CS 686: Programming SVGA Graphics Devices (Fall 2003)

Lecture: Monday-Wednesday 5:15pm-7:00pm (235 Harney Science Center)

Instructor: Allan Cruse
Email: cruse@usfca.edu
Phone: (415) 422-6562
Office: 212 Harney Science Center
Office Hours: (see my homepage)

"Graphics programming is among the more challenging things you can do
with a computer -- it requires a substantial degree of insight into how
the hardware and formats involved work..."
_{-- Steve Rimmer, "Super VGA Graphics Programming Secrets,"
Windcrest/McGraw-Hill (1993), p. 23.}

This course explores fundamental principles of raster graphics
programming from a hardware and systems software perspective,
and utilizes the advanced learning facilities of the Michael D. Kudlick
interactive computer classroom which affords convenient opportunities
for combining formal instruction with "hands-on" programming exercises.
Topics include:
- functional components of the standard SuperVGA graphics adapter
- relationship of video memory to screen resolution and color depth
- standard and non-standard display-modes for text and graphics
- basic computer algorithms for line-drawing and region-filling
- construction of wireframe models and principles of animation
- fundamentals of lighting, coloring, and perspective drawing
- user-interface issues in window systems and event-driven programs
- mathematics of ray-tracing used to create photorealistic images
- exercises in font, icon, and cursor designs and interactive controls
Familiarity with the C/C++ programming language and UNIX/Linux
operating system is assumed, plus acquaintance with the Intel
Pentium processor's registers, instruction-set, and assembly
language. Students also should have completed introductory
coursework in calculus, linear algebra, and data structures.
This course is open to USF Graduate Students (and to qualified
undergraduates with instructor permission)

Learning Outcomes:

You will become acquainted with the components of a standard PC display.
You will acquire experience using an assortment of video display modes.
You will be able to apply standard algorithms from the realm of graphics.
You will be able to evaluate suitability of graphics hardware for a task.
You will know how illusions of animation and photorealism are achieved.
You will gain experience in performing "reverse engineering" exercises.
You will know how graphics issues have influenced the computer industry.
You will lay a foundation for pursuing some additional career options.

Course Textbook:

The PC Graphics Handbook

Classroom Hardware:

Graphics Processor is the SIS 315 manufactured by Silicon Integrated Systems, Inc.

Resources

Industry document: Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA)
Video BIOS Extension: Core Functions Standard 3.0 vbe3.pdf (1998)
Industry document: VGA BIOS OEM Reference Guide (.pdf format)
Home page for the Linux SuperVGA Graphics Library project
A short history of video games: From 'pong' to 'pac-man' (by William Hunter)
Linux Journal article: Mouse Programming with libgpm by Pradeep Padala
Game Programmer article: Tweaked VGA Modes by Bob Pendleton

Alumni

Ted Bisson ('99)

Blizzard Entertainment

Danien Chee ('98)

Black Isle Studios

which is played on Microsoft's Xbox or on the Sony PlayStation. "Game development is definitely an exciting industry to be in and the myriad possibilites suit me well," Danien writes.

Asked to design a simulation of the Pac-Man arcade game as a USF undergraduate class project,
Edward Janne ('94) equipped his PC with a joystick -- which he taught himself to program. Later,
while pursuing his Master's degree, Edward did considerable advance work on a prototype for the
'PictureTalk' web-conferencing software, and upon finishing his advanced degree in 1995, he was
hired by Pixion, Inc. (headquartered in Pleasanton, California) to continue development work on
their cross-platform version of that award-winning product. His keen interest in computer graphics
eventually led Edward to enroll for studies in film animation at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.
"Right now I'm in Sydney," Edward writes, "helping develop a proprietary system for doing securities
analysis. It's really surreal -- I never thought I'd be working in the finance industry, but my boss studied
at Cal Arts and started out in traditional frame animation, so if you can imagine the company atmosphere,
it is by no means what I expected to find in a hedge fund!"

Boris Weissman ('93) demonstrated his creativity (and humor) in the final project he submitted for his
computer graphics class at USF: his assignment was to devise a way of showing what he had learned
about PC graphics programming, so Boris invented an animated cartoon-character, a perplexed college
student mulling over just such a vague task, who tries out one idea, then another, till he's managed to
demo every key course-topic! "I enthusiastically recommended Boris for graduate studies," Professor
Cruse recalls, "based on the charm and technical proficiency he'd demonstrated in that assignment."
Awarded his Ph.D. in computer science at U.C. Berkeley in 1998, Dr. Weissman worked at Sun Micro-
systems in Sunnyvale, California, and as Technical Lead at Loudcloud, Inc. (now renamed Opsware).
"I've spent the last two years at VMware," Boris writes. "We have a complete line of PC virtualization
products. This involves detailed emulation of all PC components -- including VGA/SVGA hardware."

