EAE 6320-001 Fall 2023 Game Engineering II

Contact

• Instructor:
  • Tony Kanell
  • u0213638@utah.edu

University Policies

• See here

College of Engineering Guidelines

• Semester Guidelines (Links to an external site.)

EAE Policies

Students in the EAE program are bound by the University of Utah’s Academic Misconduct Policy which is outlined in the Code of Student Rights & Responsibilities (available here (Links to an external site.)). As defined in this code, academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, cheating, misrepresenting one's work, inappropriately collaborating, plagiarism, and fabrication or falsification of information. It also includes facilitating academic misconduct by intentionally helping or attempting to help another student to commit an act of academic misconduct. A primary example of academic misconduct would be submitting as one's own, work that is copied from an outside source.

Students who are found to have participated in academic misconduct in a class will be sanctioned with a failing grade for the the course. Students who are sanctioned a second time will not be allowed to take further EAE courses at the University of Utah. Further, students who are in the degree program will removed from the program.

Attendance

You will present your final projects on the last day of class during finals week. You should plan on being able to present during class on December 6, as detailed here (Links to an external site.) and here (Links to an external site.).

If you miss the first lecture or don't add the class until the semester has started you are still responsible for finishing all of the assignments on time.

Communication

I am not a full time professor and do not check my university mail with the same rigor as you might expect. If you need my attention Slack is the best way to get a hold of me. Please discord (https://discord.gg/HYaKcDUq) for general information and DM or @ me if you have any questions. I generally prefer homework / class related questions to be asked publicly so that answers can benefit the whole class. 

Expectations

You should expect to spend 6-10 hours each week outside of the lecture working on the class.

Sometimes some assignments are more difficult for some students. This is normal and you should be prepared for the possibility that an assignment may take more time than you had anticipated. If you have spent more than 10 hours on an assignment and are not able to finish it all or fix all of the bugs then I will tend to be understanding and lenient because it has taken more time than I would have expected. If you have only spent 6 hours on an assignment and do not finish it or fix all of the bugs, however, then I will be much less understanding because you should expect to spend 6-10 hours. If an assignment isn't finished or has bugs and you have spent even less than 6 hours working on it you should expect to receive substantial point penalties.

Late Assignments

Your score on an assignment will be cut in half every 24 hour that it is late.

If an assignment is worth 100 points and is due on a Thursday at 11:59 PM:

• If you turn it in after 11:59 PM on Thursday the most points you could receive would be 50/100
  • (Whatever score you would have received had you submitted on time will be multiplied by 0.5)
• You can still turn it in anytime before 9:00 AM on Friday for 50%
• If you turn it in after 11:59 PM on Friday the most points you could receive would be 25/100
• If you turn it in after 11:59 PM on Saturday the most points you could receive would be 12.5/100

In this class it is usually better to submit an unfinished assignment on time than a finished assignment late!

The only time you should plan on submitting an assignment late is if you think you would receive less than 50/100 points. Otherwise, you should submit on time and explain in your write-up what you tried and why you had trouble.

I will never give you less than 50/100 points if you have spent the expected 6-10 hours on an assignment. If you have spent the expected time but the assignment isn't finished please submit on time. If you haven't spent much time and haven't done much work, however, it might make sense to submit late.

Every assignment in this class builds off of the previous assignments, and you must continue to use your own project throughout the semester. If you work hard but aren't able to finish an assignment on time I will probably be understanding and lenient, but my expectation is that you will continue to work hard after the deadline and finish the assignment soon so that you will be ready to start and complete the next assignment on time. This is your responsibility. If you fall behind in this class it can be very difficult to catch up.

