Course Description

Modern video games employ a variety of sophisticated algorithms to produce ground-breaking 3D rendering pushing the visual boundaries and interactive experience of rich environments. This course brings state-of-the-art and production-proven rendering techniques for fast, interactive rendering of complex and engaging virtual worlds of video games.

 

This year the course includes speakers from the makers of several innovative game companies, such as Bungie, Epic, Crytek, Guerrilla Games, Insomniac Games, Eidos Montreal, Ubisoft Montreal and Activision.

 

This is the course to attend if you are in the game development industry or want to learn the latest and greatest techniques in real-time rendering domain!

 

Previous Advances course slides: go here.

 

Syllabus

Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games: Part I

Monday, 11 August 9:00 AM - 12:15 PM | Vancouver Convention Centre, East Building, Exhibit Hall A

Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games: Part II

 

Monday, 11 August 2:00 PM - 5:15 PM | Vancouver Convention Centre, East Building, Exhibit Hall A

 

Prerequisites

Working knowledge of modern real-time graphics APIs like OpenGL or Direct3D and a solid basis in commonly used graphics algorithms. Familiarity with the concepts of programmable shading and shading languages. Familiarity with shipping gaming consoles hardware and software capabilities is a plus but not required.

Intended Audience

Technical practitioners and developers of graphics engines for visualization, games, or effects rendering who are interested in interactive rendering.

Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games: Part I

 

09:00 am

Natalya Tatarchuk (Bungie)

Course Introduction

 

09:10 am

Jorge Jimenez (Activision Blizzard)

Next Generation Post Processing in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

 

9:55 am

Brian Karis (Epic Games, Inc.)

High-Quality Temporal Supersampling

 

10:40 am

Nicolas Schulz and Theodor Made (Crytek GmbH)

Rendering Techniques in Ryse: Son of Rome

 

11:30 am

Michal Drobot (Ubisoft Montreal)

Hybrid Reconstruction Anti-Aliasing

 

12:15 pm

Q & A

 

Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games: Part II

 

 

02:00 pm

Natalya Tatarchuk (Bungie)

Welcome Back!

 

02:05 pm
Bartlomiej Wronski (Ubisoft Montreal)

Volumetric Fog: Unified Compute Shader-Based Solution to Atmospheric Scattering

 

02:45 pm

Abdul Bezrati (Insomniac Games)

Real-time Lighting via Light Linked List

 

03:15 pm

Petr Sikachev and Nicolas Longchamps (Eidos Montreal)

Reflection System in Thief

 

03:45 pm

Wade Brainerd (Activision Blizzard)

Tessellation in Call of Duty: Ghosts

 

04:30 pm

Michal Valient (Guerilla Games)

Reflections and Volumetrics of Killzone Shadow Fall

 

05:15 pm

CLOSING Q&A

 

 

Course Organizer

Natalya Tatarchuk is an Engineering Architect currently working on state-of-the art cross-platform next-gen rendering engine and game graphics for the upcoming Bungie game Destiny. Previously she was a graphics software architect and a project lead in the Game Computing Application Group at AMD Graphics Products Group (Office of the CTO) where she pushed parallel computing boundaries investigating innovative real-time graphics techniques. Additionally, she had been the lead of ATI’s demo team creating the innovative interactive renderings and the lead for the tools group at ATI Research. She has published papers and articles in various computer graphics conferences and technical book series, and has presented her work at graphics and game developer conferences worldwide.

 

 

NEXT GENERATION POST PROCESSING IN CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE

 

Abstract: This talk will cover the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare post processing pipeline by Sledgehammer Games, created to match the game photoreal art direction, and featuring subsurface scattering, motion blur, Bokeh depth of field and veil/bloom. The highlight of the pipeline is the attention to details, accurately solving problems while preserving high frame rates. Special emphasis will be given on the sampling strategies used to accomplish this task, helping to raise the post processing image quality and temporal stability to the next level. Additionally, a new shadow sampling approach will be described, which maximizes temporal stability even with small sample counts. Finally, R&D advances on antialiasing will be presented.

