[game_edu] Game Programming via XNA + Ray Tracing

[Yusuf Pisan]

I have been teaching Game Programming for the last 5 years. As part of
the class, students build a game engine from scratch using C++ or Java
and OpenGL in 14 weeks. This year I have decided to require students
to use XNA, since a lot of students think they know C++ and realize it
too late that they do not have the debugging skills. This is a heavy
programming class where students implement their own version of binary
space partition trees and we cover some advanced graphics techniques
from Watt & Policarpo's books on real-time rendering.

Is there a textbook or any reference book you'd suggest on XNA aimed
at students who are already decent programmers, but do not necessarily
have any have C# experience? Are there any advanced graphics or
rendering textbooks that use C# that you would recommend?

On a related note, one of my colleagues, Kevin Suffern, is the author
of Ray Tracing book
<http://www.amazon.com/Ray-Tracing-Ground-Kevin-Suffern/dp/1568812728>
and teaches a class on how to build a ray tracer from the ground up
based on the book. I would like to make this class a bit more relevant
to computer games. Any suggestion on what techniques/methods should be
included in addition or rather than building a ray tracer?

I will summarize responses sent directly to me, but I suspect most
responses will be of interest to the group, so respond privately or
publicly as you see fit.

Cheers,

Yusuf

-- 
A/Professor Yusuf Pisan
Faculty of Information Technology
University of Technology, Sydney
http://staff.it.uts.edu.au/~ypisan/