game development pro
Ella, a study in realism made in Godot Engine. Features a cinematic camera and can be watched as a real time music video, a 3D graphics benchmark, or control the camera and fly around the environment. Uses global illumination in Godot to achieve realistic lighting, all in real time (no baked lightmaps). The character model and some assets were made with photogrammetry for
Decay, a real time interactive experience made in Godot Engine. Features a cinematic camera and can be watched as a real time music video, a 3D graphics benchmark, or control the camera and fly around the environment. Press Escape to view the options. Space to toggle cinematic camera (be sure to close the menu before flying around). WASD or Arrow keys move around.
The PBR Guide is a short book, so this review will be short. At less than 100 pages, it can be read in one sitting, but don’t let that fool you. There is critical knowledge inside these pages and the author does not waste time. The book is definitely focused on using the Substance suite of tools, and does mention Unreal Engine a
Ami Chopine has created a timeless book with 3D Art Essentials. While most other texts tie themselves to a particular software or version, here we see the essential building blocks of creating 3D art in any application. This is foundational knowledge, and the book is not dated at all, even though it was published almost 10 years ago. If you are an aspiring
This is the second book in the new game engine development series by acclaimed author and engine developer, Eric Lengyel. Though it is not strictly necessary to read in order, it is basically one book cut into sections, so you may want to get the first one, as well as the upcoming continuations of the series, to get the most out of it.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. This is a blockbuster tour through WebGL, with many performance optimizations and considerations not commonly found in other texts. Like typical gems collections, each chapter is written by a different author and focuses on one aspect of WebGL coding. There is a lot of coverage here, and I found the authors’ expertise to be second to
Of the top WebGL books I’ve read so far, I think I can say this one is the best. Not only is it well written, but it includes lots of detail about how rendering APIs work, 3d math, lighting concepts, and even some performance considerations at the end. It’s not a very long book, but it covers the fundamentals well. I also enjoyed
WebGL Programming Guide is the first WebGL book that I can fully recommend. The authors stick to straight WebGL code (no libraries like Three.js) and explain everything in full detail. Since they focus more on the API than anything else, most of the samples are simple things like colored triangles or spinning cubes, but that is fine to learn the basics. I liked
WebGL: Up and Running by Tony Parisi is a competent first introduction to 3d on the web, and the author does seem to know what he’s talking about. The book is not long, but manages to cover a variety of topics, even the source code for a complete game (simple as it may be). The chapters include: introduction to the WebGL API, setting
I’m a bit conflicted about this book. While there is a lot of good material here, I feel like there were many inconsistencies with the coding style and some errors or confusing explanations that deter from the gems inside. It’s also heavily geared toward complete beginners, making it somewhat of a numbing read for intermediate to advanced programmers. But I still found some
