CS 565 Syllabus

CS 565 Advanced Computer Graphics

Syllabus Spring 2012

2 / 23 / 2012


Mike Barnes
JD 4443	Teaching Schedule	Office hours: M and W 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm and by apt.
(818) 677-2299	email: renzo@csun.edu	web: www.csun.edu/~renzo

Prerequisite Comp 322/L or equivalent.
Programming experience equivalent to the junior level Computer Science undergraduate and experience with one object oriented programming language (eg. Java, C++) and C is expected. Prior knowledge of basic linear algebra concepts (MATH 262) such as: vectors (properties and operations: cross and dot products) and normals to planes, is expected. Prior knowledge of computer graphics (such as COMP 465/L) is not required, although it is helpful.

Objectives

We will investigate the concepts, design and implementation of interactive 3 dimensional (3D) graphical environments. 3D games, will be the main focus of the class. Mircosoft's XNA Game Studio 4 will be the development API discussed in class and used in some projects. OpenGL will be discussed as a comparison graphics API. You will gain experience in design and development using this 3D graphics API. The orientation of this class will be towards interactive 3D games and basic game algorithms. Topics will include 3D object selection, object manipulation, simulation of time, motion, collision, path finding, tracking - evading, flocking, and multi-user (networked) environments. If time permits additional topics may include: stereo viewing (shutter lens, head mounted displays), interactive devices (gloves, head trackers). Student presentations will cover other topics of interest to the class.

There will be 3 project assignments. Two projects will use XNA Game Studio 4 with C# and the AGXNASKv4 library. The other project is a student proposed topic related to this course. There will be in-class demonstrations of selected student-proposed projects. You may work on the assignments for this class in small groups, in the MultiMedia Graphics Lab (JD 1618) or in the Virtual Reality lab (JD 2212), or at home. Group members will equally share project credit. It is the responsibility of the group members to bring any problems with group working to my attention early -- so that all issues can be resolved, or the group dissolved.

Text and Class Pages

Miller, T.M. and Johnson, D., XNA Game Studio 4.0 Programming , Addison Wesley, 2010, pp 505. Reading assignments will be from the text, on-line sources, and materials distributed by the instructor. All reading assignments will be posted on the 565 class page.
The class page has schedule information for exams and project submission dates, on-line papers, tutorials, and reference reading assignments, optional lecture notes (in Adobe pdf format), programming examples, and links to other course related resources. You are expected to read and understand the project submission requirements.
Moddle [ http://moodle.csun.edu/ ] will be used in this class for announcements, and discussions. You can also view your grades in the class.

Grades

Semester grades will be determined by a plus/minus scale ranging from 1..100. Where an A is from 100 to 94, A- is from 93 to 91, B+ is from 90 to 88, B is from 87 to 84, B- is from 83 to 81, and so on...
I reserve the right to curve the semester grade. However, any grade earned according to the distribution above will never be curved to a lower grade.

Task % Grade

Project AGXNASK 1 20

Project AGXNASK 2 30

Student proposed project 20

Midterm 30

Task	% Grade
Project AGXNASK 1	20
Project AGXNASK 2	30
Student proposed project	20
Midterm	30

Late projects are not accepted. Submit work in progress on due date in the case of an incomplete project. (If there are extenuating reasons to seek an individual extension to a project deadline please contact me at least a week before the deadline.)

Students are encouraged to talk and learn from each other. However, group projects should be the work of the group members -- there should not be any copied or "shared code" from other sources. Students are expected to have read and abide by the University's Academic Honesty statement. If you do printed in the current catalog. not understand that policy you are expected to discuss the policy with the instructor.