Home › Forums › Education, Training and Jobs › Trinity versus DIT
- This topic has 29 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 6 months ago by
Anonymous.
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September 1, 2008 at 9:54 pm #6905
Anonymous
InactiveHey people,
I’m back with another one of "those" questions again. Please don’t hurt me….
So anyway I have heard very good things from DIT(especially from here Wink) but I had a chat with somebody from Demonware a couple of weeks ago and he said that everybody got there by doing the computer science course in Trinity. Well isnt that were Demonware started??
Anyway here’s my dilemma: I’ve my C.A.O forms to fill out (actually does anybody know when?) and I would like to make an informed decision in pursing a (games) programming education. Now isnt Trinity one of the most famous colleges in the world? like Harvard and eh…others Cool.Would this help me get a job if I choose to go over seas? Also, while I was reading through the DIT course I liked the fact that you could go and choose a game programming stream. Is there the same system in Trinity?
And if anyone has any other course/college recommendations, feel free to share them.
So get your debating hats on and let it rip…8)
Thanks in advance to anyone that replies. -
September 2, 2008 at 3:58 am #42166
Anonymous
InactiveNow isnt Trinity one of the most famous colleges in the world? like Harvard and eh…others Cool.Would this help me get a job if I choose to go over seas? Also, while I was reading through the DIT course I liked the fact that you could go and choose a game programming stream.[/quote:b88d82dbf5]
I wouldnt say trinity is like havard (havard being mostly a law school). At the end of the day the college you go to makes little difference. Its what you can do and the demo’s you can do that makes the difference. I think you’ll find the majority of people on here who actually work for games companies didnt go to trinity. Omen, Kytokid, myself etc.
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September 2, 2008 at 8:39 am #42169
Aphra K
KeymasterA universities reputation will only get you so far, and is generally more important at postgraduate level when who you choose to supervise your work and where you do it is really important.
look at the course content, find out about the labs and facilities and talk to people who have done the courses. I suspect in many traditional computer science courses there is very little actual focus on games but sometimes the lecturers are very supportive and allow people to do relevant projects. You will only find that out from talking to grads.
Aphra.
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September 2, 2008 at 9:39 am #42170
Anonymous
InactiveI think the name Trinity has meaning in Ireland, and considering, chances are you won’t be working in games in Ireland, this isn’t a big thing. The Trinity Games course may garner a better reputation ( has there been grads yet? )
Do the course you think you’ll get the most out of. -
September 2, 2008 at 1:35 pm #42172
Anonymous
InactiveGo to Trinity*. You can look down your nose at all those bit part programmers from other universities, and help found the next generation companies like Havok and Demonware. Trinity FTW :)
Dave
(*I may be biased, snotty and arrogant, but…) -
September 2, 2008 at 3:11 pm #42174
Anonymous
InactiveGo to Trinity*. You can look down your nose at all those bit part programmers from other universities, and help found the next generation companies like Havok and Demonware. Trinity FTW :)
Dave
(*I may be biased, snotty and arrogant, but…)[/quote:9c73a70af6]Any also dont make ps3/360 game titles ;)
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September 2, 2008 at 6:31 pm #42176
Anonymous
InactiveSorry :)
I forgot the slew of other universities that outputted AAA game studios around Ireland :)
Dave
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September 2, 2008 at 8:34 pm #42181
Anonymous
InactiveHey everybody,
Thanks for the replies :D
Is there any postgrads on here that I can talk too?
Also when are the C.A.O applications out? and when do they have to be done??Cheers.
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September 2, 2008 at 9:00 pm #42182
Anonymous
Inactivei did one so you can PM me if you like.
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September 2, 2008 at 9:18 pm #42183
Anonymous
InactivePM sent 8)
Thank you Peter.
Anymore postgrads? so I can get the best of both worlds.
