recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
VEX

VEX stands for "Vector Expressions" and is the native expression language used in SideFX Houdini. It is used in all sorts of contexts such as geometry processing or shader creation and is best known for its highly parallelized nature and speed when iterating over large pointclouds and/or geometry.

VEX is strongly typed and loosely based on C and C++. It follows the SIMD paradigm of "Single Instruction, Multiple Data".

While VEX performs remarkably well when dealing with large amounts of geometry and its built in string functions are quite extensive, pipeline tasks when dealing with files on disk or generating nodes in the network itself might be better suited for python.

There is some small overlap in functionality between VEX and HSCRIPT which is Houdini's (deprecated but still widely used) scripting language which may confuse beginners sometimes.
Baking

Baking refers to the process of rendering data to the UV layout of an object. A very common usecase is to bake normals from a highpoly mesh to a lowpoly equivalent.

It can also refer to baking out vertexcolors, ambient occlusion, curvature, height or any other attribute to a texture for reuse somewhere else.

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture\_Baking
Distortion

Keywords: Heathaze, Screendisplacement, Refraction

Distortion is used to offset the pixels of whatever is behind the current pixel giving the effect of looking through glass or water. There are multiple ways to approach it, but in the end the underlying technique grabs a scenetexture and then offsets the uvs of the sampling of that texture.
Clamp

The clamping is a process used to restruct a value between a min and max values. If the initial value is lower than the min, the function will return the min. If the initial value is higther than the max, the function will return the max.

   For a texture, it can be useful if you want to avoid wrapping artefact, or if you don't want the texture to tile. you can also use it for UV coordinates.

  Here is some pseudo code  :

```
**function** clamp(x, min, max):
    **if** (x < min) **then**
        x = min;
    **else if** (x > max) **then**
        x = max;
    **return** x;
**end** clamp

```
RealtimeVFX Wiki

## Welcome to the Wiki

Welcome to the Realtime (V)FX wiki. This Wiki aims to eventually be the hub for all realtime vfx knowledge.

If you are just starting out, or are looking for a list of tutorials: Tutorials

If you are looking for presentations about RTVFX but can't remember what conference it was at? Presentations

If you are just trying to learn the language of RTVFX, check out the Glossary

One thing that needs to be clarified before you move on is the naming of this database. Realtime VFX stands for Realtime Visual Special Effects. The unfortunate issue with this, is that it nowadays have multiple meanings. The version of the term this database refers to comes from videogame development where VFX was used to differentiate it from SFX which means Sound Special Effects. In recent years, film VFX have started adopting realtime workflows. In film, VFX is an umbrella for all the computer generated trickery used whereas in games, it refers to the particles, special shaders and other concepts that film would refer to as simply FX.

So, to make it clearer what this wiki is about, it should probably be renamed as **Realtime FX Wiki**, but that's a topic for another day.

This is a big project and it'll be done in stages.

* Stage 1: Gather terms and establish Wiki: **Completed.**
* Stage 2: Add basic description to all terms in Glossary: **In Progress**
* Stage 3: Build Learning Resources section: **In Progress.**
* Stage 4: Write full articles for all terms in Glossary: **Not started.**

## Can't find what you are looking for?

To discuss Realtime VFX, head over to the forum: https://www.realtimevfx.com or the discord server https://discord.gg/5SpYrmp

## Useful Links

Glossary

Tutorials

Presentations
Blending

Blending refers to how a shader blends with the background.

Common blending techniques are additive, translucent and multiplicative. It performs various operations on the pixel using the Source color (the thing you are working on) with the Destination color (the pixel behind what you are working on).

You can read about some examples and descriptions of how the Source and Destination are handled in different modes here: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Rendering/Materials/MaterialProperties/BlendModes
Clipping

Clipping can refer to many things, but the common denominator is that it refers to some sort of intersection. If you clip through an object, you walk through it. If you clip an object in houdini, you remove the part beyond the clip plane.

There are near and far clipping planes on cameras that determines if objects should be rendered or not.
Flare

Keywords: Lensflare

Lensflares are caused by reflections in the lens of a camera. It happens all the time in film, and they are used for artistic effect quite often. In games, there is no lens, but the visual look is still often desireable so it's added in. It is usually used to enhance the feeling of a certain bright object.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens\_flare
Channel packing

Keywords: Greypacking

When you channelpack, it simply means that you store arbitrary grayscale images in the various (RGBA) channels of a texture for later retrieval in engine. It allows you to essentially store four textures per texture. This is useful if you are creating something that needs several masks but don't need to replace it with generic textures. It has the limitation that you have to pack the same masks in the same channels when reusing the effect so it can be confusing if it's not well documented.
Backface

Keywords: Backface culling, Doublesided

The backface of a polygon is the one facing away from the normal. By default, most engines will not render this (backface culling) to make it faster. However, it's usually possible to override this with a flag that tells the mesh to render double sided. This can be useful for thin effects that are rendering on a quad that you can see from any angle.

Sometimes it's preferable to simply duplicate the mesh in your DCC and flip the normals on the duplicate. This achieves the same thing for approximately the same cost, but it gives you a bit more control, should you want to alter the look based on which side you are looking at.
Cross

Keywords: Crossproduct

Crossproduct is a common mathematical operation that takes two vectors and returns one that's orthogonal to both of them.

A common trick to find a vector (tangent) that follows a surface is to "double cross" the normal. So first you cross the Normal with an arbitrary up vector. Then you cross the resulting vector with the Normal again.
Curvemesh

Keywords: Soulercoaster, Splinemesh, Curvesweep, Zoomie, Geostrip, Swipe, Swoosh.

A mesh consisting of quads (or other shape) extruded along a curve. The UVs are then laid out in a way that if you scroll a texture along the mesh it looks like the texture is following the path of the mesh.

