Re: The entry competence level for graphics programmers

General:
For DX stuff - PIX - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee417062%28v=VS.85%29.aspx
For GL Stuff - gDEBugger - http://www.gremedy.com/

Nvidia Hardware:
Nvidia Nsight - http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-parallel-nsight
Nvidia perfhud for older stuff - http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-perfhud

I assume AMD/ATI have similar tools but I haven't used them.

That list is probably a good start.

Joe

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tommy Brett
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 1:33 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Sweng-Gamedev] The entry competence level for graphics programmers

Pet projects are definitely my forte, spending a day shouting at Flash as once again I trace a bug further down the scope chain than there is source code is turning my hair grey, the only way to prevent hair loss is to go home and work on my pet terrain renderer till 3 in the morning. On that tangent, what do you guys use for debugging shaders? My solution of simply changing the colour output for a given vertex or fragment upon encountering an unexpected situation in the shader seems remarkably low-tech, and should probably not ever be mentioned at an interview. "So how do you track down errors in your shader?" "don't make them in the first place?"
On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 1:18 PM, Hegarty, Joe <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
That does sound pretty bitter. Though I do agree that at smaller independent studios it's true, as it's often the only thing they can offer people, a shiny new title.

I also agree with Tom, showing you have a firm understanding of the theory and are enthusiastic is far more important that experience in certain technologies. That's true for all roles, not just graphics.
Showing you are actively learning these new technologies would be great as well, some pet projects go a long way.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of James Robertson
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 1:13 PM
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Sweng-Gamedev] The entry competence level for graphics programmers

Not that I'm jaded and bitter or anything, but...

A couple of years experience seems to be all you need these days to be considered a senior in the games industry.

:)


Tom Nettleship wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Tommy Brett <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> I graduated 5 years ago with the intention of becoming a game developer, my career got sidetracked and although this sidetrack led to an ultimately comfortable existence and a lot of life lessons learned, I'm now at the point where my career as a Flash / Flex developer is stagnating. It may also be coming to a forced end as more and more of my employer's clients move away from Flash each month. I've been keeping up with the times, and doing a lot of graphics programming on the side using nVidia's CG shader programming language and OpenGL.
>
> If you've got general programming experience, decent C/C++, an
> understanding of lower level coding & knowledge of OpenGL/DirectX
> you're already skilled enough to do a junior graphics programming
> role. The only thing stopping you from a non-junior role would be
> experience shipping products in that role.
>
>> For example, I know that one area I lack skill in is using shader functions built for DirectX 10 and above - by virtue of me still using an XP machine (GPU is DX10 capable though, reeeally need to upgrade), and I suspect that not being knowledgeable about, say, tessellation using the GPU would swiftly kill any application I would make for a graphics programmer role that paid more than free lunches.
>
> I don't think lack of a knowledge of a (rarely used in production
> code) GPU feature matters at all. I've never used hardware
> tesselation. DX11 (less so 10) experience would give you an easier
> time of it, but not much compared to being able to demonstrate
> knowledge and enthusiasm about general graphics programming
> principles.
>
> TomN
> _______________________________________________
> Sweng-Gamedev mailing list
> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
> http://lists.midnightryder.com/listinfo.cgi/sweng-gamedev-midnightryder.com
>
_______________________________________________
Sweng-Gamedev mailing list
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
http://lists.midnightryder.com/listinfo.cgi/sweng-gamedev-midnightryder.com
_______________________________________________
Sweng-Gamedev mailing list
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
http://lists.midnightryder.com/listinfo.cgi/sweng-gamedev-midnightryder.com

_______________________________________________
Sweng-Gamedev mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.midnightryder.com/listinfo.cgi/sweng-gamedev-midnightryder.com