Issue #301- UI, C#, Graphics Programming, and more
This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com
Enjoy!
A case for learning GPU programming with a compute-first mindset - I would argue that trying to hammer through the brick wall of graphics is the wrong approach in 2025. Graphics itself is less and less relevant for any hopeful new GPU programmer. Notice I wrote “GPU programmer”, not graphics programmer, because most interesting work these days happens with compute shaders, not traditional “graphics” rendering.
themaister.net
Ocean Rendering, Part 1 - Simulation - In this post I will go through the theory and mathematics of implementing an ocean simulation for real-time rendering using oceanographic spectra and the Fast Fourier Transform.
rtryan98.github.io
Ray marching a blob - In this post, we’ll explore how to bring metaballs into 3D. We’ll look at the underlying math, the rendering challenges, and some practical techniques to make them come to life.
4rknova.com
GPU Instanced Grass Breakdown - Way back in 2021, I experimented with grass rendering in URP & Shader Graph using GPU Instancing, which can allow us to efficiently render millions of grass blades/quads. At the time that was using Graphics.DrawMeshInstancedProcedural (or DrawMeshInstancedIndirect if instance count needs to be set/adjusted on the GPU)
cyanilux.com
Safe zero-copy operations in C# - My attempt at talking about one of the most underrated features of C#.
ssg.dev
Hidden Costs of Boxing in C#: How to Detect and Avoid Them - C# Boxing and Unboxing are vital players in the performance of an application. However, they are often overlooked. They involve heap allocations that bring a penalty due to their accessing mechanism. In today's post, we will unfold Boxing and Unboxing in detail, study how they are costly to your application, and how to avoid such issues.
blog.elmah.io
How we boost up foliage renderer and mesh generation in Polaris 3 low poly terrain tool - Devlog 1 - In this version, tree and grass renderer are completely destroyed and rebuilt. Culling process now done quickly and precisely, which greatly reduce the workload put on your GPU, while efficiently use the spare power on the CPU. It also comes with better LOD-ing so you can build more complex outdoor scene.
pinwheelstud.io
Custom Lantern Physics - Unity's physics joints don't get along well with parenting, so I wrote a script that fakes some lantern swingy movement. No physics required!
@sean_gause
Game Slave | The Shader Survival Guide - The Shader survival guide is a digital e-book is focused on Unity Shader Graph. It covers introductory concepts and exercises, plus basic to advanced projects that teach you how to create the most widely used shaders and VFX in the industry, all explained step by step.
GameSlave
UnityBestPractices - A one pager document with tips and best practices for development and team workflow on Unity Engine
GiacomoMariani
Videos
What Sells on Steam: You Don't Need a Hook - How do you make a successful indie game that actually sells on Steam? I claim that you don't need a gameplay hook for your game. Here is why and what you need instead.
Jonas Tyroller
Making A Stealth Haunted House! | Learning Content Spotlight - Did it just get spooky in here?! Join Luna and James from the Learn team to discover what lurks in the mysterious corners of this seasonally sensational 3D stealth game course!
Unity
Game Dev Breakdown: RTS/MOBA Movement Controller in Unity - In this video, I break down how to make a basic RTS/MOBA-style movement controller in Unity.
Info Gamer
Forcing a Ragdoll to Walk With PHYSICS - I taught my physics based ragdoll to walk using procedural animation, and all it took was two weeks of effort, and my sanity.
Rye Guy
Spawn and Pool Decals in Unity for Realistic Impacts - Decal systems in Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline are incredibly powerful for adding impact marks, footprints, and environmental details — but without proper management, they can quickly tank performance. In this video, we break down how to use the Decal Projector component effectively and show how to build a clean, reusable object pooling system to handle hundreds of decals at runtime. You’ll learn how to spawn decals dynamically on impact, fade them out smoothly, and keep your scene running fast even under heavy fire. Whether you’re making a shooter, racing game, or anything in between, this workflow will make your visuals sharper and your performance rock-solid.
git-amend
Programming in Assembly without an Operating System - I made a game in assembly that runs without an operating system. This is bare metal programming.
Inkbox
Analyzing the Source Code of Silksong - Source Code of Silksong is on the different level.
Howdy ツ
Assets
Grow Your Garden sale - Whether you’re building a casual garden sim or a full farming adventure, this sale has the tools to get you started. Terrain, props, characters, and more—now at 50% off.
Including: VolFx - VFX Toolkit (Post Processing, Timeline Tracks, Shaders, Tools), TileWorldCreator 4, Procedural City Generator, Top Down Effects 2.0, GrassFlow 2, and lots more
Unity Affiliate
Ultimate Top Down Adventure Assets - Amazing game assets working together. Crafted by game developers for game developers—the Ultimate Top Down Adventure Assets Bundle by ElvGames is here to make your dev cycle easier. Get 75+ well-organized and properly named asset packs optimized for easy integration into popular game engines like Unity, Godot, GameMaker, and more. The standout feature of this expansive library is that all assets—including characters, sound effects, and music—are created by the same artists, so every element is designed to fit seamlessly with each other. Pay what you want for exceptional assets and help support the Prevent Cancer Foundation with your purchase.
Humble Bundle Affiliate
Unity.Timer - Unity High Efficiency Timer
AIO-GAME Open Source
Unity-MissingScriptsFinder - Unity Missing Scripts Finder Editor Tool.
