Hi everyone.

I'll be at the practical tomorrow. It's the week *after* that where I'll be missing for the later two thirds.

Hi everyone.

Don't forget your calculators!

Your marks for practical eight are now up to date.

Please let me know if any of your marks are missing.

Hi everyone.

Just a reminder that Thursday follows a Wednesday timetable, so our practical will be on Thursday this week, at 14:30 as usual.

The topic of the practical will be shadow mapping and frame buffer objects.

Your latest marks have been posted to the Google spreadsheet.

Please make sure that everything is correct.

Hi everyone.

Just a reminder that you have extension for practical eight until next week.

So we'll mark Assignment 2 and Prac 8 in that slot.

Hi all.

So I figured out what was wrong: I accidentally transposed a matrix. Yeah.

So I (re-)learned a couple of lessons:
1. debug output is useful,
2. always derive things yourself,
3. always check from first principles.

Yes, even I have to constantly be reminded of these things. So if I tell you to do any of the above, keep in mind that I'm telling myself at the same time.

The good news: our shadow map practical will continue as planned. The bad news: you have to write a shadow mapping implementation.

It's not as hard as I make it look, I promise ;)

Hi there.

So I mentioned that we're guaranteed at least one texture unit: GL_TEXTURE0.

Turns out that I understated the situation a little.

We're actually guaranteed at least 80 texture units. Eighty. Count 'em: http://www.opengl.org/sdk/docs/man/xhtml/glActiveTexture.xml

Of course, there's no telling which driver implements this properly, and which doesn't (I'm looking at you, Intel), so it's probably still better to check.

Hi everyone.

I posted the spec for assignment 2.

Sorry, I thought I'd posted it earlier :/

Hi everyone.

As you might know, I'll be teaching COS222 this year.

I'll need some TAs, so if you think that you'll enjoy working for me, please apply.

The deadline is the first of May, so don't delay :)

Hi, there's a small error in your shading notes: namely the first term of the Phong lighting equation should be i_a * k_a, not i_d * k_a or whatever it was earlier.

I've updated your notes on the site, and also put up the notes for output merging.

I have posted notes on rasterization and shading, make sure you study them for the test on Wednesday.

Your marks are now available up until practical five. Please check that they are correct.

You can now find your marks under the mark sheet link under links.

I've updated the spec for practical 4, fixing some minor errors. Please re-download!

With the first examination opportunity drawing close, you're probably wondering about your theory notes.

These notes are not always seperate entities. For example, the input shader's "theory" notes will be in the practical you do tomorrow. The same goes for input assembly and practical three.

Sometimes I'll have additional theory notes for you, and I'll post these as the time arrives.

There won't be any notes on the graphics pipeline, since we finish our discussion of each stage before we get to EO1. So the individual stages' notes make up the notes on the pipeline.

Kindly also refer to the recommended textbook, or any other appropriate source for additional information on the themes we've covered.

Examinable material: everything said in class / practicals, notes, practical tutorial sections, relevant material in the recommended textbook.

Here are the topics we will cover before EO1:
* Linear algebra (find a math book for this one.)
* History of computer graphics.
* The modern graphics pipeline.
* Input assembly.
* Vertex shader, world and view matrices.
* Projection.
* The tesselation stage.
* The geometry shader.
* Clipping.
* Rasterization.
* The fragment shader.
* The output merger.
* GLUT.
* Simple animations.
* Tesselation.

I'm going to ask you things like what the purpose of the projection matrix is and expect a lot of that kind of detail. I'm not going to ask you to derive a general projection matrix.

I'm going to ask you to compare clipping algorithms and say which one is best in a situation, I'm not going to ask you on what date the first PCI-X card came out. I might ask what the significance of hardware T&L is.

I'll ask you to construct the correct world matrix given a case study, how you'd go about constructing the view matrix and how you'd choose to format the vertex buffer. I'm not going to ask you to find the inverse of 11 different matrices and post-multiply them all.

There'll be one or two soft-ball list-type questions, the rest will be insight, application and synthesis.