Handouts

0203-686-01: Course syllabus (.PDF)
lesson1.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Device driver: vram.c supporting direct user access to graphics display memory
Example of a compressed graphics image-file: issxmas.pcx" (in '.pcx' file-format)
Demo program: pcxphoto.cpp for inclass exercise on grayscale image-conversion
Header-file: pcx.h (it's needed for the above demo program)
lesson2.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo programs: cgademo.cpp and egademo.cpp showing early IBM-PC graphics
Another demo: vgademo.cpp showing IBM graphics programming with 256-colors
lesson3.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: newzero.cpp (shows how to modify an image in character generator ram)
Demo program: backward.cpp (modifies an entire glyph-table in character ram)
Demo program: vm86blue.cpp showing that Linux is able to execute 16-bit code
Application: romfonts.cpp (a tool for finding the VGA's font definition tables)
Files: lrmi.h and lrmi.o (needed for compiling our 'romfonts.cpp' application)
lesson4.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: drawtext.cpp showing how graphics applications can use a ROM font bitmap
Demo program: brickpat.cpp illustrates tiling a screen-region with a bitmap pattern
lesson5.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: animate1.cpp demonstrates synchronization with the Vertical Retrace interval
lesson6.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: michener.cpp demonstrates a fast circle-fill using the Michener Algorithm
Application: rawtty.cpp (a tool for displaying the keyboard's scancode values)
lesson7.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: animate2.cpp demonstrates the use of 'signals' in a Linux game animation
lesson8.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: bresdemo.cpp demonstrates Bresenham's iterative line-drawing algorithm
Legacy demo: polyfill.cpp to be "adapted" for our Linux environment as Project 1
lesson9.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: sprites.cpp for use during in-class exercise on sprite animation
Demo program: animate3.cpp (Instructor's solution to the sprite-animation exercise)
lesson10.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Textfile barn.dat: (example data -- used for demonstrating a wire-frame model)
lesson11.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: seq5demo.cpp investigates behavior of SiS Extended Sequencer register 5
Demo program: sisinfo.cpp reports some current GPU display-parameters (SiS 315 only)
lesson12.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: model3d.cpp (an initial 'prototype' for a wireframe model 3D animation)
Some wireframe data-files: cube.dat, newbarn.dat, dodec.dat (for use with above demo)
lesson13.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: filldemo.cpp animates 3D model of a convex object (hidden lines revoved)
Wire-frame model data-sets for some convex objects: plato.dat, plane.dat, redbarn.dat
Two different model data-sets for a simple non-convex object: corner1.dat and corner2.dat
lesson14.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: trymouse.cpp (a short C++ text-mode example that uses the libgpm package)
Demo program: gpmslide.cpp (a short graphics-mode example that uses the libgpm package)
lesson15.ppt (Powerpoint slides) Discussion of OpenGL by alumnus Ted Bisson
lesson16.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: tweening.cpp (applies "linear interpolation" to do simple polygon-animations)
Demo program: bezier.cpp (deCasteljau's curve-drawing algorithm, implemented by Kai Long)
lesson17.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Device driver: engine2d.c supporting user access to the SiS graphics accelerator ports
Makefile for compiling driver-modules <-- revised on 09 JUL 2004
Demo program: sisaccel.cpp illustrating some capabilities of SiS 315 graphics accelerator
Header file: sisaccel.h (this header is needed for compiling the above demo program)
Demo program: mndlbrot.cpp (it displays one view of the famous Mandelbrot Set)
Test program: myviewer.cpp (for use with Question V during Midterm Exam II)
lesson18.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Test program: studydac.cpp for viewing effects of changing the DAC color-table registers
lesson19.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: globe.cpp (to show the application of some basic raytracing principles)
lesson20.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: hexagon.cpp (tests algorithm that decides if a point lies in a plane polygon)
lesson21.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: plato.cpp (uses the plato.dat data-set to draw a ray-traced dodecahedron)
Demo program: horizpan.cpp (shows some effects of reprogramming the CRTC Offset Register)
lesson22.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: mymode.cpp (alters some CRTC registers to achieve a nonstandard display-mode)
Demo program: nochain4.cpp implements a 640x480 variant of the 'Mode-X' graphics mode (SiS 315)
Demo program: flagvals.cpp a 'scientific visualization' example (for assembly language programmers)
Optimized assembly language: copypage.s uses a string-instruction to copy a video memory page
Demo program: quikcopy.cpp (how a C++ program calls an external assembly language function)
lesson23.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Device driver: dos.c for memory-mapping of regions in bottom megabyte of physical ram
Demo program: vesainfo.cpp (uses Linux 'vm86()' system-call to execute a SVGA BIOS function)
lesson24.ppt (Powerpoint slides)
Demo program: flood.cpp demonstrates the use of a recursive flood-fill algorithm
Demo program: template.cpp (This may serve as "boilerplate" for your in-class exercises)

Readings

Week 1: Chapter 1 in "PC Graphics Handbook" text
Week 2: Chapter 7 in "PC Graphics Handbook" text
Week 3: Chapter 13 in "PC Graphics Handbook" text
Week 4: Chapter 14 in "PC Graphics Handbook" text
Week 5: Chapter 10 in "PC Graphics Handbook" text
Week 6: No new assignment. Review for Midterm Exam.
Week 7: VESA Standards Document: vbe3.pdf (Video BIOS Extensions v3.0)
Week 8: Chapter 5 in "PC Graphics Handbook" text
Week 9: Online article: Mouse Programming with libgpm by Pradeep Padala
Week 10: Chapter 21 in "PC Graphics Handbook" text
Week 11: No new assignment. Review for Midterm Exam.
Week 12: Chapter 6 in "PC Graphics Handbook" text
Weeks 13-14: No new readings (Work on final project)
Week 15: No new readings (Review for Final Examination)

Announcements

Midterm Exam 1: Monday, October 6
Project 1: Due by Noon Thursday, 16 October 2003
Midterm Exam 2: Monday, November 10
Project 2: Due by Noon Wednesday, 10 December 2003
FINAL EXAMINATION: Monday, December 15 (6pm-8pm)

Last updated on 08/15/2005