CF

3D Computer Graphics Programming

37h 55m 2s
English
Paid

This course is a complete immersion into the fundamentals of computer graphics! You'll learn how a software 3D engine works under the hood, and use the C programming language to write a complete software rasterizer from scratch; including textures, camera, clipping, and loading complex OBJ files. Pixel per pixel, triangle per triangle, mesh per mesh.

We'll review all the beautiful math that makes 3D computer graphics possible as we tackle all concepts from first principles. We'll also write a comprehensive software renderer that can display complex 3D objects on the screen without the help of any graphics API. No GPU, no OpenGL, no DirectX! Just a C compiler and a little bit of linear algebra is all we need to create a final project that is nothing short of amazing!

The tools you'll need

We'll simply use the command-line, a code editor, and a C compiler. All these tools are multi-platform, so you'll be able to code along on either Windows, macOS, or Linux!

Also, make sure you have pen and paper ready for the lectures. This course will probably be a little bit different than other programming courses you took before. We will take our sweet time and make sure we understand every formula we find along the way!

Is this course for you?

3d programming tutorial This is a self-contained course with no prerequisites. However, you will probably get the most out of it if you already know the basics of coding (if-else, loops, functions). If you never programmed in C before, don't worry! Many successful students come from different languages like Java, Python, JavaScript, Swift, and others. We'll learn to work with the C language together.

About the Author: Gustavo Pezzi

Gustavo Pezzi thumbnail

Gustavo Pezzi is a UK-based computer-science lecturer (Pikuma) and one of the most distinctive teachers working at the intersection of low-level programming and game development. His material is unusual in the modern course market for how deep it goes into the foundations: assembly, computer architecture, classical raycasting / rasterisation algorithms, and the math underneath modern graphics.

His CourseFlix listing reflects that range: courses on 3D Computer Graphics Programming, Raycasting Engine Programming, 2D Game Physics Programming, NES Programming with 6502 Assembly, PS1 Programming with MIPS Assembly & C, Atari 2600 Programming, Compilers, Interpreters and Formal Languages, plus C++ engine programming and Lua scripting. Material is paid and aimed at developers who want to understand systems from the ground up rather than ship CRUD apps.

