Jendrik Illner - 3D Programmer on Jendrik Illner - 3D Programmer

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 277 - March 6th, 2023

Sun, 05 Mar 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Float Compression 7: More Filtering Optimization

the article continues the series on float compression topics
presents how to optimize the process by redesigning the system to take advantage of SIMD instruction sets
shows how much of a performance difference the usage can make

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PIX 2303.02: You asked, we listened! A bumper PIX release

new release of PIX contains a vast list of new developments
some examples are RayGen debugging, the ability to show selected draw objects, pix capture diffs, improved memory allocation view, and much more

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Understanding Vulkan device buffer address alignment

the article explains the alignment requirements of buffer loads from VK_KHR_buffer_device_address
provides a walkthrough of the generated SPIR-V and explains why the issue occurs by explaining the spec requirements

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Real-time Cluster Path Tracing for Remote Rendering

the presentation covers a real-time cluster-based path-tracing renderer
discusses how the architecture was designed to allow linearly scaling with the number of GPUs

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[video] Simple Lighting in Defold - Screen Space Light Maps

the video tutorial presents a simple lighting model that uses sprites to define light effects
this is done by defining lights as one render target and combining it with the base world
implementation using Defold is presented (using GLSL shaders)

Vulkan all the way: Transitioning to a modern low-level graphics API in academia

the paper explains the experience of transitioning university classes to be taught using Vulkan instead of OpenGL
discusses difficulties and advantages encountered
shows how it affects student learning, grades, and project results

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[video] How to Improve Shader Performance by Resolving LDC Divergence

the video discusses the problem of non-uniform constant loads within a single wrap
shows how to use Nvidia NSight to identify the problem
discusses in detail how to correlate counters, latency, and instruction traces
using Structured Buffers instead of Constant Buffers will be able to resolve the problem once identified

CUDA LOD Generation

the paper presents how to use GPU-based techniques to implement LOD construction of point clouds
discusses the different implementation approaches’ impact on performance and quality

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[video] Lighting // Terrain Rendering episode #5

the latest part of the video tutorial discusses how to apply lighting to a terrain using OpenGL
discusses standard diffuse lighting and Slope Lighting
provides a high-level overview of each technique and discusses the implementation

Thanks to Matt Pharr for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 276 - February 26th, 2023

Sun, 26 Feb 2023 04:00:00 +0000

How to render it. Ten ideas to solve Computer Graphics problems.

the article presents an overview of 10 aspects to consider when approaching solving a computer graphics problem
discusses the importance of understanding the working space, data representation, as well as time constraints
presents how to take advantage of generic data science techniques (such as data visualization/exploration, Numerical optimization, …) to gain new insights
additionally shows how ground truth and Machine learning techniques can be combined to develop an intuition of the limits of a given solution

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Setting up a bindless rendering pipeline

the talk describes to setup a bindless rendering pipeline using Vulkan, D3D12, and HLSL shaders
shows how to set up the CPU side management to allow GPU side validation
describes the emulations required for Vulkan

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Reading Veach’s Thesis, Part 2

the article continues a series of understanding the Robust Monte Carlo Methods for Light Transport Simulation master thesis
this article focuses on the understanding of multiple-importance sampling
explains the insights required to better understand the balance heuristic especially

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Two-pass Gaussian blur coeffifients generator

the article provides a calculator that generates offsets and weights for a separable Gaussian blur filter
allows the specification of a couple of settings (radius, sigma, filtering mode, …) and generates GLSL code
explains the underlying logic and shows how to implement the filter in GLSL

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WebGPU Error Handling best practices

the article describes the error handling techniques that are available when using WebGPU
defaults will print detailed errors to the console, but developers can define scopes to collect information from the program and attach additional information to objects
additionally presents how to collect detailed information from shader compilation errors

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Vulkanised 2023

the official website collects the links to the videos and slides of the talks presented at the Vulkanised 2023 conference
not all talks have slides at this time

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An Open Letter to ARM / Mali: Please stop doing this

the article presents issues with the ARM/mali GPU device IDs and how they relate to GPU performance for game setting tweaking
shows how that reusing the same ID for multiple chips with large performance delta makes it challenging to identify capabilities correctly

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Thanks to Aras Pranckevicius for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 275 - February 19th, 2023

Sun, 19 Feb 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Impressions from Vulkanised 2023 Conference

the author presents his impression from the Vulkanied conference
presents an overview of the topics covered, what discussions revealed during panel discussions, and what are common issues

