GAM666/DPS901 Project Requirements 20113
GAM666/DPS901 | Weekly Schedule | Student List | Project Requirements | Teams and their Projects | Student Resources
Due Dates
Proposal outline and team members selected | September 29 |
Proposal completed and members roles selected | October 11 |
Member branches with updated Framework sample ready | October 11 |
Approval meeting with instructor | October 11-14 |
Project Review meeting with instructor | November 15-18 |
Final game presentation | December 6 and 8 |
Project Requirements
Your game involves a real-time audio-visual experience in some sort of 3-D world. The user must be able to control at least some aspects of the game with a controller, and there must be some use of sound, both in the background and in response to some action in your game. The user should have control over which display devices, resolution and input devices are used at any time during the game. Your game may however offer only a subset of the available resolutions and input devices. Finally, your design code must differ significantly from the samples presented in class and you must identify the unique elements of your code in your submission logs. Each game is a team effort. The structure of each team is up to the team members. Each member must contribute their own work in a selected area or areas of their choosing. All members should contribute to the design part of the assignment.
Phase 1
The first phase is a 200-300 word informal, written proposal of what you intend to implement in your game: what you imagine your game doing. Your description should identify the objects in your game and include one or more illustrations of your design. The illustrations may be hand-drawn and scanned. Include in your illustrations a map of what you envisage the 3D world of your game will look like, with 3-dimensional coordinates of all of the major points in the world. Your map includes all of the "actors" (moving objects) in the world. Identify the coordinates as realistically as possible, being aware that you may need to scale them up or down as you implement your design.
Submit the written proposal on your wiki team-page under Proposal and Map of the World of the Game.
Before continuing phase 1, please do the following
- Read Hints for Using SVN to collaborate on school projects
- Update your team's wiki page with your team's repository path information under Repo Path
- Create a directory with your seneca id under the branch sub-directory of your team's repository. This will be your home directory for development; for details see: Directory Structure
- One of your team members should export svn://zenit.senecac.on.ca/dpsgam/trunk/fwk4gps and svn://zenit.senecac.on.ca/dpsgam/trunk/resources into the trunk of your team's repository
- For detailed steps see Start the project by continuing an existing work
Each team member should have their own successfully compiled version of the Framework and the Resources in their own workspace in the branch sub-directory of their team's repository.
- Start doing the above by branching the Framework and the Resources into svn://zenit.senecac.on.ca/dps901_113rep?/branches/SenecaID/.... See here for help: Preparing Branches/Workspace for development
The source code for the upgraded Framework sample should include the following updates:
- your own name in the caption for the dialog box
- your team name in the window title
- your own name in the copyright information in the dialog box
Merge all of the team members' Framework workspaces back to trunk so that the caption of the dialog box shows all of the names of the team members. See Merging your work back to trunk for details
The purpose of this first phase of the project is twofold:
- to define your game in both scope and detail and thereby to give your instructor some idea of your design, so that your instructor can give you some feedback whether what you intend is too simple, too complex, or about right
- to show your instructor that you are ready to work with your own branch of your team's repository and ready to start modifying the framework to suit your team's design.
Your team should decide its own group to individual ratio for grading purposes and post the agreed ratio on its project page.
Your team should arrange a time and date to meet with your instructor to review your proposal and to identify the different responsibilities of the team members. This meeting should take place during week 6 of the semester.
Phase 2
The second phase releases a draft of your game without sound or input control.
This is your last opportunity to amend your original proposal, modify your design, and obtain your instructor's feedback on your progress.
Phase 3
The third phase presents your completed game with sound and input control to the class. Your presentation includes a demonstration of how the game plays along with an explanation of the innovative aspects that your team members have implemented. Each team has no more than 30 minutes to showcase its game.
Suggested Upgrades to the Framework
The Framework that you download from the course repository consists of around 12,000 source lines of code. This version of the Framework is only a starting point and provides a set of fallback/default positions for your course project. There are many opportunities to refactor different parts depending upon what your game design requires and what your personal interests are. Decisions to focus on certain parts reflect the areas with which you wish to become familiar. Listed below are some areas that you should consider in deciding where to devote your energy. If you wish to add items to this list, consult your instructor.
Each team will introduce its own upgrades to the Framework. The nature of these upgrades will vary from team to team. Each team member is responsible for a thorough understanding of at least one particular upgrade.
Two upgrades are mandatory, while some are challenging:
- mandatory upgrades are in bold
- challenging upgrades are followed by an *
Design Class
- game play logic
Object Class Hierarchy
- design new objects
- import a model script from GAM667
- create billboards – clouds, smoke
- add stock objects
- detect collisions between reference frames *
Camera Class
- comprehensive camera motion
Display Class
- introduce fog
- change render state
Light Class
- introduce emissive light
Graphic Class
- improve texturing
- create new graphic representation for new objects
SoundCard Class
- sound effects on buffers and optimizing performance
Window API Branch
- improve controller input and user dialog
- replace DirectInput with XInput *
Direct API Branch
- implement an OpenGL 3.0 version *
- create an Open Audio version *
- use Direct2D for fonts *
- replace Direct3D9 with Direct3D10 *
- replace Direct3D9 with Direct3D11 *
- COLLADA **
Framework
- context – implement a database *
- save the current state of the model to a file and restore from a file
- implement a scene graph
- performance optimizations *
Appointment Schedule for Proposal Acceptance
Team Name | Date and Time |
Mesocricetus | Friday October 7 9:00AM |
Team LoL | Tuesday October 11 11:40AM |
K&G | Tuesday October 11 12:00PM |
Wednesday October 12 11:40AM | |
Wednesday October 12 12:00PM | |
Team A | Thursday October 13 11:40AM |
Victorious Secret | Thursday October 13 12:00PM |
C Major | Friday October 14 11:40AM |
Appointment Schedule for Reviewing Progress
Team Name | Date and Time |
Tuesday November 15 11:40AM | |
scott/grace | Tuesday November 15 12:00PM |
Wednesday November 16 11:40AM | |
Wednesday November 16 12:00PM | |
Team A | Thursday November 17 11:40AM |
Victorious Secret | Thursday November 17 12:00PM |
C Major | Friday November 18 11:40AM |
Presentation Schedule
Team Name | Date and Time |
Tuesday December 6 8:15AM | |
Tuesday December 6 8:45AM | |
Tuesday December 6 9:15AM | |
Thursday December 8 8:15AM | |
Thursday December 8 8:45AM | |
Team A | Thursday December 8 9:15AM |