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#1: 1.01 Introduction and Learning Outcomes
All Course Lessons (168)
#Lesson TitleDurationAccess
1
1.01 Introduction and Learning Outcomes Demo
12:24
2
1.02 How to Take this Course
02:59
3
1.03 Words of Encouragement
02:37
4
2.01 Project Dependencies
10:00
5
2.02 A Quick Note for Windows Users
01:56
6
2.03 Project Folder Structure
02:02
7
2.04 The Compilation Flow
06:19
8
2.05 Working with Makefiles
08:21
9
2.06 Configuring Visual Studio on Windows
14:46
10
3.01 Creating an SDL Window
19:16
11
3.02 Rendering an SDL Window
19:54
12
3.03 Declaring a Color Buffer
20:51
13
3.04 Allocating Memory and Freeing Resources
07:42
14
3.08 SDL Texture
17:14
15
3.09 Fullscreen Window
08:31
16
3.10 Exercise. Drawing a Background Grid
02:59
17
3.11 Drawing a Background Grid
05:43
18
3.13 Exercise. Drawing Rectangles
03:09
19
3.14 Creating a Function to Draw Rectangles
06:00
20
4.01 Defining Header Files
11:20
21
4.02 Coding New Header Files
13:01
22
5.01 The Draw Pixel Function
07:48
23
5.02 Vectors
14:50
24
5.03 Declaring a Vector Type
03:40
25
5.04 Review of C Structs
06:24
26
5.05 Array of Points
09:31
27
6.01 Orthographic Projection
16:13
28
6.03 Perspective Projection
15:34
29
6.04 Implementing the Perspective Divide
04:14
30
6.05 Coordinate System Handedness
03:12
31
7.01 Vector Transformations
10:06
32
7.02 Review of Sine Cosine and Tangent
08:58
33
7.04 Rotating Vectors
22:10
34
7.05 Vector Rotation Function
11:18
35
7.06 Proof of Angle Sine Addition
16:10
36
7.08 Proof of Angle Cosine Addition
07:05
37
8.01 Fixing our Game Loop Time Step
14:25
38
8.02 Using a Delay Function
08:14
39
9.01 Triangles and Meshes
12:36
40
9.02 Vertices and Triangle Faces
24:40
41
9.03 Triangle Edges
02:49
42
10.01 Line Equation
15:19
43
10.02 DDA Line Drawing Algorithm
22:39
44
10.03 Coding a Function to Draw Lines
21:51
45
11.01 Dynamic Arrays
20:55
46
11.03 Dynamic Mesh Vertices and Faces
22:26
47
12.01 OBJ Files
20:17
48
12.02 Exercise. Loading OBJ File Content
08:31
49
12.03 Loading OBJ File Content
26:23
50
13.01 Back-face Culling Motivation
08:37
51
13.03 Vector Magnitude
13:49
52
13.04 Vector Addition and Subtraction
09:31
53
13.05 Vector Scalar Multiplication and Division
04:24
54
13.06 Vector Cross Product
08:59
55
13.07 Finding the Normal Vector
08:34
56
13.08 Dot Product
12:24
57
13.10 Back-face Culling Algorithm
04:33
58
13.11 Back-face Culling Code
26:26
59
13.13 Vector Normalization
20:09
60
14.01 Triangle Fill
06:38
61
14.02 Flat-Bottom & Flat-Top Technique
07:20
62
14.03 Activity. Find Triangle Midpoint
04:39
63
14.04 Solution to the Triangle Midpoint
09:10
64
14.05 Coding the Triangle Midpoint Computation
14:42
65
14.06 Flat-Bottom Triangle Algorithm
09:49
66
14.07 Flat-Bottom Triangle Code
14:22
67
14.08 Flat-Top Triangle Algorithm
05:10
68
14.09 Flat-Top Triangle Code
09:34
69
14.10 Avoiding Division by Zero
07:25
70
14.12 Different Rendering Options Solution
16:29
71
14.15 Colored Triangle Faces
14:35
72
15.01 Painter's Algorithm
11:35
73
15.03 Coding a Sorting Function
14:07
74
16.01 Matrices Overview
13:48
75
16.02 Matrix Operations
11:50
76
16.03 Properties of Matrix Multiplication
08:43
77
16.04 Examples of Matrix Multiplication
07:19
78
16.06 2D Rotation Matrix
07:09
79
17.01 3D Matrix Transformations
09:15
80
17.02 3D Scale Matrix
08:55
81
17.03 Matrix Typedef
09:41
82
17.04 Scale Matrix Code
18:35
83
17.05 3D Translation Matrix
07:54
84
17.06 Translation Matrix Code
06:09
85
17.07 3D Rotation Matrices
09:40
86
17.08 Rotation Matrix Code
09:23
87
17.10 The World Matrix
18:07
88
17.11 Order of Transformations
04:43
89
17.12 Translation is Not a Linear Transformation
