Game Programming Meets Parallel Computing: Teaching Parallel Computing Concepts to Game Programmers

With the rapid advancement of the gaming industry and the demand to create high-performance games, game programmers must be well-versed in concurrent programming and parallel computing concepts. This paper presents a set of project-based learning activities for teaching parallel computing concepts to game programmers. We propose four project-based activities: (1) asynchronous image loader, (2) multi-threaded ray tracer, (3) interactive loading screen, and (4) interactive 3D model viewer. Our projects require computer graphics and game programming concepts, differentiating our projects from other parallel computing course assignments. Such projects may be of interest to undergraduate students who wish to pursue game programming in the future. Similarly, the projects may be taught to game programmers who have yet to learn about parallel computing. A pilot course delivery was conducted at De La Salle University, where 39 students have enrolled. Students have generally achieved high scores ( \(>80\%\) ), implying the effectiveness of the learning content in developing the projects.