Re: 3d graphics

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Francesco Orsenigo, Xarvh Project wrote:
> Where can i find some doc about basic 3d graphics programming?
I guess that depends on how much relevent experience you already have.

Assuming you are comfortable with programming in general, I recommend
the "OpenGL Programming Guide" - the so-called "Red Book" (because it has
a dark red cover). You can get it from Amazon for about $40.

> (Is my own impression or lgdc is quite dead? Where Linux games programmers 
> are, if they exist?)
It's not dead - but I think Linux has matured to the extent where
programming games for Linux isn't very different from programming
games for any other operating system.   Hence, if you have a question
about (say) 3D programming in OpenGL, there is no need to ask that
on a Linux-only mailing list...OpenGL is the same no matter whether
you are programming for Linux, Windoze, BSD or MacOS.

Hence, if you have an OpenGL question you can do better by asking it
on a non-OS-specific OpenGL mailing list such as OPENGL-GAMEDEV.
General graphics algorithms (things like collision detection) are better
asked on the gdalgorithms list...etc, etc.

There ARE questions we need to ask that are Linux specific - but those
tend not to be games-specific - if you have a compiler problem, ask it
on the GCC list - you'll get a better answer because there are more
people there who know about compilers.  So, again, there are better
places to ask these questions.

There are hardly any questions that a Linux games programmer needs to
ask that are specific to Linux *and* specific to Games.

That doesn't mean that this list is dead.  When someone asks an
interesting & relevent question, it gets answered...but it's simply
not often the best place to ask...so the traffic is low.

It's still a valuable resource IMHO.

Linux games programmers still exist - games are being produced at
a prodigious rate (go and look at the dozen or so games added to
www.happypenguin.com every month) - life is good!
---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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