A nice tutorial for creating curvemeshes by Russell Bakewell can be found here:

https://realtimevfx.com/t/vfx-basics-mesh-soulercoasters/1987

The same topic is covered in Houdini by Andreas Glad here:

And by Yoeri -Luos\_83- Vleer here:
Swizzle

Swizzling is a fancy word for changing the order of channels of a texture or a vector.

For example RGBA can be Swizzled to BRAG if you are feeling boastful. It's done for various different reasons like preparing a texture for compression or a certain function.

This is commonly done in a shader. More details can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/direct3dhlsl/dx9-graphics-reference-asm-ps-registers-modifiers-source-register-swizzling
Geary

* Current
* Previous
* Second
* First

**Geary** is a female contestant competing in Mysterious Object Super Show. She is currently competing on Team Blank.

## Appearance

Geary is a bronze round gear with a hole in the top right center and 8 half-squares around it.

## Personality

Geary is calm, chill, and lazy, as seen when she and her teammates were asked to make a team name.

## Deaths

### Something Along the Lines of a Rainy Day

1. Blown off by Creeper.
2. Crushed by the meteor.

## Trivia

* She's the only contestant on the show that is used in workshops.
* Geary is the only contestant to be made out of bronze.
Inkling

* Current
* Previous
* Third
* Second
* First
* Squid

**Inkling** is a female contestant competing in Mysterious Object Super Show. She is currently competing on Team Tangerines.

## Appearance

Inkling is an orange Inkling from *Splatoon*, *Splatoon 2* and *Splatoon 3*. Her appearance is similar to that of the Inkling Girl used to promote *Splatoon*. She wears a white T-shirt, and wears pink shoes with light blue socks/laces. Her eyes are white, and her hands are circles that match her skin tone, while her arms and legs are black lines, much like the other objects. She also wears an ink tank, which is filled with orange ink.

## Personality

Inkling is a bold character, ready to challenge others and also not afraid to act strangely. You can tell this by how she chose her team which was basically just selecting them randomly and deciding whether they were worthy. Her decisions on that were kind of odd, as commented on by her team. She is also scared of water.

## Abilities

* **Squid Transformation:** Inkling can change herself into a squid at any point just like in the *Splatoon* series.

## Trivia

* Inkling's canonical age in *Splatoon* is 14. This makes her the only MOSS character with a possible age.
* Just like in *Splatoon*, if she touches water in any way, she will immediately die.
* She is one of the two characters who is weak to water. The other one being Gene.
* Inkling is shown to have access to a variety of ink weapons from *Splatoon* with her, including the Splattershot, Splat Charger, and the Splat Bomb. The ink seems to be sticky.
* She's the only contestant from the *Splatoon* series.
* She's the only human-like contestant.
* Inkling is one of the four characters that are inspired by games, her being inspired by *Splatoon*, Creeper and Piston being inspired by *Minecraft* and L-Gloo being inspired by *Hello Neighbor*.
* Inkling was redrawn to avoid copyright.
* Inkling is technically the only MOSS character to ever being playable in a *Super Smash Bros* game, since the Inkling from *Splatoon* is a playable character in *Super Smash Bros Ultimate*.
	+ This makes her one of the three characters who technically appeared in a *Super Smash Bros* game alongside Creeper and Piston.
* Inkling might appear as a symbol in the fan game *Battle for Smash Ultimate* (created by polysided themselves).
* She does not speak coherently, but in the language that is instead spoken in *Splatoon*, translated to English at the bottom of the screen.
Farm

Keywords: Renderfarm

A farm is a cluster of computers or a serverstack that can be used to process heavy operations like simulating, rendering or baking. This frees up the users pc for continued work and let's the process be done a lot quicker as there are many computers running in parallel. There are both local and cloudbased farms. Some studios have dedicated local farms, while others use the computers of the team by borrowing computing power from pcs currently idle.
Tutorials

The Big List of Tutorials

## Prerequisites

Start with the articles giving an overview of what VFX is, and how it works. Then start making your way though the rest.

VFX for games explained

Realtime vfx overview from Mederic Chasse

Kahn Academy Introduction to particle systems by pixar

Glossary

## Getting started

Now that you know what VFX is, here's where you start learning the basics.

Intro to UE4 Niagara by Thomas Harle (playlist)

League Of Legends VFX Breakdowns

2d Animation tutorials by Jason Keyser (playlist)

LoL FX + Knowledge Share

Houdini VFX for games

Introduction to the VFX Graph - Unity 2018.4

Particles 102 - Intro to Particle Systems (Unity)

Linear Algebra

Math for game devs

The five most used UV tricks for VFX artists! Unreal Engine Quick Tips

## Gaining momentum

When you start feeling comfortable, here are some areas where you can start building up a bit more depth in your knowledge.

Presentations

ScratchAPixel

The Book of Shaders

## Advanced topics

Some topics covering more advanced and sometimes experimental topics.

UE4 Niagara simulation stages Grid2d quickstart

UE4 Niagara simulation stages Grid2d simple texture advection

Spatial Hashing in Unreal’s Niagara with Neighbor Grid 3D

Ray Marching for Dummies

Minimal compute shader examples

GPU Gems

Below is an assortment of learning material assembled by the community.

## Effect specific tutorials

Learn how to make VFX Materials for beginners inside Unreal Engine 5.2!

Unreal Engine 5 Tutorial - Animation Notifies

Cheap Fog in UE4 [Depth-mask post process]

How To Make a Futuristic World Scanning System in Unreal Engine - PostProcess

Easy Dissolve Material in UE4/UE5

UE5 | Bubble Shield Using Niagara | 5-Minute VFX Tutorial | Unreal Engine 5

Sci-fi animated holographic material in Unreal Engine 5 | Tutorial

UE4 VFX For Games - How to create blood textures, shaders and particles!