09:22
90
18.01 Defining a Projection Matrix
18:46
91
18.02 Populating our Perspective Projection Matrix
13:03
92
18.03 Coding the Perspective Projection Matrix
21:27
93
18.04 Exercise. Projecting Negative Values
03:10
94
18.05 Projecting Negative Values
06:16
95
18.07 Row-major and Column-major Orders
07:46
96
19.01 Flat Shading
14:28
97
19.02 Coding Flat Shading & Light
28:09
98
19.04 Smooth Shading Techniques
07:47
99
19.06 Inverted Vertical Screen Values
07:54
100
20.01 Texture Mapping
14:33
101
20.02 Representing Textures in Memory
12:41
102
20.03 Texture Typedef
28:15
103
20.04 Textured Triangles
05:52
104
20.05 Textured Flat-Bottom Triangle
30:18
105
20.06 Textured Flat-Top Triangle
09:14
106
20.07 Barycentric Coordinates
18:16
107
20.08 Barycentric Weights (О±, ОІ, Оі)
18:58
108
20.09 Function to Compute (О±, ОІ, Оі)
13:13
109
20.10 Visualizing Textured Triangles
25:43
110
21.01 Perspective Correct Interpolation
28:55
111
21.02 PS1 Games and Affine Texture Mapping
03:52
112
21.03 Perspective Correct Interpolation Code
35:46
113
21.06 Inverted Cube UV Coordinates
06:05
114
22.01 Decoding PNG Files
10:08
115
22.03 Loading PNG File Content
21:18
116
22.04 Freeing PNG Textures
01:43
117
23.01 Loading OBJ Texture Attributes
25:44
118
23.02 Preventing Texture Buffer Overflow
10:54
119
23.04 Visualizing Textured OBJ Models
07:42
120
24.01 Z-Buffer
13:55
121
24.02 Z-Buffer Code
22:35
122
24.03 Exercise. Z-Buffer for Filled Triangles
05:00
123
24.04 Implementing a Z-Buffer for Filled Triangles
10:37
124
24.05 A Discussion on Dynamic Memory Allocation
18:01
125
25.01 Camera Space
15:30
126
25.02 Look At Camera Model
10:34
127
25.03 Look At Transformations
17:40
128
25.04 The LookAt Function
11:47
129
25.05 Coding the LookAt Function
24:16
130
25.07 Variable Delta-time
11:45
131
25.08 A Simple FPS Camera Movement
06:07
132
25.09 Coding a Simple FPS Camera Movement
35:56
133
26.01 Frustum Clipping
09:03
134
26.02 Planes
07:17
135
26.03 Exercise. Right Frustum Plane Point & Normal
03:25
136
26.04 Defining Frustum Planes Points & Normals
19:12
137
26.05 Initializing an Array of Frustum Planes
12:00
138
26.06 Defining Points Inside and Outside Planes
06:26
139
26.07 Intersection Between Line & Plane
18:22
140
26.08 Clipping a Polygon Against a Plane
14:28
141
26.09 Polygon Typedef
23:51
142
26.10 A Function to Clip Polygon Against Planes
24:27
143
26.11 Coding the Function to Clip Polygons Against Planes
38:37
144
26.12 Converting Polygons Back Into Triangles
06:57
145
26.13 Visualizing Clipped Triangles
24:08
146
26.14 Horizontal & Vertical FOV Angles
21:03
147
26.15 Clipping Texture UV Coordinates
37:16
148
26.16 Clipping Space
18:35
149
27.01 Working with Static Variables
08:52
150
27.02 Refactoring SDL Globals
30:28
151
27.03 Simulating Low-Resolution Displays
12:30
152
27.04 Refactoring Light Globals
07:16
153
27.05 Exercise. Camera Pitch Rotation
04:40
154
27.06 Implementing the Camera Pitch Rotation
14:41
155
28.01 Declaring Multiple Meshes
17:30
156
28.02 Implementing Multiple Meshes
28:55
157
28.03 Implementing Multiple Textures
16:18
158
28.04 Finishing our Implementation
20:06
159
28.05 Handedness & Orientation
23:12
160
29.01 Dedicated Graphics Cards
10:06
161
29.02 Modern Graphics APIs & Shaders
14:17
162
29.03 A Parallel Rasterization Algorithm
19:22
163
29.04 Determining Point Inside Triangle
16:21
164
29.05 Top-Left Rasterization Rule
17:38
165
29.06 Edge Function & Barycentric Weights
14:04
166
29.07 Edge Function & Constant Increments
19:23
167
29.08 Subpixel Rasterization
23:15
168
30.03 Next Steps
10:26
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Course content

