kienbui1995/technical-art

Technical Art

When to Use

When optimizing a game's visual pipeline, writing briefs for shaders or VFX, or establishing art performance standards.

Core Jobs

1. Performance Budgets

Define per target platform before art production starts: | Asset Type | Mobile Budget | Console/PC Budget | |-----------|--------------|------------------| | Character polygons | 5k–15k | 50k–200k | | Texture resolution | 512–1024 | 2048–4096 | | Draw calls per frame | < 100 | < 500 | | Particle count per effect | 50–100 | 500–1000 |

Set budgets before production — retrofitting is expensive.

2. LOD Strategy (Level of Detail)

• LOD0: full detail (close up)
• LOD1: 50% polygon reduction (medium distance)
• LOD2: 25% of original (far distance)
• LOD3: impostor / billboard (very far)
• Transition distances: define per asset category in the engine

Automatic LOD generation: Simplygon, InstaLOD, or Unreal/Unity auto-LOD.

3. Shader Briefs

Per shader (e.g., "Water Surface Shader"):

• Visual reference: 3 screenshots of target look
• Required inputs: base color, normal map, roughness, depth
• Key effects: refraction, foam at shoreline, dynamic waves
• Performance target: N instructions max (for mobile: aggressive)
• Platform constraints: mobile = no tessellation, no geometry shaders

4. VFX Performance Guidelines

Per effect:

• Max particle count
• Texture sheet size
• Screen space vs world space
• Overdraw limit (transparent particles = expensive)
• Mobile fallback (simplified version for low-end)

Key Outputs

• Platform performance budget document
• LOD strategy and transition distances
• Shader briefs (per unique shader)
• VFX performance guidelines
• Art pipeline documentation

Anti-Patterns

• Defining budgets after art production begins
• No LOD system (tanks performance at mid-range view distances)
• Shaders written without performance constraints
• No mobile fallbacks for particle-heavy effects