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Building Universes from Code: Finding Harmony Across Platforms
Series: The Challenge of Cross-Platform Reality - Part 3 In the natural universe, harmony doesn’t arise because every environment is the same. It emerges because systems adapt to the conditions they inhabit. Cross-platform software follows the same principle. Rather than pretending operating systems are identical, robust systems acknowledge their differences. Platform-specific behaviours are isolated. Shared logic is protected. Interfaces are designed to translate intent, not
Tim Ellis
Dec 20, 20251 min read


Building Universes from Code: The Friction Between Operating Systems
Series: The Challenge of Cross-Platform Reality - Part 2 When code moves from one platform to another, it encounters a kind of environmental resistance - not dramatic, not obvious, but persistent. A file path that once resolved cleanly now breaks. A graphics call behaves slightly differently. A background process stalls under a new security model. An input event arrives out of order, or not at all. None of these are errors in isolation. Each platform is behaving exactly as it
Tim Ellis
Dec 20, 20251 min read


Building Universes from Code: When One World Becomes Many
Series: The Challenge of Cross-Platform Reality - Part 1 In theory, code feels universal. Logic is logic. Algorithms behave the same wherever they are executed. A completed system can feel like a finished universe - self-contained, stable, complete. But the moment we ask that universe to exist on more than one platform, everything changes. Operating systems look similar on the surface, yet beneath their interfaces lie fundamentally different environments - different file syst
Tim Ellis
Dec 20, 20251 min read


Building Universes from Code: Points as the Skeleton of a Living World
Series: The Architecture of Presence - Part 3 As systems mature, you begin to see the pattern. Spawn points. Checkpoints. Audio emitters. Trigger locations. Moments of interaction. They are not separate ideas - they are expressions of the same underlying truth: that worlds are shaped not just by geometry, but by meaningful locations within that geometry. By treating these as a unified concept - points that describe intent rather than implementation - the engine gains a quiet
Tim Ellis
Dec 20, 20252 min read


Building Universes from Code: Giving Meaning to a Point in Space
Series: The Architecture of Presence - Part 2 Once a spawn point exists, something curious happens. It stops being just about spawning. Because the engine begins to recognise that this point in space holds meaning.Not visually - but logically. The same information that places a player can place a sound. The same context that defines a safe arrival can define a checkpoint. The same orientation that frames a first moment can frame an encounter, a memory, a decision. And so, the
Tim Ellis
Dec 20, 20251 min read


Building Universes from Code: Where Does a World Begin?
Series: The Architecture of Presence - Part 1 In the natural universe, nothing truly begins at a single point. Stars form from vast clouds of matter. Planets emerge from slow, gravitational collapse. Even life itself appears not as a moment, but as a process. Game worlds, however, demand a beginning. When a player enters a world, game engines must answer a deceptively simple question: W here do you exist? This is the role of the spawn point. At first glance, it feels trivial
Tim Ellis
Dec 20, 20251 min read
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