[gfxthrowaway123]

A couple years back I switched from web dev to graphics programming on a game team at a big AAA studio

Really enjoy the work itself, there’s tons of interesting algorithms/optimization involved

I feel I actually use my CS knowledge from university more doing this work

Its also really satisfying to visually see the result of your code in the game

On the other hand I do find it a lot harder of a job since you not only have to understand code but also the math behind the code

[wara23arish]

did you have any past experience before switching?

how was the transition?

[gfxthrowaway123]

From web dev work only really relevant experience was C++. Mainly got the job based on side projects from outside work. Had always been casually interested in graphics and I spent around 2 years dabbling with side projects outside work (stuff like making a toy rendering engine), reading some graphics books, brushing up on linear algebra.

Transition was definitely tough in the beginning due to steep learning curve

You think you know a decent amount from doing tutorials/side projects but a real production engine is a lot more complicated because its been optimized over the years and as a noob its not obvious why things are designed the way they are.

I felt like web dev you can become pretty competent in like 2-3 years but with graphics it feels like the ceiling is much higher and starts to verge on research as you get more into the topic

A lot of newer rendering techniques you can't easily google and you have to end up reading papers if you want to understand/implement them