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How do I become a graphics programmer?

gpuopen.com

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Re: How do I become a graphics programmer?

#191

Post by johnnyanmac »

dagmx wrote: post #161
account42 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For a beginner, it has an incredibly steep learning curve vs DirectX as well. That's only because you refer to DirectX as a whole which includes plenty of older and APIs. If you want to start with those you can just as well start with OpenGL. if you want to jump straight into D3D 12 then that's not much differrent from Vulkan.

The topic was why not Vulkan for a beginner, and D3D12 is a lot less work than Vulkan to get the same results. And I’d still recommend D3D11 over OpenGL for a beginner unless they really need multi platform. There are better resources, and less setup work up front. Honestly though, if I was recommending any graphics api to start, it would be Metal. It has the best mix of ease of use to modern low overhead api.

>The topic was why not Vulkan for a beginner, and D3D12 is a lot less work than Vulkan to get the same results.

It really isn't. It's OpenGL vs D3D11 all over again. They have similar amount of complexities, comparing them for the sake of learning isn't too productive.

With that said: Vulkan has a few but very excellent tutorials while D3D12 is a lot more "read the docs or consult your local graphics guru". I'd say for self-learners Vulkan is simpler to pick up just because of resrouces.

>Honestly though, if I was recommending any graphics api to start, it would be Metal.

Yeah, I've heard metal is nice. Shame it isn't really an option for me.

Re: How do I become a graphics programmer?

#192

Post by johnnyanmac »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #24
SeanAnderson wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this sentiment align with the advent of WebGPU?

WebGPU is little more than a laboratory experiment right now. There are probably no industry implementations (game/graphics engine, visualisers, etc). Computer graphics is particularly industry-driven—consider the proportion of game devs who present at SIGGRAPH versus academics. I give it at least a decade before WebGPU sees any meaningful market share.

>I give it at least a decade before WebGPU sees any meaningful market share.

sounds like a great time to break in if I was still a student :). Real shame, I was around that time for Vulkan back in college, but never truly followed through.

Re: How do I become a graphics programmer?

#193

Post by johnnyanmac »

bsder wrote: post #19
all2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this the case?

Because the amount of resources that Microsoft and NVIDIA pour at graphics programming dwarfs the amount of resources that everybody else combined seems willing to put into it. The implementations are better. The support is better. The ecosystem is better. The debugging tools are better.

better if you never plan to ship on Linux, mobile, or any other console outside of Xbox I suppose. At least Nintendo pretends it has Vulkan support.

Also a shame they pour so many resources but the best tutorial for modern graphics APIs is from Vulkan.

Re: How do I become a graphics programmer?

#194

Post by atan2 »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #185
atan2 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have your book. It's a great read but I would not say it's "the same thing." :) People pay for a specific teaching style and that's absolutely fine.

nothing wrong with seeing if the freeeee alternative works better before throwing out $70 tho.

Of course. Still, I thought it was worth clarifying that they are different so we don't automatically discourage people from trying out good content.

Re: How do I become a graphics programmer?

#195

Post by robaye »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #181
robaye wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://engine-programming.github.io/

I guess the underlying question from here is "how do I get a job as a graphics programmer? What do people interviewing for a grpahics engineer want?" Probably not the best question to ask in this market where everything is especially selective, but even as a now "senior" engineer (I guess I passed that magical 5 year mark a while ago) it feels like I still fall into the catch 22 of "be a graphics engineer to get a jo…

Honestly, I couldn't say Johnny. I'm not a graphics engineer, just a hobbyist game programmer who works in construction, but I did so some internet searching and came across some blogs that I found interesting.

1. Finding Your Home in Graphics Programming, https://alextardif.com/LearningGraphics.html

2. Applying for Entry Level Graphic Jobs in Games, https://alextardif.com/GraphicsJobGuide.html

3. Junior Graphics Programmer Interview Questions, https://erkaman.github.io/posts/junior_graphics_programmer_i...

4. Interviewing Graphics Programmers, https://www.jeremyong.com/graphics/interviewing/2023/08/05/g...

5. Interview Questions, https://aras-p.info/blog/2016/11/05/Interview-questions/

6. Game Programmer Resume Tips, https://github.com/unpacklo/game-programmer-resume-tips

Re: How do I become a graphics programmer?

#196

Post by johnnyanmac »

robaye wrote: post #195
johnnyanmac wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the underlying question from here is "how do I get a job as a graphics programmer? What do people interviewing for a grpahics engineer want?" Probably not the best question to ask in this market where everything is especially selective, but even as a now "senior" engineer (I guess I passed that magical 5 year mark a while ago) it feels like I still fall into the catch 22 of "be a graphics engineer to get a jo…

Honestly, I couldn't say Johnny. I'm not a graphics engineer, just a hobbyist game programmer who works in construction, but I did so some internet searching and came across some blogs that I found interesting. 1. Finding Your Home in Graphics Programming, https://alextardif.com/LearningGraphics.html 2. Applying for Entry Level Graphic Jobs in Games, https://alextardif.com/GraphicsJobGuide.html 3. Junior Graphics Pro…

Thanks, I appreciate any resources offered. I didn't know about the Alex Tardif stuff, so that was especially interesting.

The Aras blog was especially nostalgic too. Real shame I never got a chance to speak with him back at Unity. Joining right during the pandemic removed a lot of potential to travel out to Copenhagen and meet some of these giants of the industry.

Re: How do I become a graphics programmer?

#199

Post by peter_d_sherman »

>"Between 2013 and 2016 things changed with AMD’s introduction of the Mantle graphics API on PC. Designed only for AMD GPUs in concert with EA DICE, Mantle shed the baggage of the legacy APIs to give the programmer much lower level GPU access and a thinner abstraction over how it works. The results — higher performance due to more efficient use of the GPU — opened the floodgates.

Metal in 2014 for Apple platforms, followed by DirectX®12 and Vulkan® in 2016, all took a similar lower-level and more explicit approach to programming the GPU. All of those APIs put a higher burden on the programmer being more clear and explicit about what they’d like the GPU to do, giving the programmer more control.

It effectively moves more of the traditional view of what a GPU driver is into the application."

If the above statement from the article is true -- then graphics cards with closed-source drivers should be able to have open-source drivers written for them, if the graphics card in question supports one or more of the following low-level API's:

Mantle, Metal, DirectX12 and/or Vulkan...

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