Last update date: Dec. 2, 1998.Warning: some of this Web page hasn't yet been updated for Winter, 1998. Please excuse any broken links!
Graphics Programming using Java
Welcome to the Web Home page for the University of California, Irvine, Extension course Graphics Programming using Java.From here you can go to the syllabus, see example programs and homework assignments and
homework scores, and you might enjoy the gallery. A good reference on the HTML code necessary for running Java applets is in The Java Tutorial from Sun. In fact, the entire tutorial is a great guide to Java. Here's the link to the Doom-ish game Scared game.
I also like Jump, although I keep falling off before getting very far.
For a 3-D take on a 2-D game, look at Pong. Just click once to start, and then move the mouse with the button up to move your paddle.Here are some ideas for projects. I'll be updating this list several times.
- A good idea for a project is an educational applet that teaches the user (and the author!) about some aspect of computer graphics. For instance,
- Different color space models. It would be neat to be able to "walk through" different 3-D color spaces in some way. See the Color Space Java Applets and my
ColorModels applet. - How does JPEG compression work?
- Different lighting models for 3-D scenes.
- Different kinds of projection (e.g. one-point perspective, orthogonal). See the Viewing in 3D chapter of Foley, van Dam for a particularly exhaustive description of different kinds of planar geometric projections, organized in a nice hierarchy.
- And always, any kind of interactive game is good. How about PacMan?
- Interested in Platonic solids? I've can show you a very nice article about how to create them (from the computer graphics point of view) which might lead to an interesting project.
Links to info on GIF and JPEG formats
A fun and readable introduction to image formats on the Web. This page is actually part of an entire web-based seminar on Weaving the World Wide Web which I recommend highly.Follow the links off this page for some good examples of the trade-offs between image size, quality, and type with JPEG and GIF.
A longer and more detailed comparison of GIF and JPEG.
Everything you ever wanted to know about JPEG but were afraid to ask: the JPEG FAQ.