CS 488/688: Introduction to Computer Graphics

Winter 2020

Welcome to the home page for CS488/688, the introductory computer graphics course in the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. This course focuses on 3D graphics, although it does discuss some aspects of user interface design. CS488/688 has a fairly heavy project component and should not be taken in conjunction with other heavy project courses.

Course logistics for Winter 2020

Instructor
Gladimir V. G. Baranoski
gvgbaran@uwaterloo.ca
Office hours: Friday, 3:30 – 4:30 PM in DC 3520
Teaching Assistants
Spencer Van Leeuwen
srvanlee@uwaterloo.ca
Office hours: Tuesdays from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM, in the Undergraduate Graphics Lab, MC 3007

Petri Varsa
pmvarsa@uwaterloo.ca
Office hours: Wednesdays from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM, in the Undergraduate Graphics Lab, MC 3007

Lectures
Tuesday and Thursday, from 8:30 – 9:50 PM, MC 4063
Lab
MC 3007. There are no scheduled lab times. The lab is available 24 hours a day for students enrolled in CS 488/688. The code to open the lab will be provided in class.
Tutorials
There will be two scheduled tutorials this term on January 15th and 16th from 5:30–6:30 PM in MC 4063. The content will be the same on both days, so you can attend either session.
Exams
Midterm: Thursday February 13th at 8:30 AM in MC 4020
Final: TBA
Course Outline
The course outline contains general information about the course, including the marking scheme.
NB: The addendum to the course outline contains updated information due to the special health circumstances experienced during the Winter 2020 term.
Required Text
Recommended Text
  • OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, by Kessenich et al.
  • Computer Graphics with Open GL, by Hearn, Baker and Carithers.
The Davis Centre library has these and other useful books for loan at the reserve desk.
Getting help
We're using Piazza for questions and discussions of class-related material. You should have been signed up at the start of the term, but you can sign up manually if necessary.

Winter 2020 Assignments

General information about CS 488/688

Start by visiting the old home page for the course, where you'll find lots of other useful information and links.

  • The website open.gl is a great starting point for programming in modern OpenGL, featuring a sequence of well written tutorials.
  • See also the longer sequence of tutorials at learnopengl.com, which go into more detail about specific topics.
  • Song Ho Ahn also has a number of useful tutorials that explain concepts in 3D computer graphics, especially as related to the OpenGL graphics pipeline.
  • Visit docs.gl for the best OpenGL API reference.
  • You might also want to look at Terence's OpenGL tutorial slides.
  • The Graphics Codex is a highly detailed overview of core topics in computer graphics, with lots of sample code and well documented equations. It's available online and as an app for iOS. The website includes very detailed programming projects. You might also want to look at the syllabus for Morgan McGuire's graphics course at Williams College, which covers lots of great topics and techniques related to procedural generation.
  • Peter Shirley has written some fun, short, tutorial-style e-books to help you build ray tracers. The approach they use doesn't map perfectly onto our Assignment 4, but might neverthess provide some useful ideas, and inspiration for the final project. Separately, he has made the ray tracing chapter from his main textbook available for free online. It provides lots of useful formulas.

If you are familiar with other resources or websites that would be of general use to students in this course, please send them to us and we might add them here.