Spring 2008 Course Information
Announcements
- 5/06 : Sample Final Project Report template posted.(due Monday, May 12th, 11:59pm)
- 4/28 : Final Project Information posted
- 4/28 : Project presenations schedule: (Saturday, May 10th, 12:00-3:00pm, NSH 1305)
- 3/26 : Lab3 Tournament results posted
- 3/19 : Lectures 12 & 13 slides posted.
- 3/01 : Lab3 due date changed to March 7th.
- 2/29 : Lectures 7-11 slides posted.
- 2/22 : Lab3 posted.
- 2/13 : Lectures 5 & 6 slides posted.
- 2/07 : Lab2 posted.
- 2/04 : Lectures 3 & 4 slides posted.
- 1/29 : Lab1 posted.
- 1/27 : Lectures 1 & 2 slides posted.
- 1/22 : Spring 2008 email list created.
Essentials
| Class meetings: |
Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 03:00PM to 04:20PM, DH 1211 |
| E-mail list: |
There is a class mailing list which will be used for announcements and discussion.
|
| Course calendar: |
Schedule of class topics, assignments, readings, and due dates |
| Course mechanics: |
Administrative matters such as
assignments and grading policy |
| Textbook: |
There is no official textbook for this class. We will be posting relevant texts along with the lectures.
Please also take a look at the Links section where you will find additional references if you need to brush up on some Graphics + OpenGL concepts. |
Instructors
| Who |
Email |
Phone |
| James Kuffner |
|
(412)268-8818 |
| Raphael Mun (TA) |
|
|
| Srinivasan Vijayarangan (TA) |
|
(201)917-0814 |
Office Hours
Instructors will hold regularly scheduled office hours, in addition to
spending time in the cluster to help with problems or answer questions.
| Who |
Location |
Hours |
| James |
NSH 4228A |
Thurs 4:30-5:30pm (after class) or by appointment |
| Raphael (TA) |
Cluster (WeH 5336) |
Tue 4:30-5:30pm (after class) or by appointment |
| Srinivasan (TA) |
Cluster (WeH 5336) |
Mon 10:00-11:00am or by appointment |
Course description
This course will cover tools and techniques for programming
interactive games and virtual reality simulations. The course will
focus primarily on programming aspects, including event loops and
execution threads, rendering and animation in 3D, terrain/background
representation, polygonal models, texturing, collision detection and
physically-based modeling, game AI, and multi-user games and
networking. Although this course has a heavy programming focus, other
topics briefly covered will include the history of computer/video game
technology, game genres and design principles, and the social impact
of games.
Objectives and Approach
The primary goal of this course is to equip students with practical
knowledge about 3D game programming. The focus will not be on
teaching all of the details of programming under specific platforms,
but rather on providing both a high-level understanding and practical
implementation experience of reusable algorithms and coding techniques
that apply to the development of games across different platforms and
genres. All programming will be done in C/C++ using open-source,
cross-platform libraries such as OpenGL and GLUT.
Students will design and program their own games or virtual reality simulations
as part of their class projects. There will also be several smaller
programming labs designed to provide students with experience implementing
common components of game engines. Detailed information regarding assignments
and grading can be found on the
course
administration page.