CO3355: Write a Program that Renders the Icosahedron. Enable Camera Navigation: Advanced Graphics and Animation Assignment, UOL, Singapore

Introduction

Reporting constitutes a very important factor in this assessment. For each step of this coursework assignment, please ensure that you provide screenshots from multiple viewpoints, describe your modeling approach and expose the problems you faced and the design decisions you made. In addition, remember to include an evaluation of how well the techniques you used apply to what you are trying to do, identifying advantages and disadvantages. Finally, do not forget to explain which parts of the code you submit are your own contributions, properly citing the remaining parts (such as code taken from the subject guide or online sources).

Part A

The file Icosahedron.pde contains a Processing code that approximates a sphere by subdividing an icosahedron [1]. You can use it from your program by declaring a PShape object and using the method createIcosahedron(). Read through the code to understand how the method is called, and answer the following questions.

Question 1

Write a program that renders the icosahedron. Enable camera navigation using PeasyCam. Make the subdivision level parameter adjustable by the user, experiment with different values and comment on the effect on the visual output as well as performance.

For measurements, you can use the frameRate variable. You may also want to set a constant rotation rate so that you can compare results across different settings.

Question 2

Extend your program and write a pair of GLSL shaders to map an image texture on a shape. Letting the user select among three images of your choice, demonstrate the process on a subdivided icosahedron.

Question 3

Fragment shaders can be very efficient in applying image post-processing effects. Choose two such effects and further extend your program to implement them, letting the user choose between the two. Then, select one parameter of each effect, as appropriate, and let the user adjust it.

Question 4

Now modify your shaders to animate the texture and make it move across the object surface. The demonstration found in [2] will give you an idea.

Part B

Write a Processing program and corresponding GLSL shaders to apply displacement mapping to deform an object’s vertices by using a texture image as a heightmap.

Then, modify your code so that the displacement magnitude is animated, based on the frame count or mouse movement. Demonstrate the results using images from Part A.

Part C

Based on your experiments in the previous parts, improvise to see what other, more exciting effects you can produce. Some ideas to explore could include: mixing multiple textures, moving image (video) texturing, dynamic shapeshifting, etc.