Schedule
| Date | Title | Materials |
| Week 1: Jan 21 | Course Introduction |
Course Overview and Game Genres PDF Lecture Video |
| Week 1: Jan 23 | Game Design and IP Law |
Cursed Problems in Game Design GDC 2019 YouTube Practical Law 101 For Indie Developers: Not Scary Edition GDC 2016 YouTube |
| Week 2: Jan 28 | Art Assets |
Art: Assets PDF UE5 Features PDF Lecture Video Optional Reading: Fundamentals of Computer Graphics Ch 12 UIUC Library Link |
| Week 2: Jan 30 | Geometric Modeling |
Art: Bezier Curves PDF Video Art: Bezier Patches PDF Video Art: Static Meshes PDF Video Optional Reading: Real-Time Rendering Section 17.1.1-17.1.3, 17.2.1-17.2.3 |
| Week 3: Feb 4 | Rendering |
UE5 Nanite Example YouTube UE5 Nanite Introduction YouTube Rendering: Introduction PDF Rendering: Perspective Projection PDF Lecture Video Optional Reading: Fundamentals of Computer Graphics (4th Ed) Ch 7 PDF Real-Time Rendering Chapter 2 PDF |
| Week 3: Feb 6 | Rendering |
Rendering: Rendering Pipeline PDF Video |
| Week 4: Feb 11 | Rendering |
Design: Level Design PDF Rendering: LOD PDF Rendering: CLOD PDF Lecture Video |
| Week 4: Feb 13 | Rendering |
Rendering: LOD the Math PDF Video |
| Week 5: Feb 18 | Game Design |
Game Design PDF Stardew Valley PDF Game AI History PDF Lecture Video Optional Viewing: Rules of the Game: Five Techniques from Quite Inventive Designers (2016) YouTube Designing Games for Game Designers (2012) YouTube Optional Reading: Blood, Sweat, and Pixels Amazon Link |
| Week 5: Feb 20 | Game AI |
Pathfinding Video PDF A* in Games Video PDF Optional Reading AI for Games 3rd Edition by Ian Millington Sections 4.1 to 4.3 UIUC Library Link “ |
| Week 6: Feb 25 | Rendering |
AI: Tactical Waypoints PDF Graphics: Rasterization PDF Lecture Video |
| Week 6: Feb 27 | Rendering |
Nanite Rasterization Video PDF Optional Viewing SIGGRAPH 2021: A Deep Dive into Nanite Slides PDF SIGGRAPH 2021 Talk by Epic Engineer Brian Kariss YouTube Optional Reading Real-Time Rendering Chapter 23 PDF |
| Week 7: Mar 4 | Rendering |
Shading PDF Video Optional Reading: Wikipedia Phong Reflection Model Link Fundamentals of Computer Graphics Ch 5 UIUC Library Link Real-Time Rendering Sections 5.1 - 5.3 PDF |
| Week 7: Mar 6 | Rendering |
Deferred Shading PDF UE Material Model PDF Video - 2023 Lecture |
| Week 8: Mar 11 | EXAM 1 |
11am Central Time Exam Link 8pm Central Time Exam Link |
| Week 8: Mar 13 | Course Project | Read the Course Project Specification LINK |
| Week 9: Mar 18 | SPRING BREAK | NO LECTURE |
| Week 9: Mar 20 | SPRING BREAK | NO LECTURE |
| Week 10: Mar 25 | Animation |
Transformations PDF Video Optional Reading: Real-Time Rendering Section 4.1 PDF |
| Week 10: Mar 27 | Animation |
Video - 2024 lecture Euler Angles PDF Quaternions PDF Optional: Real-Time Rendering Section 4.2 and 4.3 GDC 2021 Talk: 2D Animation for Games: A Primer YouTube |
| Week 11: Apr 1 | Game Physics |
Physics Engine Basics PDF Euler Integration PDF Video Optional Reading: Semi-Implicit Euler Wikipedia Game Physics Engine Development Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, |
| Week 11: Apr 3 | Game Physics |
Chaos Physics in UE YouTube Optional Reading: Game Physics Engine Development Chapter 12 |
| Week 12: Apr 8 | Animation: Kinematics |
Kinematics PDF Video |
| Week 12: Apr 10 | Unreal Engine: File Formats! |
FBX File Formats Video PDF Integrating USD into Unreal Engine YouTube |
| Week 13: Apr 15 | Graphics: Ray Tracing |
Ray Tracing Basics PDF Video Eric Haines Ray Tracing Intro Link PrairieLearn HW 5 Assigned Link Optional Reading: Fundamentals of Computer Graphics Chapter 4 |
| Week 13: Apr 17 | Graphics: Real-Time Ray Tracing |
GDC/GTC 2022 NVIDIA Real-Time Path Tracing Talk Video |
| Week 14: Apr 22 | Game Physics: Collision Detection |
Collision Detection Basics PDF Video |
| Week 14: Apr 24 | Game Physics: Collision Detection |
GDC 2018: Extreme SIMD: Optimized Collision Detection in Titanfall YouTube This talk gets pretty complex Don’t worry about understanding it all You will understand some And get to see what a core engine dev does |
| Week 15: Apr 29 | Graphics: Global Illumination |
UE5 Lumen PDF Real-Time Sparse Distance Fields for Games PDF Video |
| Week 15: May 1 | Game AI | Creative Future with Artificial Intelligence - GDC 2023 Talk |
| Week 16: May 6 | EXAM 2 |
11am Central Time Exam Link 8pm Central Time Exam Link |