Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus-Advanced 3D Graphics and Rasterization (Paperback)

Today is the greatest time in history to be in the game business. We now have the technology to create games that look real! Sony's Playstation II, XBOX, and Game Cube are cool! But, all this technology isn't easy or trivial to understand - it takes really hard work and lots of Red Bull. The difficulty level of game programming has definitely been cranked up these days in relation to the skill set needed to make games. Andre LaMothe's follow-up book to Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus is the one to read for the latest in 3D game programming. When readers are finished with Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus-Advanced 3D Graphics and Rasterization, they will be able to create a full 3D texture-mapped, lit video game for the PC with a software rasterizer they can write themselves. Moreover, they will understand the underlying principles of 3D graphics and be able to better understand and utilize 3D hardware today and in the future.

Table of Contents

Introduction.

I. INTRODUCTION TO 3D GAME PROGRAMMING.

1. Getting Started with 3D Game Programming.
2. 3D Game Programming with a Virtual Computer. 

II. 3D MATH AND TRANSFORMATION.

4. It's a Math, Math, Math World-Trigonometry, Vectors, Matrices, and Quaternions.
5. Building a Math Engine.
6. Introduction to 3D Graphics.
7. Rendering Wireframe Worlds in 3D.

III. BASIC 3D RENDERING.

8. Basic Lighting and Solid Modeling.
9. Interpolative Shading Techniques and Affine Texture Mapping.
10. Clipping in 3D++.
11. Depth Buffering and Visibility. 

IV. ADVANCED 3D RENDERING.

12. Advanced Texturing Techniques.
13. Spatial Partitioning and Visibility Algorithms.
14. Shadows, Lighting, and Secrets of the id.

V. ADVANCED ANIMATION, PHYSICS MODELING, AND OPTIMAZATION.

15. 3D Character Animation, Motion, and Collision Detection.
16. Optimization Technologies.

VI. CD-ROM APPENDIXES.

Appendix A. About The CD-ROM.
Appendix B. Installing DirectX and Using Visual C/C++.
Appendix C. Trigonometry and Vector Reference.
Appendix D. C++ Primer.
Appendix E. Game Programming Resources.
Appendix F. ASCII Tables.
Index.