CS 230: Computer Graphics

General

TR 3:30 PM - 4:50 PM, Watkins 2141
Textbook: Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, by Shirley, Ashikhmin, Marschner (4th edition on reserve at the library)
Syllabus: pdf.

Instructor

Craig Schroeder
Office Hours: TR 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM, Chung 309, or by appointment
Email: craigs@cs.ucr.edu

Teaching Assistant

Learning Outcomes

In this course you will learn about current techniques in computer graphics. By the end of the course, you should be familiar with:

Computer representations of geometric objects
- points, lines, rays, segments, planes, triangle, spheres
Computer representations of images
- Pixels, RGB, CMYK and the physical/anatomical basis for them
Raytracing
- Basic algorithm
- Computing ray-object intersections
- Computing object normals
- Illumination and shading models
- Features: shadows, reflections, transparency, texture mapping
Hardware rendering pipeline
- GPU pipeline
- Rasterization
- Transformations
  - Affine: scale, translation, rotation
  - Pipeline transformations
  - Homogeneous coordinates
- Barycentric coordinates
- Clipping
Using matrix and vectors to solve geometrical problems.
Numerical simulation
- rigid bodies, deformable objects, fluids

Schedule

Date	Topic	Reading	Notes

01/06	introduction, math, math, raster colors	2.1-2.4.8, 3, 21	intro, math, math, images
01/08	math, raytracing	2.5.5-2.5.7, 2.6, 4-4.4.4, 4.6	math, ray tracing

01/13	normals, lighting, shading	2.5, 4.5, 10	normals, lighting, shading
01/15	reflection, falloff, shadows, reflections	4.8, 4.7, 4.8	falloff, reflection, shadow, reflection

01/20	transmission, schlick, barycentric coordinates	13.1, 13.1, 2.7	transmission, schlick, barycentric coordinates
01/22	texture mapping, triangles, meshes	11, 12.1	texture mapping, meshes

01/27	antialiasing, acceleration	13.4, 12.3-12.5	antialiasing, acceleration
01/29	modern pipeline, rasterize lines, rasterize triangles, z-buffer	8.1.1, 8.1.2, 8.2	OpenGL, pipeline, lines, lines, triangles, z-buffer

02/03	transforms-linear, pipeline	6, 8.2, 8.4	transforms, pipeline
02/05	pipeline transforms, pipeline transforms	7, 7	transforms, transforms

02/10	pers-correct interp, clipping	8.1.3-8.1.6	pers-correct interp, clipping
02/12	clipping, basics of simulation		clipping

02/17	deformable simulation		springs, deformables
02/19	deformable simulation

02/24	rotations		rotations
02/26	rigid body simulation		rigid-1, rigid-2, rigid-3

03/03	rigid body simulation
03/05	fluid simulation		fluids-1, fluids-2, fluids-3

03/10	fluid simulation
03/12	TBD

Note on academic integrity

All assignments are to be completed individually unless otherwise stated. The following are not allowed in this course. For the purposes of this course, they are violations of academic integrity. Violations of academic integrity will result in a score of 0 for the relevant assignment and a lowering of the final course grade by one letter grade (e.g., from A to B). In more severe or repeat cases, violations will result in an 'F' for the course and a referral to the campus academic integrity committee.

Working on homework/projects with another student other than your partner.
Sharing solutions with another student other than your partner.
Asking or paying anyone to complete any portion of the course for you.
Copying or referring to homework/project solutions, code, or pseudocode from any source (other than course resources such as lecture notes or the course textbook).
Working on homework/projects in a public Github repository (or anything else that results in your work being visible to other students or visible publicly), whether during or after the course. Working in a private Github repository is permitted, provided that repository stays private forever and is never shared. If you wish to share your code from this course with potential employers, please do so privately.
Use of generative AI (ChatGPT, Copilot, etc.) is strictly prohibited in this course.
Looking up answers/hints to homework, projects, or coding problems online. ("Researching the question.") The Internet is a very useful resource, and there are many reasonable places for it in this course (C++ library reference, as a supplement to lectures, further information on interesting topics, etc.) But there is a fine line between using the Internet as a tool for learning and using the Internet as a tool for cheating. If you are not sure, ask.

The following are explicitly allowed.

Office hours (TA or instructor) are a great resource if you are stuck on a problem or otherwise struggling.
There are no restrictions on using resources from the course (course textbook, lectures, lecture notes, course website, etc.).
You may work on homework/projects with your partner.
You may use past exams from this course as study aids. They are publicly available from the course websites from prior quarters.

If you find yourself struggling in the course, seek help early. The longer you wait, the fewer options will be available.

Start homework/projects early, especially coding parts. If you start the night before, your chances of successful completion are slim. Although the coding is not intended to take a long time, the time required for debugging is unpredictable and varies wildly from student to student.

Grading

10%	Project 1 checkpoint
20%	Project 1
10%	Project 2 checkpoint
20%	Project 2
20%	Project 3
20%	participation

I do not follow a strict grading scheme, nor do I follow a strict curve. Instead, I do a hybrid between the two. (1) I do not curve individual assignments or exams, though I do include extra credit on some items. Curving only occurs at the end, if it occurs at all. (2) I never curve down. 90% is at least an A-, 80% is at least a B-, 70% is at least a C-, and 60% is at least a D. I will occasionally set lower cutoffs when the score distribution warrants it. (3) Other cutoffs (between A vs A-, B+ vs B, etc.) are based on the distribution of scores.