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[video] Vulkanised 2023

the playlist of video recordings of the talks presented at the Vulkanised 2023 in Munich
covers a large number of topics such as Mesh Shader best practices, source-level shader debugging, performance optimizations
ranges from mobile and desktop to virtual reality

Teardown Teardown

the article presents a breakdown of how Teardown is being rendered
shows all stages of the pipeline required for the final frame
shows how the G-Buffer is drawn, how details are applied to the voxel
additionally presents how the weather effects, lighting, as well as denoising are implemented
additionally covers many more steps of the frame pipeline

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Swapping Colours

the article provides an overview of different techniques to adjust object colors from objects
shows how to implement the presented techniques using Unity visual shader language as well as in HLSL

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[video] Calculating Ray-Sphere Intersections

the video tutorial explains how to implement ray-sphere intersection testing
discusses the mathematic derivation of the technique
shows how to implement the intersection testing using GLSL in shadertoy

Fast Real-Time Shading for Polygonal Hair

the paper presents a technique to approximate hair lighted by an environment map, direct lighting, or a global illumination
build around the modeling of obstruction around each hair using spherical harmonics instead of requiring deep opacity maps

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Float Compression 6: Filtering Optimization

the blog post continues the series on float compression techniques
investigates how SIMD instruction sets can be used to optimize
presents how it affects the results

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[video] Parallax Occlusion Optimization - Advanced Materials - Episode 15

the video discusses the difference between Parallax Occlusion and normal mapping
presents how to optimize the implementation to adjust the steps only for cases where precision is required
implementation is shown in both Unity and Unreal

Thanks to Aras Pranckevicius for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 274 - February 12th, 2023

Sun, 12 Feb 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Screen Space Indirect Lighting with Visibility Bitmask

the paper proposes an expansion of Horizon-based indirect illumination by using visibility bitmasks instead of horizon angles
stores (occluded / un-occluded) of N sectors uniformly distributed around the hemisphere slice instead
meant to improve results for thin surfaces

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Raymarching Clouds

the post provides a walkthrough of how to implement raymarching for volumetric clouds
provides an implementation using shadertoy
additionally discusses further issues and further steps

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GM Shaders Mini: Blendmodes

the short tutorial shows how to recreate photoshop blend modes using GLSL shader code
contains a link to a GLSL implementation of additional blend mode implementations

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A fast and precise triangle rasterizer

the article presents how to implement a software triangle rasterizer
discusses how to evaluate if pixels are inside a triangle
covers how to deal with edge cases, how to improve constant precision through the use of a fixed-point number representation
additionally presents performance optimizations

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Getting Started with Vulkan Compute Acceleration

the tutorial explains the basics of compute shader usage with Vulkan by implementing a compute-shader-based particle system
shows how to load compute shaders, bind resources and interact with graphics resources
additionally covers how the hardware executes compute shaders by explaining concepts such as workgroups and invocations

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Technically Art: Issue 138 (11.02.2023)

a collection of tech art tweets covering topics such as procedural modeling, volumetric motion blur, skin shader, VFX and visual shader WIP reports

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[video] Texturing // Terrain Rendering episode #4

the video tutorial explains how to apply textures to a terrain system
provides a recap of texture mapping techniques and how to apply textures based on the height of the terrain
expands upon the techniques to tile texture across the terrain
additionally shows how to use mipmapping and how it improves the quality of the results

Thanks to Wiktor Czosnowski for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 273 - February 5th, 2023

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Float Compression 0: Intro

the start of a series of blog posts that explores the space of compressing floating point data
this post explains the source of the data and patterns of the underlying data
series compares a large number of techniques, compression solutions, and libraries

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GM Shaders Mini: Normal Maps

short tutorial explains the concept of normal maps and how it influences the lighting computations
shows how to interpret the meaning of the colors
additionally shows the importance of normal map orientation

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Shader Tutorial: Subsurface Scattering

the article explains how to create a shader in Unity that gives an object a subsurface scattering effect
shows what effect subsurface scattering has on the lighting model
presents how to integrate it into the standard surface shader

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Compute Shader thread index to 2D coordinate

the blog post explains how to convert a one-dimension threadIndex from compute shader into a 2D coordinate
shows how to use Quad-wide Shuffle Operations to reduce reliance on group-shared memory

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[video] Sand Shader - Advanced Materials - Episode 14

the video tutorial shows how to adjust Unity and Unreal Shading models to be more fitting for Sand rendering
shows how to adjust textures sources for efficient usage from shaders

