Halfway through Winter '23

Just a little update now that we’re about halfway through the quarter. I’ve been having a lot of fun in my graphics shaders class. The above image was created in OpenGL/GLSL using a combination of displacement mapping, bump mapping, and per-fragment lighting. Below you’ll see the same texture with with much more significant bump mapping.

Here are some screenshots from a couple other projects as well. Believe it or not, the same elliptical pattern is being used on the sphere and the duck. The sphere just has noise applied to distort the pattern!

Of course static images don’t quite tell the whole story, these are screenshots from programs that alter the shaders’ uniform variables over time. If possible I’d love to post videos at some point when I’m more proficient with GLSL.

In other news, I’m also taking Intro to Databases this quarter and our term project is well underway. For this project I am working with a partner to design and implement a database for an online video game. Complete with leagues and leaderboards, our goal is to design an efficient MySQL/MariaDB database to record gameplay statistics.

It seems pretty common for students to avoid group work at all costs. I think there are sometimes good reasons for that hesitation, however I’ve really enjoyed working with another person on this project.

In closing, it’s been a good quarter so far. It’s worth noting that this is also my penultimate term at Oregon State! In approximately 5 weeks I’ll be moving on to my capstone project!