game development pro
It’s been some time since the last 3D engine update, but I’m still sticking with it. Currently I am working on getting a physics engine implemented. The video you see above is the first glimpse of this custom physics engine. Obviously it’s ultra basic right now, but it’s a start. The algorithm is based on a verlet integrator, and the code is
Game Physics Pearls has been a book on my wishlist for a while, and I’ve finally got the chance to finish reading it and putting up this review. The text is edited by Gino van den Bergen and Dirk Gregorius, and each chapter is written by a unique author. I found that a lot of ground was covered while still keeping the book somewhat
Today I will be reviewing Physics for Game Programmers by Grant Palmer, another stepping stone on my quest to build a custom physics engine. Overall I enjoyed reading the book, and I feel like I learned a lot of general things but not enough to base a physics implementation on. Please read on for more details. What I found most interesting about this
Shadow Algorithms Data Miner by Andrew Woo was an interesting find for me. The oddly titled book was released over 2 years ago, yet there wasn’t a single review on Amazon (where I purchased the e-book). However, I read the table of contents and it seemed pretty extensive in it’s coverage of computer graphic shadow techniques. So I decided to take a chance
While I implemented frustum culling a little while ago, I never actually coded a proper bounding volume. For the bounding test I was using a sphere, but I just set the radius to some hard-coded value. This was fine when I just had a bunch of similar sized cubes on screen, however it broke apart once I started getting varied models imported. This
After struggling for a bit with the shadow mapping implementation, I finally have something presentable. I followed a tutorial from Microsoft and thought I understood what was happening. However, it required a lot of changes in the rendering code and it took a little while to get things working. Even once it was somewhat functional, I still had some issues with what they
I can say I had a pretty good time with Physics for Game Developers: Science, math, and code for realistic effects by David M Bourg & Bryan Bywalec. It is a very approachable text, and makes a somewhat complex topic more manageable with concrete examples. It’s definitely a book about 3D physics, but many of the samples are done in 2D for clarity.
Creating the Art of the Game by Matthew Omernick was a quick and easy read. However, I wish I had noticed the age of the book (and also the age of the reviews on Amazon). This book is seriously dated, and it has not aged well. Although some of the topics are still applicable, and lot of the stuff he talks about is
In this review, I will discuss my experience with Game Physics Engine Development: How to Build a Robust Commercial-Grade Physics Engine for your Game by Ian Millington. This is actually the first book I’ve ever read solely on game physics and I think I made the right choice here. Although I have developed several physics engines previously, they were only in 2D and the
There is no question, Digital Modeling by William Vaughan is a book every 3D modeler (or aspiring modeler) should read. It really captures the essence of what makes a good model, and doesn’t get bogged down with technical details of specific modeling packages. In this review, I will briefly go over why I think everyone with any interest in 3D art should pick up
