Yining Karl Li
@yiningkarlli.bsky.social
Rendering Engineer at Disney Animation working on Disney's Hyperion Renderer. Previously at Pixar, Dreamworks, Cornell, Penn. Views here are my own.
https://www.yiningkarlli.com
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@yiningkarlli
https://www.yiningkarlli.com
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@yiningkarlli
Pinned
Yining Karl Li
@yiningkarlli.bsky.social
· Oct 30
Hello everyone! If you already know me, good to see you here!
If you don't know me: I'm a rendering engineer at Disney Animation working on our Hyperion Renderer. I've worked on every Disney Animation film since Zootopia. I post mostly about cool computer graphics and programming stuff.
If you don't know me: I'm a rendering engineer at Disney Animation working on our Hyperion Renderer. I've worked on every Disney Animation film since Zootopia. I post mostly about cool computer graphics and programming stuff.
Have you ever wanted to play Doom on your earbuds? If so, good news for you: this guy ported Doom to run on an earbud over a serial connection:
doombuds.com
doombuds.com
DOOMBUDS
doombuds.com
January 25, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Have you ever wanted to play Doom on your earbuds? If so, good news for you: this guy ported Doom to run on an earbud over a serial connection:
doombuds.com
doombuds.com
Actually the real puzzler in the whole Claude Code TUI 16 ms rendering thing is: defenders who are coming out being like "well it has to be built on a web stack"... uh... browsers run at a 120fps no problem as well, and that's web tech, and that's doing way more than a TUI?
You might be doing it wrong if you have garbage collection of any sort in a rendering pipeline.
Claude Code’s TUI struggling to hit 60fps (and the devs not knowing how silly comparing Claude Code with a game engine is) certainly hints that most of Claude Code is probably written using Claude Code.
Claude Code’s TUI struggling to hit 60fps (and the devs not knowing how silly comparing Claude Code with a game engine is) certainly hints that most of Claude Code is probably written using Claude Code.
January 24, 2026 at 8:18 AM
Actually the real puzzler in the whole Claude Code TUI 16 ms rendering thing is: defenders who are coming out being like "well it has to be built on a web stack"... uh... browsers run at a 120fps no problem as well, and that's web tech, and that's doing way more than a TUI?
You might be doing it wrong if you have garbage collection of any sort in a rendering pipeline.
Claude Code’s TUI struggling to hit 60fps (and the devs not knowing how silly comparing Claude Code with a game engine is) certainly hints that most of Claude Code is probably written using Claude Code.
Claude Code’s TUI struggling to hit 60fps (and the devs not knowing how silly comparing Claude Code with a game engine is) certainly hints that most of Claude Code is probably written using Claude Code.
January 23, 2026 at 4:04 PM
You might be doing it wrong if you have garbage collection of any sort in a rendering pipeline.
Claude Code’s TUI struggling to hit 60fps (and the devs not knowing how silly comparing Claude Code with a game engine is) certainly hints that most of Claude Code is probably written using Claude Code.
Claude Code’s TUI struggling to hit 60fps (and the devs not knowing how silly comparing Claude Code with a game engine is) certainly hints that most of Claude Code is probably written using Claude Code.
I’m amazed that Apple hasn’t partnered with anyone to do commercial IMAX films on Vision Pro yet. There is an IMAX app that is mostly nature docs, which is still cool, but for me being able to see Oppenheimer/Dune/Sinners in 1.43:1 IMAX would convince me to buy a Vision Pro.
January 23, 2026 at 3:03 PM
I’m amazed that Apple hasn’t partnered with anyone to do commercial IMAX films on Vision Pro yet. There is an IMAX app that is mostly nature docs, which is still cool, but for me being able to see Oppenheimer/Dune/Sinners in 1.43:1 IMAX would convince me to buy a Vision Pro.
PSA: for SIGGRAPH 2026, the Talks track has been updated to allow extended abstracts to be _three_ pages long, an upgrade from the old two page format. This is fantastic news; cramming everything into two pages was always a huge challenge for every talk I've ever submitted.
January 20, 2026 at 6:32 PM
PSA: for SIGGRAPH 2026, the Talks track has been updated to allow extended abstracts to be _three_ pages long, an upgrade from the old two page format. This is fantastic news; cramming everything into two pages was always a huge challenge for every talk I've ever submitted.
