Graphics Programming Weekly 454


Compact Neural Appearance Models for Efficient Gaussian Splatting

  • presents an efficient appearance framework and a compact neural model for 3D Gaussian Splatting
  • compares spherical harmonics and recent spherical appearance models
  • shows how the framework allows reducing primitive cost and improving reconstruction quality


Alwan 2.0.0 is out. Colour science in pure C11

  • releases version 2 of Alwan, a color science library written in C11
  • provides color space conversions, chromatic adaptation, transfer functions, ACES pipelines, color appearance models, gamut mapping, and spectral tools
  • offers dual f32/f64 precision, SIMD-accelerated bulk kernels, and an optional byte-exact deterministic mode
  • provides validation against reference implementations


Fitting Neural Textures and PBR Material Maps with ES (No Backprop)

  • presents a self-contained C++ experiment that encodes RGB images or multi-layer PBR materials as a shared compressed texture plus a tiny MLP decoder
  • trains the latent texture and the decoder entirely with Evolution Strategies


The Roadmap of Mathematics for Machine Learning

  • provides a learning roadmap covering the three pillars of machine learning mathematics: linear algebra, calculus, and probability theory
  • walks through vectors and vector spaces, norms, bases, linear transformations, matrices, determinants, eigenvalues, and matrix decompositions
  • continues with single- and multivariable calculus, gradients, etc., and probability topics


NoGraphicsAPI

  • implements the ideas of the “No Graphics API” SIGGRAPH talk as a thin Vulkan 1.4 wrapper
  • eliminates public buffer objects, descriptor sets, pipeline layouts, and sampler objects from the API
  • includes Windows examples
  • additionally documents hardware support across AMD and NVIDIA GPUs


Steps for Writing a Speed-of-Light GEMM kernel: Part 1

  • documents the first three steps of building an optimized BF16 GEMM kernel in CuTeDSL
  • walks from a naive 4 TFLOP/s to finally reaching 285 TFLOP/s
  • explains CuTeDSL tensors, layouts, tiles, atoms, and the Blackwell tcgen05 MMA and tensor memory architecture


Post Processing & Render Graph | Unity Shader Code Basics 09

  • explains how to write custom post-processing effects for Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline using Render Graph
  • implements a greyscale effect, a depth-based silhouette effect, and an outline effect


Discussing Vulkan, Neural Rendering, SLANG, AI & More - Neil Trevett & Khronos Group Interview

  • interview with Neil Trevett covering Khronos standards including Vulkan, SPIR-V, Slang, OpenXR, glTF, and ANARI
  • Discusses Vulkan’s push toward usability with descriptor heaps, cooperative matrices/vectors for ML inference, and Linux gaming momentum
  • also covers Slang’s adoption, OpenXR’s expansion into smart glasses, the Open Metaverse Browser initiative, and others


What in the Graphics is Volumetric Rendering?!

  • explains volume rendering as a set of techniques for visualizing 3D scalar data stored in a voxel grid
  • shows applications in various fields, such as medical imaging and visual effects (e.g., clouds, smoke, fire, and fog)
  • demonstrates examples including 3D texture slicing and colormap classification


Thanks to Graham Wihlidal for support of this series.


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