This course will explore the algorithms, data structures, and tricks used
to program computer video games. We will be programming in Java and
focussing on arcade-style video games (new and "classic") rather than
text-based adventures or strategy games such as chess.
We won't have a networking assignment, but you *will* be
expected to know about networked games such as Grab (discussed
in class) on the final exam. When you do a homework assignment, it forces you
to learn whether or not you understand the topic. So, here
are a few study questions to help you decide whether or not
you understand networking. The Grab code can be found on the
April 25 demo page.
SECOND EXAM (On-line exam)
The second exam will be on the computer, in class, on
Friday, March 28. Here's
a list of topics,
but you can work out your own - anything we've
studied so far this semester is fair game.
If you want a rough idea of what such an exam is like, here's
the exam
from a couple of years ago. We studied different topics that
year, so some of these questions might not seem familiar.
FIRST EXAM
Here is a list of topics for
the first exam (on Wednesday, Feb 19).
This is a link to a directory of class demos stored by date.
They are not intended to be self-explanatory (although they might
sometimes be), but rather are created as visual aids to the lectures.
I'm making them available here so you can play with them and study
the examples further after class. In other words, I can't imagine how
you would take intelligent notes on some of this stuff, so here are
my "animated notes".
This seems to be a very nice tutorial on Ray-Casting. In fact, this
is just a piece of a large site
about Game Programming run by F. Permadi.
Graphics options
My favorite program for creating simple GIF images on studsys is
Icon Editor.
You can create fancier GIF images by using GIMP
or with Raytracing, but these are each
more complicated to learn.
The Java API (Application Programmer Interface) specifies all of the
methods of all of the classes built-in to Java. The
API Help
might be a good place to start if you find
this too confusing.
