ITCS 4235/5235 Game Engine Construction – Spring 2019

Instructor: prof. zachary wartell

overview

Introduction to principles and techniques behind modern computer and console game engines. Graphics Rendering Pipeline (transformations, lighting ,shading); 2D/3D Texture Mapping; Image Based Rendering; Spatial Data Structures and Acceleration Algorithms; Level of Detail; Collision Detection, Culling and Intersection Methods; Vertex/Pixel Shaders; Pipeline Optimization; Rendering Hardware. (on demand).

Official Prerequisites:

• ITCS 4235:  ITCS 3120 or permission of department.
• ITCS 5235:  ITCS 4120 or ITCS 6120 or permission of the instructor.  (ITCS 3120 is acceptable too in this case please contact Dr. Wartell, zwartell@uncc.edu, to request registration authorization).

Unofficial Prerequisites:   This course assumes students have a strong background in basic computer graphics and have strong programming and debugging skills.   In group projects, each student must make an equal contribution to the programming components.

textbook

Required:   [Moller18]  Real-Time Rendering, 4rd edition.   Tomas Akenine-Möller, Eric Haines, Naty Hoffman.  A.K. Peters Ltd.,  ISBN-13: 978-1138627000, 2018, 1045 pages.

• Electronic:  (Kindle Edition) ~$40
• Website: http://www.realtimerendering.com/

Recommended:

• WebGL:
  • WebGL-Programming-Guide

             OR ^{(see API)}

• OpenGL:
  • “Red Book” 7th or 8th Edition:
    • OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Versions 3.0 and 3.1 (7th Edition)
    • OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 4.3 (8th Edition)
  • “Orange Book” 3rd Edition:
    •   OpenGL Shading Language (3rd Edition)

programming

API:  Students will develop their projects in either OpenGL or WebGL, whichever of these that each student is familiar with.

Programming Language:  For WebGL, use of JavaScript is encouraged, but not required.   For OpenGL, C++ is encouraged, but not required.

• For the individual projects (see below) skeleton code will be made available only in one programming language of the instructor’s choice.  Students using a different language are expected have enough programming experience to convert any skeleton given into whichever programming language (and verison of OpenGL) they want to develop in.

Projects:

• one or two smaller intro individual projects
• a large semester group project (group size limited to 1-3).  This will have with multiple milestones and deadlines.

Exams:

• there will be a mid-term and final-exam (non-comprehensive)