Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 43 — June 17, 2018


Using Compute Post-Processing in Vulkan on Mali

  • how to use two Vulkan queues to enable optimal scheduling for compute-shader based post-processing
  • discussion how fragment → compute can introduce bubbles on the hardware
  • uses two software queues with semaphore synchronization to overlap early work in the frame of the following frame with the post-processing work of the previous frame


Monte Carlo Integration Explanation in 1D

  • explanation of to use Monte Carlo integration to calculate the area under a curve
  • extending the system to deal with non-uniform random numbers distributions
    • convergence can be faster when using a distribution that is a closer match to the signal that is being sampled


PIX 1806.11 – Fence signals and waits visualization, major UI streamlining, new Edit and Continue experience, and more

  • timing capture now visualizes fence signal and wait
  • fences can be named
  • shader edit and continue workflow improvements
  • shader resource tracking for DXIL shader


Shader Playground updates

  • shader playground added support for slang
    • a shader language that extends HLSL to make it more modular and extensible
  • ability to shows the control flow graph in GraphViz ‘dot’ form for SPIRV


Lookup table based real-time PVRTC encoding

  • using lookup tables to precompute the endpoints better compression results
  • different number of lookup tables allow tradeoffs in performance, quality and memory usage


Microsoft - GDC 2018


Texturing in a 64kB intro

  • discusses the history and design of their in-house procedural texture generation tool


Book of the Dead: Photogrammetry Assets, Trees, VFX

  • discussion of the photogrammetry workflow
  • camera used to capture, tools to generate the mesh and normals
  • using unity Unity’s DeLighting tool to remove shadows are even present on an overcast day
  • Tree assets are created with a mix of scans, 3ds max plugins, and quixel megascans assets
  • a fluid solver is used to calculate the flow map for the wind, shape exploration and VFX generation


PostFX v2 – Amazing visuals, upgraded

  • overview of all the post effects that can be found in PostFX v2
  • code is on github


Simple GPU Path Tracer

  • explains the basic of path tracing used in his D3D12 path tracer


Cross-platform OpenGL alternatives

  • discusses engines, frameworks, abstraction layers that support metal


Vulkan for Qt on macOS

  • QT adds support for vulkan on macOS through MolenVK