Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
One final caveat is that since this is a book on math for video games,
we will have a real-time bias. This is not to say that the topic cannot be
used if you are interested in learning how to write a raytracer; only that
our expertise and focus is in real-time graphics.
This chapter proceeds roughly in order from ivory tower theory to down-
and-dirty code snippets.
•
Section 10.1
gives a very high-level (and high-brow) theoretical ap-
proach to graphics, culminating in the rendering equation.
•
We then lower our brows somewhat to focus attention on matters of
more direct practical application, while still maintaining our platform
independence and attempt to be relevant ten years from now.
◦
Section 10.2
discusses some basic mathematics related to viewing
in 3D.
◦
Section 10.3
introduces some important coordinate spaces and
transformations.
◦
Section 10.4
looks at how to represent the surfaces of the geom-
etry in our scene using a polygon mesh.
◦
Section 10.5
shows how to control material properties (such as
the “color” of the object) using texture maps.
•
The next sections are about lighting.
◦
Section 10.6
defines the ubiquitous Blinn-Phong lighting model.
◦
Section 10.7
discusses some common methods for representing
light sources.
•
With a little nudge further away from timeless theory, the next sec-
tions discuss two issues of particular contemporary interest.
◦
Section 10.8
is about skeletal animation.
◦
Section 10.9
tells how bump mapping works.
•
The last third of this chapter is the most in danger of becoming irrel-
evant in coming years, because it is the most immediately practical.
◦
Section 10.10
gives an overview of a simple real-time graphics
pipeline, and then descends that pipeline and talks about some
mathematical issues along the way.
◦
Section 10.11
concludes the chapter squarely in the “rapidly ag-
ing facts” territory with several HLSL examples demonstrating
some of the techniques covered earlier.
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