» Project 2: Boxels

Project 2: Boxels

January 6, 2021 by Chris Johnson. Filed under graphics-3d, specifications, spring-2021.

In this project, you will create an application that renders “boxelated” sculptures. You will coarsely approximate real-life objects using box primitives. The box locations and sizes will be stored in a text file, read in, and rendered in a rotisserie display. This project is inspired by the work of NVIDIA researcher Morgan McGuire.

Requirements

To receive credit for this project, you must meet the following requirements:

Create your project in a folder named boxels in the single Git repository that you are using for all your projects.

Using fetch, read in a box description file formatted like this:

BOX-0-CENTER-X BOX-0-CENTER-Y BOX-0-CENTER-Z BOX-0-WIDTH BOX-0-HEIGHT BOX-0-DEPTH
BOX-1-CENTER-X BOX-1-CENTER-Y BOX-1-CENTER-Z BOX-1-WIDTH BOX-1-HEIGHT BOX-1-DEPTH
BOX-2-CENTER-X BOX-2-CENTER-Y BOX-2-CENTER-Z BOX-2-WIDTH BOX-2-HEIGHT BOX-2-DEPTH
...

Each line is six numbers describing the position and size of each box.

Render the loaded sculpture so that its centroid is in the center of the display.
Light your sculpture. Directional diffuse shading is acceptable, but feel free to explore more advanced lighting schemes.
Allow the the sculpture to be rotated about its center using the cursor keys.
Write your renderer flexibly. It should properly display any box sculpture, including those of your peers.
Design two sculptures. Share in #gallery screenshots of your two rendered sculptures and their accompanying plain text files. Each sculpture must be unique amongst both your own sculptures and others’ sculptures.
Your code must be cleanly formatted, the variable names must be meaningful, and comments should explain non-obvious code.
Your Git log should reveal a steady pattern of commits. In general, you should commit and push after every work session.

Optional

If you finish early, consider exploring these extra challenges:

Add optional color to the box file format.
Allow the user to rotate the sculpture using the mouse.

Submission

When you have completed all requirements, push your code to your remote repository and send your instructor a direct message on Slack to schedule a 10-minute review. Only one project can be granted credit each week. Plan accordingly.