Coffee, Code & Shaders: Real-Time Rendering Conversations

Today we’ll talk about the presentation given by Yana Mateeva and Marco Bouterse , both graphics programmers at Nixxes Software , during the 2024 Graphics Programming Conference . In it, they discuss the challenges of bringing a game as heavily optimized for PlayStation as Ghost of Tsushima to PC — mainly dealing with unified memory management, resource handling, and the adaptation of shaders that...

Today we're going to chat about this presentation given by Erick Jansson , Senior Graphics Programmer of Remedy Entertainment during the Digital Dragons conference from 2024, where he talks about the GPU-Driven Renedering pipeline they implemented for Alan Wake 2. Focusing mainly on their use of Mesh Shaders and diving into how they implemented their the frustum culling and occlusion culling t...

Today we're going to talk about this presentation from the Game Developers Conference 2024, where Kosuke Tanaka y Takashi Komada from Tango Gameworks dive into how they adapted UnrealEngine's renderer to achieve the caracteristic style of their game Hi-Fi RUSH , providing modern 3D graphics features running at 60fps at native resolution. Full presentation: https://youtu.be/gdBACyIOCtc?si=R...

Today we will talk about this presentation by Tobias Franke et al. at EUROGRAPHICS 2025 , in which they present an overview of traditional Order Independent Transparency (OIT) techniques—such as Exact, Approximate, and Hybrid—as well as some OIT approaches using deep learning, analyzing their scope, performance, and accuracy. Read full paper here: https://diglib.eg.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d...

This time we will talk about the presentation given by Dan Baker , Graphics Architect at Oxide Games , during the REAC2023 event, in which he discusses the decoupled shading architecture of their Nitrous Engine , achieving improved anti-aliasing accuracy as well as BRDF consistency by ensuring consistent sampling points—though not without first facing challenges such as memory consumption and perf...

Today we will talk about this paper by Antonie Richermoz and Fabrice Neyret, in which they explore the implementation of virtual textures in software, while also highlighting the limitations and performance issues of hardware-based virtual textures on current systems, aiming to encourage IHVs and driver developers to improve support and make their use more practical. Read full paper: https://hal.s...

Today we will talk about this presentation given by Alexander Sannikov , Senior Graphics Programmer at Grinding Gear Games , during ExileCon 2023 , where he provides a look at various rendering techniques used in the development of Path of Exile 2 , presenting the challenges they faced and the innovative solutions they developed in their own engine. Watch full presentation here: https://www.youtub...

Today we will discuss this paper by Jonathan Dupuy and Anis Benyoub, in which they present a new triangulation method that allows rendering large-scale video game components, such as planets, terrains, and more, using concurrent binary trees on the GPU. This enables adaptive allocation and release of primitives, optimizing both memory usage and performance. Read paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.0...

Today we're going to chat about this presentation from EUROGRAPHICS 2024 , addressing the disappearing shadows often seen with traditional screen-space ambient occlusion algorithms when occluding information is out of view or multiple depth layers exist; proposing several optimizations including using ray intervals to shorten ray tracing, among others. Watch full presentation here: https://www...

This time we'll chat about a presentation given by Akimitsu Hogge , programmer at Activision Central Tech , where he gives a detalied explanation of how they handle controller to display latency in Call of Duty using a technique they call "Dynamic Throttling", designed to optimize the balance between processing the different pipelines and the idle/waiting time within the game engine&...

Join us for this talk about a paper that presents a technique to facilitate Global Illumination computation in scenes with many lights, using a lighting grid hierarchy. The paper details an efficient way to build this hierarchy, as well as its application in deferred rendering." Read original paper: https://www.cemyuksel.com/research/lgh/real-time_rendering_with_lgh_i3d2019.pdf

In today’s talk, we’ll analyze this paper that introduces ReSTIR , a technique that has gained traction in Ray Tracing. It aims to improve sample distribution by adding multiple candidates to achieve a better-distributed sample, emphasizing the critical role of Multiple Importance Sampling and unbiased weight contributions to maintain accuracy. Read original paper: https://intro-to-restir.cwyman.o...