Presenters:

Jorge Jimenez

Affiliation:

Activision Blizzard

Bios:

Jorge Jimenez is a Graphics R&D Technical Director at Activision Blizzard. He received his PhD degree in Real-Time Graphics from Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain) in 2012. His interests include photorealism, special effects and the attention to the details. He has contributions in conferences, books, and journals, including SIGGRAPH and GDC, the GPU Pro series, the Game Developer magazine, and the journal Transaction on Graphics. He co-organized the course "Filtering Approaches for Real-Time Anti-Aliasing at SIGGRAPH 2011", declaring open war against the jaggies. In GDC 2013, he co-presented the talk “Next Generation Character Rendering”. He collaborated in the Digital Ira project, which used this character rendering technology. Some of his key achievements include Jimenez's MLAA, SMAA, and the separable subsurface scattering technique. More about him in his twitter account @iryoku1.

 

Materials:

(Updated: August 27th 2014)

PowerPoint slides (426 MB)

 

 

 

 

HIGH-QUALITY TEMPORAL SUPERSAMPLING

Abstract: The talk will cover in detail how Unreal Engine 4’s temporal anti-aliasing algorithm works. This technique does not require MSAA, allowing better performance with deferred shading, reduces both geometric and shading aliasing, and overall produces a temporally stable image. It uses no spatial edge finding and instead purely uses a form of temporal super-sampling. To achieve this with minimal artifacts, a great number of tricks and filters have been added. The basic algorithm, as well as solutions to HDR, ghosting, translucency, edges in motion, flickering and integration into the post processing pipeline will be covered.

 

 

Presenter:

Brian Karis (Epic Games, Inc.)

 

Bios:

Brian Karis is a Senior Graphics Programmer at Epic Games, where he works on the Unreal Engine 4, focusing on physically based shading, lighting, and visibility. Prior to joining Epic in 2012, he was employed at Human Head Studios and created the renderer for Prey 2.

 

Materials:

(Updated: May 14th 2015)

PowerPoint Slides (27 MB),

Video (90 MB)

 

RENDERING TECHNIQUES IN RYSE: SON OF ROME

Abstract: In this session we will go into detail on various rendering techniques that were employed to achieve the visual quality of Ryse. We will cover the transition to physically-based shading and talk about updates to the shadow system which helped to improve the quality of cinematics and enabled us to meet the tight performance requirements of Microsoft Xbox One®. We will also talk about facial expressions including wrinkle maps and optimizations that allowed the engine to cope with the massive amount of blend shape data.

Presenters:

Nicolas Schulz (Crytek),  Theodor Mader (Crytek)

Bios:

Nicolas Schulz is a senior rendering engineer working at Crytek for more than 6 years. He worked on Crysis 2, where his main focus was the cross-platform stereo-3D implementation and feature development for the DX11 upgrade. He joined Ryse early in its development cycle, where he was driving the rendering efforts and was actively working on the transition to more physically-based rendering paradigms.


Theodor Mader is a passionate rendering engineer with a strong interest in real-time graphics. He started his career in games at HB studios where he worked on titles of the FIFA and Rugby franchises. In 2012 he joined Crytek and the Ryse team where he focused mainly on shadow and particle rendering.

 

Materials:

(Updated: August 20th 2014)

PowerPoint Slides (12 MB)

 

 

HYBRID RECONSTRUCTION ANTI-ALIASING

Abstract: This talk will present a novel method for runtime image reconstruction for up sampling and anti-aliasing purposes. We propose to utilize modern GPU hardware for Coverage estimation used in advanced MSAA modes such as EQAA (AMD GCN architecture). Several existing platforms offer a way to manually program multiple aspects of EQAA rasterization pipeline. GPU can be setup to output coverage information at higher resolution than original rasterized depth buffer data. This data can be accessed manually to reconstruct higher resolution image with anti-aliasing.

Talk will cover coverage mask construction by rasterizer and different setups ranging in quality and performance. Several algorithms using coverage information for edge reconstruction will be presented with performance and image quality comparisons. Technique can provide temporarily stable, MSAA quality up-sampling/antialiasing for non-sub pixel triangles with negligible additional bandwidth and performance cost.  

