CSCI B581 "Advanced Computer Graphics"
with Unity 3D - Fall 2023

[link to Fall 2023 course website]

New topics for Fall 2023: intro to XR, VR, AR,
eXtended Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality
↓ see below for project examples from previous semesters ↓


  • Prerequisites: programming experience (e.g. in Java, C++, Python, Swift, etc.).
    (if you need permission to enroll,
    contact the course instructor or your academic advisor)
    No previous experience required in Computer Graphics, Unity, C#.

  • New topics for CSCI-B581 / Fall 2023:
    intro to XR, VR, AR,
    eXtended Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality.

  • Project-based course with Unity 3D.
    Every student may choose between written Final Exam and individual Final Project implemented in Unity.
    Choose your own graphics-related topic, to implement in Unity as final project.
Some project examples from past years:
Illumination, texture and bump mapping, and surface animation all implemented by students.
Point-light source illumination, separate texture and bump maps, and animation, are all generated procedurally.
Additional effects: procedural modeling, noise-based modeling, collision detection.
demo demo demo
demo demo demo


Learning objectives: Topics:
  • 2D and 3D interactive graphics programming
  • object and scene modeling (see example below)
  • illumination, shading, texturing, bump mapping (see examples below)
  • 2D and 3D animation
  • New topics for Fall 2023: intro to XR, VR, AR,
    eXtended Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality
  • Ray Tracing and Radiosity
  • etc.
  • (note: in past years, the course was based on several different platforms than it will be in Fall 2023)
Course details:


More coursework examples from past years:
Scene illumination: illumination, texture and bump mapping, and surface animation all implemented by student.
Point-light source illumination, separate texture and bump maps, and animation, are all generated procedurally.
Additional effects in water wave shader implementing: cube map, light reflection, texture and vertex animation, combined to simulate water waves.
(above shown excerpt from one of the programming assignments)
Another scene illumination: illumination, texture mapping, and terrain generation all implemented by student.
Two (tinted) point-light sources, two separate textures; procedurally generated surface model.
Additional effect: water surface reflection animation.
(above shown excerpt from one of the programming assignments)
A basic animation example is shown below: implementing a "robot arm" in the Unity IDE, with scene modeling details and C# scripting connections.
The left side panel shows the hierarchy of 3D objects (all rectangle-shaped boxes) in this 3D scene.
The right side panel shows how each element in the 3D scene is connected to a (Transform) variable, used by the C# script to animate the robot arm.
Object Hierarchy in Unity IDE Scene Display in Unity IDE Script Connections in Unity IDE
(above shown excerpt from one of the lab tasks)