1. The pitch (Feb 7): go to the class forum and post an idea for a game that you would like to work on, or post your thoughts on the game concepts that have been posted.  We will form groups around the best game ideas that emerge from this discussion.
2. Individual game (Feb 9): use an open-source Java toolkit to write a simple but complete multiplayer game.

Group projects: The remaining assignments will be done in the context of group projects.  Each assignment consists of adding a feature to the group's game engine.  Sometimes the same feature can be used to satisfy different assignments; of course, each group may only use a single feature once.  These projects are to be done individually: you will clearly need to discuss implementation issues amongst your group, and you are welcome to discuss algorithms and structures as well, but the research and coding should be primarily individual efforts.

3. Engine core (Feb 16-Mar 3)
4. First individual project (Mar 2-Mar 21)
5. Second individual project (Mar 23-Apr 4)
6. Third individual project (Apr 6-Apr 13)
7. Final game project (Apr 18-May 4)

Be aware that the membership of groups (and thus, the projects that you will work on) may change throughout the semester. There is value to mixing up groups and exposing students to different problems, different group dynamics, and different design styles. However, everyone will get the chance to work on something that excites them for the final project.

Much more detail coming soon on the format and requirements for this project.

Check the e-mail archive on Toolkit.

A note of warning: Although the final project is to build a 3D game, this is not exactly a course about building video games: it is about building a 3D graphics engine such as sits under the hood of modern games. The course will be highly technical and a lot of work. We will not touch on many vital aspects of game design: character AI, the production process, artist tools, the network layer (for multiplayer or online games), interface design, multiplatform support, etc. In other words, don't take the class just because you like playing video games.

Some lectures are accompanied by Powerpoint presentations, often from other sources (e.g., NVIDIA presentations at Game Developers Conference).  The original presentations will be included below for your convenience.  For copyright-related reasons, some of these links will only work if you are browsing from a virginia.edu IP address.

Individual assignment deadlines are showed in red, group deadlines in green.

• Individual assignments: 40%
• Group project: 35%
• Group participation: 20%
• Class participation: 5%

I reserve the right to add a test, quiz, or "practicum exam".

Each student has up to five late days to use at his or her discretion for the individual assignments.  Each late day extends the due time by 24 hours.  Late days do not apply to group-wide deadlines.  Let the TA know how many late days you are taking when you turn in an assignment. 

Strongly recommended:

Real-Time Rendering (2nd edition) by Tomas Akenine-Moller and Eric Haines, AK Peters (2002).

This book is a significant update from the (excellent) first edition, and contains a great deal of additional material.  In particular there are new chapters on advanced shading techniques, shading capabilities of modern hardware, and so on. It is an excellent book that anybody planning on a career in computer graphics ought to own.  One of the best aspects of the book is the accompanying web site, a vast compendium of graphics resources that the authors keep very up-to-date. 

In previous years I required this book, but this year I will give you more flexibility by just labeling it "recommended". However, if you are serious about computer graphics or video game design, you must have this book on your shelf.

GPU Gems: Programming Techniques, Tips, and Tricks for Real-Time Graphics, edited by Randy Fernando. This book, while NVIDIA-centric (it's published by them), is full of extremely useful explanations, shaders, and code samples. It consists of 42 short chapters or "gems", each a concise and useful introduction to a particular technique. The gems fall into several categories: Natural Effects, Image Processing, Lighting and Shadows, Materials, Performance and Practicalities, and Beyond Triangles. Many of these gems would make perfect individual projects.

GPU Gems II, edited by Matt Pharr. 2004 was so long ago by computer graphics standards. GPU Gems II carries on the tradition with another fantastic collection of well-explained gems. Categories: Geometric Complexity, Shading, Lighting, and Shadows, High-Quality Rendering, Image-Oriented Computing, General-Purpose Computation on GPUs, Simulation & Numerical Algorithms. Again, many of these gems would be great individual projects.

Other books that may be of interest:

3D Game Engine Design by David H. Eberly, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (second edition, 2004). This book makes excellent reading for programmers serious about writing their own game engine.  It is quite mathematical and not for the faint of heart.  It comes with a lot of free software, also available from the accompanying web page. These include some very useful little modules, especially for geometric and mathematical calculations.

Level of Detail for 3D Graphics by D. Luebke, M. Reddy, J. Cohen, A. Varshney, B. Watson, and R. Heubner, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (2002). Line your professor's pockets while learning about level of detail, a crucial tool for real-time rendering.  Errata and links to code, models, and resources at the accompanying web page.

Game Programming Gems (series editor Mark Deloura). There are three books in the series.  Some of the material is getting a bit dated, but much of it is still very relevant.  Because these are about game design, they include non-graphics topics (e.g., character AI).  Each book is a collection of "gems", submitted by different game programmers.  Some are short useful code snippets, others are long involved packages or essays on different aspects of game programming.

See the tools page.