Fire Simulation FX in Unreal Engine Niagara | in 12 minutes

Unreal Engine 5 - Electric Material

UE4 - Tutorial - Hologram Material! (Request!)

## YouTube channels to follow

Some YouTube channels have excellent playlists on how to recreate common effects from games, including particle systems, materials, etc.

UnrealCG

PrismaticaDev

Dean Ashford

TharleVFX

FXology

Ben Cloward

1MaFX

ImbueFX

gameDev Outpost

## Tool deep dives

Chosen your preferred tool? Here is some content for them.

**Houdini**

Steven Knippings FX courses

Houdini CGWiki

**Embergen**

Embergen Tutorials via JangaFX on Youtube

Embergen Quick Tips via JangaFX on Youtube

Free Embergen Magic FX course via RedefineFX

EmberGen Live Training: Simtuition (Simulation Intuition)

**Photoshop**

Painting Trails via SBerke on DeviantArt

Texture Tips in Photoshop via SBerke on DeviantArt

**Substance**

Texture Tutorials via 1MaFX on Youtube

**FumeFX**

**AfterFX**

**Resolve**

**Niagara**

## Mentored education

Want some more guidance and have cash to pay for mentorship?

VFX Apprentice

The Mentor Coalition

Rebelway Stylized FX for games
Dithering

The basic is, that it is a form of rasterized noise to blend between two values.

It is used in 2D graphics (like pixelart) to fake a gradient or color depth.

In 3D graphics it is used like this sometimes, but mostly to blend between objects. For example: to mask a hard seam between rock and ground.

Or it is also used for masking. Making objects semi-transparent, if the camera is near it, so the object doesn't block the view.
Additive

Keywords: Blending, Blendmode

Additive is a blending mode where the color of a translucent object is added onto the background color making it look bright and often glowy. In Photoshop this mode is known as Linear Dodge.

More blend modes and examples are explained below.

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Engine/Rendering/Materials/MaterialProperties/BlendModes
Color Temperature

Keywords: Blackbody radiation

Color temperature is a ramp of colors that's defined by what color is emitted from a blackbody when heated to a certain degree Kelvin. This color ramp is called a blackbody ramp. It will show relatively cold (1700 K) as red and progress through orange and then to white and blue.
Bit Depth

Keywords: 8-Bit, 16-Bit, 32-Bit

The Bit Depth of a texture refers to how much data it stores per pixel. Different tasks require different amounts of data. If you just want a nice color on your mesh, an 8 bit texture will be enough as it can be any of 256 levels of gray per channel. This gives you a ton of color options, 16 777 216 colors to be exact. However, if you want to use it for something like displacement, having 256 distinct steps might not be enough. Then you'd have to use 16 bit or higher.

For VFX artists a usecase for 16 or 32 bit textures are Vertex Animation Textures (VAT). If your verts move more than 256 units from it's minimum to its maximum position during the animation, you either need to use a texture with higher bit depth or shrink it down and scale it back up again on the engine side. It's a tradeoff between file size and precision.

More info can be found here:

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/bit-depth.htm
Opération Danse Junior

***Opération Danse Junior*** is a French-language Canadian reality show for aspiring dancers aged 8 to 14. This is a spin-off of *Opération Danse*.

## Format

Each week revolves the contestants being teamed up into pairs all while dancing to a popular song they have prepared during the previous week.

## One air

Regular judges
I forget who the regular judges are.

Co-hosts
I forgot the rest.

## Season summary

### **Season 1 (2014)**

*Main article: Opération Danse Junior 2014*

### **Season 2 (2015)**

*Main article: Opération Danse Junior 2015*

### **Season 3 (2016)**

*Main article: Opération Danse Junior 2016*

### **Season 4 (2018)**

*Main article: Opération Danse Junior 2018*

The show returned after a one-year break and received the highest ratings in the franchise's history during season 4.

### **Season 5 (2019)**

*Main article: Opération Danse Junior 2019*

### **Season 6 (2020)**

*Main article: Opération Danse Junior 2020*
This season was reimagined due to COVID-19.

### **Season 7 (2021)**

*Main article: Opération Danse Junior 2021*

### **Season 8 (2022)**

*Main article: Opération Danse Junior 2022*
Ambient Occlusion

Keywords: AO

Ambient Occlusion is a an approximation of how much light would hit a surface without taking a specific light direction into account. Meaning that tight crevices, folds and other creases would get darker than an area exposed to a lot of light.

This approximation can be used as a mask for various different effects like dirt or wear. It's often baked offline and used as vertex color or a texture.

From a consumer point of view it's seen a bit differently as it's often used as a post effect to add contrast to the scene.
Vector

Keywords: Ray, Direction, Force, Position, Datatype

> Vectors are, perhaps, the most fundamental mathematical objects used in computer games. We use vectors to represent positions, displacements, directions, velocities, and forces.
>
>
>

*A vector refers to a quantity that possesses both magnitude and direction.*
Quantities that possess both magnitude and direction are called vector-valued quantities.
Examples of vector-valued quantities are forces (a force is applied in a particular direction with a certain strength—magnitude), displacements (the net direction and distance a particle moved), and velocities (speed and direction).

In addition, we also use vectors to specify pure directions, such as the direction the player is looking in a 3D game, the direction a polygon is facing, the direction in which a ray of light travels, or the direction in which a ray of light reflects off a surface.

***From Frank D Luna, Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX11***

Additionally,

Vectors can also be thought of as a list or an array of data.

For example, RGBA channels of a Texture is a Vec4 or Float4, a Vector with 4 components, RGBA or XYZW each storing a float value.

UV data of a mesh can be thought of as a Vec2 or a Float2, A Vector with 2 components, RG or XY or UV!

