Shader Basics, Blending and Textures for Game Developers - Part 1

Dive into an extensive three-part lecture on shader coding for game developers. Learn the fundamentals of shaders, including their structure, types, and applications in popular games. Explore vertex and fragment shaders, data types, and shader code basics. Master techniques such as swizzling, UV manipulation, and gradient creation. Delve into advanced topics like blending modes, depth testing, and texture masking. Gain insights on mip mapping, filtering techniques, and world space coordinates. Perfect for game developers looking to enhance their graphics programming skills and create visually stunning game environments.

- What are shaders?
- Case study/screenshots from FFXIV, Overwatch & more
- The Structure of a Shader
- Vertex shader
- Fragment shader
- Shader vs Material
- A first look at shader code
- Vertex Normals
- Interpolators
- Data types fixed vs half vs float
- Fragment shader output
- Swizzling
- Passing data from vertex shader to fragment shader
- Space transformation w. Matrices
- UV coordinates & manipulation
- Gradients
- Values outside of 0 to 1
- Triangle waves using math
- Preprocessor constants
- Pattern manipulation
- Blending Modes
- Depth buffer & depth testing ZTest
- Waves, ripples & vertex offsetting
- Textures
- World space coordinates
- Texture masking
- Isotropic mip maps
- Anisotropic mip maps
- Point vs bilinear vs trilinear filtering
- Final questions