3d Graphic Principles

[MattB]

I know that this area is aimed at programming basics, but if anyone can spare two minutes just to point me in the right direction on a few 3d graphic principles I would be very grateful.

I'm desperately trying to get a grip of the all the terminology and ideas behind 3d graphics but I’m forever going around in circles. For example reading the current forum posting on rendering trees, one idea is to use "impostors". So I search the web read the papers which then talk about "render-to-texture", so I search the web read the papers, I hope you can see my dilemma.

I've bought numerous books most of which are steeped so heavily on maths that i cannot follow the examples.

I'm not looking for mathamatical prove on shadowing techniques just an understand so i could answer questions about the different shadowing methods and the advantages of each method.

Should i begin looking into DirectX/gl documentation?

I need a strucutured learning path so i understand all the underlying principles before looking at applications of those principles like "impostors". At the moment i'm just "googling" which is getting me no where.

If anyone can make website suggestions, books or examples of how they learnt i would be really grateful.

Matt

[DWORD]

I'm desperately trying to get a grip of the all the terminology and ideas behind 3d graphics but I’m forever going around in circles. For example reading the current forum posting on rendering trees, one idea is to use "impostors". So I search the web read the papers which then talk about "render-to-texture", so I search the web read the papers, I hope you can see my dilemma.

I don't know if you've worked with 3d programming before, but if you want to understand everything, you'll never get farther than googling and reading articles. You need to start simple, and then you can learn all the details as you go.

If you haven't already, I'd suggest you download the latest stable release of Ogre and look at the samples that come with it. It's easy to install if you follow the instructions. The samples will give you some idea of how to do simple things as putting objects on screen. The details of how the things are rendered etc. are hidden away from your program, and this makes it a lot easier to get started. Once you understand the basics, you can investigate how things are actually done 'behind the scenes'.

I've bought numerous books most of which are steeped so heavily on maths that i cannot follow the examples.

I'm not looking for mathamatical prove on shadowing techniques just an understand so i could answer questions about the different shadowing methods and the advantages of each method.

Again, you can take a look at the Shadows sample, it'll show you different shadowing techniques and how to use them in your own projects. It is not required that you know the maths for rendering shadows. I don't know shadow math, but I can use shadows in Ogre, and that's enough (for me).

Should i begin looking into DirectX/gl documentation?

I wouldn't recommend looking into the DirectX or OpenGL documentation for learning 3d graphics. That was kind of the way I did it long ago--by trial and error--but learning linear algebra and stuff that way is not effective. Reading a lot of tutorials can help. Also if you use an engine like Ogre, you don't have to worry about the rendering API; you can focus on the content.

I need a strucutured learning path so i understand all the underlying principles before looking at applications of those principles like "impostors". At the moment i'm just "googling" which is getting me no where.

I can't give you a structured learning path, but I think you'll slowly understand the underlying principles if you start 'learning by doing'--and reading other people's code. I hope this helps a little, and that I haven't misunderstood the question

[monster]

If you want to learn the underlying technologies before delving into Ogre I can recommend NeHe's OpenGL tutorials.

http://nehe.gamedev.net/

From drawing your first polygon, right up to a Cg vertex shader.
By the time you've gone through all 48 lessons you should be pretty much up to speed!

Obviously it's OpenGL only but (IMHO) that API's nice and clean so it's kind of generically applicable.

[zander76]

Hey,

Check out www.gameinstitute.com. Its quite helpful and will walk you through everything you will need to know to get started. It does cost money but not much more then getting a book anyway. Check out there dx9 course and it will get you up to speed. They also have a game dev intro course that talks about the math and programming if you want to start with something a little easier. Check it out, it will help.

Ben