168 lessons · 37h 55m 2s
Show all 168 lessons
  1. 1 1.01 Introduction and Learning Outcomes 12:24
  2. 2 1.02 How to Take this Course 02:59
  3. 3 1.03 Words of Encouragement 02:37
  4. 4 2.01 Project Dependencies 10:00
  5. 5 2.02 A Quick Note for Windows Users 01:56
  6. 6 2.03 Project Folder Structure 02:02
  7. 7 2.04 The Compilation Flow 06:19
  8. 8 2.05 Working with Makefiles 08:21
  9. 9 2.06 Configuring Visual Studio on Windows 14:46
  10. 10 3.01 Creating an SDL Window 19:16
  11. 11 3.02 Rendering an SDL Window 19:54
  12. 12 3.03 Declaring a Color Buffer 20:51
  13. 13 3.04 Allocating Memory and Freeing Resources 07:42
  14. 14 3.08 SDL Texture 17:14
  15. 15 3.09 Fullscreen Window 08:31
  16. 16 3.10 Exercise. Drawing a Background Grid 02:59
  17. 17 3.11 Drawing a Background Grid 05:43
  18. 18 3.13 Exercise. Drawing Rectangles 03:09
  19. 19 3.14 Creating a Function to Draw Rectangles 06:00
  20. 20 4.01 Defining Header Files 11:20
  21. 21 4.02 Coding New Header Files 13:01
  22. 22 5.01 The Draw Pixel Function 07:48
  23. 23 5.02 Vectors 14:50
  24. 24 5.03 Declaring a Vector Type 03:40
  25. 25 5.04 Review of C Structs 06:24
  26. 26 5.05 Array of Points 09:31
  27. 27 6.01 Orthographic Projection 16:13
  28. 28 6.03 Perspective Projection 15:34
  29. 29 6.04 Implementing the Perspective Divide 04:14
  30. 30 6.05 Coordinate System Handedness 03:12
  31. 31 7.01 Vector Transformations 10:06
  32. 32 7.02 Review of Sine Cosine and Tangent 08:58
  33. 33 7.04 Rotating Vectors 22:10
  34. 34 7.05 Vector Rotation Function 11:18
  35. 35 7.06 Proof of Angle Sine Addition 16:10
  36. 36 7.08 Proof of Angle Cosine Addition 07:05
  37. 37 8.01 Fixing our Game Loop Time Step 14:25
  38. 38 8.02 Using a Delay Function 08:14
  39. 39 9.01 Triangles and Meshes 12:36
  40. 40 9.02 Vertices and Triangle Faces 24:40
  41. 41 9.03 Triangle Edges 02:49
  42. 42 10.01 Line Equation 15:19
  43. 43 10.02 DDA Line Drawing Algorithm 22:39
  44. 44 10.03 Coding a Function to Draw Lines 21:51
  45. 45 11.01 Dynamic Arrays 20:55
  46. 46 11.03 Dynamic Mesh Vertices and Faces 22:26
  47. 47 12.01 OBJ Files 20:17
  48. 48 12.02 Exercise. Loading OBJ File Content 08:31
  49. 49 12.03 Loading OBJ File Content 26:23
  50. 50 13.01 Back-face Culling Motivation 08:37
  51. 51 13.03 Vector Magnitude 13:49
  52. 52 13.04 Vector Addition and Subtraction 09:31
  53. 53 13.05 Vector Scalar Multiplication and Division 04:24
  54. 54 13.06 Vector Cross Product 08:59
  55. 55 13.07 Finding the Normal Vector 08:34
  56. 56 13.08 Dot Product 12:24
  57. 57 13.10 Back-face Culling Algorithm 04:33
  58. 58 13.11 Back-face Culling Code 26:26
  59. 59 13.13 Vector Normalization 20:09
  60. 60 14.01 Triangle Fill 06:38
  61. 61 14.02 Flat-Bottom & Flat-Top Technique 07:20
  62. 62 14.03 Activity. Find Triangle Midpoint 04:39
  63. 63 14.04 Solution to the Triangle Midpoint 09:10
  64. 64 14.05 Coding the Triangle Midpoint Computation 14:42
  65. 65 14.06 Flat-Bottom Triangle Algorithm 09:49
  66. 66 14.07 Flat-Bottom Triangle Code 14:22
  67. 67 14.08 Flat-Top Triangle Algorithm 05:10
  68. 68 14.09 Flat-Top Triangle Code 09:34
  69. 69 14.10 Avoiding Division by Zero 07:25
