This unit has been introduced as part of the 2016 Course Architectures review of the FIT undergraduate degrees. The unit is intended to further develop students ability to develop highly technical computer games, doing so in the industry standard of C++. The provision of this unit will provide an understanding of the fundamentals of programming computer games and provide the foundation for students to undertake a significant capstone computer game project.

Introduced for course architecture programs. Effective semester 1, 2016

22/03/2017 - Modified exam duration to align with new University assessment policy

20/9/2019: Admin - updating exam duration to include additional 10 minutes as per University requirement.

01/10/2020 Admin: Update to include new assessment and teaching approach fields as per Handbook requirements.

A strong knowledge of programming using C++ is essential to students wishing to create and modify effective and efficient games engines, which require high levels of performance and optimisation. This unit builds upon core C++ computer game programming skills and further develops those to levels of being able to produce highly technical, industry-standard computer games. Games Development students will apply these C++ skills in their capstone project.

At the completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. describe the content pipeline as used in computer game development and why it is important;
2. create game programs that demonstrate an understanding and working knowledge of advanced rendering principles, such as shaders;
3. create game programs that demonstrate a working knowledge of advanced visual game effects, such as particle and physics systems;
4. describe how key game programming principles can be applied to games developed with other libraries (such as OpenGL) and for other platforms (such as mobile), and create game prototypes that demonstrate this;
5. describe key performance and optimisation principles of computer game programming and create game programs that demonstrate these principles.

020103

This unit will further develop games development programming skills with the C++ language, and explore them further in the Games Programming context. Focus will be on advanced games programming techniques, including a focus on the content pipeline, advanced rendering and visual game effects. Principles will also be placed into the context of different libraries, such as OpenGL, and other platforms, such as mobile. This provides a strong grounding for further study in this area, especially related to games engine development and artificial intelligence.

Technological requirements

On-campus

This unit uses a lecture and laboratory based teaching approach. Lectures will be used to introduce key concepts, but most importantly to demonstrate code development and discuss practical considerations of game programming. Laboratory classes will be used for students to put these concepts into practice and obtain help with the key games programming principles.

Examination (2 hours and 10 minutes): 50%; In-semester assessment: 50%

Minimum total expected workload equals 12 hours per week comprising:

(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:

(b.) Additional requirements (all students):

FIT2096