Cheers. -
September 2, 2008 at 9:28 pm #42184
Anonymous
InactiveAt the end of the day the college you go to makes little difference. Its what you can do and the demo’s you can do that makes the difference. I think you’ll find the majority of people on here who actually work for games companies didnt go to trinity. Omen, Kytokid, myself etc.[/quote:eb978dca5d]
Couldn’t agree more! College is what you make of it yourself, not where you go to. Heck, Bill Gates didn’t even finish college and look how far he went. Not that I’m advising anyone to do that, but it just goes to show..
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September 3, 2008 at 8:51 am #42186
Anonymous
InactiveAnymore postgrads? so I can get the best of both worlds.
Cheers.[/quote:83031a5a18]Aye, I went to DCU and then Abertay.
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September 3, 2008 at 10:22 am #42187
Anonymous
InactiveI am thinking to go to that university the next year. How was it?
Thanks
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September 3, 2008 at 10:25 am #42188
Anonymous
InactiveWhich uni?
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September 3, 2008 at 11:19 am #42190
Anonymous
InactiveGo to the one with the most hot women, when you start working for a games company you won’t be seeing any more of their kind.
Thats right, I said it.
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September 3, 2008 at 12:32 pm #42191
Anonymous
InactiveI would like to do for next course (09-10) in Abertay (Dundee, Scotland). And I was asking the guy who has done in there.
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September 3, 2008 at 11:05 pm #42196
Anonymous
InactiveBecause I teach there, but I’m also a graduate. We have worked very hard to make an interesting, challenging and relevant games stream and have several students currently doing work placement in a significant Irish middleware company. You can check out some student work here:
http://seriousgames.ie
http://www.comp.dit.ie/website07/news.php?id=64Also we have just invested 80K in a new lab, complete with HP workstations, XBOX 360’s Wii’s, PS3’s etc. The lab is being commissioned at the moment and we’ll make an official announcement shortly. Feel free to PM me and I can put you in touch with some graduates…
Bryan
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September 4, 2008 at 1:15 am #42198
Anonymous
InactiveAlso we have just invested 80K in a new lab, complete with HP workstations, XBOX 360’s Wii’s, PS3’s etc. The lab is being commissioned at the moment and we’ll make an official announcement shortly. Feel free to PM me and I can put you in touch with some graduates…
Bryan[/quote:6d5b2592dc]
Presumably, 360 is the only programmable console of those mentioned (ps3 can install yellow dog linux but you cant program RSX ), unless ye got ps3 devkit but AFAIK they are not for retail to anyone who isnt a registered sony developer.
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September 4, 2008 at 1:55 am #42199
Anonymous
InactiveSkooter500
When you say you have 360’s, Wii’s, and PS3’s, do you mean you have them in the lab for student’s to play, or that you have the actual development hardware?
For me, the choice of post-grad would be strongly influenced by the (programmable) hardware that is available to me.
And by programmable, I don’t really count homebrew, XNA, or hacked hardware, I mean full support forums, docs, updated libraries, etc. and direct access to the metal.
But I might be alone in this view.
Congratulations to DIT if they’ve managed this one. Very well done.
B.
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September 4, 2008 at 2:55 am #42200
Anonymous
InactiveWhen you say you have 360’s, Wii’s, and PS3’s, do you mean you have them in the lab for student’s to play, or that you have the actual development hardware?
[/quote:4eabcd427c]I’d say this is the case.
Doubt its development, you’d have to be a games studio to get access to full resources. I dont think any game development courses have actually managed to get a developer license from any of the three. I heard abertay have ps3 but just with yellow dog installed for cell stuff(but doesnt give you access to the metal), they have got ps2 (but who cares really.lol). The cost of getting kits runs at approx 15k each last time i checked, but maybe cheaper now.
As for XNA i would agree with Jediboy, its not real world development experience (no one uses it for games) but it does give you a quick way to demostrate game concepts etc. but xna and a 360 is better than no console experience
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September 4, 2008 at 10:09 am #42202
Anonymous
InactiveIts homebrew stuff. We are a college (a big one), but dont have infinite resources. We have students working on XNA games and also running Linux on the PS3’s. They are also for demoing stuff in class and getting students to play and evaluate games. We teach XNA in 3rd year and fourth year is C++, directX. We also teach middleware (last year was ODE, FMOD, various free networking middleware, this year we will probably throw havok into the mix because of the competition) and Java MIDP games programming.
