- the article explains in detail how to render a raytraced sphere that interacts with other parts of the Unity rendering pipeline
- covers how to use a billboard to render there sphere, explaining how to calculate an optimal camera facing quad and texture mapping
- extending to support shadow casting, receiving, and use of conservative depth output to enable early depth rejection
![](https://www.jendrikillner.com/img/posts/graphics-programming-weekly-165/SphereOnQuad.png)
- beginner-focused tutorial that explains how 3D data is structured in computer graphics
- covers what shaders are, what type exists, and how they are used within Unity to define the look
![](https://www.jendrikillner.com/img/posts/graphics-programming-weekly-165/CubeNormals.png)
- the video tutorial explains how to create interactive snow on terrain and objects using Godot
- interactive snow is implemented via a snow mask that is updated and blends between textures and modifies vertex positions
- snow on objects is world space projected snow textures that also is interactive
![](https://www.jendrikillner.com/img/posts/graphics-programming-weekly-165/SnowRendering.png)
- the article presents a walkthrough of a RayTracing abstraction layer that was implemented for D3D12 and Vulkan
- provides a walkthrough of how to combine the elements to a example scene
- shows what the different raytracing shaders are and what they contribute to the final image
![](https://www.jendrikillner.com/img/posts/graphics-programming-weekly-165/trace_depth_8.jpg)
- the updated tool allows an in-depth view into the raytracing details on AMD hardware
- reveals that the driver might inline all shaders into a single shader or keep shaders separate
- the new update provides a shader table view to see the relative cost of different stages
- additional shows all shaders with costs, call count, and ability to see ISA
![](https://www.jendrikillner.com/img/posts/graphics-programming-weekly-165/AMD_ray_tracing.jpg)
- the video explains the CUDA memory model
- covering the rules of how memory operations on shared memory from multiple threads are processed
- looking at loading, reordering, barriers, etc.. and explains with examples (source code published)
![](https://www.jendrikillner.com/img/posts/graphics-programming-weekly-165/cuda_memory_model.png)
- Overview for the start of a new shader tutorial series for beginners
- starts by providing the motivation, approach, and topics that will be covered
![](https://www.jendrikillner.com/img/posts/graphics-programming-weekly-165/SQ_Part_0.png)
- the article focuses on providing a walkthrough of dithering techniques
- provides an overview of what dithering is, use cases
- showcase of different dithering patterns and what results they produce
![](https://www.jendrikillner.com/img/posts/graphics-programming-weekly-165/dark-riemersma.f1523202.png)
- the article provides an overview of the CVTT compression techniques used (DirecXTex fork aims to be an experiment to improve state of the art)
- shows how the different formats are compressed, common themes across formats, and lists possible improvements
![](https://www.jendrikillner.com/img/posts/graphics-programming-weekly-165/BC7Subset.png)
Thanks to Michael Hazani for support of this series.
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