CS 398: Introduction to Graphics Programming

Fall 2025

Welcome to the home page for CS398, the introductory computer graphics programming course in the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. This course focuses on basics topics in computer graphics and introduction to graphics programming.

Overview

Description
This course provides an introduction of computer graphics techniques and relevant concepts such graphics processing units (GPUs). The main work in this course involves hands-on programming assignments using a shader programming language on GPUs. Students completing this course will gain knowledge of basic concepts in computer graphics and will be able to apply those to develop a computer graphics program that utilises GPUs. This course will also cover some basics of general purpose programming on GPUs where students get to learn how to harness GPUs beyond problems in computer graphics.
Objectives
At the end of the course, students should be able to
  • Understand basic concepts in computer graphics to generate and process images and shapes.
  • Write a computer graphics program that utilizes relevant mathematical concepts such as linear algebra and calculus.
  • Gain hands-on experience on writing interactive programs that run on GPUs.
Topics
Linear Algebra and Calculus Review, Points, Vectors, and Affine Combinations, Coordinate Spaces, Hierarchical Modeling, and Transformations, 3D Interactions, GPUs and Shader programming, Images, Geometry, Rendering, Physics-Based Animation, General Purpose Computation on GPUs

Logistics

Times and Locations
Check out Piazza or Quest.
Instructor
Toshiya Hachisuka: toshiya.hachisuka@uwaterloo.ca
Teaching Assistants
Xiaochun Tong: xiaochun.tong@uwaterloo.ca
Wenyou Wang: wenyou.wang@uwaterloo.ca
Office Hours
See the Piazza page for more details.
Announcements and Discussions
We use Piazza for announcements, questions, and discussions of class-related material. Be sure to sign up as soon as you can. The registration link will be provided on the LEARN web page. You are encouraged to ask and answer questions in Piazza or in person during lectures. Use email only for issues pertaining to your situation specifically, not questions about the contents (e.g., remarking request). Post questions publicly in Piazza if possible so that other students can also benefit from your questions. Do not post solutions to the assignments anywhere, not just within Piazza, even after the term.
Additional resources
There is no required textbook, but the following resources may provide good supplementary material. If you know other resources that you have found useful in this course, please let us know.
Development of the course
This course is still in development and your feedback matters a lot to ultimately turn it into a regular course. We encourage you to provide us constructive suggestions for improvements to make this course both useful and enjoyable for many students.

Expectations

Lectures are not everything
The lectures are designed to give you a solid understanding of the basic concepts, but they may not cover everything you need to know to complete the assignments. For example, we will not be talking about the specifics of APIs, libraries, or coding environments, so you will need to find them out by yourself. The assignments are, however, designed so that you do not need to deal with those as much as possible. If you want to understand in more detail, we recommend asking questions or referring to the additional resources.
Requirements
While there is no hard requirement, generally speaking, we except students to be comfortable with linear algebra, calculus, data structures, and algorithms, and are capable of learning a new programming language and referring to external resources as needed.
Marking scheme
Students are evaluated based on the coding assignments. Your score relies on the successful completion of the programming tasks as described in each assignment. Each assignment contributes toward the final score as
  • A0: 0%
  • A1: 16%
  • A2: 16%
  • A3: 16%
  • A4: 16%
  • A5: 16%
  • Project: 20%
We have no midterm and final exams for this offer. Students should contact the TAs about concerns about the marking of submitted work within a week of the date it was first returned to the students. If the issues cannot be resolved between the TA and the student, the TA will inform the instructor, who will make the final decision. The instructor reserves the right to adjust the grades after the score is calculated above, but typically there will be no adjustment. Due to the varying nature of assignments between terms in this course, there will usually be no INC grade.
Group work
Group work is NOT allowed in this course. Your code should be written entirely by yourself. We will be able to detect if you copied code from other students. However, discussions among students are highly encouraged. A rule of thumb is that you should fully understand what you are doing and submit the code you wrote only by yourself.
Use of AI-assisted tools
Given the emerging technologies surrounding AI-assisted tools, we believe it is not appropriate to outright ban their use for any coding tasks. However, since we want students to learn and understand the topics in this course, it is inappropriate for students to simply let AI tools complete tasks on their behalf. In particular, you are expected to understand the code you submit. As such, whenever you use any AI-assisted tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot), we require you to explain how you have used such tools to get your solutions. Explain as much detail as possible, including prompts and queries you have used for those tools, how you have used any output in your solution. Demonstrate that you are using the tools to solve the assignments, and that you are not using the tools to solve the assignments for you. We might ask you questions about your solution if we have concerns about your use of AI-tools, and your assignment mark would be adjusted based on your understanding of the code that you submitted.
Use of other resources
You may not copy code from previous offers of this or a similar course, solutions by other students, or other resources. Likewise, you are not allowed to use any other external libraries than we provided in our base code. Be careful that the use of AI-assisted tools might copy code from other resources without you knowing it. If you are in doubt, please consult the instructor first before you write your code. Failure to do so might result in zero point for the corresponding assignment.
Late submissions
Each student is allotted a total of SIX late-day integer points. Use your late-day points to accommodate unexpected situations, such as your internet connection being down right before the deadline or forgetting or missing the deadline. No questions will be asked. Late-day points work as follows;
  • You can use late-day points by claiming how many points you wish to use in your README for each assignment.
  • You can extend an assignment deadline by one day using one integer point. You can do extend the deadline more than one day, if needed, by using multiple points. Clearly note how many points you want to use (i.e., we do not automatically use the maximum possible points).
  • If you have no remaining late-day points, late submissions will incur 10% penalty per day for up to three days.
  • NO submissions will be accepted more than THREE days after the deadline. This is true whether or not the student has or used late-day points remaining. You will automatically get zero for that assignment.
Assignments whose marking requires any major corrective action from the course staff to address student's submission mistakes (e.g., missing files, files with incorrect names and/or permissions, etc.) will be treated as THREE days late (i.e., 30% penalty). You may reduce or cancel this penalty by using late-day points, if you wish. If you notice such a mistake after the deadline, you may use your late-day point to recover your mistake. Read the instructions carefully to avoid losing any points!
Extensions, Solutions, and Absences
Do not ask us to extend deadlines. We do not extend deadlines under any circumstances based on students' requests. The instructor may, however, decide to extend the deadlines at his or her discretion when it makes sense for other circumstances. Follow the formal procedure if the university's policy covers your situation such as sickness or any accommodation, but keep in mind that you can also use late-day points if you have any remaining. We will not provide source code solutions for assignments, and you may not publish your code at any point during and even after the course. Violators may face serious consequences including zero points for the entire course, even after the term. If you have planned absences, start work early to avoid missing deadlines. Again, we will not extend or move deadlines to accommodate such planned absences.

Interested in knowing more about graphics?

Further Opportunities
If you are a student enrolled in this course, we will be happy to discuss options for you to participate in research projects on various aspects of computer graphics. There are multiple official options available in the school (URF, USRA, MURA, URA, and honours thesis), or just unofficially working on something interesting (with me, with someone else, or by your own). Do check out our CGL web page to find out more information regarding cool research coming out of our school! Last but not least, any students who took this course are highly encouraged to continue taking CS488 in later terms!

Assignments

Schedule

Other University-related Information