blog post: graduation

src/content/blog/2023-07-19_graduation.md

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+---
+title: "Graduation"
+description: "It's official!"
+pubDate: "Aug 16 2023"
+heroImage: "/post_images/graduation.jpg"
+---
+
+Hi all, sorry for the huge delay in updates, hopefully you can cut me a just little slack... __as I
+finally graduated!__ I took an admittedly long break after classes ended in June and I am so happy
+to be able to say that I have officially completed my bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I was
+just going over some of my projects this afternoon as I continue to refine my CV and it's really
+incredible how far I've come. Like many of life's great moments I couldn't have done any of this without
+support, and I want to thank my partner Valerie. From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate all that
+you've done to help me on this journey.
+
+My final projects for Computer Graphics Shaders as well as Intro to Databases went exceptionally
+well. For my shaders class I chose to create a realistic motion blur based on documentation in Nvidia's
+[GPU Gems 3](https://developer.nvidia.com/gpugems/gpugems3/part-iv-image-effects/chapter-27-motion-blur-post-processing-effect).
+I was rather excited about this project and I'd like to go through a few details for anyone who might
+be interested, otherwise feel free to skip ahead.
+
+I used a two pass process with OpenGL and GLSL in which I first simply rendered an object to a texture. Then to create a
+per-fragment blur effect I sample the depth buffer in the fragment shader to find each pixel's current
+position and world position.
+
+    // Sample depth buffer
+    float dbAtPixel = texture(uDepthBuf, vec3(st, 1.));
+
+    // Find view position
+    vec4 viewAtPixel = vec4(s * 2 - 1, (1 - t) * 2 - 1, dbAtPixel, 1);
+
+    // Convert to world coords, -1 to 1
+    vec4 worldPos = viewAtPixel / viewAtPixel.w;
+
+Next, I multiply the world position by a "blur position" (a stand-in for the
+direction of movement) to find a previous position. This allows me to calculate a velocity.
+
+    // No previous view in a static image, so we make one up with uBlurPos
+    vec4 prevPos = worldPos * uBlurPos;
+
+    // Put in range -1 to 1
+    prevPos = prevPos / prevPos.w;
+
+    // Find pixel velocity and scale it if desired
+    vec2 velocity = uVelScale *  vec2((currPos - prevPos)/2.);
+
+In the third and final stage I sample the color buffer in a loop, using the velocity to cacluate
+each fragments color. The number of times the color buffer is sampled directly impacts the quality
+of the effect, with higher sample rates resulting in a smoother and more realistic blur.
+
+    // Sample color buffer
+    vec4 color = texture(uColorBuf, st);
+
+    // Add velocity to st coords
+    st += velocity;
+
+    // Continue sampling color buffer until preferred number of samples is reached
+    for (int i = 1; i < uNumSamples; ++i, st += velocity) {
+      vec4 rgba = texture(uColorBuf, st);
+      color += rgba;
+    }
+
+    // Average samples to get blur color
+    color = color / uNumSamples;
+
+Of course, all of that was very boring if you don't know what it means. Let's see what it actually
+looks like!
+
+![2D bunny with orange and red stripes](/post_images/graduation/bunny_no_blur.jpg)
+![2D bunny with orange and red stripes and a low quality blur](/post_images/graduation/bunny_low_sample.jpg)
+![2D bunny with orange and red stripes and a high quality blur](/post_images/graduation/bunny_high_sample.jpg)
+
+With those two classes completed I began the spring term and my final Capstone Project, a three
+month long grind to produce a complete piece of professional quality software. I was grouped with
+two other students and selected for the "3D Escape Room Game" - a video game intended to mimic the
+experience of a real life escape room. This was the first full video game we had ever created so
+naturally I was incredibly excited, but quite nervous too! I'll have a lot more to say about this
+project in the near future, I was required to write a few blog-style assignments so I intend on
+posting those as a series too. Unfortunately I don't think I'm allowed to make our code public, but
+on the bright side you will be able to download and actually play the game!