The Callisto Protocol
Rendering, lighting, and artist tools for a production game.
As a Rendering & Systems Engineer at game-development studio Puny Human, I worked with Striking Distance Studios on real-time graphics for The Callisto Protocol. My work with rendering and technical-art teams covered engine fixes, performance investigations, and C++/Python material tooling.
Inside the work
Lighting & shader development
Modified UE4’s Material and BasePass engine code to support custom lighting that brought out detail in Jacob’s face.
Fixed a UE4.27 issue where small rectangular lights behaved like spotlights on translucent materials.
C++ & Python material tools
Built an Unreal Engine tool that reduced unnecessary material layers, helping technical artists create optimized materials.
This work connected engine-level implementation with the practical needs of the technical-art team.
From GPU traces to actionable fixes
Investigated level bottlenecks using PIX, Razor, and RenderDoc, examining deferred-rendering buffers and scene information to produce detailed reports for the team.
- Used Razor traces on PS5 development hardware to analyze timing and the behavior of spotlights and rectangular lights on translucent materials.
- Worked on GBuffer clearing through a pixel-shader path in place of a compute-shader path to improve performance.
- Discussed potential fixes with the teams using captured traces and profiling results.
Engine & gameplay fixes
- Fixed dynamic-resolution scaling on AMD PCs.
- Fixed a gameplay issue with dynamically setting siren speeds.
The game in context