RimuruDev Open Source
UnityURP-Procedural-DrawMeshInstancedIndirect - Procedural grass rendering in Unity URP using DrawMeshInstancedIndirect and WeightMap control.
AkilarLiao Open Source
FitForScreen - Dynamically fit uGUI Image to the screen. You can select Stretch, Fit, Fill.
tetr4lab Open Source
URP-Equirectangular-Camera - Example Unity project showing 360° equirectangular camera for Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
s9lucas Open Source
UnityNotebook - Interactive coding in the Unity Editor using Jupyter Notebook files.
mstevenson Open Source
Universe - A Unity library of space-related methods for hard sci-fi games.
TheWand3rer Open Source
Pugrad - Perceptually uniform colormap generator for Unity
keijiro Open Source
Generic-Save-System - Performatic, secure and easy save system for Unity Engine
GabrielBigardi Open Source
Unity-2D-Sprite-Animator - Performatic, simple and easy animator for 2D games in Unity Engine
GabrielBigardi Open Source
VHProject - Virtual human (avatar and agent) procedural animation toolkit for Unity.
GeoffreyGorisse Open Source
BlockMaps - Unity framework to create detailed, 3D, grid-based worlds with real-time navmesh generation and intergrated pathfinding, vision and movement systems.
p-svacha Open Source
lingotion-thespeon-unity - Lingotion Thespeon AI-acting engine for Unity
Lingotion Open Source
SaveGameFree - Save Game Free is a free and simple but powerful solution for saving and loading game data in unity.
BayatGames Open Source
unity-package - Jahro Unity Plugin – Debug, control, and fine-tune your Unity games directly inside the game view. Execute commands, monitor variables, and sync logs/screenshots seamlessly to the web app.
jahro-console Open Source
OneJS - OneJS integrates the JavaScript/Web ecosystem with Unity’s UI Toolkit for a smoother, more modern dev experience.
Singtaa Open Source
UnityIsometric2D - Isometric 2D System for Unity Engine (Job System Supported)
MyNameIsDabin Open Source
Shop up to 50% off Ekincan Tas - Publisher Sale - Ekincan is best known for Sprite Shaders Ultimate and Damage Numbers Pro—powerful assets designed to enhance visual quality and deliver satisfying feedback. PLUS get Interactive Wind 2D - Grass and Tree Shader for FREE with code EKINCANTAS
Unity Affiliate
unity-flex-ui - Flexbox layout support for Unity UI using the Yoga layout engine
gilzoide Open Source
FigmaToUnityImporter - The project that imports nodes from Figma into unity.
ManakhovN Open Source
UniFP-Functional-Programming-for-Unity - C# Zero Allocation Functional programming for Unity powered by monad pipelines. It brings functional thinking and explicit error handling to game logic without hurting runtime performance.
nekoya404 Open Source
Unity_Geometry_Sequence_Player - A package for Unity to stream large Pointcloud and (textured) mesh sequences from disk
BuildingVolumes Open Source
buck-basics - BUCK Basics is BUCK's Unity package that provides a foundation for scalable game architecture using ScriptableObject-based systems, comprehensive extension methods, and essential utility classes. It helps developers build cleaner, more maintainable Unity projects by reducing hard-coded dependencies and providing battle-tested tools refined across multiple productions
buck-co Open Source
UnityTools - A set of useful code stuff for Unity
oleghcp Open Source
cesium-unity - Bringing the 3D geospatial ecosystem to Unity
CesiumGS Open Source
UI-Toolkit-Linker-and-Binder - The asset allows you to easily set up linking between your UI Toolkit elements and MonoBehaviour scripts, without the need to use the "Query" method.
DA-Assets Open Source
Mace - Mace is an MVVM framework for Unity with editor-assignable bindings
Aleshmandr Open Source
mistnet - UnityWebRTC: A decentralized networking library for Unity, leveraging WebRTC for serverless, real-time communication in multiplayer games and metaverse applications.
tik-choco-lab Open Source
Best Of Synty Game Dev Assets 5 - Simply the best assets from Synty Studios. Game developers, rejoice! The pros at Synty Studios are here to help you take your project from baseline to beta with our latest Software Bundle. Build your worlds with professional-quality assets—from towns, people, and militaries to stylized polygon kaiju, casinos, dungeons, and more. Add complex interfaces or simple dungeons—anything you need to help bring your dream game to life. You’ll even get a $10 voucher to the Synty Studios store to keep creating.
Humble Bundle Affiliate
Gigantic Gamedev Assets & Tools Mega Bundle - Get ready to build the game of your dreams with this tremendous collection of assets and applications. With packs spanning from Victorian themes to medieval times and all the way to sci-fi, you’ll be ready to transpose your ideas to game space with ease. Over $5,000 worth of art, sound effects, visual effects, and more await your creative guidance. Plus, you’ll support Girls Who Code with your purchase.
Humble Bundle Affiliate
Spotlight
Bent on Destruction - Bent on Destruction is a 3D projectile launching battle game featuring realistic building destruction! Topple the towers and use your power-ups to defeat the meanies. Experience a revolutionary new building destruction engine.
[You can get the demo on Steam]
Impulse Control
My game, Call Of Dookie. Demo available on Steam
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