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Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

reuters.com

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Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#71

Post by hnlmorg »

monero-xmr wrote: post #51
raincole wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good comment. If you (anyone who reads this) are an employee, remember this is how c-suite people see you. You're cost . You're something that prevents the business from being "preserved". You're like water or electricity bills from the businesses' point of view. You'll be fired not because you did anything wrong: firing you is nothing different from using less water. Water, of course, can't be wrong or right. That's…

Businesses do not exist for making jobs. If we wanted jobs simply for jobs’ sake, then we would pay people to dig holes and fill them in (a lot of government jobs are glorified versions of this). Businesses exist to fulfill a market need, and every business fulfilling that market need competes in some axis of cost vs. quality. We are all human. I feel for people laid off. I have been laid off before, and businesses I…

One of the reasons businesses (and business leaders to some extent too) argue for reduced tax burdens is because “they are job creators”.

It’s literally an argument many businesses make when lobbying.

Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#72

Post by bobim »

monero-xmr wrote: post #52
vore wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the compensation model is inherently unfair if the rank and file is forced to bear the brunt of bad leadership.

Anyone can put their hat in the ring and get into management. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon, I had no connections, and I attended a weak school. I worked my fucking ass off and networked everywhere I could. I built a reputation. If you can convince people that you are deserving of leadership, you have the guts to put yourself on the line in front of tens or hundreds or thousands of people, go ahead. This is your…

You’re making all valid statements, but we see CEOs driving businesses into walls, and refuse to take responsibility. I size things for a living, a mistake can mean injury or death. If this happens I tell you I’ll have to bear the consequences. And I’m having an average pay. What’s the market thinks about this? Genuinely interested to know.

Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#73

Post by vasco »

kalleboo wrote: post #60
monero-xmr wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm c-suite and the most important function of layoffs is to preserve the business as an ongoing concern, preserving what jobs I can. If the business fails, everyone loses their job, which is terrible! Now, if the reason for layoffs is due directly to poor decisions by someone who should not have reasonably made that decision given the variables in front of them, that person should probably be terminated. But layoffs…

> If you are in the business of making feather hats, and suddenly feather hats go out of style because of shifts in market demand, how can you fire the business leader? Were you a c-suite at Kodak or something? "There was nothing we could do after people didn't want to shoot photos on film anymore" meanwhile Fujifilm pivoting hard into chemical materials, makeup, medical etc etc (although ironically due to the meteor…

That's one view of the world. One people try to push for but I don't agree with. It's OK for companies to have a lifecycle associated with what they do. There's no need for companies to be behemots that last forever. If you are a hat company, to me there's no direct implications that tells me it's better for society if the hat company starts making shoes vs the company ending and different cohorts of employees going to different places, potentially some founding a shoe company, potentially not.

Many many dollars are wasted due to companies trying to survive at all costs and fail at it.

Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#74

Post by codeflo »

kalleboo wrote: post #59
BryanLegend wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No game engine can save a game from someone dedicated to being inefficient, like rendering high poly teeth on pixel tall models.

I would have assumed the game engine would be responsible for culling occluded objects. Isn't that one of the most basic parts of a 3D renderer?

For a zoomed out view with tiny people walking around, that would be mostly be a case for LOD, not culling. That is, you wouldn't render a highly-detailed character model and cull out each tooth mesh individually, which would still be very expensive, but you should render a simplified mesh to begin with.

Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#75

Post by [deleted] »

initplus wrote: post #45
luaKmua wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No love for Unity here, their licensing debacle was horrendous, but I've seen no indications that DOTS is responsible for CS2 perf issues. Everything I've seen points to other things lacking in the engine (a decent LODing system for example), general optimization issues that'd be present in any game shipped too early, and inefficiencies in the rendering pipeline.