WebGL / WebGPU Jan 2023 meetup highlights

the article presents a summary of what was discussed at the WebGL / WebGPU meetup
lists new extensions coming for WebGL and the state of WebGPU rollout
shows how the most significant obstacle for ThreeJS to adopt WebGPU is the requirement of WGSL shader language

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The Energy Distance as a Replacement for the Reconstruction Loss in Conditional GANs

the paper presents an alternative way to deal with the instability of generative adversarial networks (cGANs)
suggests replacing the reconstruction loss with the energy distance
paper contains a one-page summary of the technique

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PS2 Vector Unit Lighting on Shadowman2

the article presents a look back at the Shadowman game implementation for the PS2
describes how to implement and optimize the four-point light setup while staying within PS2 limitations

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Thanks to Top-OR for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 272 - January 29nd, 2023

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Teardown Frame Teardown - Rendering analysis

the article presents a rendering analysis of the game Teardown
shows a look at video captures of the game to develop an intuition before diving into RenderDoc
shows that the game objects are drawn using a 3D Sprite concept
the game uses a volumetric shadow map that is updated from the CPU
additionally covers Lighting, Compositing as well as Post-Processing

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Accelerated Photon Mapping for Hardware-based Ray Tracing

the paper presents how to take advantage of ray tracing hardware for progressive photon mapper
shows how ray tracing–based collection outperforms hash-based GPU photon mapping algorithms
additionally introduces Photon Culling, a technique to reduce the number of photons stored per iteration

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Bringing Nanite to Fortnite Battle Royale in Chapter 4

the article explains updates required for Chapter 4 of Battle Royale
shows how increasing triangle counts of the mesh tented is better than masked materials and techniques to preserve vegetation density
discusses how to handle object animation and improve culling

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Introducing Compressonator v4.3

the new release introduces support for the Brotli-G lossless compression format
additionally adds support for RGBA_10101002, R8 and 16-Bit PNG File support

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[video] Image-based Lighting (IBL) of PBR Materials [Shaders Monthly #11]

the video presents how to implement image-based lighting of the Cook-Torrance microfacet BRDF
contains how to derive the Ground Truth Solution and shows how the Split Sum Approximation can simplify the equation
presents how to implement the required shaders using GLSL

Infinite Quadtrees – Fractal Coordinates

the article introduces the idea of expression quadtrees in terms of a collection of square grids
this allows the space to grow indefinitely as the used spaces change (movement or zooms)

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Learn WebGPU

the WIP guide covers how to use the WebGPU graphics API from C++
at this time, presents how to create a render a basic 3D mesh
additionally shows how to load and apply textures

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The LookAt Matrix

the article presents how to implement a camera look-at matrix
visually shows how the components combine to form the result
mentions the difference between rasterization and ray-tracing workloads

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Lumen brings real-time global illumination to Fortnite Battle Royale Chapter 4

the blog post describes what changes were required to make Lumen work in 60 FPS mode for the new season of Fortnite
discusses how a reverse lookup structure is used to accelerate per-mesh surface cache information for sharper reflections and lighting when using software ray tracing at low resolutions
shows how spatiotemporal blue noise was able to improve results from the same number of rays

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Virtual Shadow Maps in Fortnite Battle Royale Chapter 4

the article explains the issue that needed to be solved for Virtual Shadow Maps at 60fps
explains common issues that are often encountered when trying to cache sun shadow maps
additionally explains a collection of techniques required to improve performance and quality for the Fortnite art style

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Thanks to Bruno Opsenica for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 271 - January 22nd, 2023

Sun, 22 Jan 2023 04:00:00 +0000

[video] SIGGRAPH 2022 - Advances in Spatial Hashing

the video explains how Spatial hashing applies to storing sparse spatial data
presents how to extend the technique for cache coherence using view-dependent effects using world-space temporal filtering
additionally presents how to improve quality by using visibility-aware environment sampling

Fast, Near Lossless ‘Compression’ of Normal Floats

the article explains a method to compress 32-bit floats into 24-bits
shows how IEEE floats are defined and how to take advantage of conventions to further compress them for constrained ranges
HLSL and C++ code is provided

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High-Performance Graphics 2023 - Call for Participation

the High-Performance Graphics 2023 conference is open for submissions
the pages list topics covered and important dates for the submission

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Jobs

Graphics Engineer (m/f/x)
Darmstadt/Germany (partly remote possible)

YOU are looking to revolutionize the world of 3D in industrial environments and enjoy working in a highly innovative team?

