Perceptual rendering
Which visual details matter to the viewer? I am interested in how the perception of colour, depth, and texture can guide foveated rendering.
Kexuan Zhang
PhD researcher & graphics programmer
University of Leeds · Leeds, UK
I am a PhD student in Perceptual Graphics at the University of Leeds. My research interests are virtual reality and high-performance graphics, particularly foveated rendering, stereo reprojection, and image inpainting.
I am supervised by Dr. Rafael Kuffner dos Anjos, Dr. Markus Billeter, and Prof. Gordon D. Love.
Updated
Working on
Exploring
CUDA & GPU programming
Following CIS5650 independently to understand high-performance GPU programming more deeply. Projects 0 and 1 are complete; Project 2 (stream compaction) is halfway through.
Up next
Real-time rendering studies
Try classic graphics projects such as VXGI, DDGI, and tiled or clustered shading.
Virtual reality
How can stereo reprojection and hole filling reduce rendering work while preserving visual quality in VR? This connects my interests in perception and high-performance graphics.
Graphics systems
Vulkan, OpenXR, and reusable rendering tools. Building the foundations to turn research ideas into working experiments.
Selected projects
All projects
Vultra Ecosystem
Graphics and engine projects for research and games, with current libvultra development on the VRI-based dev-VRI branch.
Current development: dev-VRI · early stage
Light Propagation Volumes
My MSc dissertation renderer, implementing Light Propagation Volumes alongside cascaded shadows, ambient occlusion and screen-space reflections.
MSc dissertation project
VRI
A cross-platform render hardware interface with a C ABI and a C++23 wrapper for Vulkan, D3D12, Metal, WebGPU and OpenGL-family backends.
In development
vplot
C++23 plotting through a C ABI, with PNG, SVG and PDF export, ImGui integration and a WebAssembly demo.
Early development · API evolving
Starting a PhD at Leeds
Embarked on my PhD journey and joined the VCG group at the University of Leeds!
Experience
Full CV2025 — Present
Postgraduate Researcher, PhD Student — Perceptual Graphics
University of Leeds
2023 — 2024
Postgraduate, Master's Degree — High-Performance Graphics and Games Engineering
University of Leeds
2022 — 2024
Game Server Development Engineer
Shanghai Zihao Information Technology Co., Ltd
2021 — 2022
Intern Programmer
Shanghai Zihao Information Technology Co., Ltd
Selected writing
BlogA Little Secret of Tracy Profiler
Possible Memory Leak of Tracy? Not exactly...
Develop OpenXR native PC apps without a headset by using Meta XR Simulator
If you don't have an XR headset but you want to develop OpenXR apps, you can use Meta XR Simulator! It's great.
The algorithm framework for solving DP problems
Dynamic Programming problems are the most complicated problems in algorithms. However, it is actually simple to solve if you understand the key concepts and the main algorithm f...
Deeply dive into static abstract interface methods in C# 11
Static abstract interface method is a new feature in C# 11 (corresponding .NET 7.0). In this article, we are going to deeply dive into it, talk about why we need it, what it is ...
sc23kz@leeds.ac.uk
E-mail is the simplest way to reach me.
Room 2.04 & 2.26, Sir William Henry Bragg Building, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, United Kingdom.