Iterative α-(de)blending and Stochastic Interpolants

Nick Tasios

2024-11-02 10:50

In this post I'm looking into a paper the authors of which promise to make diffusion models simple to understand and implement, called Iterative α-(de)blending¹, and find out that this promise is only partially fulfilled, at least personally. I reproduce the algorithm from the paper and apply it to the generation of MNIST digits, like I did in the previous series of posts, and find out that something is missing. As the title of the post reveals, we might find the missing ingredient in Stochastic interpolants.

Latent Diffusion Series: Latent Diffusion Model

Nick Tasios

2024-09-27 15:10

In the Latent Diffusion Series of blog posts, I'm going through all components needed to train a latent diffusion model to generate random digits from the MNIST dataset. In the third, and last, post, we will finally build and train a latent diffusion model which will be trained to generate random MNIST digits.

Latent Diffusion Series: Variational Autoencoder (VAE)

Nick Tasios

2023-11-29 15:10

In the Latent Diffusion Series of blog posts, I'm going through all components needed to train a latent diffusion model to generate random digits from the MNIST dataset. In the second post, we will build and train a variational autoencoder to generate MNIST digits. The latent variables of these models are defined to be normally distributed, something that will later enable our diffusion model operate in the latent space.

Latent Diffusion Series: MNIST Classifier

Nick Tasios

2023-08-29 21:07

In the Latent Diffusion Series of blog posts, I'm going through all components needed to train a latent diffusion model to generate random digits from the MNIST dataset. In this first post, we will train a simple classifier to classify MNIST digits. This will later be used for scoring the quality of the generated digits using a variant of the so-called Fréchet inception distance (FID).

Simulating a CRT TV with C++ and OpenGL

Nick Tasios

2022-09-24 11:06

With the aid of the oscilloscope simulator we built in a past blog post, we will now build CRT TV simulator.

Building a Sequencer and a Level Editor for Vectron

Nick Tasios

2022-09-13 22:52

Vectron is unique in the way audio, graphics, and gameplay are intertwined. This feature of Vectron meant I had to build a special audio sequencer that also worked as a level editor.

Making sounds using SDL and visualizing them on a simulated oscilloscope.

Nick Tasios

2021-12-27 10:49

The most important part of Vectron is the real-time generation and visualization of audio. In the previous blog post I already built a simulated XY oscilloscope which I'll use to visualize the two stereo channels, and I'll use SDL for the platform-independent playback of the audio.

Simulating an XY oscilloscope on the GPU

Nick Tasios

2021-11-05 23:39

It's been a couple of years since the post where I first introduced the new game I was working on, Vectron. In this post I wanted to tell you a bit about how I programmed the graphics of Vectron. Although I finished the game nearly a year ago, I was putting of releasing it. Compiling it for Windows and MacOS was a barrier I had to overcome, but I can finally say that I released my first game! You can checkout Vectron's page on itch.io.

Rust vs C++ - Implementing a Neural Network

Nick Tasios

2019-07-06 19:18

I first learned Rust back in 2014, before it was stable. Rust is definitely a very interesting language so I have decided to revisit it by programming a simple neural network. For comparison, I also implemented the network in C++, the language I'm looking to replace.

Conceiving my first game made me find out how to be more creative

Nick Tasios

2019-06-28 21:00

It's been a while, a whole year to be exact, and a very eventful one. I'd like to share with you some of the things that happened this year, as well as the things I have been working on and that made me shift away my attention from the blog.

Space Invaders from Scratch - Part 5

Nick Tasios

2018-06-28 20:36

In this series of posts, I am going to create a clone of the classic arcade game, space invaders, in C++ using only a few dependencies. In this last post of the series, I will handle scoring and add routines for drawing text and other UI elements.

Space Invaders from Scratch - Part 4

Nick Tasios

2018-05-26 10:51

In this series of posts, I am going to create a clone of the classic arcade game, space invaders, in C++ using only a few dependencies. In this post I will add processing of player input from the keyboard and firing of projectiles.

Space Invaders from Scratch - Part 3

Nick Tasios

2018-04-27 10:47

In this series of posts, I am going to create a clone of the classic arcade game, space invaders, in C++ using only a few dependencies. In this post I will make the game loop run at a fixed time step, add the player and the aliens, and finally add sprite animation.

Space Invaders from Scratch - Part 2

Nick Tasios

2018-03-29 21:06

In this series of posts, I am going to create a clone of the classic arcade game, space invaders, in C++ using only a few dependencies. In this post I will set up the required OpenGL shaders to draw an alien sprite!

Space Invaders from Scratch - Part 1

Nick Tasios

2018-03-20 20:59

In this series of posts, I am going to create a clone of the classic arcade game, space invaders, in C++ using only a few dependencies. In this post I will set up a window with an OpenGL 3.3 context using GLFW and GLEW, as the only dependencies for this simple clone.

First Post: Introduction and Expectations

Nick Tasios

2018-02-20 15:57

For my first blog post, I'd like to introduce myself, and give you an overview of what to expect on this blog.