Develop next-gen rendering technology, create high-performance pipelines and write complex real-time shaders. We are guaranteed to have interesting topics for YOU!

Would you like to advertise your job openings here too? More information

Announcing GFXReconstruct (v0.9.17) with DirectX®12 and DirectX® Raytracing support

the article announces that the GFXReconstruct now supports D3D12 (previously was Vulkan only)
explains how to use the tool to record D3D12 applications
additional shows workflows to reduce capture size and increase playback speed

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[video] Midpoint Displacement // Terrain Rendering episode 3

the video explains a second technique to generate terrains taken from the Focus on 3D Terrain Programming book
provides a high-level overview of the algorithms as well as an OpenGL implementation
additionally, details on how to deal with edge cases of the technique

Rotation with three shears

the article shows how to rotate a 2D sprite using 3 shear operations
discusses the properties and advantages of this method

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Thanks to Michael Hazani for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 270 - January 15th, 2023

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 04:00:00 +0000

AMD RDNA™ 3 Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) reference guide is now available

the new AMD hardware guide for RDNA3 has been released
covers the shader execution model, the various wave execution models
as well as how the shader core interacts with the memory hierarchy

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Approximate projected bounds

the article shows techniques implement conservative techniques to project bounding boxes and spheres into screen-space
these techniques are optimized for use in culling use cases as it affects the meaning of near-z clipping
presents trade-offs between the techniques in terms of computational cost and culling efficiency

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Use.GPU Goes Trad

the article describes how the Use.GPU level of abstraction is continuing to evolve
presents how scene management can be natively expressed as part of the same pass-based architecture
shows how the same high-level logic allows switching between deferred and forward rendering easily
additionally discusses strange limitations in the graphics APIs that make switching work between texture formats, pixel shaders, and compute shaders more difficult

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Jobs

Graphics Engineer (m/f/x)
Darmstadt/Germany (partly remote possible)

YOU are looking to revolutionize the world of 3D in industrial environments and enjoy working in a highly innovative team?

Develop next-gen rendering technology, create high-performance pipelines and write complex real-time shaders. We are guaranteed to have interesting topics for YOU!

Would you like to advertise your job openings here too? More information

Tangent Spaces and Diamond Encoding

the article provides an overview of Tangen Space Encodings
covers how to use Octahedral Encoding and further compress it with Tangent Angle
from there, develops the suggested Diamond Encoding technique that extends the Octahedral approach into the tangent angle space
additionally provides a brief section on rethinking how tangent space encoding might be better expressed on a mesh(let) level on modern hardware

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Optimize Your Graphics with RenderDoc Meta Fork

the article presents the Meta Quest exclusive features of the RenderDoc fork
the extensions allow the visualization of the tiled-based hardware binning into screen tiles and how they are executed
allows drawing call tracing to gather the latency of draw calls
additionally allows the collection of hardware statistics of shaders through KHR_pipeline_executable_properties

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An Introduction to Vulkan: A Full Day Tutorial

during the Vulkanised 2023 conference in Munich, a full-day tutorial will take place
this post explains the target audience of the course and the associated price

Water Wave Simulation

the article aims to develop an intuition for FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) and how it’s underlying the math of waves
provides a large number of interactive examples to experiment with the effects of different parameters
contains a high-level introduction to complex numbers and how they relate to rotation and scaling

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Random thoughts after moving from GLSL to HLSL

the author describes the personal experience with GLSL and HLSL gained through moving AnKi 3D between the shading languages
mentions why HLSL seems like a better bet for the long-term future
also mentions shortcomings of using HLSL when developing Vulkan applications

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Min/Max Buffer Precision Improvement

the blog post explains how to improve the precision when encoding min-max per tile
the author suggests storing only one as an absolute value and a delta to reconstruct the other

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How to accelerate AI applications on RDNA 3 using WMMA

the article covers how Wave Matrix Multiply Accumulate (WMMA)
presents how to use the intrinsics available in the HIP framework to accelerate the matrix operations typically found in machine learning work

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Thanks to Peter Kohaut for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 269 - January 8th, 2023

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Practical Tips for Optimizing Ray Tracing

the article provides techniques to speedup raytracing workloads
discusses techniques to integrate “importance sampling” for dynamic objects that are off-screen but still contribute to effects
how to optimize shader table updates
additionally presents the idea of aligning TLAS boxes so that bounding boxes are aligned with the world axis

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Snowglobe

the article presents a breakdown of how a Snowglobe can be implemented using Unity
shows how to set up glass sphere refraction/reflections
additional covers on how to simulate the snow using particles

