Realtime Rendering

Assignment 2

Assessment: 50%

Deadline: Wed 12/10/2011 1:30pm

Deadline: Fri 14/10/2011 1:30pm

Deadline: Fri 14/10/2011 9pm

Clarifications and Corrections

Mon Oct 10

• Clarified other libraries: glut for text rendering, OpenAL

Thu Oct 6

• Extended deadline to end week 12. Removed demonstrations.

Fri Sep 30

• Clarified that polygon intersection tests are to be performed after AABB intersection tests indicate hit.

Mon Sep 19

• Deadline Wed week 12 of semester. Corrected date.
• Clarified AABBs for convex polyons.
• Clarified extra key bindings - those additional to the ones in the base code - to be chosen by implementors.

Aims

This assignment is intended to have students learn about collision detection, spatial data structures and game physics.

Problem Description

'Breakout' was an Atari arcade game in the 70s. Since then many variations on the same basic idea have appeared, such as Arkanoid, and more recently Shatter.

The assignment is to implement a 2D version of Breakout, starting with a level of circular and rectangular bricks, a rectangular playfield, a single paddle and a single ball. Then a progression of enhancements.

• Include convex polygon 'brick' shapes. To improve collision detection time use axis aligned bounding boxes (AABBs), and if only perform the more expensive polygon test when needed. For debugging and testing have a switch which shows the bounding box outline, including highlighting it in a different colour when using it in a test.
• Include different playfield and paddle shapes, e.g. circular playfield and arc paddle. Add more gameplay interest/creativity, e.g. different brick patterns/formations/waves/levels, multiple balls, power ups, special effects such trails etc.
• Use a grid spatial data structure for collision detection acceleration. Include the ability to switch the use of the data structure on and off, and a switch to display or output the time taken to perform collision detection. (Note that for this game, collision detection is not likely a bottle neck).

Use C/C++, OpenGL and SDL (not glut, except possibly for text rendering), and possibly other libraries such as OpenAL. Include in your program the ability to 'pause and step' execution at key times, for example, when performing collision detection. Also include the ability to slow the ball speed by doubling/halving. Choose your own key bindings.

Marking Guide

Note: this is a guide only. Marks will be awarded/deducted depending on coding quality, algorithms and approaches used, handling of 'corner' and special cases, and creativity shown.

A brief readme explaining features and key bindings is required. No demonstrations this year.