Who should take this course? Seniors and graduate students that are interested in learning how to design and implement interactive 3D environments (games, visual simulations) that may use virtual reality peripherals.
What prior knowledge is assumed, what are the prerequisites? Comp 322 and Lab is the prerequisite. Comp 565 is an important graphics class, however 565 and 465 can be taken in any order; the courses compliment each other. There will be 2 assignments requiring design and programming; these assignments can be done in groups of 1 or 2 and require the experience equivalent to completion of Comp 322. Prior knowledge of graphics concepts is useful, however, these topics will be covered in the class. This is a course in using advanced graphics toolkits, not in writing such toolkits.
What 3D graphics API will be used? VRML with JavaScript (20%) and Managed Direct X 9 SDK with C# (40%) are the APIs required for 2 of the 3 class assignments. If you know Java, C# and JavaScript are very similar. We will use VRML as an introduction to modeling interactive, animated, 3D environments. The third assignment is proposed by students to met their interests in the field. VRML and the managed DirectX 9 SDK will be contrasted with OpenGL and Java 3D API.
What about 3D computer games; game concepts? The class and assignments has a game orientation. A game can not be written in a single semester course assignment. We will study aspects related to game development: physics simulation (collision, time, gravity) game AI (path, chase/avoid, flock). Students have used game editors / engines (Unreal, Torque) for their third, proposed, assignment.
What about multi-player, networked games? We discuss multi-player graphic environments (VR, visualization network games). We examine client/server and peer-to-peer architectures and implementation issues. The second assignment has a multi-player requirement.
See what was done last [ http://www.csun.edu/~renzo/cs565].
Any more questions contact me.