[TODO]

[]Simple, ELI5 explanations with graphics for vectors?

[]Vector Math and Vector Operations with relevant examples, check if glossary has them, otherwise make new pages

[]Examples of where and how vectors are used in FX workflows with relevant links to their pages (like UVs, etc)

[]Ask Glad about what he thinks about these, maybe using quotes from books is bad?

Resources :

https://chortle.ccsu.edu/vectorlessons/vch01/vch01\_1.html

https://paroj.github.io/gltut/Basics/Introduction.html#idp288
Edge detection

Keywords: Outline

Edge Detection is a post-processing shader effect, that samples pixels and compares the under specified conditions. Mostly it is used to compare the camera depth of surrounding pixels and/or the normal values of the surrounding pixels.

This can be used to create a cartoon outline look or for other visual direction.
Camera Offset

Keywords:

Camera offset refers to the function in Unreal Engine Cascade where a particle is nudged towards the camera.

Similar behaviour can be achived through shaders where the vertices of the particle / mesh is being moved towards the camera.

In Unity and Shuriken, under the Render dropdown a similar behaviour can be achieved by changing the pivot Z of the particle.
BladeWings

BladeWings are one of the three native tribes of Syyvernia, and as their name suggests, they are very deadly.

## Appearance

BladeWings are massive, their average weight being 80-150\* tons (Larger sizes have been recorded in dragons who consumed a lot of radioactive metals). BladeWings have four wings like a silk or HiveWing, but aren’t the best at flying, but out of all the tribes of syyvernia, are the strongest physically
Sprite

*Keywords: Viewaligned Quad Billboard*

The most basic tool of a vfx artist. In it’s simplest form it’s a camera facing quad with a texture applied to it. There are countless variations to this with different alignment options but they tend to fall under other categories like Billboards.

Sprites are what build up most of the effects we create. A single sprite is often not very impressive, but when several are used together they can fake many volumetric phenomena.

Original definition of a sprite:

*In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional bitmap that is integrated into a larger scene.*
*Originally sprites referred to independent objects that are composited together, by hardware, with other elements such as a background. This occurs as each scan line is prepared for the video output device, such as a CRT, without involvement of the main CPU and without the need for a full-screen frame buffer.*[1]

These days however, VFX artists are one of the few art disciplines that still use sprites. The definition is slightly different for us. It is a quad that always aligns to the camera. It can display various content, like textures from a texture atlas.
Profiling

Keywords: Optimization, Overdraw, Fillrate, Pix, Nsight, Profiler

Profiling is the process of measuring the performance of your game on the target platform. This is done to give an idea of what to focus optimization efforts on. It's important to do this on the actual platform the game will ship on as they all have different strengths and weaknesses.

To profile the game you can use various tools. Most engines have some profiler built in, but there are also external tools that can help with this such as Pix or Nsight. It's necessary to profile both the CPU and GPU to get a clear picture of where your precious milliseconds are going but since realtime VFX usually does something that needs to be rendered, the GPU is the one we tend to focus on.

In this video series Oskar Swierad gives a good primer in profiling for Unreal, but the ideas hold true for any engine.

   In the following video you can see an example of the profiling tools of the decima engine created by Guerilla Games.
AD

Keywords: Art director, Art Direction

The Art Director has the final word on the visuals of a game. The art direction is a document detailing the rules of the visuals. It's a guide the artists can use to make decisions when making effects.

https://www.careermatch.com/job-prep/career-insights/profiles/video-game-art-director/
Alignment

Particle alignment determines how a particle aligns itself relative to the world and camera. There are several common alignments like screen (default sprite) where it aligns itself to the camera and velocity, where it aligns itself to the direction it's travelling.

More examples can be found here:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Engine/Rendering/ParticleSystems/Reference/Modules/Required
Alien Pineapple

* Current
* Previous

**Alien Pineapple** is a female contestant competing in Mysterious Object Super Show. She is currently competing on Team Neon.

## Appearance

Her appearance seems to be a purple pineapple with turquoise leaves.

## Personality

Alien Pineapple likes when people compliment her image, such as her leaves. She also is quick to point things out, like MOSS's meaning.

## Deaths

### Something Along the Lines of a Rainy Day

1. Blown up by Creeper.
2. Crushed by the meteor.

## Trivia

* Alien Pineapple is one of the objects that don't actually exist in real life, along with 8.8 Ball and Guacamole Volcano.
* She is one of the three fruit-like contestants on the show, the other two being Tomato and Seedless Grape.
* She is one of the seven food-like contestants on the show, the other ones being Guacamole Volcano, Ghost Pepper, Cabbage, Seedless Grape, Tomato and Breadcrumb.
* She, Spinny and Ghost Pepper are the only purple contestants on the show.
* She is one of the food-like items that don’t actually exist in real life, the other being Guacamole Volcano.
Particle

A point containing data that controls how the effect behaves and looks. You can attach sprites or meshes to particles for different results. Particles are emitted in particle systems and they are the backbone of a Realtime VFX artists toolbox.

Further explanation of particles use in film can be found below. In realtime, they have some limitations (particlecount, interparticle collision and rendering) that are not covered, but the videos give a good overview.
Glossary

A Glossary of terms that's beneficial to know as a Realtime VFX Artist.

