Alex Tardif
@longbool.bsky.social
Senior Graphics Programmer @ Digital Extremes. Previously ZeniMax Online, WB
Blog: https://alextardif.com/eden.html
Blog: https://alextardif.com/eden.html
Reposted by Alex Tardif
i had a chat with lukasz and @antovsky about gamedev and stuff, if youre into that sort of thing! the middle hour is the juiciest but its all fantastic, ofc ;) youtu.be/mFBmoCv5EcQ?...
Game Architectures with Alex Evans and Anton Mikhailov
YouTube video by Wookash Podcast
youtu.be
November 1, 2025 at 7:06 PM
i had a chat with lukasz and @antovsky about gamedev and stuff, if youre into that sort of thing! the middle hour is the juiciest but its all fantastic, ofc ;) youtu.be/mFBmoCv5EcQ?...
Beat Silksong tonight :D
Team Cherry made my favorite game <3
Team Cherry made my favorite game <3
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Beat Silksong tonight :D
Team Cherry made my favorite game <3
Team Cherry made my favorite game <3
Reposted by Alex Tardif
I finally found the time and energy to make a new blog and write a couple of posts. This time I wrote about PBR content and game development principles. Both posts are quite different so hopefully people find something interesting on either one of them.
irradiance.ca/posts/
irradiance.ca/posts/
Posts
irradiance.ca
October 15, 2025 at 6:51 PM
I finally found the time and energy to make a new blog and write a couple of posts. This time I wrote about PBR content and game development principles. Both posts are quite different so hopefully people find something interesting on either one of them.
irradiance.ca/posts/
irradiance.ca/posts/
Reposted by Alex Tardif
New blog post: Outlining an alternative path to learn graphics programming.
themaister.net/blog/2025/10...
themaister.net/blog/2025/10...
A case for learning GPU programming with a compute-first mindset – Maister's Graphics Adventures
themaister.net
October 5, 2025 at 12:58 PM
New blog post: Outlining an alternative path to learn graphics programming.
themaister.net/blog/2025/10...
themaister.net/blog/2025/10...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
I recommend looking at new Paged Out issue #7 - a free magazine with lots of articles, one page each. This one includes my article "Modern 4K Intros on the Demoscene".
pagedout.institute
pagedout.institute
Paged Out!
Deeply technical zine. And it's free.
pagedout.institute
October 5, 2025 at 4:30 PM
I recommend looking at new Paged Out issue #7 - a free magazine with lots of articles, one page each. This one includes my article "Modern 4K Intros on the Demoscene".
pagedout.institute
pagedout.institute
Reposted by Alex Tardif
Ray tracing The World of #AssassinsCreedShadows (Siggraph 2025) available on YouTube youtu.be/2K-rwy4aMmU?...
RAY TRACING THE WORLD OF ASSASSIN'S CREED SHADOWS (Advances in Real-Time Rendering SIGGRAPH 2025)
YouTube video by SIGGRAPH Advances in Real-Time Rendering
youtu.be
September 30, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Ray tracing The World of #AssassinsCreedShadows (Siggraph 2025) available on YouTube youtu.be/2K-rwy4aMmU?...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
New blog post! In "Billions of triangles in minutes" we'll walk through hierarchical cluster level of detail generation of, well, billions of triangles in minutes. Reposts welcome!
zeux.io/2025/09/30/b...
zeux.io/2025/09/30/b...
September 30, 2025 at 5:40 PM
New blog post! In "Billions of triangles in minutes" we'll walk through hierarchical cluster level of detail generation of, well, billions of triangles in minutes. Reposts welcome!
zeux.io/2025/09/30/b...
zeux.io/2025/09/30/b...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
A little something I've been meaning to write for a while martinfullerblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/a...
Thank you to the awesome people at Machine Games and id Software!
Thank you to the awesome people at Machine Games and id Software!
Anisotropic Scaling in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and DOOM: The Dark Ages
While working on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and later DOOM: The Dark Ages, it became apparent that both titles are particularly sensitive to anisotropic sampling cost on the Xbox Series con…
martinfullerblog.wordpress.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:31 AM
A little something I've been meaning to write for a while martinfullerblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/a...
Thank you to the awesome people at Machine Games and id Software!
Thank you to the awesome people at Machine Games and id Software!
Advanced Shader Delivery is here devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/agil...
Agility SDK 1.618: Advanced Shader Delivery and 1.716 out of preview - DirectX Developer Blog
We are pleased to announce the retail release of AgilitySDK 1.618, available on Agility SDK Downloads today! This release promotes our 1.716 features out of preview and also introduces support for the...
devblogs.microsoft.com
September 26, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Advanced Shader Delivery is here devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/agil...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
Continuing on the topic of GPU utilisation and performance, as a practical example, I looked a bit deeper into the impact of vertex shader exports on the cost of a drawcall and wrote another blog post with some observations interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2025/09/21/t...
