About
Hi, I’m Karl Davis — a software engineer based in London, with nine years of experience across game engine, graphics, audio, and platform development.
I currently work as a Lead Programmer at Assemble Technology, building engine and graphics technology for AAA games. Previously, I worked at Sony Interactive Entertainment Advanced Technology Group (ATG), contributing to PS5 Pro development and the platform rendering SDK ecosystem. I started my career building audio technology at Frontier Developments.
I’m especially interested in technically demanding problems involving GPU programming, high-performance systems and machine learning. I enjoy connecting high-level problems to low-level systems thinking, from algorithms and system design through to hardware, memory and GPU architecture.
Outside programming, I enjoy creative outlets that let me step away from the computer, make things, and relax. Right now, that’s mostly photography and noodling with modular synthesizers.
Selected Side Projects
A few technical projects and experiments, mostly exploring graphics, performance, low-level programming, and creative workflow problems:
- SoftRast: an optimised AVX2/FMA software rasterizer exploring SIMD rendering and CPU-side graphics architecture. The project has since been referenced and forked by others as an educational resource.
- Reaper-Waapi-Transfer: a proof-of-concept workflow automation tool between Reaper and Wwise, originally built to address friction in sound design workflows. The project gained significant traction and eventually inspired an official Audiokinetic extension.
- Smaller experiments such as Advent of Code 2018 in x64 Assembly, a simple SAH BVH2/4 builder and math expression to x64 JIT compiler.
Mentoring and Education
Mentoring and education matter a lot to me. I’ve mentored through workplace programmes, via Limit Break, and through informal one-to-one relationships with people in my network. I’ve given career-focused talks at universities and online conferences, including From Bleeps and Bloops to Bits and Bytes, a talk about self-teaching programming from a creative/audio background.
I’m always happy to chat with people interested in the field — whether that’s graphics, engine programming, career questions, or navigating the softer side of engineering.