Graphics Engine

Description:

Students will explore the use of an advanced graphics API to access hardware-accelerated graphics in a real-time graphics engine context. The course will involve discussion of scene graphs, optimizations, and integration with the API object structure, as well as input schemes, content pipelines, and 2D and 3D rendering techniques. Students will also explore the advanced use of the API calls in production code to construct environments capable of real-time performance. Students will construct from scratch a fully functional graphics engine, with library construction for game development. Students will explore the use of different rendering techniques to increase photo-realism while optimizing their rendering engines for performance. The course allows students to efficiently make use of the latest features found on modern GPUs.

Development:

This graphics engine began development in a Game Graphics Programming class I decided to take to gain more experience with C++. Development on this engine will continue in the following semester in a course that focusing on engine optimizations and transforming it into an engine that supports ray tracing. Currently, this engine supports a lighting system, textures and materials, multiple cameras, skybox generation, and a GUI system. I am currently working on adding shadow mapping, post-processing effects, and a particle system.