| This book is an introduction to programming interactive 3D computer graphics using DirectX 9.0, with an emphasis on game development. It teaches you the fundamentals of Direct3D, after which you will be able to go on to learn and apply more advanced techniques. Assumingly, since you have this book in your hands, you have a rough idea of what DirectX is about. From a developer’s perspective, DirectX is a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) for developing multimedia applications on the Windows platform. In this book we are concerned with a particular DirectX subset, namely Direct3D. As the name implies, Direct3D is the API used for developing 3D applications.
This book is divided into four main parts. Part I explains the mathematical tools that will be used throughout this book. Part II covers elementary 3D techniques, such as lighting, texturing, alpha blending, and stenciling. Part III is largely about using Direct3D to implement a variety of interesting techniques and applications, such as picking, terrain rendering, particle systems, a flexible virtual camera, and loading and rendering 3D models (XFiles). The theme of Part IV is vertex and pixel shaders, including the effects framework and the new (to DirectX 9.0) High-Level Shading Language. The present and future of 3D game programming is the use of shaders, and by dedicating an entire part of the book to shaders, we have an up-to-date and relevant book on modern graphics programming.
For the beginner, this book is best read front to back. The chapters have been organized so that the difficulty increases progressively with each chapter. In this way, there are no sudden jumps in complexity, leaving the reader lost. In general, for a particular chapter we will use the techniques and concepts previously developed. Therefore, it is important that you have mastered the material of a chapter before continuing. Experienced readers can pick the chapters of interest.
Finally, you may wonder what kinds of games you can develop after reading this book. The answer to that question is best obtained by skimming through this book and seeing the types of applications that are developed. From that you should be able to visualize the types of games that can be developed based on the techniques taught in this book and some of your own ingenuity. |
