Overview
What this challenge is about.
Add 2K shadow maps, 3x3 PCF, and 3 cascades to a toy engine. Fix acne and peter-panning. Earn a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
The engine's maintainers reject PRs that don't ship with demo scenes and trade-off documentation — the bar is intentionally high to teach contributors how production graphics work gets reviewed.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Add directional-light shadow mapping with PCF and cascaded shadow maps to an open-source game engine, with demo scenes and a trade-off post-mortem.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Implement shadow mapping with the standard quality fixes
- Apply cascaded shadow maps to a large outdoor scene
- Manage shader pipeline state for multi-pass rendering
- Communicate graphics trade-offs in a contributor-style write-up
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Shading And Lighting
Apply shading and lighting to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Gpu Pipeline
Apply gpu pipeline to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Shadow Mapping
Apply shadow mapping to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- 3d Rendering
Apply 3d rendering to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Opengl
Apply opengl to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Shader Programming
Apply shader programming to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles: