Principles of 3D with DirectX and Theory

Frustum Culling (with DirectX3D)

Octree (with DirectX3D)

Collision Detection

     o Line with Plane

     o Shortest distance from a point to a plane

     o Sphere with OBB

Tangents Binormals Normals

Collision Reaction

Misc 3D Principles and Maths

Matrices & Vectors

Rotation

Splines and Curves

Rotating objects to face the camera (i.e. Billboarding)

Simple AI and PathFinding Code and Principles

In the world of 3D...or even 2D...you have to have a little AI...even if its just the rand() function.  We will cover some of the simple theories and possibly some of the advanced one's.  Implementing working C/C++ code as we go.

A* PathFinder - Pacman has never had it so hard!

Rasterization Principles for 3D

Well you might think that DirectX is the solutions to all your problems....who needs to know how to draw a triangle...plot pixels etc....why should I bother?  Well if you really want to get into the games industry, or are in the games industry, you will realise that DirectX isn't the only tool in the box, and isn't the best tool in the box!  When you start writing software for PS2 or XBOX or even GameBoy Advanced, you'll soon see that implementing your own algorithms gives you a greater flexibilty and a power you didn't think possible.  Of course its not easy stuff...especially when you have to implement pixel by pixel triangle lighting and things like Gouraud shaded triangles.

Draw that line 'Pixel by Pixel'

Wireframe triangle, that was easy

Solid Triangle Fill

Gouraud Shaded Triangle (it looks so pretty)

Simple Textured Triangle

Perspective and 3D

Camera View

Z Buffer

Clipping (Near Z Plane)

.. more soon.