Fun fact: when Werner Heisenberg invented the first workable formulation of quantum mechanics, he straight up did not know what matrices were and had to independently reinvent matrix algebra. He was stuck on an island in the North Sea with no math books.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_...
January 20, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Fun fact: when Werner Heisenberg invented the first workable formulation of quantum mechanics, he straight up did not know what matrices were and had to independently reinvent matrix algebra. He was stuck on an island in the North Sea with no math books.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_...
Zootopia 2 is now Disney’s highest grossing animated film of all time. Thanks to everyone who went to see it; it means the world to all of us who worked on the film!
January 18, 2026 at 8:07 PM
Zootopia 2 is now Disney’s highest grossing animated film of all time. Thanks to everyone who went to see it; it means the world to all of us who worked on the film!
Troll idea: Apple should rename every product to screen size + iPad + suffix.
Apple Watch -> 42/46mm iPad
iPhone -> 6.3 in. iPad
MacBook Pro -> 14/16 in. iPad Pro
iMac -> 24 in. iPad
Mac Studio -> 0 in. iPad Studio
Pro Display XDR -> 32 in. iPad XDR
Apple Watch -> 42/46mm iPad
iPhone -> 6.3 in. iPad
MacBook Pro -> 14/16 in. iPad Pro
iMac -> 24 in. iPad
Mac Studio -> 0 in. iPad Studio
Pro Display XDR -> 32 in. iPad XDR
January 16, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Troll idea: Apple should rename every product to screen size + iPad + suffix.
Apple Watch -> 42/46mm iPad
iPhone -> 6.3 in. iPad
MacBook Pro -> 14/16 in. iPad Pro
iMac -> 24 in. iPad
Mac Studio -> 0 in. iPad Studio
Pro Display XDR -> 32 in. iPad XDR
Apple Watch -> 42/46mm iPad
iPhone -> 6.3 in. iPad
MacBook Pro -> 14/16 in. iPad Pro
iMac -> 24 in. iPad
Mac Studio -> 0 in. iPad Studio
Pro Display XDR -> 32 in. iPad XDR
I’m normally not a big anime/manga person, but as an animation nerd, I’ve absolutely loved Frieren. Studio Madhouse really is cooking with this show; 10/10 beautiful hand-drawn animation, 10/10 story, 10/10 art direction, 10/10 music. Insanely impressive.
youtu.be/C0BG3B7aksU?...
youtu.be/C0BG3B7aksU?...
『葬送のフリーレン』第2期ノンクレジットオープニング映像／OPテーマ：「lulu.」Mrs. GREEN APPLE／フリーレンOP
YouTube video by TOHO animation チャンネル
youtu.be
January 16, 2026 at 6:36 PM
I’m normally not a big anime/manga person, but as an animation nerd, I’ve absolutely loved Frieren. Studio Madhouse really is cooking with this show; 10/10 beautiful hand-drawn animation, 10/10 story, 10/10 art direction, 10/10 music. Insanely impressive.
youtu.be/C0BG3B7aksU?...
youtu.be/C0BG3B7aksU?...
The Imperium of Man has strictly forbidden Silica Animus ever since the end of the Dark Age of Technology.
www.ign.com/articles/war...
www.ign.com/articles/war...
Warhammer Maker Games Workshop Bans Its Staff From Using AI in Its Content or Designs, Says None of Its Senior Managers Are Currently Excited About the Tech - IGN
Warhammer maker Games Workshop has banned the use of AI in its content production and its design process, insisting that none of its senior managers are currently excited about the technology.
www.ign.com
January 14, 2026 at 9:54 PM
The Imperium of Man has strictly forbidden Silica Animus ever since the end of the Dark Age of Technology.
www.ign.com/articles/war...
www.ign.com/articles/war...
Yeah I'm not a big fan of the new Apple Creator Studio icons... I came around to really like the Big Sur era icons for Final Cut Pro / Logic Pro / Motion / Compressor / Mainstage, but these new ones just obliterate every bit of charm and whimsy and creativity that the old ones had.
