Any students wanting to apply to do an OGRE project should firstly read the Google application instructions in full. If you haven't reviewed it already, you can also look at our Ideas List for ideas of projects we might be interested in - however do please note that these are suggestions only; we're very open to new ideas in addition to this list. So if you've thought of a project idea that we haven't, by all means propose it!
In addition to the general Google documentation, I've put together a few specific notes to bear in mind:
Notes on New Project Ideas
If you do propose something that's not on our ideas list, do bear in mind that we are likely to be most favourable towards ideas which are core to OGRE - ie features that are directly aligned with OGRE's core purpose: real-time 3D rendering. Ancilliary projects like external tools, bindings with external libraries etc will still be considered but the tighter the focus, the better.
Notes on Applications
We do not have a fixed application structure, but remember that you're trying to 'sell' your project proposal to us. Really you need 3 things for a successful project:
1) Understanding of and enthusiasm for the project in question
2) The requisite technical ability - this means good C++ skills and preferably some level of exposure to OGRE already
3) A plan which is practical and realistic for delivering results in the time you have
It's important that your application covers all these bases to convince us. I strongly encourage you to use the 'Link to Further Information' field in the application to give more details about your experience, and you should certainly include code samples from previous work (to cover point 2).
Notes on Communication
Summer of Code is designed to expose students to open source development, and a huge part of that is community interaction. If you thought that when your project is accepted, you would just go away for 3 months and work on your own, think again
You must expect to communicate regularly with both your mentor and the larger OGRE community during development - our Forums are our primary focus of community interaction and you should expect to spend a fair amount of time there, getting involved with the community, asking questions, giving status updates about your project, accepting feedback and participating in general discussion. This is core to the open source model as is as much a part of the Summer of Code as the lines of code you will write. The student application period ends Monday 7th April 5pm PDT. We look forward to seeing your applications
