Graphics Studies Compilation

Rendering in games can be a complex topic, different approaches with their own tradeoffs are available, new techniques arise, others fall out of fashion… Studios using in-house engines need to make choices that will fit the type of game they’re aiming for. It can be very interesting to know which decisions were actually made to ship the final product, what worked and what didn’t.

There are several resources available online detailing game post-mortems, whether it’s GDC / Siggraph talks or even content hosted by game studios themselves. But not everything is available: public documentation requires time and effort, with little direct return-on-investment for the studio besides good PR among developers. And that’s when the company doesn’t simply prohibit employees from disclosing any information publicly.

Below is a collection of frame breakdowns I gathered online (including a few of mines), all written by volunteers and enthusiasts who decided to reverse-engineer some games and document their findings.

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