January 14, 2026 at 8:56 AM
Yeah I'm not a big fan of the new Apple Creator Studio icons... I came around to really like the Big Sur era icons for Final Cut Pro / Logic Pro / Motion / Compressor / Mainstage, but these new ones just obliterate every bit of charm and whimsy and creativity that the old ones had.
The most exhausting thing about the AI coding discourse is how by far the two loudest positions are "AI coding can do everything and will replace everyone" kool aid chuggers, and "AI coding is 100% evil trash and never will be useful" hardcore skeptics, and nothing in between.
January 14, 2026 at 8:39 AM
The most exhausting thing about the AI coding discourse is how by far the two loudest positions are "AI coding can do everything and will replace everyone" kool aid chuggers, and "AI coding is 100% evil trash and never will be useful" hardcore skeptics, and nothing in between.
Seeing Darius Slay show up to watch the Eagles-49ers game while the team he technically is still on fights for their playoff lives in Jacksonville has got to be one of the funniest NFL things of the season.
January 11, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Seeing Darius Slay show up to watch the Eagles-49ers game while the team he technically is still on fights for their playoff lives in Jacksonville has got to be one of the funniest NFL things of the season.
Found this sky generator plugin for Blender; there are some seriously amazing Blender plugins out there these days.
superhivemarket.com/products/sky
superhivemarket.com/products/sky
Sky
Procedural sky and clouds generator.
superhivemarket.com
January 10, 2026 at 10:39 PM
Found this sky generator plugin for Blender; there are some seriously amazing Blender plugins out there these days.
superhivemarket.com/products/sky
superhivemarket.com/products/sky
I rewatched some of Prometheus recently. Man the first third of that movie is such an interesting movie, basically up until all of the horror Alien stuff starts. I feel like it could have been a really cool (but very different) film if it hadn’t needed to be an Alien film.
January 10, 2026 at 2:00 AM
I rewatched some of Prometheus recently. Man the first third of that movie is such an interesting movie, basically up until all of the horror Alien stuff starts. I feel like it could have been a really cool (but very different) film if it hadn’t needed to be an Alien film.
Here’s an interesting new JCGT paper showing that small neural nets can outperform LUTs in speed/memory/accuracy even when embedded in purely CPU-based renderers. The authors are some ex-Pixar rendering guys who are now at Aurora.
jcgt.org/published/00...
jcgt.org/published/00...
jcgt.org
January 7, 2026 at 9:16 PM
Here’s an interesting new JCGT paper showing that small neural nets can outperform LUTs in speed/memory/accuracy even when embedded in purely CPU-based renderers. The authors are some ex-Pixar rendering guys who are now at Aurora.
jcgt.org/published/00...
jcgt.org/published/00...
Zootopia 2 took hundreds of artists, TDs, and engineers to make; I was lucky enough to be a small part of it all! Here are some of my personal thoughts/notes from working on Zootopia 2, along with some pretty pictures.
blog.yiningkarlli.com/2025/12/zoot...
blog.yiningkarlli.com/2025/12/zoot...
January 7, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Zootopia 2 took hundreds of artists, TDs, and engineers to make; I was lucky enough to be a small part of it all! Here are some of my personal thoughts/notes from working on Zootopia 2, along with some pretty pictures.
blog.yiningkarlli.com/2025/12/zoot...
blog.yiningkarlli.com/2025/12/zoot...
I'm a little late to the party here, but I finally looked through a bunch of the slides from GPC 2025- there's a ton of cool stuff here! I especially liked the Blender Cycles, Teardown voxel ray tracing, and DOOM Dark Ages path tracing talks.
graphicsprogrammingconference.com/archive/2025/
graphicsprogrammingconference.com/archive/2025/
Graphics Programming Conference
The Graphics Programming Conference is a conference for graphics programmers, from student to industry veteran, taking place in November in Europe.
graphicsprogrammingconference.com
January 7, 2026 at 6:42 AM
I'm a little late to the party here, but I finally looked through a bunch of the slides from GPC 2025- there's a ton of cool stuff here! I especially liked the Blender Cycles, Teardown voxel ray tracing, and DOOM Dark Ages path tracing talks.
graphicsprogrammingconference.com/archive/2025/
graphicsprogrammingconference.com/archive/2025/
My daughter recently moved up from baby to toddler and she marked the occasion by growing like 6 teeth in a month. She went from 3 teeth to 9 teeth- that’s a lot of teeth in not a lot of time!
