Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 129 — April 26, 2020


flowchart for descriptor set setup in Vulkan

  • a flowchart that provides an overview of the descriptor set binding logic of the Vulkan API

CUSTOM GAME ENGINES: A Small Study

  • list of games studios and which custom engines they are using
  • broken down into AAA, middle, small and solo developers


Twitter thread - using quaternions

  • the thread provides an overview of what are use cases for quaternions
  • focusing on how to use them instead of the mathematics


Improving the quality of the alpha test (cutout) materials

  • the article explains problems with alpha testing materials and why they tend to shrink in the distance
  • presents a technique to reduce these artifacts and compares against other techniques


Debugging refraction in a sphere

  • presents a test setup that explains how to validate ray refraction within a sphere
  • shows what values are expected, very useful when implementing your own ray tracer


From WebGL to WebGPU in Construct

  • the article presents how WebGPU compares with WebGL
  • compares findings in terms of API design, early performance results, and compatibility


Ray Tracing Essentials Part 6: The Rendering Equation

  • part of the ray tracing series covering the rendering equation
  • breaks down the equations into components and explains the contributions to the final rendering result
  • shows how pure path tracing is using the equation and techniques used to reduce the time required for the results to converge to the final result


Vulkan - Debug Printf

  • the Vulkan validation layer now can send printf style information from a shader to the debug callback
  • the article explains how to use the layer and what constraints need to be considered


[video] Ratchet & Clank Pixelizer FX in Unity

  • the Unity video tutorial explains how to implement an effect that converts a 3D mesh into a voxelized version
  • achieved by rendering the mesh into an offscreen target and using the texture to drive a geometry shader
  • additionally shows how to break this object into a particle effect for destruction


Blurred rounded rectangles

  • the article presents how to calculate a blurred version of a rounded rectangle using a distance field based technique


UE4 Texture/Material/Cascade optimization tips

  • a long document containing many tips and tricks to optimize UE4 performance
  • mostly aimed at materials and VFX related optimizations


Floating World Shader Part 5 – Ocean Material

  • the last part of a series of UE4 based posts that recreate an environment artists scene
  • this part focuses on the recreation of the stylized ocean in the scene
  • combines all elements and presents the final result


The Technical Interview [LEAKED]

  • the guide presents an overview of the structure and content of technical interviews
  • presents a framework for mapping rendering engineers in different dimensions


Thanks to Dominik Lazarek for support of this series.


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