Graphics Programming weekly - Issue 61 — November 4, 2018

Sun, Nov 4, 2018 weekly, graphics

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An Adaptive Parameterization for Efficient Material Acquisition and Rendering

paper on BRDF measurement which proposes a new parameterization that adapts to the behavior of the material
able to significantly reduce the number of samples required
published a new large database of measured BRDFs that have been captured using this technique

presents an architecture overview of the engine
render backends are implemented as DLLs that can be reloaded at runtime
multiple backends can be loaded at the same time
resource handle system that allows the same resource to point to physical instances on multiple GPUs
GPU work is recorded into an abstract command stream that is later compiled into API specific format
render graph system that manages resource transitions, lifetimes, and execution order
showcase of shader binding model
- using HLSL spaces concept to separate between update frequencies
- explanation how the HLSL resource binding model was emulated with SPIR-V using shader patching

discusses considerations when designing memory components for use with gfx-hal (rust graphics API abstraction)
proposes not to use a general purpose allocator but instead to implement simple allocator components and combine them into context-aware allocators on a higher level

presents a technique for font rendering that operates on coverage instead of visibility
this allows fonts to remain sharp when moving on the screen and at varying font sizes
for each pixel in a glyph, a 4x4 sub-sample grid of visibility samples is calculated ahead of time
explains how to use this coverage mask to implement font rendering
covering how to sample the coverage mark correctly for axis-aligned font rendering

full Linux support for Vulkan and OpenGL 4.5
support for final DirectX Raytracing API and new supports Vulkan extensions such as VK_NV_shading_rate_image, VK_NVX_raytracing

shows that BC7 encoders produce compression artifacts when the alpha channel is unrelated to the RGB channels
presents a heuristic to decide what BC7 mode to use on a per-block basis to improve the compression

case study of a performance regression in League of legends
presents what performance data they collected
shows what problems they had with the existing data and how a better aggregation of performance data into distinct buckets allows better detection of performance regressions

provides best practices for applications that use the RTX API
talks about acceleration structure creation and updating
how to improve memory usage, improve performance and best practices for shader authoring and compiling

presents how to reduce light leaks in a large scale global illumination system
each geometry is associated with markup information about visibility zones
GI light data is only applied if two pieces of geometry are in the same visibility zone or are visible through connected portals

comparison of two libraries to compress SPIR-V shaders SMOL-V MARK-V
compares for compression ration, decompression speed, and library size
MARK-V achieve great compression results, but the library has a large memory footprint and is slow at decompressing the data

a tutorial that explains how to create a custom shader for use with the scriptable render pipeline in Unity
teaches how to interact with constant buffers
presents what is required for GPU instancing to be supported by a shader and how to pass custom per-material data to the instanced meshes

mesa gallium driver that implements partial support for OpenGL 2.1, and OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 on top of Vulkan
talks about why this project was started, and what is and is not supported at this point

shows how the lighting system in the 2D game was implemented
making heavy use of color remapping LUTs
sprites have normal maps, lights move in 3D space with custom light falloffs for lights moving behind sprites
discusses how shadows and fog are applied
presents how a deformation shader is used to simulate wind