https://tylerwalters.xyz/header 2026-08-05T19:49:57+00:00 always 0.5 https://tylerwalters.xyz/resume 2026-08-07T23:20:06+00:00 always 0.5 https://tylerwalters.xyz 2026-08-08T21:07:19+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Y3067926191620397956257884385491/L1100633-copy.jpg https://tylerwalters.xyz/portfolio 2026-08-08T21:07:18+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg Miscellaneous https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/C2730105327435681609334636654803/Untitled-2.png 2013 Infected Wars (2013) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/P2730105748335041139165475877075/Untitled-6.png Farlands (2016) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/X2730106142560408738412303462611/Untitled-4.png Dreamdeck (2014) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/G2731357286262593245920381874387/Untitled-10.png Glassbreakers (2025) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Y2731360180206250273548548944083/Untitled-1.png Primal Carnage (2012) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2732127505471881137993275650259/misc.png Miscellaneous https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Q2733226018175715370130817396947/Untitled-8.png Moss (2018) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/W2733226061673137895937940107475/Untitled-7.png First Contact (2016) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/A2736244909580900928859799007443/Untitled-9.png Moss: Book II (2022) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/K3061583280091052220610358259923/MFR.png Moss: The Forgotten Relic (2026) https://tylerwalters.xyz/misc 2026-08-08T21:08:59+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg These are clips from an unannounced Polyarc game demo that I worked on from start to finish. My efforts overlapped with nearly all of the content presented, with more complete development ownership of visual elements like; weapon shaders, blast vfx, spline cursor visuals, entirety of the INDIGO intro scene visuals, enemy and companion shaders, hazard barriers, target gates, destructables, and level transition portals. Beyond these specific assets, I worked closely with all diciplines in developing our vision, as well as profiling and leading optimizations. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/K2732121341326328211283217199315/tyler-walters-percyscreenshot3.jpg Bust of our Boston Terrier named Percy. Sculpted, baked, textured and rendered by me. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/S2732121458942768425255318302931/tyler-walters-percyscreenshot2.jpg Built material for Trex body. Roar VFX https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Z2732122135753808489658767093971/tyler-walters-scootsfinalshot2.jpg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/J2732122370802221476865873785043/tyler-walters-scootsfinalshot3.jpg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/T2732123115441939500299343868115/CannonBlockout_1.png Added supplemental vfx and built solution for mesh flipbook vfx https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/C2732123169177304987015267725523/CannonBlockout_5.png Setup scene lighting, materials, and scuff mark vfx. Worked with vfx artists at Epic Games to implement magic wand vfx. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Y2732123205978559414065823199443/CannonBlockout_7.png Supported scene with ability to shake objects, run dynamic lighting, and added steam vfx. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/R2732123905534434921353149133011/tyler-walters-bartblockout.jpg Setup materials for all assets, supported with ship vfx https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/T2732124134495422364236103790803/HighPolyChair.png https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/E2732124881680791069841491996883/tyler-walters-moonhouscreen.jpg Procedural moon setup in houdini that I did for fun as a learning exercies https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/M2733164017137803874209943236819/FrogMouth3-1.png https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/I2733174673618941071407106732243/ArtStyle1.mp4 This is from a small personal project where I explored various approaches in creating a physical styled screen effect with triangular pixeliation. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/R2733182359823794263965978570963/ImpactTest.mp4 During a personal research project I built a data driven hit impact system that allowed for creating and storing a wide range of unique visual states using a small fixed cost that could be applied to any mesh. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/F2736329588640148273681819742419/Desktop-2026.01.08---11.52.39.11_1.mp4 These are a variety of hand tracking experiments I setup while at Oculus, retargeting raw hand tracking bone transforms to custom skinned meshes. The first 3 examples I modeled quickly from scratch, the following alien hands I pulled and reskinned from Farlands characters which were made by others, and the last human hand examples are my hand which I first generated via photogrammetry, retopologized, and skinned. