Course information

Time and location: TR 2:20 - 3:35 pm in EABB 106
Office hours: TR 3:45 - 4:45 pm
Office location: Peterson 406
Email: nimak@tamu.edu
Campuswire: Link in Canvas

TA: Yuxin Dai
Email: yuxindai@tamu.edu
Office hours: TBD
Location: Peterson 411

Overview

This course is an introduction to the foundations of 3-dimensional computer graphics. Topics covered include 2D and 3D transformations, hidden surface removal and rasterization, shading, lighting models, and texture mapping. We also discuss geometric modeling and curves, as well as ray tracing.

Prerequisites

The main prerequisite listed in the course description is CSCE 221. However, the students are expected to be comfortable with C/C++ as there will be significant amount of programming in this class. The students should also be familiar with linear algebra. A prior course in linear algebra (e.g., MATH 304) is more than sufficient.

Textbook

The following books are recommended:

Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, by Steve Marschner, Peter Shirley, 4th Edition
The OpenGL® Programming Guide, by John Kessenich, Graham Sellers, and Dave Shreiner, 9th Edition

The readings from Fundamentals of Computer Graphics are referred to as MS (Marschner and Shirley).

Grading

• Programming assignments (60%): There will be 6 programming assignments.
• Midterm (15%): The midterm will be given on Oct. 20th during the class (50 minutes). You may skip the midterm and make the final be worth 40% of your course grade.
• Final (25%): The exam will be given during the scheduled final exam time, Dec. 10th (2:20 - 3:35 pm)
• Note: Scoring below 50% on the total 40% of the exam portion will result in a one-letter-grade reduction(e.g., B to C).

A final curve may be applied at the instructor’s discretion. Additionally, the instructor reserves the right to raise grades near a “borderline” to the next highest letter grade. Factors weighing into this decision will be the individual student’s perceived effort and class attendance and participation.

Late Submissions

You will lose 20% from each assignment for each day that it is late. However, there will be 5 granted late days for the entire course. You are free to use it for any of the assignments. You will not get any bonuses for any of the unused late days. All the assignments are due at 11:59 pm on Canvas. Note that, one minute over and 23 hours over both count as one full day.

Academic Integrity

All assignments in this class are individual. Therefore, all code must be written by the student. If specified in the assignment instructions, the use of external libraries for performing basic operations is allowed. However, using any external source code is NOT permitted. Collaborating with other students beyond general discussion is also NOT allowed. In particular, viewing other students’ code and/or written answers is strictly prohibited. Posting your code on publicly accessible websites (e.g., GitHub), even after the assignment deadline, is also NOT allowed.

Generative AI: The use of large language models such as ChatGPT, Copilot, or Claude is not strictly prohibited. However, these tools may be used only for clarification purposes, not for generating code. You are expected to write all code yourself, and copying or modifying AI-generated code is not permitted. If you use any AI tool in any capacity while completing an assignment, even to ask a conceptual question, you must submit a transcript of the full interaction along with your work.

The instructor may request a meeting with any student to discuss their code and assess their understanding. If a student is unable to adequately explain their own code, it will be considered an honor code violation and reported to the honor council.

If you have any questions about these policies, please contact the instructor.

Schedule*

*Schedule is subject to small changes.