Content

The goal of the exercise part of "Fundamentals of Computer Graphics" is to deepen concepts from the "Introduction to Visual Computing" course, as well as to practice the new concepts introduced in the lecture part. A 3D mesh viewer will be developed using C++ and Vulkan/OpenGL in six programming assignments. These assignments include the following topics:

• Graphics Programming using C++ and a graphics API (Vulkan/OpenGL)
• Mesh generation for analytic surfaces, as well as simple curves
• Virtual cameras, projections, transformations
• Illumination and shading including physically based shading
• Texturing

More details about the assignments can be found in the TUWEL course.

Assignments

During the semester, six assignments have to be completed. After the third and sixth tasks, a submission exam ("Abgabeprüfung") will take place in person at our VisLab, where you will have to implement a small addition to your submitted task within one hour. At the VisLab, there will be six PCs available for you to work on should your own hardware not be supported.

Registration

Registration for this course is done by submitting the first assignment. To get access to the TUWEL course a registration to the TISS course is necessary. Everyone who submits the first programming assignment will be commisioned a grade. Submissions, as well as supplying a framework for the coding tasks, are done via the TU gitlab.

Submission

All submission are done via the official TU gitlab. Please follow the advices in the task descriptions and instructions on TUWEL. The submission dates are stated in the "Timetable" section above. All assignments have to be submitted until 23:55 on the date of the deadline. Late submissions are not possible. Everything on a submission branch counts towards a submission. As only those branches are protected wrt. the deadlines, submissions to other branches will in general not be considered for grading. The submission has to successfully run through the gitlab CI/CD pipeline, otherwise it will not be considered for evaluation and it will be graded with zero points.

Grading

Lecture

• Examination mode: written, closed book exam
• Modalities/grading scheme: see TUWEL, the 2nd test is the official repetition we have to offer in a VU according to the university statutes. If you passed the 1st test and want a better grade, you may take the 2nd test, and the higher of the two scores will be used for grading.
• Every grade < 4.50 is considered a passing grade
• Duration: 90 minutes
• Subject matter: all topics covered in the lecture, especially the understanding of the concepts presented
• Learning materials: lecture slides/recordings, book Fundamentals of Computer Graphics by Shirley and Marschner, 4th edition.
• Registration for the written exam: TISS
• In special cases, such as severe test anxiety, we can adapt the examination mode. Please write to us under gcg25@cg.tuwien.ac.at to individually discuss you case.

Exercise

• 7 assignments, 2 submission talks resulting in a total of 100 regular points
• Up to 40 specialization points can be obtained
• In order to pass the course at least 50 points on regular tasks are necessary
• Spezialization points only count, when this minimum requirement is reached and can be used to improve the grade
• Points are converted to a grade by using the following formula: grade = min(regular + spec, 100) + max(regular + spec − 100, 0) / 4
• The submission has to successfully run through the gitlab CI/CD pipeline, otherwise it will not be considered for evaluation and it will be graded with zero points.

Overall

• The written exam contributes 40% to the final grade
• The exercise submissions contribute 60% to the final grade
• The resulting grade will be rounded off based on the first decimal place (meaning 4.49 == 4, 4.50 == 5)
• total = written exam + 1.35 × min(regular + spec, 100) + max(regular + spec − 100, 0) / 4

Communication

All important information will be announced through TUWEL, only the most urgent information regarding dates or places via TISS. Please make sure to subscribe to the lecture on TISS and to be registered for the TUWEL course. The TUWEL forums will be used for discussions and will be monitored by the tutors. If you have questions or problems with the lab part or lecture content, this is the best place to ask. For any personal questions, you can also contact the LVA Team via gcg26@cg.tuwien.ac.at. Please note, that we can only respond to E-Mails sent from official student adresses.