Math 155A Course Web Page

Course Web Page - Math 155A - Introduction to Computer Graphics
Spring 2005 - Instructor: Sam Buss - Univ. of California, San Diego

Overview: This course is an introduction to 3D computer graphics, including both the use of OpenGL programming and the mathematical theory of computer graphics. Topics will include OpenGL drawing primitives, 3D transformations including affine transformations, projection and perspective, Phong lighting, averaging and interpolation, texture mapping, light and color, and Bezier curves. The course will cover both the mathematical theory of graphics and the practical uses of OpenGL and GLUT. OpenGL and GLUT is a cross platform API that works on most common computer environments, including Windows, Macintosh, Unix, Linux.
Prerequisites: Programming experience in C or C++ or Java is acceptable. Math 20F (Linear Algebra) is required.

Instructor:
    Sam Buss. Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
    Email: sbuss@ucsd.edu (this is usually the best way to contact me).
    Office: APM 6210.   Office phone: 534-6455.
    Office hours:   I have a PC in my office and can help with programming assignments and do grading there.
            Monday: 11:00-11:50
            Wednesday: 12:00-12:50. Except Wed. April 27th and Wed, May 11: 3:10-4:00 instead.
            Friday: 10:00-10:50.

Teaching assistant.
    Jefferson Ng.   Email: jwng@cs.ucsd.edu.
    Office hours: Held in the APM B337/349 lab.
    Hours: Tuesday. 2:00-4:00.
              Wednesday 3:30-5:30.
              Thursday 2:00-4:00.

Textbook: (Required) S. Buss, 3D Computer Graphics: A Mathematical Introduction with OpenGL. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003. This book is by your instructor. So please let me know if you find typographical mistakes or other errors --- I am paying cash money for any new mistakes found in the book. Book web site: http://math.ucsd.edu/~sbuss/MathCG.
(Recommended) M. Woo et al., OpenGL Programming Guide, 4th Edition. Addison-Wesley, 1999. You will not need any of the advanced features described in the fourth edition, so the first or especially the second or third edition is also fine for the purposes of this course. The first edition is available online for free, see below for the URL.
The Visual C++.NET help system also describes the basic OpenGL commands, but not the GLUT commands. GLUT documentation is available online, see below for the URL.

Grading: Grading will be based on both programming assignments and on a midterm and a final exam. It is expected that your course grade will depend about 50% on your programming projects and 50% on your written exam work.   There will be a limited number of written homework assignments and in-class quizzes; grading policies for homework and quizzes will be announced.
    There will be about 5-7 programming assignments, culminating with an individual final project. You are expected to do your own programming and will not work in teams. Grading of projects will be individualized and one-on-one.
    Programming assignments must work on the PC lab computers for grading purposes. If you do your assignment at home, you must port it to the class PC lab computer so that it will run there under Visual C++.   (And, you must do this by the due date of the assignment.)

Rooms and Times:
Lectures: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 2:00-2:50. WLH 2114..
PC labs: APM B337/B349 (two numbers for the same room) is the main lab, and where TA's hold office hours. The computers in the back of the room are faster than the ones in the front. Please do not use the computers for non-class items if other students need them for class work. You should respect the use of the lab by other classes. Door code: 1435620. (This door code is for use only by students of this class. Please make note of it, it will not stay on the web page very long.)

Programming rojects:
    Project #0: Due date: Monday, April 4th.
    Project #1: Octohedron project. Due Wednesday, April 13.
    Project #2: Solar system project. Due Wednesday, April 20.
    Project #3: Wire frame scene with "sombrero" and initial. Due Wednesday, May 4.
    Project #4: Scene with material and lighting. Due Wednesday, May 11.
    Final Project: Independent project. Due Tuesday, May 31.

Homework assignments
    Homework #1. Octahedron written homework. Due Wednesday, April 13.
    Homework #2. Linear transformations. Due Wednesday, April 20.
    Homework #3. Interpolation. Due Monday, May 23.

Midterm: There will be one midterm during a regularly schedule class period. Tentative Date: Friday, May 6.

Final exam: At the date and time as scheduled by the registrar. Will be cumulative. More information will be posted near the end of the quarter.

Email announcements: Will be sent to your email address as maintained by studentlink. You should check your email on a regular basis.

Resources:

The official web site for OpenGL is http://www.opengl.org/. The most useful part is probably the tutorials which can be found by clicking on "Coding Resources" in the top row of buttons.
The textbook's web site at http://math.ucsd.edu/~sbuss/MathCG has a number of sample OpenGL programs illustrating basic features and usages of OpenGL.
GLUT 3.7: The GLUT libraries provide an accessible set of routines for using the OpenGL API. All of the Math 155 / CSE 167 homework projects will use GLUT. The necessary GLUT files are already installed on the PC lab computers, but they are also available for download from the web. If you are using a PC at home, you may need to download the GLUT .h, .dll and .lib files. The GLUT homepage is at http://www.xmission.com/~nate/glut.html or at http://www.sgi.com/software/opengl/glut.html. The first site has exactly what you need for Math 155AB / CSE 167 and is more up-to-date. The second site is somewhat more comprehensive however.
Documentation for the GLUT API is available in HTML, Postscript and PDF formats. This documentation may not include all the features of GLUT: advanced features can be understood by examining the source code for GLUT.
Older editions of the OpenGL programming guide are available online for free!!! You can find the first edition at http://fly.cc.fer.hr/~unreal/theredbook/, as well as many other locations. The second edition has been posted online in the past, but its location seems to change frequently and this year I could not find it on google. (Perhaps it is not actually permitted to post it online? Please let me know if you find it at a legitimate online location.)
If you have compile time problems with Visual Studio.Net and the "exit( )" prototype in glut.h, I have created an updated copy of glut.h that may fix your problem. You may download it from the textbook's web page with sample OpenGL programs, http://math.ucsd.edu/~sbuss/MathCG/OpenGLsoft, (the link is near the bottom of the page).
Thanks to Jefferson Ng for this: He is using gcc on a Macintosh and the following command line invokes the gcc compiler for him:

gcc -framework OpenGL -framework GLUT -framework Foundation Solar.c
Thanks to Justin Nemeth for finding this item. If you are using an older version of Visual Studio.NET the .NET 2003 solution and project files will not work for. You can always manually rebuild the project, and this is not very difficult for the simple projects for the class this fall. However, if you prefer, there is a utility Visual Studio Converter 2.0 available at http://www.codeproject.com/macro/vsconvert.asp that will automatically convert .NET 2003 files to older versions of .NET. I have not tried this out myself, so please let me know if you have problems with it.