In this session, we’ll look at a 2024 I3D presentation by David Erler from The Forge , where he unveiled the second iteration of their Triangle Visibility Buffer—first introduced in 2013—now with a GPU-centric approach to triangle processing. While the results are encouraging, the method still faces several challenges. See full presentation: https://youtu.be/kWLev9CoQdg?si=yhwSLjDS6Pwhndpv

Today we’re covering a EUROGRAPHICS 2025 paper by M. Kácerik and J. Bittner, where they present a faster way to build BVHs for ray tracing using what they call Skewed Oriented Bounding Boxes, or SOBB.Read full paper: https://dcgi.fel.cvut.cz/projects/sobb/sobb2025.pdf

Today we’re diving into a Graphics Programming Conference 2025 talk by Jakub Kolesik from King Games , where he shared how they built a system using spatial cascaded caches and SDF ray tracing to handle the fully dynamic and destructible world of Enshrouded, where baked lighting just wouldn’t work. Watch Full Presentation: https://youtu.be/57F1ezwH7Mk?si=u3a8fXXzI5hI6wyy

Today we’re breaking down a REAC 2024 talk by Kevin Tadisco from Blizzard , where he shares how they added ray tracing to Diablo IV and the tough balance of keeping the original art direction in a game not made for it. Watch Full Presentation: https://youtu.be/kxXz2PaCwsY?si=Gp-sv_m7QXOnVYg-

Today we’re diving into a GDC 2025 talk by Nicolas López from Ubisoft , where he shares how the Anvil Engine has grown to power Assassin’s Creed Shadows , with support for dynamic open worlds, destructible environments, and changing weather and seasons. Watch Full Presentation: https://youtu.be/yj5pYktC3X8?si=AyRT0VP4fB8xSeAM

Today we’re diving into a talk by Indy Ray from Telltale Games about how they handle rendering in their games—especially in The Wolf Among Us 2 , where they customized Unreal Engine 4’s pipeline to keep that unique comic book look. Watch Full Presentation: https://youtu.be/VoUJB5Cf31A?si=CRwug_UWcy42Hsp0

Today we’re talking about Michal Drobot ’s SIGGRAPH 2021 presentation for Infinity Ward , where he showed how they built a hybrid rendering pipeline using Forward+, Visibility+, and a unified geometry buffer to massively increase triangle counts per frame—making way for more detailed game worlds. Watch Full Presentation: https://youtu.be/NoTUzzmxPo0?si=S-AypZxJVgCOGGh8

Today we’re diving into a talk by Tatu Aalto at REAC 2024, where he shares how Remedy has handled geometry rendering over the years—from Alan Wake 1 and Quantum Break , to finally moving it to the GPU in Alan Wake 2 . Watch Full Presentation: https://youtu.be/l98JgYBQz68?si=lcvhuikL5NAhF0Ug

Today we’ll be talking about an article from NVIDIA that discusses the path tracing optimizations made for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle , focusing mainly on two techniques: Opacity MicroMaps (OMM) and the compaction of dynamic Bottom-Level Acceleration Structures (BLAS). Read Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/4pshxpnk

Today we’re going to talk about a GDC 2015 presentation by Ka Chen from Ubisoft , where he introduced a technique called 'Adaptive Virtual Texturing' used in Far Cry 4 to get high-res textures on large terrain areas. Watch Full Presentation: https://youtu.be/SVPMhGteeuE?si=JTGwa5AiWpXN_go4

This time, we’ll be talking about the presentation given by Sebastian Aaltonen (from HypeHype Games) at REAC 2023 , where he discussed the strategy they followed for developing their rendering engine for mobile devices, and the design decisions they made to achieve the highest possible performance. Links: REAC 2023 – Modern Mobile Rendering: https://youtu.be/m3bW8d4Brec?si=VeQRDLd99U_eLc31