OpenAI Releases GPT-5.4 and it is State of the Art (SOTA) across Key Coding Benchmarks

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On March 5th, 2026, OpenAI released GPT-5.4  GPT-5.4 brings together the best of their “recent advances in reasoning, coding, and agentic workflows into a single frontier model”. OpenAI said that GPT-5.4 “incorporates the industry-leading coding capabilities of GPT‑5.3‑Codex⁠ while improving how the model works across tools, software environments, and professional tasks involving spreadsheets, presentations, and documents.”  GPT 5.3 Coden is great for agentic coding and combining it with GPT-5.4 helps you get real work done accurately, effectively, and efficiently.

OpenAI shared the following benchmarks comparing 5.4 to 5.3 Codex and GPT 5.2 in their announcement:

 

For Coding, they also shared their SWE-Bench Pro (public) Accuracy vs Latency Benchmarks:

 

As a demonstration of their model’s improved computer-use and coding capabilities working in tandem, they released an experimental Codex skill called “Playwright (Interactive)⁠(opens in a new window)”. This new skill “allows Codex to visually debug web and Electron apps; it can even be used to test an app it’s building, as it’s building it.”

 

I can’t wait to test and see how it has improved AI assisted game development!  I’ll let you know how my testing goes via my AI Assisted Unreal Engine video game development project using my Betide NeoStack AI Plugin and my OpenRouter account.

Epic Games recently acquired Meshcapade, a startup specializing in AI technologies for creating and animating hyper-realistic digital human models and animations from video recordings 

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Epic Games recently acquired Meshcapade, a startup specializing in AI technologies for creating and animating hyper-realistic digital humans. Meshcapade, a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems based in Tübingen, Germany, develops AI tools that generate precise 3D body models and animations from video recordings.

Meshcapade’s AI tools, built on the SMPL (Skinned Multi-Person Linear) parametric body model, primarily target and automate the body modeling and full-body motion capture stages in Epic’s MetaHuman pipeline, which currently relies on limited presets for bodies and less advanced video-based tracking for animation.

What Meshcapade Replaces in the current MetaHuman Pipeline:

  1. Preset/Manual Body Modeling: Replaces MetaHuman Creator’s ~50 preset bodies and external sculpting/rigging with AI-generated custom SMPL bodies from a single image, video clip, or scan. It extracts precise shape, pose, and clothing details automatically—no manual adjustments needed.
  2. Expensive Mocap Hardware: Replaces marker/suit-based systems (e.g., optical mocap studios) with markerless full-body capture from any camera (phone/webcam/pro). It tracks subtle motions like fingers/hands, camera movement, and multi-person scenes.
  3. Fragmented Body Animation: Complements/enhances MetaHuman Animator’s body solve with superior AI-driven full-body mocap, reducing retargeting hassles (pre-acquisition the plugin existed; now it will become native).

With the acquisition, Epic says it’s “looking forward to working together to advance digital human technologies for use across gaming, film and entertainment.”  I’m personally looking forward to a much simpler MetaHuman creation and animation pipeline for video game development and virtual production. development.

 

Claude Sonnet 4.6 Released on February 17, 2026

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Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 4.6 on February 17, 2026 – almost 2 weeks after releasing their flagship Claude Opus 4.6 model.   Below are the latest benchmarks that Anthropic published in their Claude Sonnet 4.6 announcement:

 

You can read more about Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 here.

Using the GLM 4.7V Flash Local LLM Model by Z.ai to Develop a Moon Landing Simulation Using C# on my Alienware Aurora R11 RTX-3080 10GB Video Card

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The GLM-4.7 Flash model, an Open Weight 30B-parameter  Mixture of Agents (MoE) variant, released by Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co., Ltd on January 19, 2026, is positioned as a lightweight, efficient option for local deployment and agentic tasks like coding.

The Lunar Lander coding simulation coding test ran without any problems at 6.12 tokens per second using LM Studio:

Below you can see the Task Manager Performance Chart for my NVIDIA GeForce RTX-3080 with 10GB VRAM;

Based on available benchmark data, it achieved the following scores on the specified evaluations:

GPQA: 75.2%
AIME 25: 91.6%
SWE-bench Verified: 59.2%

These results position it as a strong performer in its size class, particularly for coding and reasoning, outperforming comparably sized models like Qwen3-30B on SWE-bench Verified while maintaining lower resource requirements. Note that benchmarks can vary slightly based on evaluation configurations, but these figures are consistent across official sources and reviews.

 

 

Chloe Conrod Delivers Inspirational Game Development Talk At The 2020 Christian Games Developers Conference (CGDC)

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Chloe Conrod delivers an inspirational game development talk at the 2020 Christian Games Developers Conference (CGDC) on August 30, 2020! Click on the link below to view her talk on the CGDC YouTube Channel:

 

Summary of Chloe’s Talk:
Throughout the years, gaming has created a beautiful and mesmerizing way to escape the real world. Hundreds of these amazing creations have been released towards those of multiple generations, and have been used as an inspiration towards other aspiring game developers on what they may want to create. However, it is never a rare case for a game developer to feel burdened with the over-piling work that they have to face. From financial problems to feeling weighed down by the comments of our audience, to being exhausted from all of our hard work and wondering if we should start over, there are many in the gaming industry who have decided to quit. But, the truth is, our failures actually come from not realizing how close that we were to success, until we gave up. Us, being only human, need to realize how far that each and every one of us have come from where we originally started. Whether it’s been years of constantly working on a game, to just beginning to piece together what you want to create, or even having only attended this conference to spark and further your interest, each of us have something to be proud of. Now, this is where many of you may ask, “But, why me?” And to that, I will explain an even more important question, “Why not you?”

