I will admit right away that I am not much of a coder, but I am a gamer. A gamer looking to make his way into the industry and one thing that is absolutely necessary to doing well in the gaming world is having a working knowledge of shaders. Why? Simple. BECAUSE SHADERS ARE EVERYWHERE IN GAMES! You couldn't squash a goomba now a days without using at least one shader running. But why is this so, why have shaders become so prevalent within games that they have become indispensable? This is because shaders have given developers the power to manipulate every aspect of the rendering pipeline allowing them to create effects of great realism and impact.
The class I am currently enrolled in is called Intermediate Computer Graphics and it is an amazing course, The class introduces students to the world of shaders. This wonderful class is taught by Andrew "Shaderman" Hogue PhD. This guru of Gaussian, this sultan of shadows, this master of mesh is responsible for teaching students about the inner workings of shaders and their many, many applications. His classes are very fast paced and jam packed with information but his good nature and upbeat attitude keep it at least a little bearable, though it would be nice to be able to go through them at a more comfortable speed. But then again that's what the office hours are for right? These classes are accompanied by tutorials taught by Daniel Buckstein who is also an amazing teacher capable conveying informations in a hilarious and enjoyable manner though he seems to have a strange fixation on cheeseburgers.
All in all the course is a fast paced, helter-skelter, runaway train ride of shaders and code lead by a mad doctor and a cheesburger obsessed assistant. I would totally recommend this course if you are interested in learning the inner workings of shaders, though be warned as you will only get out of this course what you put into it and taking this course may result in you becoming just ans mad as they are. You have been warned.
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