CS 378 - Game Technology

NFL Madden 2006 - Electronic Arts

CS 378 - Game Technology

Spring 2006

Half Life 2 - Valve

Tu/Th 2:00pm-3:30pm
RLM 7.120

Instructor: Okan Arikan

E-mail: okan 'at' cs.utexas.edu
Office: ACES 2.110
Office hours: Th 1:00pm-2:00pm

TA: Paul Arthur Navrátil

E-mail: pnav 'at' cs.utexas.edu
Office: ESB 229, Desk #1
Office hours: Fri 11:00am-noon

!!! Important !!!

This is a preliminary web site. It will evolve throughout the semester. Please make sure you check it frequently.

Course description:

This class focuses on the technological aspects of game development. We will be covering various algorithms ranging from graphics to artificial intelligence/networking and sound. We will primarily explore the technical aspects of game development. As such, the course will involve many computer science topics, not just computer graphics. This class will have a significant final project where the students will prepare a computer game (more on this below).

Grading: (subject to change)

% 10 Homework 1
% 10 Homework 2
% 15 Midterm
% 20 Final
% 45 Project

%10 - First deliverable
%15 - Second deliverable
%15 - Final report/demo

Late Policy:

Unless you have a legitimate excuse, you will loose 5 pts for each day your homework of final project is late. For example, if you turn your homework one day late, you will loose %5 of your total grade for the class.

* Code of conduct: *

Every student must read and agree with the code of conduct outlined at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/ear/CodeOfConduct.html. You must report any piece of written material (text or software) that comes from someone other than yourself. Note that you are not allowed to use any software that overlaps with the objectives of homework and projects. Depending on the class size, some homework or projects may be done in teams. There will be a discussion of policies related to group projects and homework in the class and this web page will be updated accordingly.

Final project:

You will create a game of your own design and implementation. Students can work in groups for the final project. However, every student is expected to submit a report individually for each stage of the development. This project will involve significant coding and its purpose is to showcase what you learned in this class. The details of this project will be supplied in this project web site.

Prerequisites:

C/C++ programming skills
Computer algorithms & data structures
Computer graphics (CS354 or CS384G)
Talk to the professor if you're in doubt

Topics:

Some of the topics that we will cover in class include:

Interactive systems
Graphics
- Texture / Environment / Shadow mapping
- Shading models
- Multi-pass rendering
- Occlusion culling
- Graphics hardware / vertex / pixel shaders
- 2D Games / billboards
- Meshes
- Terrain generation
- Level of detail
- Octrees, Kd-trees, BSP trees
- Visibility
Animation

Keyframing, motion capture
Character rigging
Inverse kinematics
Physics, simulation
Particle systems
Collision detection / response

Artificial intelligence

Finite state machines
Decision trees
Rule based systems
Fuzzy logic
Neural nets
Path planning

Networking

Dealing with lag / network failures

Sound
Issues

Design
Balance
Cheating
Testing
Business aspects

Final Projects

Astro Racing Circuit
Tron Revolution
Ghosts on a Plane
Apocalypse
Haze

Tentative course calendar: (to be populated in the near future)

Week

Tuesday

Thursday

Jan 17

Course overwiew
Introduction to game development

Lecture Notes (ppt)
Lecture Notes (ppt)

Jan 19

Computer graphics review
Linear algebra
Projections & Clipping & Fun stuff

Lecture Notes (ppt)
Lecture Notes (ppt)
Lecture Notes (ppt)

Jan 24

Computer graphics review
Shading & Fun stuff