1. Is this thing on?

2. Ten Interview Questions for Game Programmers Marc LeBlanc April 2004

3. #1: 2D Point-in-Triangle Given: struct Point { float x,y; }; Write: bool IsPointInTriangle(Point p, Point v1, Point v2, Point v3) P V1V1 V2V2 V3V3

4. #1: 2D Point-in-Triangle Hint: bool IsTriangleClockwise(Point v1, Point v2, Point v3) V1V1 V2V2 V3V3

5. #1: 2D Point-in-Triangle Hint: bool IsTriangleClockwise(Point v1, Point v2, Point v3) { return (v3 – v1)  (v2 – v1) > 0; } V1V1 V2V2 V3V3

6. #2: Sphere vs. Sphere Given: bool LineIntersectsSphere(Point3D p0, Point3D p1, Point3D C, float r); C P1P1 P0P0 R

7. #2: Sphere vs. Sphere Write: bool SphereCollidesWithSphere(Point3D a0, Point3D a1, float ar, Point3D b0, Point3D b1, float rb); B0B0 RbRb A0A0 RaRa B1B1 A1A1

8. Step 1: One Moving Sphere B0B0 RbRb A0A0 RaRa B1B1

9. B0B0 A0A0 R a + R b B1B1

10. Step 2: Two Moving Spheres B0B0 RbRb A0A0 RaRa B1B1 A1A1

11. B0B0 RbRb A0A0 RaRa B1B1

12. #3: Shuffle a Deck Given: int rand(); Write: void ShuffleDeckInPlace(Card* deck, int nCards); What are the requirements?

13. #3: Shuffle a Deck Given: int rand(); Write: void ShuffleDeckInPlace(Card* deck, int nCards) { for (int i = nCards; i > 0; i--) Swap(nCards[i-1],nCards[rand()%i]); }

14. #4: Select from Stream Given: class ElementStream { bool GetNextElement(Element* pElementOut); }; Write: Element SelectRandomElement(ElementStream* pStream); Each element is equally likely. Use constant space.

15. #4: Select from Stream Element SelectRandomElement(ElementStream* pStream) { Element winner = Element(); Element next; int nSeen = 0; while (pStream->GetNextElement(&next)) { nSeen++; if (rand() % nSeen == 0) winner = next; } return winner; }

16. #5: Memory Pool Write a “heap” that manages the memory for objects of fixed size. Cope with the console environment –No operating system –No heap Solution –Active and free lists –Sentinels

17. #6: The Cows Come Home Given a tilemap with cows, barns & obstacles:

18. #6: The Cows Come Home Cows get teleported out to pasture. They come home to the nearest barn. They come home a lot. Sometimes barns & obstacles get created or destroyed, but not very often. Implement pathfinding for cows.

19. #6: The Cows Come Home Precompute a pathing database. Flood-fill each tile with: –Pointer to next tile on path, or –Scalar value for gradient descent

20. #5: Silver Spaceship Let M be a 4x4 matrix that describes the position and orientation of a spaceship. What is the fastest way to mutate M to move the spaceship 10 meters forward?

21. Notational Conventions In the spaceship’s frame of reference, z is forward. M is the body-to-world transform. M = ………0 ………0 fxfx fyfy fzfz 0 txtx tyty tztz 1

22. Solution M[row 3] += 10 * METER * M[row 2]; M = ………0 ………0 fxfx fyfy fzfz 0 txtx tyty tztz 1

23. #8: Pong AI How would you implement an AI to stand in place of a human player in a 2-player pong game? Do you understand the requirements? –Smart is easy. –Fun is hard. –Do you know the difference?

24. #9: 3D Click In a 3D scene…

25. #9: 3D Click What object did the user click on?

26. #9: 3D Click Givens: Transforms for view and camera For each object: –Body-space dimensions –World-to-body transform

27. Three Strategies 1.Transform objects to screen space bounding rects, test against mouse. Doesn’t deal with occlusion well. 2.Transform mouse to ray, test ray vs. boxes. Could make good use of culling database 3.Render an off-screen “paint-by-numbers” image and search. Old school, hard to use hardware.

28. #10: Extra Credit Write Spherical Linear Interpolate for Quaternions. Quaternion Slerp(Quaternion q1, Quaternion q2, float t); You should know it. You probably won’t need to on an interview.

29. Fin