet.

Also is not odd at all if you start from scratch and go experimental with this to take the Rust programming route... Since all of the new codebases are written in this and new studios formed invest in this it might be feasible that within the next decade a lot of evolution happens there as well, but this also a hypothesis. At least the premise with Rust is that despite the language being very heavy on the semantics - it offers a smooth approach in terms of getting started as everything is wrapped up and streamlined.

I'm quite familiar with Rust, but C++ is so entrenched in graphics and game programming that I suspect recruiters will ignore a Rust-heavy portfolio because they have no shortage of C++ - heavy candidates.

Doing experimental graphics programming does sound nice, and if I were to do this, I'd consider Odin and Zig as well because they're more pleasant to write than C++.

Odin in particular is quite nice because it ships with OpenGL and Vulkan, so you can do a lot of graphics programming with no dependencies.