Alex Tardif
@longbool.bsky.social
Senior Graphics Programmer @ Digital Extremes. Previously ZeniMax Online, WB
Blog: https://alextardif.com/eden.html
Blog: https://alextardif.com/eden.html
Reposted by Alex Tardif
Zootopia 2 took hundreds of artists, TDs, and engineers to make; I was lucky enough to be a small part of it all! Here are some of my personal thoughts/notes from working on Zootopia 2, along with some pretty pictures.
blog.yiningkarlli.com/2025/12/zoot...
blog.yiningkarlli.com/2025/12/zoot...
January 7, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Zootopia 2 took hundreds of artists, TDs, and engineers to make; I was lucky enough to be a small part of it all! Here are some of my personal thoughts/notes from working on Zootopia 2, along with some pretty pictures.
blog.yiningkarlli.com/2025/12/zoot...
blog.yiningkarlli.com/2025/12/zoot...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
My "How to Vulkan in 2026" @vulkan.org #Vulkan guide is now publicly available at www.howtovulkan.com
I still consider it a preview, though I'm mostly happy with it and only plan on changing minor things and incorporating some feedback.
I still consider it a preview, though I'm mostly happy with it and only plan on changing minor things and incorporating some feedback.
How to Vulkan in 2026 - How to Vulkan
How to write Vulkan graphics code in 2026
www.howtovulkan.com
January 3, 2026 at 6:15 PM
My "How to Vulkan in 2026" @vulkan.org #Vulkan guide is now publicly available at www.howtovulkan.com
I still consider it a preview, though I'm mostly happy with it and only plan on changing minor things and incorporating some feedback.
I still consider it a preview, though I'm mostly happy with it and only plan on changing minor things and incorporating some feedback.
"An Experimental Approach to printf in HLSL" from the one and only
www.abolishcrlf.org/2025/12/31/P...
www.abolishcrlf.org/2025/12/31/P...
An Experimental Approach to printf in HLSL
Bringing the best form of debugging to shaders!
www.abolishcrlf.org
December 31, 2025 at 10:05 PM
"An Experimental Approach to printf in HLSL" from the one and only
www.abolishcrlf.org/2025/12/31/P...
www.abolishcrlf.org/2025/12/31/P...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
For my holiday break project I’ve been sketching out an idea to help soften the on-ramp for beginners learning D3D12: a header file that (very lightly) wraps the D3D12 API and only exposes the latest/most-useful bits through straightforward function definitions with ImGui-style inline documentation.
December 29, 2025 at 10:31 PM
For my holiday break project I’ve been sketching out an idea to help soften the on-ramp for beginners learning D3D12: a header file that (very lightly) wraps the D3D12 API and only exposes the latest/most-useful bits through straightforward function definitions with ImGui-style inline documentation.
Reposted by Alex Tardif
I wrote a blog post describing state of GPU market and what does it mean for support of new GPU features
asawicki.info/articles/sta...
Thanks to @asawicki.info for letting me publish on his blog
asawicki.info/articles/sta...
Thanks to @asawicki.info for letting me publish on his blog
State of GPU Hardware (End of Year 2025)
asawicki.info
December 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
I wrote a blog post describing state of GPU market and what does it mean for support of new GPU features
asawicki.info/articles/sta...
Thanks to @asawicki.info for letting me publish on his blog
asawicki.info/articles/sta...
Thanks to @asawicki.info for letting me publish on his blog
Warframe, also cool :-) www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_BB...
Warframe | Wake Up, Tenno (featuring Werner Herzog)
YouTube video by PlayWarframe
www.youtube.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Warframe, also cool :-) www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_BB...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
After nine years of development, meshoptimizer has reached its first major version, 1.0!
This release focuses on improvements in clusterization and simplification as well as stabilization. Here's a release announcement with more details on past, present and future; please RT!
meshoptimizer.org/v1
This release focuses on improvements in clusterization and simplification as well as stabilization. Here's a release announcement with more details on past, present and future; please RT!
meshoptimizer.org/v1
🐇 meshoptimizer v1.0
Mesh optimization library that makes meshes smaller and faster to render
meshoptimizer.org
December 8, 2025 at 4:56 PM
After nine years of development, meshoptimizer has reached its first major version, 1.0!
