Task

Choose an interesting idea for a graphics extension to the Unreal Engine. Your project may be implemented as an Engine extension or source change, plugin, or in some cases as pure Engine content. Project ideas must be cleared with me in advance, and I may suggest changes after you submit your project topic.

The project should include at least one technically interesting component per student in the group. For students in 491, this could be any new or recent graphics game technique. For students in 691, the technically interesting component should be not normally seen in games (yet), possibly something from a research paper, possibly something you could turn into a research paper after the semester is over.

For example, one shadowing technique I worked on at Epic included percentage closer soft shadows (1), textured importance sampling blueprint nodes (2), and Sobol sampling for blueprints (3) and for shaders (4). This would count as *4* components, and would be appropriate for a four-person team.

In Class Presentations

Each project will be required to give a final in-class presentations. It should include slides in the style of a GDC presentation, with a single overview per group, and a presentation on each technically interesting feature by the student who did it: what it is, how it works, and how it would fit into a game. Demos are strongly encouraged. If necessary, we will move the presentations for that day to other on-campus locations to accommodate project demos.

Written Report

Students enrolled in CMSC 691 must also write a report on their project. This report should focus on their individual technical feature, and should be written in the style of a game developer's blog post or chapter from a book like GPU Gems. Students in the same group should submit separate reports on their own technical features.

Dates

November 3 Have chosen a topic, discussed it with me, and have it approved
November 16 Email update on your project status. You should have progress equivalent to one of the regular assignments by this time.
November 30 Final project checkin. No code changes after this point.
December 4/6/11 In class project presentations.