Seminar: Multimedia Technology

Topic:Shaders & Physics in Computer Games
Lecturer:Dr. Benjamin Guthier,
PD Dr. Stephan Kopf
Department of Computer Science IV
A 5, 6 - 2. OG
Phone: 0621 181-2600
Location and Time:Initial meeting:
Wednesday, February 17th
Time: 10:15-11:45
Room C 112, Building A 5, 6

Regular seminars:

Wednesday
Time: 10:15-11:45
Room C 112, Building A 5, 6

The topic of the seminar is programmable shaders (vertex shaders and pixel shaders) as well as physics in computer games. A shader is a small program that runs on the GPU (graphics processing unit). Shaders are executed in parallel on a GPU. A vertex shader computes vertex transformations, e.g., the transformation of model coordinates into camera coordinates. A pixel shader handles the rasterization of objects and computes lighting effects for each fragment (pixel). Each participant will present one or more state-of-the-art techniques.

There are two options for each student:

  • A student may focus on literature research and write a paper about shader / physics techniques. In this case, several shader / physics techniques should be discussed and the length of the written paper is 3x ECTS pages.
  • The second option is that a student implements one shader or one physics algorithm and analyzes its behavior. The jMonkey-Engine (http://jmonkeyengine.com/) should be used for the programming parts. A video tutorial about shader programming with jMonkey and an introduction about shaders will be provided. The length of the written paper is 2x ECTS pages.
  • All students will give a talk (30 minutes) and will present their work .


Implementation topics: 

  • Cartoon looking rendering
  • Pencil-sketch rendering
  • Ambient occlusion
  • Collision detection / response
  • Particle systems

Literature research topics:

  • Spectral Rendering
  • Caustics

 

Discussion of topics:

  • S. Dudnitzek: Ambient occlusion (April 13, 2016)
  • T. Keiper: Collision detection / response (April 20, 2016)
  • J. Kilian: Particle systems (April 20, 2016)
  • S. Ullrich: Pencil-sketch rendering (April 27, 2016)

Grading: You will receive a grade based on the quality of your implementation, written text, talk, and the participation in the discussions.

Languages: English and German

Learning material

Information about the seminar and the required learning materials is available here