Anyway IMO its as much about just providing stuff for students to play with, explore, be inspired and just see what they come up with themselves.
Bryan
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September 4, 2008 at 8:54 pm #42206
Anonymous
InactiveApologies.
I think I assumed from the thread title that this was about the graduate courses on offer.
I think Bryan is bang on the money, when he says undergrads should be about exposing the students to as much tech as possible.
Where as grad/post-grad should (in my opinion) be more of a specialisation, that’s where my comments regarding real hardware were aimed.
SCEA’s Mark Danks is crying out for colleges/uni’s to play embed Sony hardware into their courses, just FYI…
Brendan.
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September 4, 2008 at 10:04 pm #42207
Anonymous
InactiveHey Skooter,
The Pm’s aren’t going trough. So I sent you an email instead, hope thats ok.
Anymore people…? the more the merrier.
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September 4, 2008 at 10:27 pm #42208
Anonymous
InactiveNice to see the move to XNA in third year :D
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September 5, 2008 at 12:12 am #42210
Anonymous
InactiveAs far as development for the 360 goes, I think the need for students to get their hands on dev-kits is minimal at best IMHO. If you learn DirectX, XAudio and XInput on Windows then you’ll be in a pretty good position to code for the XBOX.
The only major thing you’d be missing out on is experience of the hardware itself and it’s characteristics. That can be bridged however by a little experience with XNA.
For instance, gpu vertex buffers are pretty much pointless on the 360 because of it’s shared memory architecture; you also have a fixed 16MB framebuffer to work with, which must be kept in mind with MSAA and HD resolutions. XNA can be good for finding out all that sort of stuff..
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September 5, 2008 at 9:01 am #42218
Anonymous
InactiveI would like to do for next course (09-10) in Abertay (Dundee, Scotland). And I was asking the guy who has done in there.[/quote:a2d84ea424]
Abertay was good, I’m sure I’ve posted in detail about it before, and its sure to have changed since I was there. -
October 17, 2008 at 9:27 pm #42644
Anonymous
InactiveHey,
Sorry to bring an old thread back up but I suppose its better than a new one…
I’m still undecided about which course to choose. I’m slightly leaning towards DIT because of the option to specialise into the game stream during the last year, I dont believe trinity have this sort of option.
but I’m unsure about the high amount of spaces available on the course. Why is this? Could some postgrads (or anybody who studies in large groups) give an insight as to what its like. I think I would prefer smaller groups.
Also is there any open days/ workshops etc.. where these such courses will be showcased?
Cheers.
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October 17, 2008 at 9:29 pm #42645
Anonymous
InactiveAlso why is there such a big point difference between the two courses?
Trinity: 355
DIT: 230 -
October 18, 2008 at 12:51 am #42646
Anonymous
Inactive—
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October 18, 2008 at 4:42 pm #42653
Anonymous
InactiveAlso why is there such a big point difference between the two courses?
Trinity: 355
DIT: 230[/quote:c820434d51]CAO points are 100% a function of supply and demand. If demand for a course goes up then the points go up… pretty much simple as that. Lately demand for CS courses has gone down, so pretty much across the board the CAO points for CS courses dropped. Now the demand is starting to rise again, and so you’ll see the points rise next year (they only rise the year after the demand rises, so there’s always a delay).
Never pick a course on the basis of points – this is generally no good indication of the quality, difficulty or employment opportunity. some courses have a consistenly high demand (e.g. medicine) and so points are nearly always high.
When choosing a course look at the course contents, opportunities for work placement / interaction with industry, quality of the student work (if published), and of course talk to students already on the courses. If you’re interested in research go a Uni with strong research track record.
Steve
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