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


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)


[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


[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


[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


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


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