Grades

Your grade in this class will be based on the following:

• The scores that you receive for Assignments
  • Most assignments will be worth 100 points, and there will usually be an assignment every week
    • (Towards the end of the semester there are fewer regular assignments and instead there will be longer projects)
• The scores that you receive for Projects and Project Presentations
  • These are special assignments, and in addition to the work you do to complete them you will also receive points for presenting these to the class.
• Your final grade will be calculated from the combined scores of assignments and projects as follows:

  • A	93% or above
    A-	Between 90% and an A
    B+	Between 87% and an A-
    B	Between 83% and a B+
    B-	Between 80% and a B
    C+	Between 77% and a B-
    C	Between 73% and a C+
    C-	Between 70% and a C
    D+	Between 67% and a C-
    D	Between 63% and a D+
    D-	Between 60% and a D

• You will not get an I (incomplete) grade in this class unless:
  • There is a circumstance "beyond your control", you discuss the situation with Tony as early as is reasonable, and you and he both agree
    • To clarify, if you stop coming to class or submitting assignments but don't talk to Tony about why until the end of the semester you will not receive an I, you will receive an E (failing)
    • The agreement to receive an I grade must be sent by Tony via an email. It is fine to talk about in person, but an email must be sent by Tony. If you think that Tony agreed to assign an I (incomplete) grade but there is no written email agreement then you will not receive an I.
• Performance Review
  • If Tony believes that you deserve a better grade than your quantitative assignment and quiz scores would indicate then he may choose to give you one
    • This may happen, but you should not expect it. You should plan on receiving the grade that your scores indicate that you will receive.
  • If this happens it can only improve your grade, but never hurt it
    • You will never receive a lower letter grade than your assignment and quiz scores would indicate unless you are found to have cheated

Cheating

• If you are caught cheating in this class:
  • You will receive 0 points for the assignment that you were cheating on
  • You will no longer be allowed to attend class lectures or presentations
  • You will likely be given an automatic failing grade for the class, regardless of any other assignments or quizzes that you have not cheated on (Tony will decide this on an individual basis, however)
• Cheating is defined as the following:
  • Using someone else's code to complete your assignment
  • Giving your code to someone else to help them complete their assignment
  • Working with someone else on the same machine or shared codebase to complete your assignment
    • This includes working on the same machine remotely, e.g. if a screen is shared
  • Using someone else's code or write-up to complete your write-up
• The following situations are allowed:
  • You may discuss anything with your fellow students if no code is involved
    • (It is not considered cheating to tell another student the details of how you solved a problem)
  • You may sit next to other students while you are all working on the same assignment and discuss problems you are having and solutions you have found as long as no one is looking at anyone else's code
    • (This same principle applies while working remotely. You can be in the same slack channel or discord server or whatever discussing the assignment as long as no one is looking at anyone else's code)
  • You may show relevant sections of your code to a fellow student if:
    • You are in control of the computer and s/he is just looking at what you are showing
    • S/He is only looking at the code and discussing it with you
      • It is cheating if another student is writing anything down (on a computer or paper) while looking at your code!
    • (This same principle applies while working remotely. You can share your screen with a fellow student as long as you are in control and s/he is only looking at code and not taking screenshots or recording anything or looking at or changing his/her code while looking at yours.)
  • If another student needs help you may sit with him/her, look at his/her code together, and try to figure out how to get it working, as long as neither of you are looking at your code while the other student's code is being changed
    • (This same principle applies while working remotely. Another student can share his/her screen with you and you can try to help him/her figure out a problem as long as neither of you are looking at your code while the other student's code is being changed.)
• Many of the assignments have code that Tony provides. It is fine to copy/paste that into your own assignment. It is also fine to copy/paste code from official sources online: C++, Windows, DirectX, or OpenGL documentation. You should not, however, copy/paste other code that you find online into your own assignments; it is fine (and encouraged!) to search online for help, but you should always re-write code you find "in your own words".
• The following situations are all considered cheating in this class:
  • Even if you change the variable or function names of code that you have copied and pasted, that is still cheating!
  • Even if you change the values of certain variables in code that you have copied and pasted to see what happens, that is still cheating!
  • Even if you change the formatting or comments of code that you have copied and pasted, that is still cheating!
  • Don't copy and paste code that isn't yours, even if you change things! If you find non-official code online (that isn't from another student) you can look at it for help but you should write your own code from scratch "in your own words", rather than copying, pasting, and then changing.
  • If you give your code to another student to be helpful it is cheating! You are encouraged to help each other, but please read the section of what is allowable to make sure you understand what is appropriate.