## 0-9

3d Studio Max

A

Abs

Acceleration

AD

Additive

Aliasing

Alignment

Alpha

Ambient VFX

Ambient Occlusion

Animation

Anti-Aliasing

Artifact

Atan

Atmospherics

Attractor

Axis

B

Backface

Baking

Benticle

Bezier

Bit Depth

Blackbody

Blender

Blending

Bloom

Blur

Bokeh

Bool

Bug

Build

C

Cameraspace

Camera Offset

Camprox

Cascade

Caustics

Centroid

Channel packing

Child

Clamp

Clipping

Color space

Color Temperature

Compression

Concept

Confluence

Cos

CPU

Cross

Crunch

Culling

Curvature

Curve

Curvemesh

D

Day 1

DCC

Decal

Delay

Depth of Field

Depthfade

Displacement

Distance

Distancefade

Distortion

Dithering

DOT

Doublesided

Draw Call

E

Edge detection

Emissive

Emitter

Engine

Erosion

Expert

Exposure

EXR

Eye adaption

F

Farm

Fillrate

Flare

Flipbook

Float

Flowmap

Fluids

Fog

Force

FOV

FPS

Frac

Frustum

Function

G

Gamma

Gate

GIMP

Gobo

Gold

GPU

Grading

Gravity

Grayboxing

H

Hansoft

HEngine

HD

HDR

HLSL

HDA

Houdini

I

IBL

IES

Impact

Instance

Integer

Intermediate

Iteration

J

Jira

Jpeg

Junior

K

Keyframe

Kitbashing

Krita

L

Lead

Lerp

Lifetime

Lightprobe

Linear Algebra

Linger

Liquids

Localspace

LOD

Loop

Luminance

LUT

M

Mask

Mathimation

Maya

Mesh Particle

Mesh Sleeve

Moire

Morphtarget

Motion blur

Motionvector blend

Ms

N

Naming Convention

NAN

NDA

Niagara

Node

Nodebased

Noise

Normal

Normalize

NURBS

O

O-flow

Occlusion

Optimization

Orbis

Overdraw

P

P4V

Parallax

Parameter

Parent

Particle

Particlesystem

Partikel

Patch

PBR

Performance

Photoshop

Pipeline

Pivot

Pix

Platform

PNG

Point

Pointcloud

Polar coordinates

Polygon

POM

PostFX

Pre-Production

Prefab

Premultiply

Prerendered

Preroll

Prio

Procedural

Production

Profiling

Projectile

Projection

PSD

Pyro

Python

Q

QA

QC

Quality

R

Raymarching

Raytracing

Realtime

Render Target

Render pass

Rendering

Resolution

RGBA

Roughness

Rubberducking

S

Saturate

Saturation

Screenspace

Script

Seam

Seed

Senior

Shader

Sharepoint

Shipping

Simulation

Sin

Singleplayer

Skydome

Slate

Slack

Spawn

Snapping

Soft Launch

Sorting

Specular

Sprite

Standup

Style

Substance

Subsurface

Sustain

Stadia

Streaming

Swizzle

T

TA

TAA

Tangent

Teams

Texel

Texture

TGA

Threshold map

TIFF

Tiling

Timing

Trail

Translucent

Trimmesh

U

UI

Unity

Unreal

UV distortion

UVs

V

Variable

VAT

Vector

Vectorfield

Velocity

Vertex

Vertex Color

Vertex Shader

VEX

VFX

Volume

Voxel

VR

W

Worldspace

X

Xbone

Y

Y-Up

Z

Z-Depth

Z-Fighting

Z-Up
Atan

Keywords: Arctangent, atan2

Atan2 is a version of Arctangent that gives you one value for each angle of rotation whereas regular atan can give different results if X is positive or negative. This is useful when you need to know how far along a unit circle you are. A use case for this is in an impostor shader where you alter the uv coordinates of a flipbook based on the viewing angle.
Presentations

The Big List of Presentations

## GDC

The Rise of Realtime

Rapid Talks 2017

Like a mace to the face: Leaving the Battlefield to go it alone

How to go from good to great

Artistic Principles of VFX

Zip! Thwack! Ping! Animation principles of VFX

The thinking process of beautiful design

The Elementary Particles

Pathways to RTVFX

How VR is Going to Break All the Rules in VFX

Autonomy in Real-Time Effects: Artist Driven Tools and Techniques for Large Scale Production

The Visual Effects Technology of Destiny

Real-Time VFX: A Visual Language Spectrum

Art Directing VFX for Stylized Games

The VFX of Diablo

Bringing Home the Bacon- Developing the VFX of "Spec Ops: The Line" as Thin Slices

Rock Show VFX - The Effects That Bring Brutal Legend to Life

Surface Tension: Liquid Effects in The Last of Us

Moving the Heavens: An Artistic and Technical Look at the Skies of The Last of Us

The Tricks Up Our Sleeves: A Walkthrough of the Latest Techniques Behind FX of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Creating the Flood Effects in Uncharted 3

Shading a Bigger, Better Sequel: Techniques in Left 4 Dead 2

Rendering Wounds in Left 4 Dead 2

Frostbite GPU Emitter Graph System

Applying AAA Techniques on Mobile Games: Understanding Flow Maps and Its Applications

Technical Art Techniques of Naughty Dog: Vertex Shaders and Beyond

Uncharted 4's Technical Art Culture

The Visual Effects of inFAMOUS: Second Son

Bleeding-Edge Effects on Mobile

Creating the Art of ABZU

How to Use Shaders to Create Stylized VFX

The VFX Process Behind 'Battleborn'

The Subtle Art of Not Making VFX

## Siggraph

Water Flow in Portal 2

Chasing film in 5ms

Mortal Kombat 11: A Bloody Production Talk

GPU Driven Effects of The Last of Us Part II

The Technical Art of The Last of Us Part II

## Other

The production and visual effects of Killzone Shadow Fall

FX Adventures in Uncharted 4: A Thieves End

Volume to mesh workflows used in Battlefield 1

Houdini booth presentation Mafia 3

CitizenCon 2948 - Panel: Crafting Space

Sea of Thieves: Tech Art and Shader Development

Technical art of Sea of Thieves

GAT #65: Stylized VFX in Rime

Community Transmission: Visual Effects in Battlefront

Unite Europe 2017 - The Real-time VFX of Spellsouls

Blowing S#!t Up the Bungie Way (Halo 3 VFX)

Making Stylized VFX with Flash (Brawl Stars)

Realtime VFX for Games (Gears Of War)

A Day on the Destiny 2 VFX Team
Flipbook

Keywords: Textureatlas, SubUV, Spritesheet

A flipbook is a way to lay out frames of an animation in a grid to allow playback of the animation by just animating the uvcoordinates of the texturesampler. The name comes from actual flipbooks where all the frames are stacked on top of eachother and you flip through them with your thumb, tricking the eye into seeing an animation instead of still images.
Lerp

Keywords: Linear Interpolation

Lerping is a way to blend from one value to another. This blend is often driven by a third number called interpolator or alpha. This could be either a single float/vector, or in the case of shaders it could be a texture that allows you to select different outcomes based on this interpolator mask.