  70. 70 14.12 Different Rendering Options Solution 16:29
  71. 71 14.15 Colored Triangle Faces 14:35
  72. 72 15.01 Painter's Algorithm 11:35
  73. 73 15.03 Coding a Sorting Function 14:07
  74. 74 16.01 Matrices Overview 13:48
  75. 75 16.02 Matrix Operations 11:50
  76. 76 16.03 Properties of Matrix Multiplication 08:43
  77. 77 16.04 Examples of Matrix Multiplication 07:19
  78. 78 16.06 2D Rotation Matrix 07:09
  79. 79 17.01 3D Matrix Transformations 09:15
  80. 80 17.02 3D Scale Matrix 08:55
  81. 81 17.03 Matrix Typedef 09:41
  82. 82 17.04 Scale Matrix Code 18:35
  83. 83 17.05 3D Translation Matrix 07:54
  84. 84 17.06 Translation Matrix Code 06:09
  85. 85 17.07 3D Rotation Matrices 09:40
  86. 86 17.08 Rotation Matrix Code 09:23
  87. 87 17.10 The World Matrix 18:07
  88. 88 17.11 Order of Transformations 04:43
  89. 89 17.12 Translation is Not a Linear Transformation 09:22
  90. 90 18.01 Defining a Projection Matrix 18:46
  91. 91 18.02 Populating our Perspective Projection Matrix 13:03
  92. 92 18.03 Coding the Perspective Projection Matrix 21:27
  93. 93 18.04 Exercise. Projecting Negative Values 03:10
  94. 94 18.05 Projecting Negative Values 06:16
  95. 95 18.07 Row-major and Column-major Orders 07:46
  96. 96 19.01 Flat Shading 14:28
  97. 97 19.02 Coding Flat Shading & Light 28:09
  98. 98 19.04 Smooth Shading Techniques 07:47
  99. 99 19.06 Inverted Vertical Screen Values 07:54
  100. 100 20.01 Texture Mapping 14:33
  101. 101 20.02 Representing Textures in Memory 12:41
  102. 102 20.03 Texture Typedef 28:15
  103. 103 20.04 Textured Triangles 05:52
  104. 104 20.05 Textured Flat-Bottom Triangle 30:18
  105. 105 20.06 Textured Flat-Top Triangle 09:14
  106. 106 20.07 Barycentric Coordinates 18:16
  107. 107 20.08 Barycentric Weights (О±, ОІ, Оі) 18:58
  108. 108 20.09 Function to Compute (О±, ОІ, Оі) 13:13
  109. 109 20.10 Visualizing Textured Triangles 25:43
  110. 110 21.01 Perspective Correct Interpolation 28:55
  111. 111 21.02 PS1 Games and Affine Texture Mapping 03:52
  112. 112 21.03 Perspective Correct Interpolation Code 35:46
  113. 113 21.06 Inverted Cube UV Coordinates 06:05
  114. 114 22.01 Decoding PNG Files 10:08
  115. 115 22.03 Loading PNG File Content 21:18
  116. 116 22.04 Freeing PNG Textures 01:43
  117. 117 23.01 Loading OBJ Texture Attributes 25:44
  118. 118 23.02 Preventing Texture Buffer Overflow 10:54
  119. 119 23.04 Visualizing Textured OBJ Models 07:42
  120. 120 24.01 Z-Buffer 13:55
  121. 121 24.02 Z-Buffer Code 22:35
  122. 122 24.03 Exercise. Z-Buffer for Filled Triangles 05:00
  123. 123 24.04 Implementing a Z-Buffer for Filled Triangles 10:37
  124. 124 24.05 A Discussion on Dynamic Memory Allocation 18:01
  125. 125 25.01 Camera Space 15:30
  126. 126 25.02 Look At Camera Model 10:34
  127. 127 25.03 Look At Transformations 17:40
  128. 128 25.04 The LookAt Function 11:47
  129. 129 25.05 Coding the LookAt Function 24:16
  130. 130 25.07 Variable Delta-time 11:45
  131. 131 25.08 A Simple FPS Camera Movement 06:07
  132. 132 25.09 Coding a Simple FPS Camera Movement 35:56
  133. 133 26.01 Frustum Clipping 09:03
  134. 134 26.02 Planes 07:17
