Suggestion for a simple graphics project for school

Question

I am in my 6th semester of CS engineering, and I need to submit a project. Could anyone suggest a simple project using OpenGL?

Answer 1

Not clear how complex you want your project to be, but some OpenGL projects I did when in school were a simple physics multiple-balls-bouncing-in-a-cube type thing, and a flight sim. The advantages to these types of projects is that they're relatively easy to get going, but you can add a great deal of wiz-bang to them if you have time.

Answer 2

I would suggest trying to implement any of the common, old-school, demo effects. Examples are here and here. If you find some demos available as movies at pouet you can find many many more.

Many of the older effects were implemented using either SetPixel()-type of framebuffer access, or even bitplanes on the Amiga. So replicating these using OpenGL is interesting, and results are often visually impressive.

Answer 3

It's unclear if "use OpenGL" is a requirement..do you need to use the raw library to show proficiency in OpenGL API usage, or is your assignment to "make a graphics demonstration project" with vague restrictions?

If you have the flexabity to jump one step higher in abstraction, and play with larger systems and libraries, like Ogre3D. These are much more powerful than raw OpenGL, but ultimately it's all boiled down to OpenGL calls. Ogre3D lets you make a complex system and let the framework handle the database and hardware layer, letting you concentrate more on your own game/effects/demos.

Answer 4

Physics simulator. this is more than just a graphics program, and could be extend in the future to be useful/game.

Answer 5

My suggestion would be a simple volume raycaster, they've got good looking results while being relatively easy to write.

There are plenty of volume datasets available online for you try out.