The performance impact of vertex shader exports
Following up on the previous post on GPU utilization and performance, and to provide a practical example, I expanded a bit on a topic discussed in brief: vertex shader exports and their impact on p…
interplayoflight.wordpress.com
September 21, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Continuing on the topic of GPU utilisation and performance, as a practical example, I looked a bit deeper into the impact of vertex shader exports on the cost of a drawcall and wrote another blog post with some observations interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2025/09/21/t...
And with that last thread ended, I'm so excited to share that tomorrow is my first day at Digital Extremes!
After the project cancellation I finally had the chance to pop open Soulframe after getting access a long time ago, and I got hooked so quickly that I jumped at their job page.
After the project cancellation I finally had the chance to pop open Soulframe after getting access a long time ago, and I got hooked so quickly that I jumped at their job page.
September 14, 2025 at 4:43 PM
And with that last thread ended, I'm so excited to share that tomorrow is my first day at Digital Extremes!
After the project cancellation I finally had the chance to pop open Soulframe after getting access a long time ago, and I got hooked so quickly that I jumped at their job page.
After the project cancellation I finally had the chance to pop open Soulframe after getting access a long time ago, and I got hooked so quickly that I jumped at their job page.
Sharing some details about my job hunt in case it's helpful to someone!
After our project got canned I applied to 12 jobs as a first, and mercifully last, batch.
6 were Unreal-based, 6 were custom tech
After our project got canned I applied to 12 jobs as a first, and mercifully last, batch.
6 were Unreal-based, 6 were custom tech
September 14, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Sharing some details about my job hunt in case it's helpful to someone!
After our project got canned I applied to 12 jobs as a first, and mercifully last, batch.
6 were Unreal-based, 6 were custom tech
After our project got canned I applied to 12 jobs as a first, and mercifully last, batch.
6 were Unreal-based, 6 were custom tech
If you work with D3D12, this is the post you want to read!
I've got a new blog post for all of you fine folks! It runs through the additions to D3D12 since it was released, and finishes up with some of the things that have changed for me personally in my code.
(And yes it's really been 10 years 👴).
therealmjp.github.io/posts/ten-ye...
(And yes it's really been 10 years 👴).
therealmjp.github.io/posts/ten-ye...
Ten Years of D3D12
For those of us that have been using it from the start, it can be hard to believe that Direct3D 12 has been around for nearly ten years now. Windows 10 was released on July 29th 2015, and D3D12 has be...
therealmjp.github.io
September 8, 2025 at 2:56 AM
If you work with D3D12, this is the post you want to read!
Reposted by Alex Tardif
New blog post discussing a few approaches to bottleneck reduction and GPU utilisation and performance increase interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/g...
GPU utilisation and performance improvements
Drill deep into a GPU’s architecture and at its heart you will find a large number of SIMD units whose purpose is to read data, perform some vector or scalar ALU (VALU or SALU) operation on i…
interplayoflight.wordpress.com
August 29, 2025 at 7:52 PM
New blog post discussing a few approaches to bottleneck reduction and GPU utilisation and performance increase interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/g...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
Slides from my SIGGRAPH 2025 and CEDEC 2025 talks “Fast as Hell: idTech 8 Global Illumination”, are now publicly available through the Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games course. Lecture recordings will be available soon on the course's YouTube channel.
#SIGGRAPH2025 Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games course slides for "Fast as Hell: idTech8 Global Illumination” talk by @idsoftwaretiago.bsky.social from @idsoftware.bsky.social
are now online
advances.realtimerendering.com/s2025/index....
are now online
advances.realtimerendering.com/s2025/index....
August 26, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Slides from my SIGGRAPH 2025 and CEDEC 2025 talks “Fast as Hell: idTech 8 Global Illumination”, are now publicly available through the Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games course. Lecture recordings will be available soon on the course's YouTube channel.
Reposted by Alex Tardif
MegaLights slides were just posted online. There's a bunch of details in slide notes if you're curious how our new Stochastic Direct Lighting solution works, why we made it and want to learn a bit about the problem space.
#SIGGRAPH2025 Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games course slides for "MegaLights: Stochastic Direct Lighting in Unreal Engine 5” talk by @knarkowicz.bsky.social and @tiagocostav.bsky.social from Epic Games are now online
advances.realtimerendering.com/s2025/index....
advances.realtimerendering.com/s2025/index....
August 26, 2025 at 5:10 PM
MegaLights slides were just posted online. There's a bunch of details in slide notes if you're curious how our new Stochastic Direct Lighting solution works, why we made it and want to learn a bit about the problem space.
Reposted by Alex Tardif
SIGGRAPH 2025 links: blog.selfshadow.com/2025/08/15/s.... I'll be adding more soon. Let me know if I'm missing anything.
SIGGRAPH 2025 Links
blog.selfshadow.com
August 16, 2025 at 4:17 PM
SIGGRAPH 2025 links: blog.selfshadow.com/2025/08/15/s.... I'll be adding more soon. Let me know if I'm missing anything.
Reposted by Alex Tardif
When I started work on my @vulkan.org #Vulkan C++ samples almost 10 years ago I made some non-optimal decisions esp. around sync and command buffer recording. Finally fixed those and did a write-up with a small retrospective at www.saschawillems.de/blog/2025/08...