The maths behind it can be seen here:

A more practical explanation can be found here:
Kitbashing

The term and process originates from film making, most famously used by ILM on the original Star Wars trilogy.

The process of using existing models to create a new or detail/extend some existing model.
Might be used as a way of quickly iterating in the concept phase, to add detail or as a general artstyle.

Sometimes also called "greebling".

https://youtu.be/0dn0d4WQ9wY?feature=shared
Attractor

An attractor is a force that attracts particles to a certain position in space. It could be a static position, or it could another particle that aces as center of the attraction. The attractor usually has a falloff so it attracts closer particles more than the ones far away.

If you give an attractor a negative force, it becomes the opposite, a repeller. It repels particles, pushes them away from the point.

Some examples of effects that can be created by an attractor:
Float

Keywords: Floating point value

A float is a type of number with a decimal. For example: 3,14. This can be contrasted with an integer which does not have a decimal: 3.

Floats can only be a certain size before they lose precision so if you need super large numbers you might need a Double instead, which is the same but it allows bigger numbers. It's also more expensive.
UV

UV coordinates lets you apply a 2d texture to a 3d mesh by providing coordinates for each pixel in the texture. If you change the UV coordinates, the texture will change accordingly. That's how you can get textures to scroll along a mesh or even play a flipbook.

Further explanation can be found in this video by Dokipen:
Camprox

Keywords: Camera proximity, Camera parented, Screen attached

Camprox effects are spawned in a volume around the camera to save performance, when compared to filling a world with effects. The volume is attached to the player so wherever he goes, there are effects in an area around him. Examples of this would be mist, falling leaves in a forest, rain and so on.
Heliene

**Known for their military and ego**

## **Capital:**

* **Valoriand** *(vah-lore-ee-and)*

*“Kingdom of the Three Planes”*
Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Human - 89%; Elf - 7%; Dwarf - 3%; Other - 1%)

## **Cities:**

* **Filawien***(phil-ah-wee-in)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Elf - 74%; Human - 15%; Water Genasi - 8%; Other - 3%)

* **Ciawei***(key-ah-way)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Human - 63%; Halfling - 24%; Gnome - 9%; Water Genasi - 2%; Other - 2%)

* **Credy***(kree-dee)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Human - 93%; Elf - 6%; Other - 1%)

## **Towns:**

* **Goldcrest**

Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Dwarf - 67%; Orc - 22%; Human - 8%; Other - 3%)

* **Acomb***(ah-cohm)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races & Monster races (Elf - 53%; Human - 22%; Goblin - 15%; Monster - 10%)

* **Hythe***(high-th)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Human - 74%; Dwarf - 22%; Other - 4%)

* **Erostey***(air-aw-stee)*Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Dwarf - 92%; Elf - 6%; Other - 2%)

## **Bodies of Water:**

* **Lake Heliene**

Medium sized lake with an island towards the south coast, Dark Isle. Lake Heliene is inhabited by monstrous creatures who have claimed the water and island as their own.

* **Marble Lake**

Medium sized lake with white pearlescent waters. The liquid is rumored to have healing properties and to help maintain a youthful appearance in those who drink it.

## **Forests:**

* **Western Nether Forest**

The Nether Forest is filled with monstrous creatures. The canopy of the trees casts darkness over the land it covers. There are legends of a forgotten and cursed Kingdom of Old within it’s trees filled with treasures for whoever can survive the journey.
Blender

Blender is a free DCC.

Like Maya or 3ds Max it allows you to create 3d content. The difference is that it is open source and free. If you are a programmer you can contribute to the software. If you are an artist you can use anything created by a huge community.

You can read more about it and download it here: https://www.blender.org/
Frustum

In computer graphics, the camera field of view is resembled by a truncated pyramid, which is referred to as frustum. It defines the space of the world that gets captured and projected onto a 2D plane that we view on our displays.

Often game engines use an optimization called "Frustum Culling". This tries to render just the objects, that are actually inside of the camera frustum. For more detail see Culling.
Town Hall

Town Halls are a collective name for the primary structure, given at the start of the game alongside a Core Structure.

The main role of Town Halls is to train workers, and receive gathered resources (minerals and biomass). For this reason, Town Halls are almost always placed beside resources. Constructing a Town Hall in this way is often referred to as Expanding, an indicator of willingness to extend the game by prioritising the economy.

Another facet of Town Halls is that they can be upgraded twice, allowing the player to access higher tech. Many upgrades, especially general attack/armour upgrades, require upgrading the Town Hall to unlock.

Town Halls all cost 400 minerals, and take 70 seconds to construct. They are also the only non-Farm food source.

Each race's Town Halls, in order of Tier, are as follows:

* Curator: Ancient of Guardians, Ancient of Watchers, Ancient of Curators. Provides 10 Food.
* Defiled: Temple of the Tides, Tsunami Temple, Neptune Temple. Provides 12 Food.
* Exalted: Observatory. Arcane Spire, Violet Citadel. Provides 14 Food.
* Fallen: Church, Dark Temple, Unholy Sanctuary. Provides 12 Food.

