Grundlagen der Computergraphik

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 task a submission talk ("Abgabegespräch") will take place via Zoom or in person, where the assignments will be graded. For the Zoom variant, a stable internet connection allowing for screen sharing and a webcam are required. There are no dates with mandatory attendance except for the submission talks. The minimal hardware requirements are an OpenGL 4.3 compatible graphics card (NVidia Geforce 400 series/AMD Radeon HD 5000 series or newer), Windows 10/Ubuntu 22.04 and Visual Studio 2022 (the community edition can be downloaded for free), Visual Studio Code or CLion. 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: tba
• 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 gcg24@cg.tuwien.ac.at to individually discuss you case.

Exercise

• 6 assignments, 2 submission talks resulting in a total of 100 regular points
• Up to 46 specialization points can be obtained (of which up to 6 are rewarded by completing the exercises with Vulkan)
• 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 = clamp(-0.067 * points + 7.83, 0.5, 5.0)
• Prerequisites online submission talks: camera, microphone, stable internet connection, screenshare of running solution
• 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.
• We will deduct 2% for every full hour of being late, rounding down. E.g., when you are 10 hours and 30 minutes late, you will get only 80% of the points. Rounding down means, that if you would get 21 points without being late, you will get only 16 with the same 80%.

Overall

• The written exam contributes 40% to the final grade
• The exercise submissions contribute 60% to the final grade
• The resulting grade will be round off based on the first digital place (meaning 4.49 == 4, 4.50 == 5)
• You need to pass both the lecture and exercise with a passing grad to get an overall passing grade for this course

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 gcg24@cg.tuwien.ac.at. Please note, that we can only respond to E-Mails sent from official student adresses.