A curated landscape of third-party tools that do a job well — each with its cost, platform, and why we like it. Nothing here is paid for: no affiliate links, no sponsorships, no placements. A row is earned by use on real work.
Scene compositing and capture in one tool
The industry baseline for timeline editing
Painting-first; built for brushwork rather than photo retouching
Built for speed; vendor signals a paid tier after beta
Three-way merge and folder synchronisation
Open beta since May 2026; confirm the tier on the site before relying on it
A work-management platform rather than a Windows Task Manager replacement
Vendor profilers are tied to the hardware they profile — pick by target platform, not preference.
NVIDIA hardware; a developer account may be required
Microsoft; the default for D3D12 GPU captures
Ships within Arm Performance Studio; confirm the current licensing tier
Qualcomm hardware; account registration expected
C++ core scripted in Wren; in preview — expect movement before release
Draw-to-solve physics; a teaching toy as much as a game
Model Science Software; free trial, pricing not published on the landing page
Arm ASR; the engine-agnostic implementation
Qualcomm GSR; single-pass shader, engine-agnostic
Community integration — not an official Box3D or Epic project
Google AGDE; keeps an existing MSBuild C++ project targeting Android
Makes errors and warnings findable in build spew; confirm the licence on the listing
Builds the maths before the code; the usual first recommendation
Peter Shirley and co-authors; read online or build the code alongside
Companion site to the book — the resource lists are free; the book is not
Long-form DirectX 12 walkthroughs
Step-by-step and code-first; older but methodical
Jendrik Illner’s roundup — the standing answer to “how do I keep up”
Nothing on the shelves matches — try fewer letters.
This is a landscape, not a mandate — nothing here is a requirement, an endorsement for hire, or a paid placement. No affiliate links: every link points at the vendor's own site, unadorned, and we earn nothing from a click or a purchase. Entries marked ⚠ carry an unverified cost tier or platform — confirm on the vendor's page before relying on them. A tool's absence means nobody here has used it, not that it is bad.
All product names, logos, and brands are the property of their respective owners, used here for identification only. Curated in the open — additions welcome by issue or pull request: Compendium Repo