This release focuses on improvements in clusterization and simplification as well as stabilization. Here's a release announcement with more details on past, present and future; please RT!
meshoptimizer.org/v1
This release focuses on improvements in clusterization and simplification as well as stabilization. Here's a release announcement with more details on past, present and future; please RT!
meshoptimizer.org/v1
Soulframe is cool :-)
Soulframe | Preludes - Official Founders Showcase Trailer
YouTube video by Soulframe
www.youtube.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:23 AM
Soulframe is cool :-)
Reposted by Alex Tardif
The post on using spatial hashing with raytraced ambient occlusion attracted quite a bit of interest so I expanded it into a blog post to discuss how it works behind the scenes to both reduce the noise and its cost. interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/s...
November 23, 2025 at 9:06 PM
The post on using spatial hashing with raytraced ambient occlusion attracted quite a bit of interest so I expanded it into a blog post to discuss how it works behind the scenes to both reduce the noise and its cost. interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2025/11/23/s...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
New blog post! Behind the scenes of some of the techniques involved in making our last PC demo 💫 gboisse.github.io/posts/this-i...
November 5, 2025 at 9:15 PM
New blog post! Behind the scenes of some of the techniques involved in making our last PC demo 💫 gboisse.github.io/posts/this-i...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
#SIGGRAPH2025 Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games course talk recording of "Strand-Based Hair And Fur Rendering In Indiana Jones and The Great Circle" by Sergei Kulikov from MachineGames is now online: youtu.be/jSE1XXBEK-w
SIGGRAPH 2025 Advances: STRAND-BASED HAIR AND FUR RENDERING IN INDIANA JONES AND THE GREAT CIRCLE
YouTube video by SIGGRAPH Advances in Real-Time Rendering
youtu.be
November 11, 2025 at 11:45 PM
#SIGGRAPH2025 Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games course talk recording of "Strand-Based Hair And Fur Rendering In Indiana Jones and The Great Circle" by Sergei Kulikov from MachineGames is now online: youtu.be/jSE1XXBEK-w
Reposted by Alex Tardif
i had a chat with lukasz and @antovsky about gamedev and stuff, if youre into that sort of thing! the middle hour is the juiciest but its all fantastic, ofc ;) youtu.be/mFBmoCv5EcQ?...
Game Architectures with Alex Evans and Anton Mikhailov
YouTube video by Wookash Podcast
youtu.be
November 1, 2025 at 7:06 PM
i had a chat with lukasz and @antovsky about gamedev and stuff, if youre into that sort of thing! the middle hour is the juiciest but its all fantastic, ofc ;) youtu.be/mFBmoCv5EcQ?...
Beat Silksong tonight :D
Team Cherry made my favorite game <3
Team Cherry made my favorite game <3
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Beat Silksong tonight :D
Team Cherry made my favorite game <3
Team Cherry made my favorite game <3
Reposted by Alex Tardif
I finally found the time and energy to make a new blog and write a couple of posts. This time I wrote about PBR content and game development principles. Both posts are quite different so hopefully people find something interesting on either one of them.
irradiance.ca/posts/
irradiance.ca/posts/
Posts
irradiance.ca
October 15, 2025 at 6:51 PM
I finally found the time and energy to make a new blog and write a couple of posts. This time I wrote about PBR content and game development principles. Both posts are quite different so hopefully people find something interesting on either one of them.
irradiance.ca/posts/
irradiance.ca/posts/
Reposted by Alex Tardif
New blog post: Outlining an alternative path to learn graphics programming.
themaister.net/blog/2025/10...
themaister.net/blog/2025/10...
A case for learning GPU programming with a compute-first mindset – Maister's Graphics Adventures
themaister.net
October 5, 2025 at 12:58 PM
New blog post: Outlining an alternative path to learn graphics programming.
themaister.net/blog/2025/10...
themaister.net/blog/2025/10...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
I recommend looking at new Paged Out issue #7 - a free magazine with lots of articles, one page each. This one includes my article "Modern 4K Intros on the Demoscene".
pagedout.institute
pagedout.institute
Paged Out!
Deeply technical zine. And it's free.
pagedout.institute
October 5, 2025 at 4:30 PM
I recommend looking at new Paged Out issue #7 - a free magazine with lots of articles, one page each. This one includes my article "Modern 4K Intros on the Demoscene".
pagedout.institute
pagedout.institute
Reposted by Alex Tardif
Ray tracing The World of #AssassinsCreedShadows (Siggraph 2025) available on YouTube youtu.be/2K-rwy4aMmU?...