Don't bother spotting, or learning things by rote - the test WILL wreck you if you try. If you 100% understand the work and can remember the basics like how a rotation matrix works, you're well-prepared.

My tests don't typically require a decade's worth of studying, but they do require insight.

Good luck and god speed.

Tremble mortals, and despair!

Assignment one's specification has been released. It should not give you too much trouble.

Your test is on the 20th (don't forget). So I thought it wise to make the deadline a week after that, but that's in the recess, so I postponed it one more week.

Therefore, your deadline is 14:00 on the 3rd of April. Why 14:00? Well, because we're going to mark the thing at 14:30!

PS: this gives you plenty of time to finish Heart of the Swarm so we can discuss its graphical innovations in class. <_< >_>

PPS: The memo and the spec took me about an afternoon to set up, see if you can beat my time.

PPPS: The enrichment component to this assignment is adding velocity and inertia. No, you don't get extra marks, but you get bragging rights and behind on your other projects.

It's sometimes hard for us to guage the level of understanding in a group of students. This is because you don't know whether you understand something (those unknown unknowns we were talking about) and due to something called a dialectic circle (which is going to make a nice tangent later on). Students are also sometimes embarrassed to admit that they're lost in front of their peers.

So please answer the poll on the right, so I can get a totally anonymous feel for if people are on the right track.

I must have been experiencing a brain fart during class today.

The "3" in the glDrawArrays call was indeed the amount of vertices to draw, and the "0" was the offset to start at.

You can see the formal (pedantic, over-complicated) definition of the function here: http://www.opengl.org/sdk/docs/man/xhtml/glDrawArrays.xml

Hey everyone.

I realize today's lecture was a little dense in terms of information.

The practical should nicely explain everything. So don't worry if you didn't understand everything.

I'm also not going to ask you questions about deriving the general projection matrices. Tests are supposed to make sure that you have retained the required knowledge.

I don't see what memorizing that derivation buys you. As long as you understand /why/ we have a projection matrix, and /why/ it takes certain things into account, I'm satisfied.

In addition, that derivation is not complicated because it's conceptually difficult, it's just that it has so many moving parts to keep track of. So asking for it would be a little pedantic ;)

Hey everyone.

I'm reconsidering your first assignment, as there are very nice libraries available for linear algebra: have a look at Armadillo and Boost for example.

Maybe it would be nice to rather take a head start on Assignment 2 and roll the marks for the first one into that?

Come to class on Monday and we'll have a discussion about it.

Maybe I'll give people a choice between two options.

There's a new poll on input assembly / specification for me to judge your revised attitudes after the last practical.

Kindly answer it, so I know how to pitch the remedial lecture(s) :)

Esteemed gentlemen, honoured ladies and others,

I have the pleasure to present the details of the first two of three contests of will:

Examination Opportunity 1
Date: 20 March 2013
Time: 17:00 for 17:30 till 19:30
Venue: HSB 3-14

Examination Opportunity 2
Date: 30 April 2013
Time: 17:00 for 17:30 till 19:30
Venue: HSB 3-14

Each of these will cover the work we discussed up to that point. Work which has already been examined will not be tested again, but will be useful as background knowledge. In other words, it is assumed that you have mastered the work that has been covered by at least one test.

God speed, and may the best entity prove victorious.

I updated practical two's specification to incorporate everything we've learned. Please read the last section again. I'll ask in the next class whether it makes more sense now and get some more feedback.

The memo has also been published.

So I posted the poll I promised to.

Please answer it quickly, as I need the information to complete your study guide.

I have posted your study guide. You can find it, surprisingly enough, under the "files" section below.

Please note that the study guide is accompanied by a handy-dandy Google calendar that I use to coordinate everything.

You can find the link to it at the bottom.

Please let me know if anything is amiss.

Hi everyone.

Your practical today is in SIT9. Which is directly across from the department's reception.

We'll start at 14:30 and be done by 17:30 at the latest.

Dear Students

Please note that our first meeting will be on Monday the 11th of February at 08:30 in IT2-25.

Your study guide will soon be posted to the website.