Moreover MSAA depth only samples can be used to enhance sub-pixel reconstruction. Algorithm can be also extended further by inclusion of temporal super sampling. Finally a complementary technique to handle alpha tested geometry will be presented.

Algorithm is split in geometry phase, which only requires Coverage Rasterization support from GPU, and post processing resolve pass, making it an affordable and easy solution for real time rendering.

 

Presenters:

Michael Drobot (Ubisoft Montreal) 

Bio:

Michał Drobot is a game industry veteran specializing in rendering technology. Currently shapes future of 3D rendering at Ubisoft Montreal. Previously worked at Guerrilla Games, designing and optimizing the renderer for Playstation 4 launch title - Killzone: Shadow Fall. Dancing pixels make him happy.

 

Materials:

(Updated: August 21st 2014)

PowerPoint Slides (13 MB), PDF Slides (10 MB)

 

 

VOLUMETRIC FOG: UNIFIED COMPUTE SHADER-BASED SOLUTION TO ATMOSPHERIC SCATTERING

Abstract: This talk presents “Volumetric Fog”, a novel technique developed by Ubisoft Montreal for Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag for next-gen consoles and PCs.

The technique addresses problem of calculating in unified, coherent and optimal way various atmospheric effects related to the atmospheric scattering:

•                    Fog, smoke and haze with varying participating media density

•                    „God rays”

•                    Light-shafts

•                    Volumetric lighting and shadows

Developed technique supports varying density of participating media, multiple light sources, is compatible with both deferred and forward shading and is faster than existing ray marching approaches.

Author will provide a brief introduction into atmospheric scattering phenomenon and present complete algorithm overview, together with implementation details and some basic code snippets.

At the end of his talk he will do an analysis of final console performance. He will discuss achieved results, possible extensions and improvements to the quality of algorithm that were developed after shipping Assassin’s Creed 4.

 

Presenter:

Bartlomiej Wronski (Ubisoft Montreal) 

Bio:

Bartlomiej Wronski is a graphics programmer at Ubisoft's Montreal studio. He started his career at Polish game development studio CD Projekt RED, working as game engine and graphics programmer for The Witcher 2. After shipping the PC version of the game, he led the technical side of the porting process for the whole engine and renderer for The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition for Xbox 360. Then, after performing R&D activities and developing new rendering and lighting techniques for upcoming titles: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077, he joined the Ubisoft Montreal studio. After shipping Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and briefly working on Assassin’s Creed: Unity, he currently works on Far Cry 4, aiming to deliver next generation of game graphics quality.

 

Materials:

(Updated: August 20th 2014)

PowerPoint Slides (85 MB), PDF Slides (5 MB)

 

REAL-TIME LIGHTING VIA LIGHT LINKED LIST

Abstract: This is a brief description of a new rendering technique developed at Insomniac Games called Light Linked List or simply LLL. The LLL technique stores dynamic lights in a linked list accessible per-pixels for all the elements in a game scene. The LLL not only speeds up real-time dynamic lighting it also makes it possible for transparent effect and particles to receive both lighting and shadowing.

 

Presenters:

Abdul Bezrati (Insomniac Games)

Bio:

Abdul Bezrati is a senior engine programmer at Insomniac Games studio in Burbank California. He is passionate about finding new real-time rendering techniques and sharing them with other game developers.

 

Materials:

(Updated: August 20th 2014)

PowerPoint Slides (13 MB), Video (73 MB)

 

 

 

REFLECTION SYSTEM IN THIEF

Abstract: This lecture will cover a multi-tiered reflection system used in the Thief game, consisting of SSR (screen-space reflection), IBR (image-based reflection), localized cubemaps and global cubemap (a final fallback). The authors present novel methods for contact-hardening glossy reflections, blending of different reflection techniques, optimization techniques, and art pipeline implications.

