Studying Computer Graphics Part 1: Cameras & Projections

As part of our degree topic Computer Graphics, we learnt about the implementation of virtual cameras in games and other 3D spaces. Through lectures, we learnt about what transforms are needed to project and render to a screen, these being a world space transform matrix, view matrix and projection matrix. We also learnt about different kinds of projections including orthographic and perspective.

In this topic we also discussed different techniques that are used in games to manage the cameras within a scene. One technique called ‘Portal Rendering’ or ‘Portals’ aims to improve rendering performance by designing game levels in such a way that the camera doesn’t have to constantly render the entire environment, but instead focuses on rendering smaller sections and immediately visible items by manipulating each sections or ‘cells’ scene graph.

As part of the assessment for this topic, each student is required to implement an interactive virtual camera known as a ‘Fly Camera’ into their graphics project. This will allow the user to ‘fly’ around the 3D environment we have created as they alter properties or objects in the scene. To do this I have been following the Fly Camera tutorial provided by AIE, which involves creating two new classes within my project, including a base class called ‘Camera’ and a class called ‘Fly Camera’ which will inherit from the Camera class. The Fly Camera will update its view and projection matrices every frame and use user input to alter its position and rotation.

References:

Cameras & Projections Lecture

Scene Management Lecture

Fly Camera Tutorial