Department of Computer Science and Technology

Course pages 2017–18

Subsections


Paper 7: Further Graphics

This course is only taken by Part IB Paper 7 students.

Lecturer: Dr Alex Benton

No. of lectures: 8

Suggested hours of supervisions: 2

Prerequisite courses: Introduction to Graphics

This course is a prerequisite for: Advanced Graphics

Aims

This course explores the modern state of computer graphics, applying long-standing techniques to cutting-edge hardware.

Lectures

The order and content of lectures is provisional and subject to change.

  • Ray Marching. Signed distance fields and GPU-based realtime rendering. [1 lecture]
  • Ray Tracing. Advanced ray-based techniques. [1 lecture]
  • Computational Geometry. Mathematics of surfaces. [1 lecture]
  • Bezier curves. These points of data make a beautiful line. [1 lecture]
  • Subdivision Surfaces. Smooth modeling of continuous surfaces. [1 lecture]
  • OpenGL. Polygonal and GPU rendering. [1 lecture]
  • Global Illumination. Realistic global lighting techniques. [1 lecture]
  • Screen-space processing. [Guest lecturer: Dr Rafal Mantiuk] Filters, blending, gamma and linear space, HDR rendering. [1 lecture]

Objectives

On completing the course, students should be able to

  • use graphics hardware to render interactive images, both polygonal and implicit;
  • understand the core technologies of ray tracing, rendering, and implicit surfaces;
  • learn techniques of computational geometry and their applications to visualization;
  • describe the underlying theory of splines and subdivision and define the Catmull-Clark and Doo-Sabin subdivision methods;
  • understand several global illumination technologies such as radiosity and ambient occlusion;

Recommended reading

Students should expect to refer to one or more of these books, but should not find it necessary to purchase any of them.

* Shirley, P. & Marschner, S. (2009). Fundamentals of Computer Graphics. CRC Press (3rd ed.).

Watt, A. (1999). 3D Computer Graphics. Addison-Wesley (3rd ed).

Hughes, van Dam, McGuire, Skalar, Foley, Feiner & Akeley (2013). Computer Graphics: Principles & Practice. Addison-Wesley (3rd edition)

Rogers, D.F. & Adams, J.A. (1990). Mathematical elements for computer graphics. McGraw-Hill (2nd ed.).