Month 12: Software Engineering and OpenGL

This month we learned software engineering, scripting, memory management and debugging techniques from Derek Hughes. We also learned OpenGL from the man who wrote the book, literally, Richard Wright. It was a tough month to get through because schedules get all screwed up around this time of the year. We had eight day straight weeks with four day breaks in between. We still learned a lot and the information was fresh in our heads when it came time for tests.
In Software Engineering we coded many useful applications and techniques. The Memory Manager let use organize and distribute our memory directly from the cache, it gave us a lot of practice using bytes and the memory window. We also made a File Archiver which allowed us to pack files into one large file saving on loading time. We used Lua to begin scripting and learned how to call functions at runtime.

In OpenGL we learned how to utilize the Rendering Interface to make 3D objects and write shaders to make cool materials. We rendered a lot every night from snowmen to solar systems to radars to ships and even molecules. We even learned how to use OpenGL to program for the iPhone. We had to make a project of our choosing throughout the month, I made Bad Mr. Frosty from Clayfighters with dissolving binary falling from the sky and an option for ludicrous speed.

I learned a whole bunch this month, the books were supper helpful and the teachers were very knowledgeable. Well it’s just going to get harder from here. Wish me luck guys, thanks.