Graphics Programming 421


No Graphics API

  • very detailed blog post that discusses the reality of modern GPU hardware
  • presenting the disconnect between API models and hardware
  • proposes a minimalistic modern graphics API design that reduces complexity while maintaining performance
  • blog post contains an example of what such an API might look like


OpenUSD Core Spec 1.0 is Here: Now We Need You

  • announces the release of the OpenUSD Core Specification 1.0 defining formal semantics for scene descriptions
  • specifies six essential pillars including grammar, composition algorithm, and compliance framework
  • provides sample implementations and conformance testing tools for validating implementations


Secrets of Direct3D 12: The Behavior of ClearUnorderedAccessViewUint/Float

  • investigates behavior of ClearUnorderedAccessViewUint and ClearUnorderedAccessViewFloat functions
  • reveals inconsistent type conversions across NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel GPUs for various buffer formats
  • demonstrates that unsigned integer clears work differently than documented in DirectX 11


[video] Filtering -vs- Graphics Round 2

  • continues the series with practical solutions and sample patterns for real-time renderers
  • shows shader-level techniques (sample distributions, MSAA-aware approaches) and links to Shadertoy experiments for direct testing
  • covers trade-offs between artifact reduction and performance, with suggestions that are implementable in real-time


CUDA Tile IR

  • introduces an MLIR-based intermediate representation for CUDA kernel targeting tensor cores
  • provides domain-specific operations for tile-based computations with Python bindings
  • includes bytecode serialization format


Nexels: Neurally-Textured Surfels for Real-Time Novel View Synthesis with Sparse Geometries

  • presents a novel representation combining surfels with neural texturing for view synthesis
  • achieves quality matching 3D Gaussian splatting using 9.7x fewer primitives on outdoor scenes
  • aims to improve render times compared to existing methods by selectively texturing high-weight samples


[video] Parallax Occlusion and Nanite Displacement - Terrain Shaders - Episode 9

  • walkthrough of parallax occlusion mapping (POM) techniques for Unity
  • integrating Nanite displacement for terrain rendering and how Nanite displacement changes displacement workflows
  • discusses performance implications and offers tips for balancing quality vs cost in terrain shaders


[video] Filtering -vs- Graphics Round 3

  • short talk focused on micro-optimizations to the filter kernel and their real-world impact
  • examines kernel tweaks that reduce aliasing artifacts while keeping shader cost low


[video] Basic Framework - Physics For Game Dev #1

  • sets up an initial physics framework and demonstrates simple particle dynamics
  • walks through application/physics system classes and a short demo showcasing the physics update
  • rendering is implmeneted using OpenGL


[video] niagara: Cooking geometry

  • live stream focused on making scene loading faster by caching optimized geometry on disk and adding compression
  • walks through implementing a basic scene cache, switching to memory-mapped loading, adding compression, and profiling cold/hot runs and page-fault behaviour
  • practical andf focused session with profiling runs, implementation details and trade-offs for robust cache/IO design


[video] Sparse Radiance Cascades: goodbye screenspace

  • presents the results of replacing the screenspace raymarcher implementation with a hardware-accelerated raytracer enabling offscreen lights and more stable GI
  • achieves real-time per-frame GI (no denoiser) on a 4090


Thanks to Aras Pranckevicius for support of this series.


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