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View, browse and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by day, pass type, topic, and format. With this Session Viewer, you can view GDC 2023 session details and speakers, and share your favorites via social media. You will be able to build your schedule and access it during the show via export or Mobile App, once live. Sessions do fill up and seating is first come, first serve, so arrive early to sessions that you would like to attend.

Advanced Graphics Summit: Reinventing the Wheel for Snow Rendering

Paolo Surricchio  (Senior Staff Rendering Programmer, Santa Monica Studio)

Location: Room 301, South Hall

Date: Monday, March 20

Time: 1:20 pm - 2:20 pm

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Programming

Format: Lecture

Vault Recording: Video

Audience Level: All

Peek behind the curtain at the decision-making process that led the rendering team at Santa Monica Studio to rewrite their snow displacement solution.

Dive into the technical details of the previous and current solutions, showing and comparing limitations of the previous and new systems, how and why each component is developed, and what problems they solve. See the visual breakdown of how each part contributes to the final image, and how artists interface with the system.

Through examples, understand how it's possible to design and implement reusable rendering components—while both solving a specific problem and leaving the door open to future changes.

Takeaway

Attendees will learn how to design and implement components for rendering systems that solve a specific problem with a certain degree of futureproofing—through the analysis of the full rewrite of a dynamic displacement system in a AAA production.

Intended Audience

This is for any game engineer, artist, or tech-artist interested in gaining a deeper understanding in how rendering systems in AAA games can evolve and why. Basic rendering techniques and architecture knowledge is not required, but will help in better understanding all the parts of the system.