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Geek Culture / Anyone have advice on math courses to take?

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BearCDP
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Posted: 20th Oct 2009 02:07
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Hey there everyone,
I'm planning out my schedule for the next couple of years at college. Currently, I'm a music composition major with a minor in computer science, but I have some room for electives. I'm really getting interested in game audio implementation--not only do I want to compose music but defining how a sound behaves in realtime once it's in the game (using a tool like FMOD or UnrealEd) is fascinating for me.

However, I'd also like to put my computer programming skills to use, so I'd like to take a math course that could help toward understanding 3d positional audio and digital signal processing. I've got room for 2 or 3 more coursed, and so far I've taken through Calculus II (got a 5 on the AP test). So, what is the next step toward learning what's needed for game audio programming?

I picked up a flyer from Neversoft at the Audio Engineering Society in NYC a couple of weeks ago and they said they were looking for somebody with strong skills in vectors and trig. But, what does this translate to roughly in a uni course? What I see available to take is Calc 3, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, and a few others that start getting into the more abstract realm of mathematics.



For a tl;dr version: Anybody done game audio programming and know what college math course(s) helped you the most in doing it?
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Jeku
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Posted: 20th Oct 2009 03:52
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For vectors and trig I think the best thing is Linear Algebra. Almost all the math questions in a game programming job will be based on that (from my experience).


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Peter H
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Posted: 20th Oct 2009 13:27
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Yes, Linear Algebra was my favourite and most useful math class.

Calc 3 would be more useful for... well it's not really related much to anything you will do programming.

One man, one lawnmower, plenty of angry groundhogs.
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Preston C
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Posted: 20th Oct 2009 16:18
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nthing Linear Algebra. Very, very handy.

Some parts in Calc 3 have its merits regarding collision algorithms (or understanding what goes on behind them), but it won't kill you if you avoid it entirely.

"Isn't that amazing?" - Professor Jimenez, my Calc III professor, after doing anything.

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Peter H
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Posted: 20th Oct 2009 16:55
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My calc III professor would try to draw 4D cubes on our 2D marker board.

It was fun to watch him try. Poor sucker trying to squeeze two extra dimensions onto that board

One man, one lawnmower, plenty of angry groundhogs.
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BearCDP
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Posted: 20th Oct 2009 19:18
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Linear Algebra it is! Thank you very much Jeku, Peter, and Preston. I couldn't get a straight answer from anybody at school--my roommate's a math major and whenever I ask him for advice he just goes on and on about theory of computation and logic and combinatorics

How on earth do you draw a 3d cube???
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demons breath
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Posted: 20th Oct 2009 19:44
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a 3d cube's not hard to draw - just draw it like you'd see a wireframe of it - drawing in 4D sounds like something to behold though.

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-Bush
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BearCDP
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Posted: 20th Oct 2009 19:48
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Good catch, that should've read 4d. I'll leave it unedited for the amusement of others.
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Preston C
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Posted: 20th Oct 2009 19:54
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If I may make one more suggestion, Discrete Math is a good course to take if you can get one tailored more towards computer science majors.

In it (or, at least in mine) you can become familiar with several basic and useful data structures, algorithms, and how to evaluate the time complexity of a function, which you can use to determine how efficient its running time is. Useful if you like to try and squeeze as much performance out of your programs as you can.

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BearCDP
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Posted: 21st Oct 2009 05:41
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THAT sounds like something really good to know--I've doodled around in MaxMSP thinking up cool effects for sounds that change with varying parameters, but none of it's any good if the algorithm is a CPU hog.
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Darth Vader
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Posted: 21st Oct 2009 10:17
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I'm not that knowledgeable yet about such things, but I've heard that discrete mathematics is also a plus for game programming related jobs.
Is that true?

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BiggAdd
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Posted: 21st Oct 2009 10:45
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Discrete Mathematics is usually the primary focus if you take Computer Science at university.

Calculus is used more in Engineering.

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David R
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Posted: 21st Oct 2009 16:23 Edited at: 21st Oct 2009 16:23
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Sets, power sets and collections are incredibly useful also (particularly being able to understand the notation because it's literally everywhere). Might come under discrete maths

Another vote for linear algebra too

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Phaelax
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Posted: 22nd Oct 2009 06:09
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Quote: "Discrete Mathematics is usually the primary focus if you take Computer Science at university."


You'd think so, but mine barely did anything beyond college algebra for a CS degree. It was lame.

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BearCDP
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Posted: 24th Oct 2009 01:39
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I'm hoping to take both linear and discrete then, never hurts to know more math.

Quick question to anyone: Did any of your universities make you pay more if you took more than 18 credits in a semester? Credit planning's a pain, amirite?
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Jeku
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Posted: 24th Oct 2009 08:31
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Quote: "Quick question to anyone: Did any of your universities make you pay more if you took more than 18 credits in a semester?"


I paid for every course individually, so more courses cost more money


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gamerboots
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Posted: 24th Oct 2009 08:40
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a definate one is algebra. it will help you a lot. you might want to consider geomitry to.

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Phaelax
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Posted: 24th Oct 2009 18:25
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Most colleges consider anything under 12 to be a part time student and thus pay per credit hour usually. Then 12-19 would be considered a full time student and likely a flat rate. Anything more they would charge per credit hour. I've taken 21 hours before, very busy when all 5 classes fell on the same day.

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