Each Town Hall has features unique to it:

* Curator Town Halls: Can attack.
* Defiled Town Halls: Spread Blight.
* Exalted Town Halls: Is a Detector, and has Electrify, which provides damage to nearby Towers.
* Fallen Town Halls: Shorter upgrade time to higher tiers.

Sniping Town Halls at any stage of the game can prove to be an effective strategy, as it immediately disturbs the opponent's income by forcing workers mining at said base to walk a longer distance to return resources, and as the Town Hall is also a worker production facility, reduces the rate of growth of worker count.
Invisibility

Invisibility is a game mechanic present in many games. As the name implies, an Invisible unit cannot be seen by the opponent unless Detection is present. A unit with Detection is also called a Detector.

Invisibility is a buff which dispels upon attack or casting a spell. Moving on the other hand, may or may not break invisibility, depending on the the ability.

Sources of Invisibility:

* Priests (Exalted) have the Cloak ability, which when cast on an ally, turns it Invisible.
* All Fallen ground units can gain the Conceal ability, which allows them to turn Invisible at night. Moving, however, breaks Invisibility.
* Shadow Drakes (Fallen) can gain the Shadow Rush ability, which turns them Invisible temporarily.

Sources of Detection:

* Units: Sentinel Owl, Celestial Faerie, Aeon Skywagon.
* Structures: Obelisks, Exalted Town Halls, Azure Lanterns, Watch Towers.
* Abilities: Track, Oversight.
Damage System

## Unit Tags and Armour

Every unit in NoObcraft will have at least two unit tags. These define the armour type displayed in the unit's UI.

* Light/Heavy - Every unit must be either Light or Heavy.
* Biological/Psychic/Mechanical - Every unit must be exactly one of Biological, Psychic, or Mechanical.

There are additional unit tags, which do not affect the primary damage system:

* Ancient - Every unit is either an Ancient or not an Ancient. If untagged, this means that the unit is not an Ancient. Ancient units are typically high tier units, and offer an intermediate level of spell resistance. Some units deal bonus damage to Ancients.
* Ghost - A unit tag exclusive to the Fallen; Ghost units all share the trait of gaining bonus attack damage during the night, but having drastically reduced day vision.

## Armour Type

The Armour type of a unit directly reflects the two necessary tags the unit has. The armour type by itself does not contribute to the damage system, but is simply a concise way to describe the unit's tags.

* Light, Biological - Small armour
* Heavy, Biological - Large armour
* Light, Psychic - Medium armour
* Heavy, Psychic - Hero armour
* Light, Mechanical - Unarmoured
* Heavy, Mechanical - Fortified armour

## Damage Types

There are six damage Types, one being Normal damage, which deals 100% damage to all unit tags, and each of the remaining five being effective against one unit tag:

* Pierce damage deals increased damage to Light units.
* Hero damage deals increased damage to Heavy units.
* Chaos damage deals increased damage to Biological units.
* Magic damage deals increased damage to Psychic units.
* Siege damage deals increased damage to Mechanical units.

This information can be described like this as well:

* Unarmoured takes increased damage from Pierce and Siege attacks.
* Small armour takes increased damage from Pierce and Chaos attacks.
* Medium armour takes increased damage from Pierce and Magic attacks.
* Large armour takes increased damage from Hero and Chaos attacks.
* Hero armour takes increased damage from Hero and Magic attacks.
* Fortified armour takes increased damage from Hero and Siege attacks.
Askoré & Shimmering Isles

**Mysterious islands with a jaded past**

## **Capital:**

* **Aerith***(air-ith)*

*“Kingdom of the Elves"*
Inhabited by: Elves (High elves - 97%; Wood elves - 2%; Other elves - 1%)

## **Cities:**

* **Caelfall***(kay-el-fall)*

Inhabited by: Elves (High elves - 99%; Other elves - 1%)
**Map of Caelfall**

* **Kelna***(kell-naw)*

Inhabited by: Elves (Wood elves - 86%; High elves - 13%; Other elves - 1%)
**Map of Kelna**

## **Bodies of Water:**

* **Lake Abyss**

Small lake with dark purple water. Lake Abyss is said to connect the mortal plane to the plane of the Gods. The elves of Askoré protect and guard the lake.
Ellon

**Ellon is** k**nown for their open-mindedness and accepting ways.**

## **Capital:**

* **Lothor***(low-thore) “Fertile Kingdom"*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races & Monster races (Human - 54%; Elf - 22%; Dwarf - 11%; Gnome - 4%; Halfling - 4%; Orc - 3%; Other - 2%)

## **Cities:**

* **Faylea***(fay-lee-ah)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races & Monster races (Human - 68%; Elf - 30%; Other - 2%)

* **Spara***(spar-ah)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Desert elf - 74%; Human - 23%; Other - 3%)

* **Carste***(kar-st)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races & Monster races (Halfling - 82%; Human - 13%; Dwarf - 4%; Other - 1%)

* **Jarenyth** *(jair-enth)*

Inhabited by: Orcs

## **Towns:**

* **Cresthill**

Inhabited by: Halflings & Gnomes

* **New Cresthill**

Inhabited by: Halflings & Gnomes

* **Ely***(ee-lie)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Elf - 92%; Human - 6%; Other - 2%)

* **Aermagh***(air-mah)*

Inhabited by: Genasi

* **Noxvar** *(nox-vahr)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Dwarf - 97%; Human - 2%; Other - 1%)

* **Bexley** *(bex-lee)*

Inhabited by: Dwarves & Orcs

* **Broughton** *(brow-ton)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races (Elf - 86%; Human - 12%; Other - 2%)
Jopher

> "*What the hell was that?!*"
> ― Jopher's first words, when Tarsh broke his door
>
>

Met in Goldcrest as Jopher. Seen in Baxley as Topher.