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Let’s talk about (GPU) crashes

the article presents a discussion of different sources of GPU hangs
shows techniques that can be used to track down the cause of hangs
techniques available in D3D12 and Vulkan that can be used to develop techniques to track down the source of the issue

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[pptx] Deep Dive into FidelityFX Super Resolution 2

the presentation contains a step-by-step walkthrough of the FSR implementation
shows how the API is structured and what updates have been made from FSR 2.0 to 21

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Updates in d3dx12.h: Nuget Packaging, Header Bloat Reduction, and D3DX12GetCopyableFootprints

a new version of the D3D Agility SDK has been released
includes the d3dx12 headers, and those have been split into separate headers so users can only include what they need
additionally, the implementation of GetCopyableFootprints has been open-sourced

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[video] Fault Formation // Terrain Rendering episode 2

the video shows how to implement a Fault Formation algorithm for a procedural terrain using OpenGL
additionally presents how a (Finite impulse response) FIR filter can be used to smooth the results
presents an overview of the filter, visualize the effects using Excel, and shows how to implement it using GLSL

[video] niagara: Culling optimization

another part of the Vulkan series that implement GPU culling
this part focuses on optimizations and cleanup tasks
presents the effects on the performance of the different techniques covered

Experimenting with fp16, part 2

the blog post continues the discussion of the effects of using 16-bit floating point values in the temporal resolve shader from the FidelityFX SSSR sample
looks into AMD hardware instruction generated by the compiler
shows how why the VGPR usage is so different
presents alternative ways to express the work and how it affects the generated code

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Requiem for piet-gpu-hal

the article discusses the reasoning why Vello (a GPU compute-centric 2D renderer) choose to transition to WebGPU
discusses the choices made during the implementation
looks at strengths and open issue
additionally provides a look at more advanced features and how WebGPU limits are affecting the project

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Thanks to Unai Landa for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 268 - January 1st, 2023

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Experimenting with fp16 in shaders

The article discusses the use of 16-bit floating point numbers (fp16) in shaders
Using fp16 can reduce the memory and bandwidth requirements of a shader
The article presents the results of experiments and how it affects the generated code

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Improving color quantization heuristics

the article discusses techniques for improving color quantization algorithms
presents several heuristics for improving the quality of quantization
the article discusses the trade-offs involved in using different heuristics and provides examples of the results

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Implement MacOS Monterey screen saver in shadertoy(less than 100 lines of code)

the tutorial shows how to implement an effect that recreates the color and wave pattern of the screensaver found in macOS
presents how to create the different aspects using shadertoy and how to combine the effects

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Screen-space Variable Rate Shading in Unity with DirectX 12.

The article discusses screen-space variable rate shading (VRS), a technique that can improve performance
VRS allows the shading rate to be varied across the screen
code examples show how to use the technique from Unity

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Column Major and Row Major Vectors and Matrices (for games)

the article explains the difference between row-major and column-major matrices
discusses the relationship between matrix storage format, matrix layout, and operation order
presents that the choice of storage format can affect the performance of matrix operations

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[video] Hexagonal Tiling Explained!

The video explains how to create a hexagon using SDFs in shadertoy
expands the concepts to show how to tile the grid of hexagons
demonstrates how to expand on the concepts to create more complex shapes

Unity Mobile Game Performance Optimization: Balance between Graphics Performance and GPU Pressure

the article discusses strategies for optimizing the performance of mobile games in Unity
presents the importance of tradeoffs between quality and performance
shows techniques for improving performance, such as reducing draw calls, minimizing overdraw, and using batching and instancing

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Thanks to Leonardo Etcheverry for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 267 - December 25th, 2022

Sun, 25 Dec 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Two-Pass Occlusion Culling

the blog posts describes how Hierarchical Z-Buffer (HZB) Occlusion Culling uses a depth buffer to improve culling efficiency
describes two possible solutions that can be used to solve the problem that a depth buffer of the view is required to accelerate the rasterization of the same view
focuses on a technique that uses information about which objects have been visible in the previous frame to accelerate the current

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Ghost of Tsushima SIGGRAPH Talks

summary of two Siggraph talks by the author covering Ghost of Tsushima
the talks cover Lighting, Atmosphere, Tonemapping as well as PBR Shading in Ghost of Tsushima

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Some News About the 4th Edition of Physically Based Rendering

the post announces that the new edition of PBR will be released on March 28, 2023
chapter 11 - Volume Scattering and Chapter 14, Light Transport: Volume Rendering are available as PDF download already

