GPU Gems 2: Programming Techniques for High-Performance Graphics and General-Purpose Computation

Foreword

Before the advent of dedicated PC graphics hardware, the industry’s first 3D games used CPU-based software rendering. I wrote the first Unreal Engine in that era, inspired by John Carmack’s pioneering programming work on Doom and Quake. Despite slow CPUs and low resolutions, the mid-1990s became a watershed time for graphics and gaming. New visual effects appeared almost monthly, marked by milestones like Quake’s light mapping and shadowing and Unreal’s colored lighting and volumetric fog. That era faded away as fixed-function 3D accelerators appeared. Deprived of the programmability that drove innovation and differentiation, 3D games grew indistinct.

Today, a new Renaissance in 3D graphics is under way, driven by fully programmable GPUs— ...