Orientation: the spatial computing landscape

2:00 · Brief The landscape, honestly

"Spatial computing" is a marketing phrase and a real thing at the same time. The real thing: software whose interface is space — where position, scale, and your body are the input devices. This course approaches it as a studio production practice, not a survey.

The map we'll use all semester

• Virtual reality — the world is fully replaced. Headsets: Meta Quest, HTC Vive. This is where Projects 1 and 3 live.
• Augmented / mixed reality — the world is annotated or blended. Passthrough on Quest, and the smart-glasses wave currently eating the industry's attention.
• Virtual production — the world is photographed. LED volumes, camera tracking, nDisplay. Our Cass Building studio; the capstone venue for finals.
• Real-time archviz — the world is proposed. Twinmotion and Datasmith; Project 2.

One engine spans all four: Unreal. That's why this is an Unreal course. UE 5.8 is the final release of the UE5 generation, and it ships with something no engine has had before: an official way for AI coding agents to operate the editor (the Unreal MCP server). You are the first section of this course to have that.

What "AI in the toolchain" means here — and doesn't

You will use Claude Code and Codex CLI every week, in a structured lab block. You will also take a practical exam in Week 7 with the agents switched off, because a director who can't do the work can't direct. The deal, in one sentence each:

• Agents are allowed and expected on every production project.
• Every agent session is recorded in your AI development log.
• You must be able to explain everything in your build, live, at crit.

Read the full policy on the AI Lab tab tonight — it's part of this week's homework and it is graded material all semester.

2:45 · Guided lab Install party

Downloads are big; we start them early and layer the small installs while they run. Follow the order below — it's arranged so nothing blocks anything else.

1. Epic Games account + launcher

   Create or sign in at epicgames.com, install the Epic Games Launcher, and start the Unreal Engine 5.8 download first — it's the largest (plan for 40+ GB with debug symbols off). Uncheck target platforms you don't need; add Android if you plan to deploy to Quest from your own machine (we'll revisit in Week 10).

2. Twinmotion

   From the same launcher, install the current Twinmotion release. Education entitlement is free — activate it with your UT email.

3. Git + GitHub

   Install Git (macOS: xcode-select --install; Windows: Git for Windows). Create a GitHub account if you don't have one, and set up authentication with the GitHub CLI: gh auth login. Every project in this course lives in version control from the day it's created.

4. Claude Code

   Install Node.js LTS, then:

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

   Sign in with the account arrangement discussed in class. Verify with claude --version.

5. Codex CLI

   Install per the current OpenAI docs and sign in. We use two agents deliberately — comparing them is a graded exercise in Week 9.

6. Create your first project

   When the 5.8 download lands: Launcher → Unreal Engine → Launch → Games → Blank, Blueprint, no starter content, name it FMX430_Sandbox. Let it compile shaders — this takes a while on first run; that's normal.

7. Put the project under version control

   In a terminal, from the project folder:

   git init
   curl -o .gitignore https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gitignore/main/UnrealEngine.gitignore
   git add -A && git commit -m "Fresh UE 5.8 project"
   gh repo create fmx430-sandbox --private --source . --push

   The .gitignore matters: UE projects generate gigabytes of rebuildable files (Binaries, DerivedDataCache, Intermediate, Saved) that must never be committed.

4:00 · AI lab First contact

This week the agent only reads — no edits, no editor control yet (that's Week 2). The goal is to learn what it's like to interrogate a codebase you don't understand, which is exactly what a fresh UE project is.

5:15 · Crit / share Round the room

Everyone shows their running editor and their GitHub repo. One sentence each: the thing that surprised you about the agent — where it was sharper than expected, or where it confidently made something up. We'll keep a running list; it becomes course lore.

Homework — due before Week 2

Resources

• UE 5.8 release notes — skim "Megalights" and "Unreal MCP"; we hit both within a month.
• Claude Code documentation — install and getting-started pages.
• Epic Developer Community — Learning — bookmark it; the Week 7 exam draws on the official guided courses.