Software development is fun and all but human development is truly wild.
Software development is fun and all but human development is truly wild.
January 6, 2026 at 12:31 AM
My daughter recently moved up from baby to toddler and she marked the occasion by growing like 6 teeth in a month. She went from 3 teeth to 9 teeth- that’s a lot of teeth in not a lot of time!
Software development is fun and all but human development is truly wild.
Software development is fun and all but human development is truly wild.
I work in animation/VFX, which isn't games but is far closer to games than it is to web stuff and... uh... at least where I work we've had all of these things for years and years now? At my job we release to production multiple times a day and can do so on demand in minutes.
January 3, 2026 at 12:44 AM
I work in animation/VFX, which isn't games but is far closer to games than it is to web stuff and... uh... at least where I work we've had all of these things for years and years now? At my job we release to production multiple times a day and can do so on demand in minutes.
I thought this was a great read. For the past 15 years I've visited China a lot to see family and such, and I've built up an impression of China that lines up pretty much exactly with what Dan has written. He hits the nail on the head, with fantastic and coherent writing.
danwang.co/2025-letter/
danwang.co/2025-letter/
2025 letter | Dan Wang
Corgis, compute, Cold War; Ecclesiastes; ties; Stendhal; humor; Pascal's Wager; deep infrastructure; Germanic obedience; Texas State Fair
danwang.co
January 2, 2026 at 6:54 AM
I thought this was a great read. For the past 15 years I've visited China a lot to see family and such, and I've built up an impression of China that lines up pretty much exactly with what Dan has written. He hits the nail on the head, with fantastic and coherent writing.
danwang.co/2025-letter/
danwang.co/2025-letter/
Avatar Fire and Ash deserves a nomination for Best Animated Feature; don’t @ me.
December 26, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Avatar Fire and Ash deserves a nomination for Best Animated Feature; don’t @ me.
The IMAX trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey being released in 1080p and in a 2.39:1 crop instead of 1.43:1 sure is... uh.... a move.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikli...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikli...
The Odyssey | Official Trailer | Shot Entirely With IMAX® Film Cameras
YouTube video by IMAX
www.youtube.com
December 22, 2025 at 6:36 PM
The IMAX trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey being released in 1080p and in a 2.39:1 crop instead of 1.43:1 sure is... uh.... a move.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikli...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikli...
Scotty built his own Apple Watch in Shenzhen. The CNC milling part blew me away- he worked with a startup making a desktop CNC. This is the kind of startup that seems unfathomable in the US right now; we're at a huge disadvantage for this kind of hardware startup.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsWT...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsWT...
How I Made My Own Apple Watch - in China
YouTube video by Strange Parts
www.youtube.com
December 19, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Scotty built his own Apple Watch in Shenzhen. The CNC milling part blew me away- he worked with a startup making a desktop CNC. This is the kind of startup that seems unfathomable in the US right now; we're at a huge disadvantage for this kind of hardware startup.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsWT...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsWT...
macOS 26.2 adds support for RDMA over Thunderbolt 5; there's a bunch of new articles/videos showing this in Apple's MLX machine learning framework.
Does anyone know if there's proper developer docs yet? The best I can find is the MR adding this to MLX: github.com/ml-explore/m...
Does anyone know if there's proper developer docs yet? The best I can find is the MR adding this to MLX: github.com/ml-explore/m...
Thunderbolt RDMA communications backend by angeloskath · Pull Request #2808 · ml-explore/mlx
This PR adds the JACCL backend that enables low-latency distributed communication via thunderbolt RDMA. The backend is latency optimized for now and only supports full mesh but ring and bandwidth o...
github.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:38 PM
macOS 26.2 adds support for RDMA over Thunderbolt 5; there's a bunch of new articles/videos showing this in Apple's MLX machine learning framework.
Does anyone know if there's proper developer docs yet? The best I can find is the MR adding this to MLX: github.com/ml-explore/m...
Does anyone know if there's proper developer docs yet? The best I can find is the MR adding this to MLX: github.com/ml-explore/m...