Principal Technical Artist - Disc Go!
Disc-Go! is an exhilarating local multiplayer game that invites one to four players into the vibrant world of disc-throwing "Squimgees." This dynamic game offers two exciting modes: "Zone", where players must strategically throw their discs to push the ball to the opposing team's side of the map, and "Goal", where the objective is to score by knocking the ball into the opposing team's goal.
As Principal Technical Artist on Disc Go! I was responsible for
as well as offering support and advice on the production and optimisation of other technically demanding artwork
Optimisation
reducing package size through disabling unnecessary content and removing unused content from the project
overseeing performance impact including instruction count and compressed size of game content
Using Forward Rendering
After verifying that we were not using any deferred rendering features, I decided to switch to Forward+ rendering to improve performance
drastically reducing the performance overhead for visual elements.
(going from 70fps to up to 300fps in certain scenarios)
The biggest performance cost remaining was the character simulations, which were considered vital to game visuals
Shaders
Shading half the map - Pre and Post render method switch
Changing the art style - Pre and Post render method switch
Textural and Post Process changes to art style
Original "concept shader" to get close to the desired artstyle (later optimised)
Before Post-processing and materials adjustment
Deffered rendering, complex post-processing to achive base art style
Deffered rendering - Lighting override, saturation average and increase
lower shaddow intensity
Forward+ rendering, improved effect using different means
Forward+ rendering - Saturation only, textures for subtle edits, relit characters through material only (no longer receiving lighting)
Shaddows fixed and controlled through relighting the scene
Anti Aliasing
Choosing an appropriate anti-aliasing method
UI anti-aliasing quite lacklustre
UI issue mitigations - non square textures, unaligned to UV orientation (anti aliasing issues) white matting
No mip maps :/
Way to fix large majority of issues would be to remake elements in 1:1 ratio, without white matting, with antialiasing applied in photoshop and
newer version of UE also support Scalable Vector based images and in engine texture creation which would produce significantly better results.
Performance Profiling
Comapirson presentations
Intro video compile and setup in engine, as well as splash screens
QA / Design Itteration
Underwater lighting
Chanellers
Ghost materials
"Ghost" effect
Overlay masked unlit material
Additive unlit base material
cheap Faux refraction achieved through dithered opacity layer artefacting from anti aliasing