"Unfortunately a lot of the graphics-related issues are indirectly caused by the game’s use of DOTS" "The cause for unnecessary geometry is both the lack of simplified LOD variants for many of the game’s meshes, as well as the simplistic and seemingly untuned culling implementation. And the reason why the game has its own culling implementation instead of using Unity’s built in solution (which should at least in theo…

[deleted]

Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#76

Post by Narann »

bhouston wrote: post #5
dagmx wrote: post #3

Most notably, this is laying off their entire acquisition of Weta Digital which was an audacious $1.6B purchase. After which Unity did nothing to take the proposed products into the marketplace.

I think they were not easily commercialized. I was a VFX software developer and internal tools are both very advanced and also fragile foot guns if you try to do anything that isn’t exactly down the golden path. VFX devs are not the usual product guys, they are usually either R&D/math guys or hackers, with little in between. The way to commercialize WETA stuff would be to make new product teams and basically redo muc…

> internal tools are both very advanced and also fragile foot guns if you try to do anything that isn’t exactly down the golden path.

HT: That’s also an important point explained when we talk about internal VS commercial (or build VS buy) in the animation/VFX industry.

Internal softwares does less than 5% (or less) of commercial products, but they are doing it in a straight, fab compatibility way. No effort is made in making the tool working with your fab, the tool is shaped for the fab from scratch. That’s the value of internal tools. Converting those is viable product is very risky.

Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#77

Post by thfuran »

hnlmorg wrote: post #71
monero-xmr wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses do not exist for making jobs. If we wanted jobs simply for jobs’ sake, then we would pay people to dig holes and fill them in (a lot of government jobs are glorified versions of this). Businesses exist to fulfill a market need, and every business fulfilling that market need competes in some axis of cost vs. quality. We are all human. I feel for people laid off. I have been laid off before, and businesses I…

One of the reasons businesses (and business leaders to some extent too) argue for reduced tax burdens is because “they are job creators”. It’s literally an argument many businesses make when lobbying.

Lobbyists don't exist to accurately inform the populace or to profess sincerely held beliefs but to effect advantageous political change.

Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#78

Post by thfuran »

raincole wrote: post #44
monero-xmr wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm c-suite and the most important function of layoffs is to preserve the business as an ongoing concern, preserving what jobs I can. If the business fails, everyone loses their job, which is terrible! Now, if the reason for layoffs is due directly to poor decisions by someone who should not have reasonably made that decision given the variables in front of them, that person should probably be terminated. But layoffs…

Good comment. If you (anyone who reads this) are an employee, remember this is how c-suite people see you. You're cost . You're something that prevents the business from being "preserved". You're like water or electricity bills from the businesses' point of view. You'll be fired not because you did anything wrong: firing you is nothing different from using less water. Water, of course, can't be wrong or right. That's…

That seems like a mischaracterization of what the comment said.

Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#79

Post by thfuran »

vasco wrote: post #73
kalleboo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you are in the business of making feather hats, and suddenly feather hats go out of style because of shifts in market demand, how can you fire the business leader? Were you a c-suite at Kodak or something? "There was nothing we could do after people didn't want to shoot photos on film anymore" meanwhile Fujifilm pivoting hard into chemical materials, makeup, medical etc etc (although ironically due to the meteor…

That's one view of the world. One people try to push for but I don't agree with. It's OK for companies to have a lifecycle associated with what they do. There's no need for companies to be behemots that last forever. If you are a hat company, to me there's no direct implications that tells me it's better for society if the hat company starts making shoes vs the company ending and different cohorts of employees going…

But a company deciding "okay, were done" and just shutting down is effectively laying off 100% of the staff. This company's leadership is already getting flak for laying off under 4%.

Re: Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

#80

Post by hnlmorg »

thfuran wrote: post #77
hnlmorg wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the reasons businesses (and business leaders to some extent too) argue for reduced tax burdens is because “they are job creators”. It’s literally an argument many businesses make when lobbying.

Lobbyists don't exist to accurately inform the populace or to profess sincerely held beliefs but to effect advantageous political change.

Indeed. My point is that the “job creator” argument is flip flopped depending on whatever is convenient.
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