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[video] niagara: Triangle culling

the stream covers the implementation and exploration of triangle culling into a GPU culling pipeline
discusses trade-offs of different techniques and locations in the pipeline
shows the effects of different culling techniques on the number of primitives that need rasterization

Path tracing workshop

Intel released a Path tracing workshop of 76 minutes of videos and ShaderToy exercises
shows how to implement a ray tracer, the path tracer
how to speed up the algorithms through the use of importance sampling

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rust-gpu v0.4

a new version of rust-GPU that allows Rust code to generate SPIR-V has been released
this release adds support for raytracing
additional contains many new APIs such as support for ByteAddressableBuffer or debug_printf

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[video] Coding a Bezier curve from scratch!

the video presents how to implement Bezier Interpolation
shows how curves are defined, visualizing how the factors are combined to create the final curve
all implementations are presented in ShaderToy

Introduction of the Raytracing Technology Part 2

the article continues the series by covering an overview of raytracing techniques
covers the Path Tracing Equations, Direct Lighting (single and multiple lights), Indirect Illumination
Additionally covers high-level approaches such as Bidirectional Path Tracing and Metropolis Ray Tracing

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Meshlet sizing theory

the article presents metrics to calculate to judge the optimal size for meshlets
compares the AMD and Nvidia limits to see how they might affect the choices

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[video] Compute Shaders in Bevy

the video presents how to integrate a compute shader into the Rust-based bevy engine
shows how to integrate the compute pass into the render graph system
additionally shows how to read back simulation results back to the CPU

Deferred Shading

the article provides an explanation of deferred shading
discusses the issues with forward shading and how deferred shading can solve them
shows how deferred shading can be implemented, including techniques to reduce memory and bandwidth usage for the technique

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Stream compaction using wave intrinsics

the article presents how to use wave intrinsics to reduce the number of atomic operations required when compacting sparse arrays into packed arrays
presented technique is based on FidelityFX’s SSSR implementation

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Thanks to Vivitsu Maharaja for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 266 - December 18th, 2022

Sun, 18 Dec 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Introducing AMD Render Pipeline Shaders SDK

This article provides an overview of the Render Pipeline SDK design and implementation
it shows how the SDK can reduce the complexity of render graph implementations
presents that it’s able to manage resource barriers and transient memory
additionally presents a demonstration of the performance effects that could be observed from real game workloads
video version is available

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Introduction of the Raytracing Technology Part 1

the article provides an overview and history of raytracing
it covers different styles of raytracing, common elements
additionally provides a brief on how different phenomena can be simulated

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[video] Heightmaps // Terrain Rendering episode 1

the video is the start of a new video series to render a height map using OpenGL
shows how to load and render a terrain from a textural heightmap

[video] World Normal Mix Shader in Godot

the video tutorial shows how to implement a shader in Godot that mixes two textures into a single material based on the normal directions of the mesh
explains all the necessary vector space transformations, how to unpack normals as well as combine normals

[video] CUDA 12 New Features and Beyond

the video discusses new features in Cuda 12 and a look at future developemnts
covering Dynamic Parallelism (GPU side task launching), lazy loading to reduce load time and memory usage
additionally covers updates to the CUDA compiler, math library updates as well as compability updates

GM Shaders Mini: Fluids

the article presents a technique to improve the look of a particle based fluid system
uses Metaballs to more smoothly blend the particles together as well as simple Refraction model
implementation is provided in GLSL for Game Maker

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Bringing Nvidia® and AMD support to oneAPI

the article explains how the oneAPI API can be used to target intel, nvidia and AMD GPUs
presents a high level explanation of the technical implementation and goals for the future

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Thanks to Jon Greenberg for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 265 - December 11th, 2022

Sun, 11 Dec 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Resolving Long Standing Issues with Vulkan Windowing System Integration (WSI)

the blog post explains two new extensions that have been added to Vulkan to improve interaction with windowing systems
applications can now better be sure when to release swap chains, clean up the deletion flow as well as added additional flags to open the opportunity for driver optimizations during swap chain resize operations

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Understanding The Math Behind ReStir DI

the in-depth article explains the mathematics behind the original ReStir and an in-depth analysis of why it works
covers the preliminary knowledge required (Multiple)Importance Sampling, Sample Importance Resampling (SIR), Resampled Importance Sampling (RIS) as well, as Weighted Reservoir Sampling (WRS))
uses the information to develop a mental framework for understanding ReStir (Reservoir Spatio-Temporal Importance Resampling), how it works and why it’s an unbiased technique