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/B3063108541912109962065292538067/JiggleFish.mp4 Jiggle Fish https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/M3063127219461845521870818357459/DropShadows_1_1.mp4 I built out a Niagara and Blueprint based solution to support hundreds of drop shadows for a game that was being designed to run on low spec harware with runtime world editing in gameplay. The workflow included full developer controls in visualizing and editing local placements, scales as volume components, and intensities of shadows. Also shown is a shader solution I built for projecting and mixing a few layers of dappled lighting/shadows across the world. This proved to be visually satisfying in AR creating stronger depth cues volume and parralax. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Q3064580306053978377343941980371/Two_Sided_Shader_-_Marmoset_Toolbag.mp4 For fun I wrote and released a free custom two sided shader for Marmoset Toolbag 3, allowing for unique texture inputs and controls to be exposed per side. This effort required some collaboration with engineers at Marmoset to expose necessary calls to access the state of backfaces that was not available when initially starting the project. It was hosted on the official Marmoset website as a community addon until they transitioned to Toolbag 4. (Still downloadable through my Gumroad: <a href="https://tylerwalters.gumroad.com/l/JOYsS" target="_blank">https://tylerwalters.gumroad.com/l/JOYsS</a>) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/G3070888746060439851583815528659/TinyTools.mp4 During pre-production, I also spent a few days conceptualizing and prototyping a set of mini tools for interactive gameplay oppurtunities. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/V3070889383524574806764790722771/AR_Research.mp4 These are clips from another unannounced Polyarc game where I took initiative to prototype and present various visual formats that could be utilized for an augmented reality experience. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/P3071129650170972328903152480467/Indigo_1.mp4 These are clips from an unannounced Polyarc game demo that I worked on from start to finish. My efforts overlapped with nearly all of the content presented, with more complete development ownership of visual elements like; weapon shaders, blast vfx, spline cursor visuals, entirety of the INDIGO intro scene visuals, enemy and companion shaders, hazard barriers, target gates, destructables, and level transition portals. Beyond these specific assets, I worked closely with all diciplines in developing our vision, as well as profiling and leading optimizations. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/X3072817116297152278774625579219/PoleVault.mp4 These are clips from a tiny PC game I made with two friends called. My focus was primarily on pole physics interaction logic, input feel refinements, level & gameplay design, vfx, sound, and music. https://tylerwalters.xyz/moss-the-forgotten-relic 2026-08-08T22:42:51+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/C3069926521591171000355523113171/OwlAmbush2_1_1.mp4 I setup and directed all major cinematic camera sequences. About 50 in total. This was an interesting puzzel to navigate because we didn’t want to redo any of the animations or timings originally built for VR, creating unique challenges around how to best frame essential story beats while threading a consistent style throughout. The other half of the effort I took on for these involved extracting gameplay state driven cinematic character animations for playback reference in editor while keyframing camera motion. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/N3074335875382669620580681494739/ScreenSpaceInteractions_1_1.mp4 This is a capture from 2023 when I made a non-vr demo of Moss. I spent about 3 days creating a new programatic follow camera system and screen space interaction paradigm. After sharing the results with others at the stuido, more of us continued to pick away at understanding the potential oppurtunity and scope of effort required. Once we saw enough of the collective puzzle, we decided to enter full production. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/M3074339429000341468136123904211/MB1_VibeCheck1_1.mp4 This is a small sample of additional cinematic cameras that I setup. Since we had already put so much energy into optimizing these games for VR, we had quite a bit of performance headroom to play with. This led to me feeling confident in testing and helping implement depth of field rendering, which was active across all of gameplay and cinematics, helping sell the tiny scale of Quill and the world around her. https://tylerwalters.xyz/glassbreakers 2026-08-06T21:12:38+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/I2731986081294830754870665392339/Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss | Official Steam Trailer https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/N2736709659562765346138516598995/Crimson-2026.01.07---10.57.05.01_1.mp4 Early on in production the team asked me about supporting a mirror in the game lobby. Knowing that we were going to ship on low spec standalone VR headsets, it was clear to me that going with a common render target solution would be costly, low resolution, and flat in appearance. With this in mind I proceded to conceptualize, prototype, and work with the engineering team to implement an alternative solution that relied on something more akin to a shadowbox, with meshes that extened back behind the free floating mirror, using world positioned masking to encapsulate and show only on the inner bound pixels. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/X2738081089945155471500133249235/Desktop-2026.01.09---14.32.52.01_1.mp4 Given that our min spec standalone VR headset only allowed for about 250 draw calls total, I supported the team with guidance as well as hands on optimizations throughout the duration of the project to reach a consistent 72fps. One example of this work I took on involved converting a majority of the overhead Champion UI visuals, which were at one point totaling 150 draw calls, and merged these assets down into a single mesh with material logic to land at just 5 draw calls each. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Z2738296071325856510703032578259/Masks_1.mp4 The art and product teams had a goal to create as much content for the game as possible. To support this, I provided mesh specs, materials, tools, and example assets for the art team to more easily create expressive & performant variants of their work. (Mask models shown above were created by Welly Chang and Mike Jensen) https://tylerwalters.xyz/moss-book-ii 2026-08-08T22:16:59+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/M2733055502302669126327897403603/Moss: Book II | Accolades Trailer https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/B2734664471316262689217125527763/Comp-2_4_1.mp4 Some examples of Arcane materials and vfx that I built (Lave fluid, smasher impacts, lava bubbles, villain shader, and dynamic owl burning feathers) https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Q2734675726855413680131977752787/Comp-1_1_1.mp4 I setup a function based shader workflow to build 2d vfx for all of the game’s 100 unique story book pages. During this process I worked closely with the artist Chris Alderson, who was painting each page, to understand what visual elements would amplify each page and the story being told. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/P2738319905976492525266775027923/Grass.mp4 I reworked a majority of the material based foliage interaction logic that had been developed for the first Moss game, with a focus on improving the beleviebility and satisfaction of movement, while keeping it as performant as possible. To do so I incorporated the use of Pivot Painter as a means to support vertex motion calculations for each portion of geometry. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Q3064608501533360160919396004051/tyler_walters_-_moss__book_ii_-_technical_art_v1-1440p_1.mp4 Built an automation workflow in unreal allowing for me to quickly capture any desired number of mesh screenshots using a fibbonaci sphere distribution. These screenshots were then processed through 3rd party photogrammetry tools, to produce new highly optimized meshes with unlit textures, allowing for https://tylerwalters.xyz/moss 2026-08-06T21:12:38+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Q2733069764199935530056924246227/Moss Launch Trailer https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/P2736506471572932254999865962707/Desktop-2023.12.03---20.29.51.01_1_1.mp4 For our PSVR2 launch we enhanced the high end graphics. For this I tested and implemented Epic’s indirect capsule shadow solution that increased th. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/F2736506734605056002024362455251/Desktop-2026.01.08---14.42.41.13_1.mp4 This is an example of one of the 100+ levels that I optimized to work on Quest 1, which had very low hardware specs compared to the hardware the game was positioned towards. This involved rebuilding nearly every mesh and material in the game, moving from thousands of drawcalls in each level, to less than 150. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Y2736506869469201924914894319827/Desktop-2026.01.08---14.36.47.12_1.mp4 https://tylerwalters.xyz/first-contact 2026-08-06T21:30:20+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/D2734861114235277731543476842707/Oculus First Contact https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/C2734861361458541807398887600339/FirstContact_Screens.mp4 Built out screen material with performant baked local lighting approach and a workflow to support artists in creating animations that were performant for VR https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/I2734862462618482543416861765843/tyler-walters-tyler-walters-lightingonly.jpg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/D2736562364192904670887237103827/Desktop-2026.01.07---16.41.50.05_1.mp4 Setup holographic butterfly materials and blueprint logic to support hand velocity based interactions https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/X2736562410235977878866277937363/Desktop-2026.01.07---16.41.50.05_1_1.mp4 This is an example of what the dynamic lighting adjustments https://tylerwalters.xyz/dreamdeck 2026-08-08T21:50:33+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/R2734930957057881937689581170899/Oculus Dreamdeck (VR) ★ GamePlay ★ Ultra Settings https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/B2736860436331294820372343926995/Dreamdeck_Alien.mp4 Worked with multiple artists to bring whis experience to life with shader support across all assets and vfx systems. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/E2736860641108600782622076416211/Dreamdeck_LowpolyForest.mp4 Owned and developed the entirety of this experience outside of primary character animations and audio. