I have been watching Digital Foundry and learning about gaming technology but being older now, and a bit behind on all the latest technology slang and acronyms, I find it difficult to follow some videos and tech lingo used therein. I like to look at a poem or a painting and disassemble its components to see how it all comes together - one need not know the ins and outs of how they were made but knowing how it was made makes you appreciate it all the more. Whenever I watch Alex's reviews I try to follow with the frame-time graphs, understand the co-dependencies as to why it spikes etc., and while he reviews new technology I google all the new words which he uses and I greatly appreciate when the reviewers elucidate what something is in simple terms but as I do not work with graphics, or computers, I tent to forget what XYZ means or does.
Now to the crux of the matter - I, as well as maybe others such as myself i.e. complete amateurs wishing to understand what is what in computer graphics - would find it a great help if there were simple, short videos explaining the what, when and how of all the different elements of graphics, video game settings and technology. I can look up information on Google or Youtube but it is often lacking in visual representation, comparisons, limitations and context. Unfortunately, I have no time nor brain power to get into the nitty gritty of it all. Remembering all that new information I have been hitherto unfamiliar with is cumbersome to say the least, especially for someone older. If I had a comprehensive playlist from one Youtube channel (say, Digital Foundry) wherein someone would expound the aforementioned elements of computer graphics it would greatly help to manoeuvre the digital roads of the gaming/tech world. Maybe this could be done in a shorter format like shorts. More educational content of any kind would be greatly appreciated!
How did you folks learn what each game setting does, what each component of a computer is responsible for and how does it all work? For me, I still do not understand a lot of it. It was a miracle that I finally grasped what a GPU is generally responsible for in a game in contrast to the CPU. The difference between Path Tracing and Ray Tracing was hard for me as well. Please, do share your stories how you learned about it. I still have to look up things like RTGI, SSAO, or Anti-Aliasing.
I learnt a lot of what I know passively from just consuming different content about these topics (especially Digital Foundry). At first a lot of it didn't mean anything to me, but at this point, probably a few years into watching a great number of videos, I am fairly fluent in the terminology and have improved my understanding of the more detailed aspects of the concepts.
Another channel I would suggest checking out is Branch Education, who have produced a few videos that could be interesting and insightful to you, with some great visuals to assist with understanding: https://www.youtube.com/@BranchEducation/videos
As I said, passively consuming relevant content helped a lot. Many topics started making more sense to me as I heard about them more and more.
I have been interested in producing videos in this field, but have been a little limited for time recently. Some short-form content like this would be ideal, so perhaps I might give that a go at some point. I'd be interested to see how many people feel similarly to you in this interest. I would be happy to answer any further questions you have, even about the details of some topics (to the best of my ability)!
Yeah I'd be very interested in more technical content too. I enjoyed Alex's old Tech Focus series but as one of literally several people who still prefers to learn via physical books where possible, I'd envisaged something more like a library of reference articles on the site with links for further reading.
I've had this same thought before. For example, it took me a really long time to understand what the guys mean when they say "screen space reflections". There are many examples like this.
The playlist of Alex's videos that @LooneyMango linked is really helpful in explaining some of these terms, and I'd love if Alex picked that back up, even if it was just a series of short videos (like tiktok style or similar).
@Blahshead When you say about not understanding what SSR meant for a while, do you mean the technical makeup of it, or more generally the concept of it? As I mentioned, I would be interested in producing some kind of short-form content, as I would like to do something creative, and have made some videos in the past. Just trying to get an idea of where I would pitch something like this, if I were to do it. Thanks for any response in advance!
@LooneyMango thanks for the reply — more generally the concept of it. I had no idea what SSR even looked like or what it meant, but once I saw a video of what it looks like it became very obvious what it is (at least a high level).
As an example, a comparison video showing SSR "on" vs some other sort of reflection technology would be super helpful. SSR is of course just one example, but I think it's a pretty straightforward one to show and would make for a good video.
I recommend two excellent video series by the same person, Cem Yuksel, a researcher at the University of Utah (one of the meccas of computer graphics research).
Things are explained very clearly and it's mostly directed at laypeople. You can start with the second series since it focuses on rendering on the GPU but if you have the time I recommend you watch both.
Hey, thank you all for the replies! I have saved a lot of the videos you've sent so thank you for those. I haven't been aware of the "tech focus" series that DF did, must've slipped under my radar but I can see that sadly it hasn't been updated in a while. @OCASM your suggestions look like a great fit for what I was looking for but they are quite lengthy. Personally, I'd prefer something shorter like 10 minutes but still I'll give them a watch when I find the time. @Blahshead I also wish Alex would revive the Tech Focus series, I will look at the videos others suggested but I have found that I just prefer the way DF does things and the people who make content on that youtube channel. Maybe some day we'll get either more Tech Focus videos or something similar to it. Cheers!
I agree @amciaramcia, the suggestions from @OCASM look great and I hope to have the time to watch someday! Otherwise short format videos, or Alex reviving Tech Focus, would be very welcome.
I went in depth by downloading UE4 a few year ago and started creating some worlds and simple "demos" (don't want to call them games, even so some stuff looked rather impressive) with the help of Youtube tutorials. Just out of curiosity since I wanted to learn and understand how games are made and how the tech works. Fun way to learn a lot real fast about gaming and graphic technologies.
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Topic: Learning about video game technology and graphics as a newbie
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