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UE5.1 - New shading models and changing the GBuffer

the article presents how to integrate a custom toon shading model into UE5.1
explains the necessary C++ modifications and shader work to integrate it
presents the complexity and limitations connected to the integration

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[video] Live Coding: 3d Truchet Weave

the video presents a walkthrough of how to replicate a Truchet Weave pattern using ShaderToy
covering how to define an SDF for a Grid, Truchet, or Weave pattern and combine everything for the final result

Fast CDF generation on the GPU for light picking

the blog post explains how to build a cumulative distribution function (CDF) to accelerate the sampling of lights in a real-time ray tracer
explains the high-level concept of a CDF and shows how to implement this on the GPU
presents how to optimize the implementation to better take advantage of GPU hardware and utilize wave instructions for further optimizations

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[video] The Continuity of Splines

the detailed video explains splines and concepts derived/extended from these
covering Bézier Curves and Bézier Splines, explaining the underlying mathematics and concepts
provides an in-depth explanation of the concepts of continuity, yet again in a large number of contexts
with this information, the video dives deeper into extended concepts such as Hermite Spline, B-Spline, NURBS, and color splines (to name a few)

Area Lights

the tutorial explains how to implement area lighting using OpenGL
implements the “Linearly Transformed Cosines” technique as published originally in 2016

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[video] Shader Code and Maths to Node Graphs

the presentation focuses on how to approach the implementation of abstract code/math expressions to make it easier to work with
presents the importance of breaking down more complex expressions into sub-expression and visualizing individual components
shows the approaches by implementing randomized water puddle placement, a Gerstner Waves simulation, as well as using flow maps to displace water around obstacles

ECCV 2022 Tutorial - Neural Volumetric Rendering for Computer Vision

slides and videos for the Neural Volumetric Rendering for Computer Vision have been released
covering the fundamentals of Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs), how to apply them to Volumetric data sources
additional presents existing challenges as well as a brief walkthrough of a NeRFs workflow

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Behind the Pretty Frames: Death Stranding

the article provides a detailed look into a frame breakdown from the Decima engine-powered Death Stranding
shows how the frame is rendered in a large number of compute passes, showing what resources are used in each pass and how it’s combined
includes an overview of a large number of post-processing effects and how they appear to be implemented and combined to create the desired look

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Thanks to Graham Wihlidal for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 264 - December 4th, 2022

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 04:00:00 +0000

MIPNet: Neural Normal-to-Anisotropic-Roughness MIP Mapping

the paper presents a new method to calculate texture MIP maps that preserves compatibility with existing MIP mapping techniques
the technique uses neural networks to optimize the transfer of material appearance under varying view distances and lighting conditions
presents the results on two distinct BRDF models (Anisotropic GGX and Anisotropic Beckmann)

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[video] How Big Budget AAA Games Render Clouds

the video provides a summary of the cloud rendering techniques covered in Horizon: Zero Dawn and the FrostBite engine papers
shows the individual components visually and how they are combined to create the final cloud effect
a brief discussion of performance optimization possibilities

Studying 'Spectral Primary Decomposition'

the article continues the series on spectral rendering
this part focuses on methods to “upsample” sRGB colors to spectral representations
presents an implementation of Spectral Primary Decomposition for Rendering with sRGB Reflectance and discusses possible improvements

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[video] I Made a Game Entirely Within a Shader (almost) | Game Dev Challenge

the video presents how the author developed a pong game using only a pixel shader in Unity
shows how to use the alpha channel of the render target to store persistent state

[video] How I Made The World with SINE

the video focuses on the definition of a procedural terrain from a vertex shader
presents how to combine different noises and rotate patterns to create a planet

[video] [Episode 23] From Local to World Space (Model Matrix Transformation)

the video is the latest part of an OpenGL learning series that focuses on the explanation of vertex data transformation
explains the concepts of space transformations, focusing on how to change object positions in the world through the use of a world matrix
shows how to pass information from the C++ runtime to the OpenGL shaders

Shaders Explained: Dithering

the article explains how two implements two different types of dithering in metal shaders
presents and compares ordered and diffusion dithering algorithms

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[video] Why Did Link's Cel Shading Disappear?

the video does a deep dive into deferred shading techniques to explain why a graphical artifact in Zelda’s Breath of the Wild appears in a specific place
starting with a discussion of lighting techniques
shows how the scenes are rendered, what intermediate information is stored, and how it’s used for light calculations (including many visualizations)
finally, it concludes by showing how the error happened and why it’s localized to specific locations in the world

Announcing ComputeSharp 2.0 — run C# on the GPU with ease through DirectX 12 and D2D1!

the article presents the library that allows C# code to be executed via HLSL, D2D1, XAML, and more
shows the developer experience, explaining how the code is transformed for GPU execution
presents the two execution models that showcase performance vs. ease of use

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Thanks to Jan-Harald Fredriksen for support of this series.