He's a middle age halfling that wears platform shoes. Scruffy beard, white fluffy hair sticking out in all directions.

Delgrace introduced her self as Kodiak, and Tarsh as Jacob when they first met him.

Tarsh carries Jopher's door that he broke.
IES

IES stands for the *Illuminating Engineering Society*.

From the IES website:

*"Established in 1906, the Illuminating Engineering Society is the recognized technical and educational authority on illumination. Our mission is to improve the lighted environment by bringing together those with lighting knowledge and by translating that knowledge into actions that benefit the public."*

IES Profiles are a way of encoding the way real life lights distribute light, such as their brightness and falloff. Their use is supported in many different DCCs and Game Engines.

These profiles can be found on many (manufacturer) websites free of charge, such as:

IES Library

Lithonia Website

Philips Website
Cyne and Mirage Island

**Islands where only the most wise can go to live among peers**

## **Capital:**

* **Orrinshire***(ore-in-shy-er)*

*“Kingdom of the Elders"*Inhabited by: Humanoid races & Monster races (Tortle - 61%; Aarakocra - 28%; Aasimar - 6%; Dragonborn - 3%; Elf - 2%; Other - 1%)

## **Cities:**

* **Dalelry***(dah-lel-ree)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races & Monster races (Aasimar - 78%; Elf - 12%; Human - 7%; Other - 3%)

* **Arkala***(are-call-ah)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races & Monster races (Elf - 96%; Other - 4%)

* **Pran***(prawn)*

Inhabited by: Humanoid races & Monster races (Dragonborn - 88%; Tortle - 10%; Other - 2%)

* **Kilead***(kill-ee-ahd)*

Inhabited by: Aarakocra

## **Towns:**

* **Craydon***(kray-dawn)*
Inhabited by: Tortle
Cora Bookbinder

## Relationships

### Delgrace

Her younger sister. The closest in age, they were also close at heart growing up. They always played together, and always shared their secrets.

### The Bookbinders

Her mother, **Verna**, is a no nonsense woman, taking nothing from anyone. But shes a loving soul, caring for any in need. She is exactly what you imagine Mom of the year.

Her father **Davyn,** is an eclectic man. He has red, frizzy hair sticking out in all kinds of directions. He's an avid reader and just loves to learn. He's high energy, and high spirits. He's always on the move, and always working hard for his family.

## Quotations

"If I save them from this, then I can help you save the world.  I don't see a negative unless I word my Wish wrong and then we're all screwed but at least we wouldn't know. Just... 6ft under. Or you know, killed by flying tentacle monsters." Talking about options to save New Cresthill

"I mean it's pretty easy to kill a kid." Talking about why a cult might target children

"Maybe you're thinking about life in the wrong way." talking about Delgrace's outlook on life

*"Mother doesn't like you very much." (Delgrace)* "No she does not. Because I opened my eyes and I saw the wrong in this. And I ran." Delgrace and Cora talking about their family
Androl of House Dremodon

> "*I can spell. I'm a wizard.*"
> ― Androl, when Tarsh asked if anyone knew magic
>
>

## Stats

### Level

5

Get some info from the recording about androl

## Quotations

"Your thumb is not four inches long." to Sigmar

"Why is your thumb soft, you freak?" to Sigmar

"Monsters are bad, you should kill them." to Tarsh

"I'd be surprised if you could read at all." to Tarsh

"I start eating my sandwich."
Storobos Calendar

## Storobos Calendar Year Information:

Eight months in a year (Martuu, Guuna, Shyal, Cairah, Kanwin, Samoh, Akrret, Doruman)

Thirty-five to thirty-seven days (6 weeks) in a month (Martuu, Akrret, and Doruman have 35 days; Shyal, Cairah, Kanwin, and Samoh have 36 days; Guuna has 37 days)

Six days in a week (Joth, Wica, Lanan, Teydalf, Daant, Levar)

Eighteen hours in a day (9am, 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am (sunrise), 6am, 7am, 8am, 9pm (midday), 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm (sunset), 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm)

Storobos has TWO moons (Faemon -FA- [13 day cycle] and Flori -FL- [4 day cycle])

## **Special Events:**

*Lunar Eclipse* - 4 Martuu, 25 Martuu, 16 Cairah, 13 Kanwin

*Azmon Constellation Meteor Shower* - 16 Martuu

*Andall Constellation Meteor Shower* - 27 Kanwin

*Anir Constellation Meteor Shower* - 18 Doruman

*Omisha & Kaliya Constellation Meteor Shower* - 31 Akrret, 32 Akrret

*Lights of the Gods* - 7 Martuu, 35 Martuu, 15 Guuna, 28 Guuna, 31 Cairah, 2 Samoh, 33 Samoh, 22 Doruman

*Forin Comet Appearance* - 25 Guuna

*Snadrid Comet Appearance* - 27 Samoh

## **Storobos Holidays:**

Mahasin (New Year) - 1 Martuu

First day of Orasta (Spring) - 32 Guuna

Start of Betianel (Planting cycle) - 10 Shyal

First day of Ahtil (Summer) - 2 Kanwin

First day of Bomna (Fall) - 30 Samoh

Start of Slamam (Harvest cycle) - 32 Samoh

First day of Yelu (Winter) - 28 Akrret
The Second Chances

The Second Chances are a temporary name for the party currently planning to save Storobos. It seems that every member has had a second chance at life, at faith, at love.

## Members

~~Androl of House Dremadon~~

Barnelby Van Greysanskinlyn III

Cora Bookbinder

Delgrace Bookbinder

~~Evandar Miyoliquor~~

~~Fredrick~~

Sigmar Kaine

Tarsh