Shader Programming Portfolio - Final Year

Individual University Project

My shader programming module consisted of learning the fundamentals of how shaders are made and the various ways they are utilised  in games. I started off learning GLSL (OpenGL shading language) using Shadertoy, then moved to HLSL inside Unreal Engine 5. 

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For my portfolio piece I created a desert environment, Inspired by my life experience living in Saudi Arabia as well as my home country, with further influence taken from Uncharted 3 and Journey. I first used Unreal's landscape mode to create the general desert dunes, then I used Unreal's shader graph to create the sand and water shader. The water shader utilities a Physical-Based shading model, involving light scattering and light absorption.

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I also learnt about object culling, a handy optimisation technique in which elements further away from the camera aren't rendered until you are within proximity of the object. This came in handy when optimising my particle effects. All in all, this project received a First-Class grade, and was nominated for the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences' End of Year Show!

Additionally, my portfolio piece was nominated for a TIGA award; I was awarded the "TIGA Graduate Of The Year: Artist" accolade!