About CS4620/4621

Professor:
Steve Marschner, srm at cs.cornell.edu
  ofc hrs M 3:45-4:45; Th 3:00-4:00 in 5159 Upson

TAs:
Kan Li likan at cs.cornell.edu
 ofc hrs W 12:00-1:00 in 328B Upson
Michael Thomas Lin, mtl37 at cornell.edu
 ofc hrs M 12:00-2:15 in CSUG Lab (361 Upson)
Steven An, stevenan at cs.cornell.edu
 ofc hrs T 11:00-12:00 in CSUG Lab (361 Upson)
Staff List: cs4620-staff-l at lists.cs.cornell.edu

Time and place:
CS4620: MWF 2:30–3:20, 203 Thurston
CS4621: W 3:35–4:25, 203 Thurston

Textbook:
Shirley, Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, second edition (required)
(plus drafts of chapters from the third edition, to be handed out as needed)
(errata)

Coursework

Homework

There will be (usually) weekly homeworks, due in class on Fridays, consisting of one or two problems. See the schedule for the exact due dates. They will involve things like working out numerical or other short answers (which should always be backed up by some brief reasoning), answering "why" questions, and drawing graphs or other pictures.

The homweworks may be handwritten or printed and are to be turned in at the beginning of class. After they are graded (normally by the Monday following the due date) the grades are posted on CMS, and the papers can be picked up in 360 Upson between 10am and noon or between 2pm and 4pm.

Programming assignments

There will be five programming assignments as part of CS4620:

  1. Ray I: A very simple ray tracing renderer that renders spheres and boxes using a perspective camera, point light sources with shadows, and basic surface materials.
  2. Model: A simple modeling application that allows the user to create and transform simple objects to assemble a scene.
  3. Pipeline: A software model of a modern programmable graphics processor, using vertex and fragment processing to achieve a variety of rendering effects.
  4. Ray II: A more full-featured ray tracer than the first assignment that can handle larger models and do more advanced shading, including texture mapping and reflections in shiny surfaces.

These programs are to be done in teams of two. If you really want to work by yourself, that is OK but you will still have to do all the work. If you want to work with a partner but can't find one, please contact the course staff and we will help.

The programs must be written in Java using the framework code we'll provide. The CSUGLab in Rhodes 455 is set up to support this course. You are free to work on whatever computer you like, using any programming environment, but your code must compile and work using the basic command-line tools on the machines in our lab. You will hand in your source code using CMS.

Exams

There will be two in-class midterms and a final exam:

Together the two midterms cover the first 2/3 of the course. The final is comprehensive, so it covers all material from the whole course.

All three exams are closed book, but you're allowed to bring one letter-sized piece of paper with writing on both sides, to avoid the need to memorize things.

After the fact, you can find the exams and solutions on the exams page.

Practicum

In the optional practicum course, CS4621, you will get a more in-depth exposure to the course material by implementing a substantial piece of interactive graphics software: a modeling and animation system based on subdivision surfaces. Students taking the practicum must attend the extra weekly lecture for CS4621, where the project and the background information required to implement it will be discussed. The practicum page on this site will be used for information specific to the practicum and can be ignored by students taking CS4620 but not CS4621.

Grading

Each item to be graded in this course will be scored out of 4 points on a 5-point scale:

Having everything correct leads to a score of 4. A score of 5 is for a correct solution that is particularly creative or insightful.

Your final grade in CS4620 will be computed from the grades on the assignments and exams. The homeworks will account for 30% of the grade, the programs will account for 40%, and the three exams will account for 30% (with each midterm weighted half as much as the final).

Due dates and late assignments

Homework assignments are due at the start of class on the due date (normally Friday), and are not accepted late. The lowest homework grade will be dropped in computing your final score.

Programming assignments are due at 11:59 pm on the due date (normally Tuesday) and are accepted with a late penalty until 11:59 pm two days after the due date (normally Thursday). Programs are accepted late as follows:

  1. Hand in by late deadline: one point off score
  2. Hand in within one week of due date: graded pass/fail; pass receives a score of 1.0
  3. More than one week late: no credit

Assignments that are handed in under option 2 will not be graded carefully and may be returned very late. That option is just intended to give you a chance to reduce the effect of zeros averaged into your grade.

Starred problems

Both the homeworks and the projects will include some starred problems. These optional parts are a little bit more challenging and/or open-ended than the rest. Starred problems will be graded in the same way as the others, but the scores are tallied separately. In computation of final grades, successful completion of all the regular problems will be calibrated to a grade of B+, and the scores on starred problems will be used to distinguish among B+ and higher grades.

Three observations about starred problems:

  1. You can get a perfectly reasonable grade without working on any starred problems. If you are finding enough challenge in the class without them, you can leave them alone.
  2. Other people's work on starred problems will not affect the curve for grades below A.
  3. In order to get an A in the class you need to work on some of the starred problems and show a basically successful completion of the regular problems. Working on starred problems won't help your grade if you aren't solving the regular problems well.

You are also welcome to propose your own extensions to the projects if you like; these will be treated the same as starred problems. Some ground rules:

Policies

Collaboration

The principle is that an assignment is an academic document, like a journal article. When you turn it in, you are claiming that everything in it is your original idea (or is original to you and your partner, if you're handing in as a pair) unless you cite a source for it.

You are welcome (encouraged, even) to discuss the homeworks and projects among yourselves in general terms. But when it comes to writing up the homeworks or implementing the projects, you need to be working alone (or only with your partner if you are doing a project as a pair). In particular, it's never OK for you to see another student's homework writeup or another team's program code, and certainly never OK to copy parts of one person's or team's writeup, code, or results into another's, even if the general solution was worked out together.

You're also welcome to read any published sources—books, articles, public web sites—that help you learn. If you find an idea in one of these sources that becomes part of your solution (or even gives you the whole solution), that's fine, but it's imperative that you credit that fact on your homework or in a comment in your code. Otherwise you would be falsely claiming to have invented the idea yourself.

Academic Integrity

In this course we expect complete integrity from everyone. School can be stressful, and your coursework and other factors can put you under a lot of pressure, but that is never a reason for dishonesty. If you feel you can't complete the work on your own, come talk to the professor or the TAs, or your advisor, and we can help you figure out what to do. Think before you hand in!

Clear-cut cases of dishonesty will result in failing the course.

For more information see Cornell's Code of Academic Integrity.