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Origin of Quake3's Fast InvSqrt()
geo writes "Beyond3D.com's Ryszard Sommefeldt dons his seersucker hunting jacket and meerschaum pipe to take on his secret identity as graphics code sleuth extraordinaire. In today's thrilling installment, the origins of one of the more famous snippets of graphics code in recent years is under the microscope — Quake3's Fast InvSqrt(), which has been known to cause strong geeks to go wobbly in the knees while contemplating its simple beauty and power." From the article: ""
Don't they teach Numerical Methods in Computer Science curricula anymore? That's a required course at Ohio State--for undergrads.
Of course, most students have a hard time with that class, and can't actually remember how to do anything after the course other than Monte-Carlo Integration. But you should at LEAST remember being exposed to Newtonian integration in your undergrad numerical methods class!
The only thing amazing about this code is that someone paid good-enough attention in class to be able to apply what he learned to his job.
The real genius here is Isaac Newton. 'course, that's not news to anyone.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
yeah, yeah, i saw it you nagging coward. Right after i pressed submit. Obviously it's the last line before return.