Phil Conrod Joins the Christian Game Developer’s Conference (CGDC) Board of Directors

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The Christian Game Developers Conference Board of Directors announced that they welcomed Phil Conrod as a new Board Member for a 2 year term. Phil Conrod has also published over two dozen textbooks which are used in K-12 schools & universities to help teach App & Game programming. You can read more about his many apps, games and textbook tutorials at https://www.biblebytebooks.com and https://www.kidwaresoftware.com.

Phil is very honored and humbled to serve the Christian Game Developers Community on the CGDC Board of Directors. Please let him know how he can serve the CGDC community best in this new Board Member role.

Phil Conrod and Kris Murray Host a Unity Workshop on the Unity Multipurpose Avatar (UMA ) and Navigation at the 2019 CGDC

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Phil Conrod and Kris Murray Host a Unity Workshop on the Unity Multipurpose Avatar (UMA ) and Navigation at the 2019 CGDC.  The Workshop for Unity 3D to create customizable characters and get them to walk around a 3D scene. Learn the Unity Multipurpose Avatar and how to change skin and hair color, body, proportions and clothes. Take that same 3D character and set it to motion on its own using Navmesh. Preparation required: Bring a laptop, download and install Unity, and get the free Unity Assets “Standard Assets” and “UMA 2” from the Unity Asset Store. Participants should have a cursory understanding of C# scripting.

Friday, 1:15pm – 2:30pm, Trail Room 

CGDC Facebook Workshop

 

BookAuthority Selects Computer Bible Games with Java as One of the 3 Best New Java Swing Books To Read In 2019!

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BookAuthority Selects our Computer Bible Games with Java as One of the 3 Best New Java Swing Books To Read In 2019!

 

BookAuthority also names Computer Bible Games with Java as One of The Best Java Swing Textbooks of All Time!

 

 

 

 

 

Phil Conrod and Kris Murray Co-Present at the 2017 CGDC – “Designing and Developing a 3D Adventure Game Using C# and Unity 3D

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BibleByte Books Published Kris Murray’s Exodus: God of the Slaves Historical Christian Novel

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BibleByte Books ​ published Kris Murray’s ‘ Exodus: God of the Slaves Historical Christian Novel on March 11, 2017.  The book is available in bookstores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  It is also available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.   You can purchase the novel as part of the Exodus Adventure Game Development bundle here.  You can follow Kris Murray’s Game Developer log and historic novel updates at his Facebook page here.

Story:  A new god comes to Egypt and sends his emissary ahead of him. A declaration of war is made that shakes the Egyptian pantheon to its core. Four young Egyptian soldiers witness the wonder as disaster upon disaster befall their homeland. Follow Yalu, Nebit, Badru, and Tau as they experience the plagues on Egypt for themselves. Yalu, a natural leader tries to survive as he attempts to overcome his past. Nebit carves out her own path with her daggers, leaving deception in her wake. Apprenticed to Pharaoh’s chief magician, Badru attempts to make sense of the battle that rages on above their heads. Tau fights on to win glory and honor for himself. How will they respond as the statues of the gods they’ve known all their lives crumble to the ground all around them? Feel how the Egyptians felt as war rages across their pantheon. Relive the familiar Exodus story set in the exotic land of Egypt from a fresh new perspective. Rediscover the wonders and signs from God of the Slaves.

Reviews:

  • The book invites you into the story through the intimacy of the characters who live it out.- – Pastor Chuck Gaines, Historian and Theologian
  • I recommend this book to anyone looking for an adventurous new take on an old story.- – Andy Hoch, Bible Study Fellowship Area Coordinator
  • It captures both the fascinating wonder and fear, which comes from searching and making sense of what has been divinely revealed.- – Pastor Glenn Pon, Chinese Grace Bible Church

 

Author’s Biography

Kris Murray is 34 years old and currently resides in Folsom California. He regularly attends weekly worship services at a non-denominational church where he helps out with music, playing violin and viola. He is also a member of Bible Study Fellowship where he volunteers teaching the Bible in the children’s program.

As a boy, he enjoyed writing and wrote numerous short stories. His mother, being a librarian, has always encouraged him to write and saved many of his school writing assignments. And now he can share them with his own six year old son to provide encouragement.

He read classic books like the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia and was fascinated by the worlds created by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. More recently, reading books like “The River God” by Wilbur Smith provided Kris with additional insight into the relevant time period for the book.

In addition to writing and playing music, Kris, his wife, and son, enjoy biking and hiking in the outdoors at the many natural wonders local to Northern California and beyond.