Presenter:

Peter Sikachev (Eidos Montreal), Nicolas Longchamps (Eidos Montreal)

Bio:

Peter Sikachev graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2009, majoring in applied mathematics and computer science. Afterwards, he moved to Vienna University of Technology for research in visualization. In 2011 Peter joined Mail.Ru Games as a graphics programmer. He implemented a range of rendering features of 'Skyforge' next-gen MMORPG. In 2013 Peter moved to Eidos Montreal as a R&D graphics programmer. He works closely with the game teams, contributing to the rendering engines of Thief and other Square Enix franchises. Peter is the principal author of 4 peer-reviewed publications. He has also written a chapter for the upcoming 'GPU Pro 5' book.

Nicolas Longchamps graduated in 2000 from the NAD center in Montreal in visual effects for television and cinema. His broad range of interests, both technical and artistic, has led him to gain experience in several areas of production. Specializing in visual effects and shaders for game production, he has worked on titles like Splinter Cell : Chaos Theory, RainbowSix : Vegas, Deus Ex : Human Revolution and Thief 4. Nicolas currently works at Eidos Montreal as a Senior Technical Artist in the LABS research and development group.

 

Materials:

(Updated: August 20th 2014)

PowerPoint Slides (46 MB)

 

 

 

TESSELLATION IN CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS

Abstract: This session will describe how Infinity Ward leveraged hardware tessellation in Call of Duty: Ghosts to improve image quality and artist efficiency on PCs and next generation consoles, while maintaining the game’s trademark high frame rate.

Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces are an artist friendly, efficient representation for next-generation models.  Recent research, including Feature Adaptive Subdivision Surfaces by Matthias Niessner and Charles Loop, has made it possible to efficiently render these surfaces in real-time.  A detailed description of Call of Duty's Sub-D pipeline will be presented, including best practices and enhancements to the Feature Adaptive Subdivision Surfaces technique.

Additionally, the session will provide an overview of our world displacement mapping pipeline, which enabled artists to quickly upgrade the appearance of levels by adding fine detail to terrain geometry. 

The session will describe novel techniques and low level bottleneck mitigation strategies that enabled us to overcome performance problems typically associated with tessellation.

Presenter:

Wade Brainerd (Activision Blizzard)

Bio:

Wade Brainerd is a technical director at Activision, where he most recently worked with Infinity Ward on Call of Duty: Ghosts.  Wade has been programming video games professionally since 1996, and likes to focus on graphics and performance optimization.

 

Materials:

(Updated: August 20th 2014)

PDF Slides (10 MB)

 

 

REFLECTIONS AND VOLUMETRICS OF KILLZONE SHADOW FALL

Abstract: In this talk we’re going to discuss details of two of our effects that greatly contributed to the next-gen look and feel of Killzone Shadow Fall.

We’ll show details of our screen-space reflection system working on arbitrary surfaces and how the fuzzy reflections match our lighting model. We’ll put special emphasis on the optimization steps we took in order to achieve great performance on PS4. We’ll also show details of the temporal reprojection usage in our reflection system. We use it both to achieve secondary reflection bounces, but more importantly to increase the reflection resolution, effectively performing supersampling.

The next topic we’ll cover is our volumetric rendering system. We’ll describe the tricks that allowed us to achieve great quality and performance as well as proper integration with other volumetric and transparent effects. All this while maintaining exceptional level of artistic control. Once again, we’ll describe details of our volumetric reprojection system which allowed us to increase the rendering quality without negatively affecting the performance.

Presenter:

Michal Valient (Guerilla Games)

Bio:

Michal Valient leads the technology team at Guerrilla in Amsterdam. He spends his time working on the core engine technology powering the highly acclaimed Killzone games on PS3 and PS4, as well as some yet unannounced projects. Previously, he worked as a programmer and a lead at Caligari, where he developed the shader-based real-time rendering engine for Caligari trueSpace7. His interests include many aspects of light transfer, shadows and parallel processing in general. He believes in sharing the knowledge, and he gave talks at GDC and Siggraph, and wrote graphics papers published in ShaderX books and conference journals.

 

Materials:

(Updated: August 20th 2014)

PDF Slides (236 MB)

 

 

 

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