Fundamental Vulkan Samples rework
Fundamental Vulkan Samples rework (Sync, command buffers and more) Some history It’s been almost ten years since I started working on my open source C++ Vulkan samples. Never would I have imagined wha...
www.saschawillems.de
August 15, 2025 at 11:36 AM
When I started work on my @vulkan.org #Vulkan C++ samples almost 10 years ago I made some non-optimal decisions esp. around sync and command buffer recording. Finally fixed those and did a write-up with a small retrospective at www.saschawillems.de/blog/2025/08...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
Great Siggraph 2025 presentation of Gran Turismo's tonemapping pipeline, which also includes a fantastic introduction to light perception and tonemapping, its origins and how it evolved over the years with display technology, recommended read: blog.selfshadow.com/publications...
blog.selfshadow.com
August 14, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Great Siggraph 2025 presentation of Gran Turismo's tonemapping pipeline, which also includes a fantastic introduction to light perception and tonemapping, its origins and how it evolved over the years with display technology, recommended read: blog.selfshadow.com/publications...
Excited to get back to writing on some tech stuff, but first there was something I just needed to write🙂
10 Years at ZeniMax Online Studios
alextardif.com/ZOS.html
10 Years at ZeniMax Online Studios
alextardif.com/ZOS.html
Alex Tardif: Graphics Programmer
alextardif.com
August 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Excited to get back to writing on some tech stuff, but first there was something I just needed to write🙂
10 Years at ZeniMax Online Studios
alextardif.com/ZOS.html
10 Years at ZeniMax Online Studios
alextardif.com/ZOS.html
Reposted by Alex Tardif
Most of the slides and course notes for the SIGGRAPH 2025 Physically Based Shading in Theory and practice course are now online, with more to follow:
blog.selfshadow.com/publications...
blog.selfshadow.com/publications...
SIGGRAPH 2025 Course: Physically Based Shading in Theory and Practice
blog.selfshadow.com
August 10, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Most of the slides and course notes for the SIGGRAPH 2025 Physically Based Shading in Theory and practice course are now online, with more to follow:
blog.selfshadow.com/publications...
blog.selfshadow.com/publications...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
It's time to share the program for the 2025 Advances in Real-time Rendering in Games.
Check out all the details here: advances.realtimerendering.com/s2025/index....
and, of course, come attend the course live on Tuesday August 12 at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver!
Check out all the details here: advances.realtimerendering.com/s2025/index....
and, of course, come attend the course live on Tuesday August 12 at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver!
August 6, 2025 at 5:53 AM
It's time to share the program for the 2025 Advances in Real-time Rendering in Games.
Check out all the details here: advances.realtimerendering.com/s2025/index....
and, of course, come attend the course live on Tuesday August 12 at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver!
Check out all the details here: advances.realtimerendering.com/s2025/index....
and, of course, come attend the course live on Tuesday August 12 at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver!
Reposted by Alex Tardif
I have a new article! It took a long time but I think it was worth it, hopefully you'll enjoy it too. www.elopezr.com/the-art-of-p...
Many thanks to @vassilis3d.bsky.social, @mokarakaya.bsky.social
and @angelortiz.bsky.social for the help and encouragement
Many thanks to @vassilis3d.bsky.social, @mokarakaya.bsky.social
and @angelortiz.bsky.social for the help and encouragement
The Art Of Packing Data
The packing of data is good practice for many reasons, including disk space and efficient RAM or cache access. If we know the meaning of data we can often narrow down the range and precision, makin…
www.elopezr.com
June 16, 2025 at 6:42 PM
I have a new article! It took a long time but I think it was worth it, hopefully you'll enjoy it too. www.elopezr.com/the-art-of-p...
Many thanks to @vassilis3d.bsky.social, @mokarakaya.bsky.social
and @angelortiz.bsky.social for the help and encouragement
Many thanks to @vassilis3d.bsky.social, @mokarakaya.bsky.social
and @angelortiz.bsky.social for the help and encouragement
Reposted by Alex Tardif
One of my coworkers, @tearsofjake.bsky.social, has a talk at SIGGRAPH this year about this really cool steerable perlin noise technique that was used on Moana 2. He's just posted some handy reference implementations for Houdini, Unity, Godot, and Blender; check it out!
github.com/jakericedesi...
github.com/jakericedesi...
GitHub - jakericedesigns/SteerablePerlinNoise: Implementations of "Steerable Perlin Noise" as presented at Siggraph 2025
Implementations of "Steerable Perlin Noise" as presented at Siggraph 2025 - jakericedesigns/SteerablePerlinNoise
github.com
July 28, 2025 at 7:01 PM
One of my coworkers, @tearsofjake.bsky.social, has a talk at SIGGRAPH this year about this really cool steerable perlin noise technique that was used on Moana 2. He's just posted some handy reference implementations for Houdini, Unity, Godot, and Blender; check it out!
github.com/jakericedesi...
github.com/jakericedesi...