View, browse and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by pass type, track, and format. With this Session Viewer, you can view session and speaker details for the 2024 Game Developers Conference. New sessions are regularly added leading up to GDC, and all dates and times will be announced about 4 weeks before the event. Once live, you will be able to build your schedule with the GDC Mobile App.
Sessions do fill up and seating is first come, first serve, so arrive early to sessions that you would like to attend.
Keith Stockdale (Software Engineer, Rare Ltd)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass - Get your pass now!
Topic: Programming
Format: Session
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
Rare has a rich culture of writing automated tests for their game and engine code. The Sea of Thieves project has hundreds of thousands of automated tests that exist to validate behaviour and to ensure that bugs are kept to a minimum, as they continually deliver an ever-changing experience to players. Among this large test suite, are tests that validate and verify shader code. This session will explore the technologies that Rare currently uses to write tests for their shader code, both on Sea of Thieves and on their upcoming game, Everwild. Throughout this session Rare will discuss two forms of testing shader code:
1. Screenshot Comparison
2. Shader unit tests
They will go through the pros and cons of both types of tests, as well as delving into the implementation of their shader unit testing framework to discuss the design goals of the system.
Attendees can expect to understand Rare's rationale for testing their shader code using various automation methods, and how it has benefitted them. They will also learn how to construct a simple shader unit testing framework which may provide added value to their projects, in terms of code quality and debuggability.
Core Tech, Engine and Rendering engineers who wish to gain some insight into setting up a shader unit testing framework and want to learn about the benefits of investing into writing tests for shader code. Having a basic knowledge of DirectX 11/12 or OpenGL/Vulkan is recommended, but not necessary.