RAY TRACING THE WORLD OF ASSASSIN'S CREED SHADOWS (Advances in Real-Time Rendering SIGGRAPH 2025)
YouTube video by SIGGRAPH Advances in Real-Time Rendering
youtu.be
September 30, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Ray tracing The World of #AssassinsCreedShadows (Siggraph 2025) available on YouTube youtu.be/2K-rwy4aMmU?...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
New blog post! In "Billions of triangles in minutes" we'll walk through hierarchical cluster level of detail generation of, well, billions of triangles in minutes. Reposts welcome!
zeux.io/2025/09/30/b...
zeux.io/2025/09/30/b...
September 30, 2025 at 5:40 PM
New blog post! In "Billions of triangles in minutes" we'll walk through hierarchical cluster level of detail generation of, well, billions of triangles in minutes. Reposts welcome!
zeux.io/2025/09/30/b...
zeux.io/2025/09/30/b...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
A little something I've been meaning to write for a while martinfullerblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/a...
Thank you to the awesome people at Machine Games and id Software!
Thank you to the awesome people at Machine Games and id Software!
Anisotropic Scaling in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and DOOM: The Dark Ages
While working on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and later DOOM: The Dark Ages, it became apparent that both titles are particularly sensitive to anisotropic sampling cost on the Xbox Series con…
martinfullerblog.wordpress.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:31 AM
A little something I've been meaning to write for a while martinfullerblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/a...
Thank you to the awesome people at Machine Games and id Software!
Thank you to the awesome people at Machine Games and id Software!
Advanced Shader Delivery is here devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/agil...
Agility SDK 1.618: Advanced Shader Delivery and 1.716 out of preview - DirectX Developer Blog
We are pleased to announce the retail release of AgilitySDK 1.618, available on Agility SDK Downloads today! This release promotes our 1.716 features out of preview and also introduces support for the...
devblogs.microsoft.com
September 26, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Advanced Shader Delivery is here devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/agil...
Reposted by Alex Tardif
Continuing on the topic of GPU utilisation and performance, as a practical example, I looked a bit deeper into the impact of vertex shader exports on the cost of a drawcall and wrote another blog post with some observations interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2025/09/21/t...
The performance impact of vertex shader exports
Following up on the previous post on GPU utilization and performance, and to provide a practical example, I expanded a bit on a topic discussed in brief: vertex shader exports and their impact on p…
interplayoflight.wordpress.com
September 21, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Continuing on the topic of GPU utilisation and performance, as a practical example, I looked a bit deeper into the impact of vertex shader exports on the cost of a drawcall and wrote another blog post with some observations interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2025/09/21/t...
And with that last thread ended, I'm so excited to share that tomorrow is my first day at Digital Extremes!
After the project cancellation I finally had the chance to pop open Soulframe after getting access a long time ago, and I got hooked so quickly that I jumped at their job page.
After the project cancellation I finally had the chance to pop open Soulframe after getting access a long time ago, and I got hooked so quickly that I jumped at their job page.
September 14, 2025 at 4:43 PM
And with that last thread ended, I'm so excited to share that tomorrow is my first day at Digital Extremes!
After the project cancellation I finally had the chance to pop open Soulframe after getting access a long time ago, and I got hooked so quickly that I jumped at their job page.
After the project cancellation I finally had the chance to pop open Soulframe after getting access a long time ago, and I got hooked so quickly that I jumped at their job page.
Sharing some details about my job hunt in case it's helpful to someone!
After our project got canned I applied to 12 jobs as a first, and mercifully last, batch.
6 were Unreal-based, 6 were custom tech
After our project got canned I applied to 12 jobs as a first, and mercifully last, batch.
6 were Unreal-based, 6 were custom tech
September 14, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Sharing some details about my job hunt in case it's helpful to someone!
After our project got canned I applied to 12 jobs as a first, and mercifully last, batch.
6 were Unreal-based, 6 were custom tech
After our project got canned I applied to 12 jobs as a first, and mercifully last, batch.
6 were Unreal-based, 6 were custom tech
If you work with D3D12, this is the post you want to read!
I've got a new blog post for all of you fine folks! It runs through the additions to D3D12 since it was released, and finishes up with some of the things that have changed for me personally in my code.
(And yes it's really been 10 years 👴).
therealmjp.github.io/posts/ten-ye...
(And yes it's really been 10 years 👴).
therealmjp.github.io/posts/ten-ye...
Ten Years of D3D12
For those of us that have been using it from the start, it can be hard to believe that Direct3D 12 has been around for nearly ten years now. Windows 10 was released on July 29th 2015, and D3D12 has be...
therealmjp.github.io
September 8, 2025 at 2:56 AM
If you work with D3D12, this is the post you want to read!