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/I2736860696873108117446050951379/Dreamdeck_Mirror.mp4 Provided team with logic to drive mirrored character representations and created physics solutions for all dynamic animations https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Q2736860779293160638780327571667/Dreamdeck_Paper.mp4 Supported this project with vfx solutions https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/X2736860839281972366483789426899/Dreamdeck_Robots.mp4 Built lighting solution, supported shader development and vfx, worked with vfx artists at Epic to pull in outsourcing support https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/A2736860930943843668746551406803/Dreamdeck_Trex.mp4 Developed trex shader, vfx, and optimizations https://tylerwalters.xyz/farlands-1 2026-08-08T21:45:21+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/L2731768161218671565220226773203/Farlands_Camera.mp4 Helped build a camera system that relied on head position before motion controllers were ready. This involved some in depth research into finding paths of hud like UI rendering that would be comfortable in VR. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/N2731768212814214739385842643155/Farlands_Scanner.mp4 Conceptualized and built various gameplay vfx systems, including this example of a world scanner. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/L2731768268873869979389170004179/Farlands_Ship.mp4 Supported multiple artists to bring the spaceship interior and exterior visuals to life, creating shaders, skybox projection solutions, and high quality baked lighting approaches that fit within our strict performance budgets. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/P2731769231406529001479863775443/Farlands_Water.mp4 Built a stylized water shader that was both very optimized and comfortable to look at for long durations in VR. As a polish step, I worked with an artist to project custom hand painted textures to build more connective tissue between the landscapes and water surfaces. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/L2733067283537132729817551581395/Introducing Farlands https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/N2736576770122348802140442964179/Rocky_-_Day_-_Night_Cycle_-_Oculus_Farlands-1_1.mp4 Developed a highly optimized skybox and time of day solution working closely with artists and rendering engineer. Most of my time was spent scripting dozen of parameter curves and shader blending states, and packing the results in a way for easy drag and drop implemenation with full debug playback for further tuning. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/W2736577810223566654179801280723/Giffle_-_Day_-_Night_Cycle_-_Oculus_Farlands-1_1.mp4 Worked cloesly with characters artists and a rendering engineer to develop shader solutions and improve overall quality of character rendering. This also involved a layering system in which some creatures could mix color attributes as a means of player engagement and progression goals. https://tylerwalters.xyz/toybox 2026-08-04T23:28:36+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/J2733078485709853115490670981331/Toybox Demo for Oculus Touch https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/X2733679534477820523840501428435/Toybox_Ocean.mp4 https://tylerwalters.xyz/primal-carnage 2026-08-06T21:17:59+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/L2734696259465073524391142731987/Primal Carnage Launch Trailer https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Q2734721706582502510054211039443/tyler-walters-p180oob095r7e1jk5tdhgot97g7.jpg Shotgun I made from start to finish. HP/LP bakes textured in Photoshop. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/R2734721855742875090069645406419/tyler-walters-p180oob08m1r8i1e8lmvc4cs5hc6.jpg Revolver I made from start to finish. HP/LP bakes textured in Photoshop. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/M2734721964873813030135352766675/tyler-walters-p180oob08m1j76fjhcfovjj14fg3.jpg Hunting knife I made from start to finish. HP/LP bakes textured in Photoshop. https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/G2734722892412998544399027122387/950x0_p180oqjkdr1agqcog1ae1kevpcod.png https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/M2734724320541477986918803681491/950x0-5_p180orhium1vl11d4s18olru89po4.jpg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Z2734880205508589376506826305747/DarkTrexScene.jpg I ported and setup various assets the team had made for an early announcement that we had decided to move from Unigine to Unreal Engine 3 https://tylerwalters.xyz/2013-infected-wars 2026-08-06T21:16:31+00:00 always 0.5 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U2570625867619055502905280233767/horizontal.svg https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Y2734694420343136119622556168403/2013 Infected Wars PS Vita Official Release Trailer - Download Now! https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/Q2736328155512601187186754695379/Desktop-2026.01.08---11.46.43.09_1.mp4 https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/R2736331384781171986707151040723/950x0_p180onu4e5bn71j9it0r1is81r2u5.png https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/O2736455177486449741945488519379/Desktop-2026.01.08---11.37.54.06_1_1.mp4 Supported project with various sets of keyframed animations. One of my favorite results was from implementing additive head roll/bob animations that made the zombies appear weak in the neck and much more unique/dynamic. https://tylerwalters.xyz/footer 2026-08-04T23:28:36+00:00 always 0.5