Creating a 3D Game Engine (Part 12)

 

Today I have gotten the camera system to a decent place, and made a simple free look demo. Most of the code had already been implemented, inside the vector and matrix classes, I just had to piece it together into a camera object. I also added a grid of cubes, to better see the camera working. Sadly these extra 200 cubes slowed down the performance by a good chunk. Previously I was getting around 3,500 FPS (with 3 cubes), now I’m only getting around 2,000 FPS (with around 220 cubes).

Granted the performance is bound to drop as more objects are added, but I think I can improve this a lot. At the moment, I am not doing any sort of culling, and when I get that working I feel like it would give a good boost. However, it’s probably not the highest thing on the list since I’m still getting reasonable frame-rates.

Coming up next I would like to fix the lighting system (currently it’s just a hacked on ambient/directional light) and I need to get a COLLADA model importer functioning. I’ll also have to pick up a 3D modelling program and make some better models to test with. I did try to learn Blender a bit, but I found it cumbersome. Gonna give 3DS Max a go again. Haven’t used it in many years, but I was at one point pretty comfortable with the app. I think my first model will be a soda can, as it’s something easy and recognizable. See ya next time!