/Pepsi_Spire

Oh boy, how do I even start describing this project. I suppose I should start by stating this is one of my favorite projects of all time.

Firstborn was asked to design and implement the graphical user interface for Spire, Pepsi's new generation of soda fountain machines. After a long period of designing, prototyping, and user testing, we came up with a flexible family of interfaces that served two different form factors for their soda machines: Pepsi Spire 2.0 (a small size, up to 12 brand soda fountain), and Pepsi Spire 5.0 (a large-size, up to 16 brands version).

The HD screen rendered our continuously animated user interface in its full glory. Firstborn's superb motion design and the device's clean yet delightful interface produced a stunning product.

I am very proud to have been the lead developer on Spire's front end. Bringing this project to life was no easy task. We worked under many constraints, trying to get the best performance out of the small form-factor Intel NUC used internally.

This project was implemented in Flash, decidedly the best platform for the job at the time. However, the usual Flash display list was circumvented almost completely in favor of using GPU-accelerated graphics rendering. A lot of time was spent on optimizing texture memory use and draw calls. The result is an interface implementation that has more in common to OpenGL/DirectX graphics than with the typical Flash application.

This is, by far, the code I spent the most time profiling and optimizing. From debugging frame rendering using Intel DirectX tools, to measuring resources and memory use for up to 40 days (my target uptime), it offered many unusual challenges that were only matched by the satisfaction of accomplishing them.

This was also the first time I worked in something I could call a real product. Iterating, testing, and making it better was a pleasant, refreshing experience that made me realize how awesome it could be to make something that people use every day better and better.