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There’s two or three strands of graphics programming though: Plumbing - Delivering data efficiently from the game engine to the GPU often in a platform agnosti
by meheleventyone 3y ago
There’s two or three strands of graphics programming though:
Plumbing - Delivering data efficiently from the game engine to the GPU often in a platform agnostic way with efficient implementations underneath.
Art Pipeline - Delivering data efficiently from the artist tools to the game engine.
GPU Programming - Creating visual effects, shaders, compute shaders and tools around these to empower artists.
All of these use multiple languages, sure C++ is a common one and good to know (likewise as a gameplay programmer) but the bigger percentage of what you need to know as a graphics programmer isn’t how to write C++ but the concepts you’re trying to implement with it.
There’s also R&D but it’s a much smaller part of things.
- johnnyanmac 3y agoYeah, thats the part they don't tell you in school. Or hell, it wasn't even a thing when I was in school. 2012 was right around that time where PBR became popular and Graphics programming started to diverge. Right before Mantle was a thing and industry would start making everything more explicit. I guess I was just in a very important crux. The more unfortunate news is that job applications also don't tell you this. Had plenty an interview as someone looking for "plumbing" graphics roles that clearly wanted a "GPU programming" role instead. Or heck, the role was more for a Tech Artist. Of course, the actual interview is a complete crapshoot as well. And that's where the "but I need to know C++ and low level concepts" probably rears its ugly head. But then again, what software engineering interview these days isn't?