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Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 263 - November 27th, 2022

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 04:00:00 +0000

VK_EXT_descriptor_buffer

discusses issues with the current Vulkan binding model
presents how the new descriptor buffer extension allows decoupling draw calls from the descriptor binding
presents how it helps with the D3D12 layer and can solve common issues with the current binding model
it additionally covers how this extension also allows GPU timeline descriptor copying

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How to make Sage's ice wall ability from Valorant

the tutorial explains how to create an ice wall VFX inspired from the game Valorant in Godot
covers the code setup, art asset creation as well as shader authoring

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Jobs

3D Tools Engineer
Remote Work

Marmoset, developer of the real-time rendering software, Marmoset Toolbag, is looking for an experienced developer to help build bigger and better software tools for 3D artists.

The responsibilities of a Tools Engineer on the Marmoset team will focus on technical design and implementation of UI systems, and refining the user experience for new and existing workflows in 3D art production.

Would you like to advertise your job openings here too? More information

Technically Art: Issue 135 (25.11.2022)

contains a collection of tweets covering procedural texturing with MaterialX, shader VFX examples
WIP and prototype effects, as well as VFX breakdowns

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[video] Car Paint Shader - Advanced Materials - Episode 9

the video tutorial presents several techniques for creating a car paint shader
covers base coloring, the addition of sparkles, as well as a clear-coat layer
additionally presents how to implement a carbon fiber material
implementation is shown in Unity and Unreal visual shader authoring

Shader Reflection using the DirectX Shader Compiler

the article presents how to use the DXC library to compile and gather information from compiled D3D12 shaders
shows how to use the API to generate root signatures

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Jobs

Senior Graphics Programmer
San Francisco, CA (remote work is an option)

Double Fine Productions is looking for a full time graphics programmer to join its San Francisco based development studio. Having recently shipped the award winning Psychonauts 2, we are looking to expand our graphics and systems programming team to support the development of our future titles.

You will be responsible for developing rendering features, optimizing game performance and memory usage, and building low level systems on PC and Xbox.

Applicants should have a strong preference for working in a highly creative, innovative, and nimble development environment, where collaborating with design, audio, art, animation, tech, and other disciplines is standard.

Would you like to advertise your job openings here too? More information

Brotli-G: An open-source compression/decompression standard for digital assets that is compatible with GPU hardware

AMD introduces a GPU-compatible implementation of the Brotli lossless compression algorithm
the SDK provides a CPU compressor and a compute shader implementation of the decompressor
code is released as open-source using the MIT license

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Introduction of the ASTC Texture Compression

the article provides an overview of the different ASTC Texture Compression formats available
shows the quality and file size that can be expected for gradients, normal maps, as well as facial albedo textures

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Thanks to Sondre Kongsgård for support of this series.

Would you like to see your name here too? Become a Patreon of this series.

Jendrik Illner - 3D Programmer on Jendrik Illner - 3D Programmer

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 277 - March 6th, 2023

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 276 - February 26th, 2023

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 275 - February 19th, 2023

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 274 - February 12th, 2023

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 273 - February 5th, 2023

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 272 - January 29nd, 2023

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 271 - January 22nd, 2023

Graphics Engineer (m/f/x) Darmstadt/Germany (partly remote possible)

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 270 - January 15th, 2023

Graphics Engineer (m/f/x) Darmstadt/Germany (partly remote possible)

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 269 - January 8th, 2023

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 268 - January 1st, 2023

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 267 - December 25th, 2022

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 266 - December 18th, 2022

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 265 - December 11th, 2022

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 264 - December 4th, 2022

Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 263 - November 27th, 2022

3D Tools Engineer Remote Work

Senior Graphics Programmer San Francisco, CA (remote work is an option)

Graphics Engineer (m/f/x)
Darmstadt/Germany (partly remote possible)

Graphics Engineer (m/f/x)
Darmstadt/Germany (partly remote possible)

3D Tools Engineer
Remote Work

Senior Graphics Programmer
San Francisco, CA (remote work is an option)