Chapter10.A Quick 3D-Math Primer

Chapter 10. A Quick 3D-Math Primer

Depending on the skill level you had when you started reading this book, the math for the Blockers game might have been overly simplistic or way out of the realm of things you've done thus far. Because the formulas in the latter two games of this book get even more in-depth, now is a good time to take a step back and look at some basic math concepts that are used for manipulating the objects in a 3D world.

This chapter is in no way designed to be the ultimate 3D math graphics chapter, but it should get you started by giving you the information you need to do the calculations that are used throughout this book. I highly recommend that you spend some time on this chapter: rather than simply read everything here, you should try to do the things as well. As the old saying goes, you'd rather be a doer than a reader. Well, maybe that isn't an old saying, but it should be!

If you really want to write rich 3D games, you need to master the mathematics of the 3D worlds. If this area interests you, I highly recommend finding out more information about the specifics of the mathematics that this chapter covers.

In this chapter, you'll learn

• Basic math concepts

• Simple vector concepts

• Basic matrix math