  135. 135 26.03 Exercise. Right Frustum Plane Point & Normal 03:25
  136. 136 26.04 Defining Frustum Planes Points & Normals 19:12
  137. 137 26.05 Initializing an Array of Frustum Planes 12:00
  138. 138 26.06 Defining Points Inside and Outside Planes 06:26
  139. 139 26.07 Intersection Between Line & Plane 18:22
  140. 140 26.08 Clipping a Polygon Against a Plane 14:28
  141. 141 26.09 Polygon Typedef 23:51
  142. 142 26.10 A Function to Clip Polygon Against Planes 24:27
  143. 143 26.11 Coding the Function to Clip Polygons Against Planes 38:37
  144. 144 26.12 Converting Polygons Back Into Triangles 06:57
  145. 145 26.13 Visualizing Clipped Triangles 24:08
  146. 146 26.14 Horizontal & Vertical FOV Angles 21:03
  147. 147 26.15 Clipping Texture UV Coordinates 37:16
  148. 148 26.16 Clipping Space 18:35
  149. 149 27.01 Working with Static Variables 08:52
  150. 150 27.02 Refactoring SDL Globals 30:28
  151. 151 27.03 Simulating Low-Resolution Displays 12:30
  152. 152 27.04 Refactoring Light Globals 07:16
  153. 153 27.05 Exercise. Camera Pitch Rotation 04:40
  154. 154 27.06 Implementing the Camera Pitch Rotation 14:41
  155. 155 28.01 Declaring Multiple Meshes 17:30
  156. 156 28.02 Implementing Multiple Meshes 28:55
  157. 157 28.03 Implementing Multiple Textures 16:18
  158. 158 28.04 Finishing our Implementation 20:06
  159. 159 28.05 Handedness & Orientation 23:12
  160. 160 29.01 Dedicated Graphics Cards 10:06
  161. 161 29.02 Modern Graphics APIs & Shaders 14:17
  162. 162 29.03 A Parallel Rasterization Algorithm 19:22
  163. 163 29.04 Determining Point Inside Triangle 16:21
  164. 164 29.05 Top-Left Rasterization Rule 17:38
  165. 165 29.06 Edge Function & Barycentric Weights 14:04
  166. 166 29.07 Edge Function & Constant Increments 19:23
  167. 167 29.08 Subpixel Rasterization 23:15
  168. 168 30.03 Next Steps 10:26

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Frequently asked questions

What is 3D Computer Graphics Programming about?
This course is a complete immersion into the fundamentals of computer graphics ! You'll learn how a software 3D engine works under the hood, and use the C programming language to write a complete software rasterizer from scratch; including…
Who teaches 3D Computer Graphics Programming?
3D Computer Graphics Programming is taught by Gustavo Pezzi. You can find more courses by this instructor on the corresponding source page.
How long is 3D Computer Graphics Programming?
3D Computer Graphics Programming contains 168 lessons with a total runtime of 37 hours 55 minutes. All lessons are available to watch online at your own pace.
Is 3D Computer Graphics Programming free to watch?
3D Computer Graphics Programming is part of CourseFlix's premium catalog. A CourseFlix subscription unlocks the full video player; the course description, table of contents, and preview information are available to everyone.
Where can I watch 3D Computer Graphics Programming online?
3D Computer Graphics Programming is available to watch online on CourseFlix at https://courseflix.net/course/3d-computer-graphics-programming. The page hosts every lesson with the integrated video player; no download is required.