Assignment 1
1. Show a screenshot of your game running.
2. Show a screenshot of the generated log file with your game's initialization and clean up messages.
In the screenshot below, there are two lines:
"Junxuan-Hu's Game Initializd!"
"Junxuan-Hu's Game Cleaning Up!"
3. Tell us which projects needed to add a reference to the new Graphics project.
See the screenshot below.
4. Did you find any projects whose code mentioned the Graphics namespace, but didn't need a reference added? If so, give an example, and explain why the code in question doesn't require a reference.
Yes. The project Tools/ShaderBuilder mentioned Graphics namespace, but didn't need a reference.
The reason is that the project Tools/ShaderBuilder only uses enums in the Graphics namespace, which does not require any code implementation from the Graphics library. As mentioned in the assignment description,
​
Note that a reference (i.e. a dependency) is only required if a project calls a function, and even then only if that function is defined in a CPP file. Some of the results you will find when searching will be to things other than functions (e.g. enumerations). If a function call from a CPP isn't involved then you don't need to add a reference.
​
5. Tell us about any thoughts you have about the engine code base that has been provided to you.
I think it is well structured by using namespaces to differ from modules. I especially like some projects to have a "Includes.h" header file which handles some complicated and used-many-times inclusion. Currently I cannot fully understand every line of the Engine codes and requires more work.
​​​
5.1 How is it organized? Is there anything that you like or don't like about the organization?
I like the organization. It has separate libraries for separate modules. For each project, it contains filters for specific codes for Windows, OpenGL, D3D, etc. For each files, the preflix 'c', 's', and 'i' are used to distinguish between class, structs, and interfaces. ​​​
5.2 What do you think of the code style? Is there anything that you like or don't like about it?
I like the code style. As I said, it is well-organized. It also uses much #if define to realize conditional compilation and platform-speecific codes, making the codes both adaptive and succinct. The variable and class naming is also easy to read/understand. ​​​
5.3 Is there anything that you were initially confused about? Tell us why you were confused and what you figured out to not be confused.
I initially had a hard time understanding the Application project. It has many C++ Windows syntax and types which I'm not familiar with. I did some Google search and read the comments carefully. It basically just creates a Windows application. With that in mind, it's much easier to understand every line. ​​​
5.3 Discuss briefly your expectations of the class based on the first lecture and what you know so far, and tell us what you hope to learn from it. Take some time and think about what you personally might be able to get out of the class that aligns with your interests.
I expect we will develop a simple Engine for this class. It's interesting to learn the code structure and how decoupling works in such a large system. For me, I'm interested in Technical Designers positions in the game industry, which requires developing some Engine tools and interfaces. It would be helpful to learn how the engine is structured and built.​​​I personally look forward to developing a dialogue system which allows network narrative and visual scripting, but I'll wait and see.