Graphics Programming 426


Inside Mesa 26.0's RADV RT improvements

  • details improvements to RADV’s ray tracing pipeline compilation in Mesa 26.0, introducing function calls to the compiler stack
  • presents how separately compiling any-hit and intersection shaders instead of inlining them into megashaders dramatically reduces compilation times
  • Additionally, it can resolve pipeline stutter in Unreal Engine games


[video] Complex numbers are multivectors | Geometric algebra episode 4

  • explains complex numbers from a geometric algebra perspective
  • demonstrates key properties with an example-driven lecture


[video] Simple Terrain Auto Material - Terrain Shaders - Episode 14

  • tutorial showing a simple auto material that layers terrain materials based on slope angle, part of an ongoing Terrain Shaders series
  • covers implementation details and references earlier episodes for implementation details


[video] SIGGRAPH Thesis Fastforward 2026

  • SIGGRAPH’s Thesis Fast Forward, where Ph.D. students present research pitches
  • includes a range of topics such as Monte Carlo PDE solvers, robust winding-number/SDF algorithms, point-cloud reconstruction, and more


[video] Texel Density Explained

  • practical tutorial on texel density: what it is, how to choose appropriate densities for different player POVs, and set targets
  • presents how to measure real-world references, visualizing texel density in UE5
  • additionally presents a Maya texturing workflow with recommendations and scale references


Gyms, Zoos, and Museums: Your documentation should be in-game

  • presents a workflow design approach for maintaining game documentation spatially within the game engine itself
  • demonstrates how in-game documentation avoids the common problem of external documentation becoming outdated, enabling developers to instantly verify metrics, test systems, and debug assets without searching through external documents
  • additionally covers techniques for automated testing and the generation of these documentation levels


Vulkan Ecosystem and SDK Survey - February 2026

  • annual survey looking for feedback from Vulkan developers to improve the SDK and ecosystem
  • asks about developer role and experience, target platforms, SDK usage, and other ecosystem pain points to guide future work and priorities
  • closes Feb 25, 2026


Surfel-based global illumination on the web

  • implements a complete surfel-based global illumination pipeline in WebGPU, including surfelization, spatial acceleration structures, ray tracing, and temporal filtering
  • employs advanced techniques such as surfel-guided light sampling to reduce noise, multi-scale mean estimators for temporal stability, and radial depth atlases to prevent light leaking through thin geometry


The State of Vulkan on Apple – Jan. 2026

  • provides an updated overview of Vulkan support on Apple platforms through layered implementations on Metal, comparing MoltenVK and the newer fully conformant KosmicKrisp
  • details the structure for packaging Vulkan applications on macOS and iOS, including proper placement of the Vulkan loaders


Choosing Texture Formats for WebGPU applications

  • compares texture format options for WebGPU applications, weighing traditional image formats (WebP, AVIF), GPU block-compressed formats (BC7, ASTC), and universal formats (Basis Universal)
  • introduces spark.js as a solution for real-time GPU transcoding
  • This allows developers to ship efficient compressed web formats while transcoding to block-compressed GPU textures at runtime

Thanks to Nathan Reed for support of this series.


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