OpenGL Game Development Resources
A variety of resources exist on the Web to help programmers develop
graphics programs in OpenGL and to develop computer games. One of the
best general resources is Marc Levoy's resources
page for has Stanford course CS248, the inspiration for this
course's project component. I will only include on this page resources
that I feel need to be highlighted or that don't appear on his page.
Opntag:
I have a list of resources on Opntag
that generally pertain to EECE 478. I keep track of these things
by "tagging" them with "478". To see my list of bookmarks for
EECE 478, visit http://opntag.net/user/leei/tag/478.
Basic Game Programming Resources:
Reserve Books (Main Library):
- Real-Time Rendering: A textbook describing the principles and
many techniques for rendering interactive graphics in real time. A
companion site, including chapter descriptions, errata, and links to
other resources is at:
- Graphics Gems I, II and III: These books are a collection of
short articles (with C/C++ source code) focused on solving particular
problems in the doing. The links below are to the online table of
contents:
- Game Programming Gems 1, 2 and 3: The books are similar to the GG
books, but more particular to the tips and tricks of game programming,
so not all graphics at all. The online tables of contents:
- AI Game
Programming Wisdom: Is a general source for information on how to
make your characters or other elements in your game (opponents etc.)
more intelligent seeming.
- Mathematics
for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics is a great, general
resource for some of the next steps in managing game physics, collision
detection etc.
- For GPU programming, I have also the first two copies of a new Gems series:
OpenGL Programming:
- OpenGL
manual pages
- The NeHe Productions
online OpenGL tutorials are simply fantastic. They walk you through the
specific formulae for both very simple things (e.g. just getting an
OpenGL program to compile on Windows or Linux) to much more advanced
techniques.
- A bunch of useful OpenGL Game Tutorials with sample code. Among other things, shows how to select objects, load 3DS models, create and use animation, how to manage octrees and BSP trees. Comes in both Windows and SDL flavours.
- A decent starting point for exploring online resources for
graphics programming is the Open Directory Projects's page on Graphics
Programming.
Computer Graphics Techniques
- The Graphics
Gems Repository is a website that contains Tables of Contents and
supporting material for the Graphics Gems series of books (the first
three are available on reserve).
- The Journal of Graphics Tools,
is an online journal that is a kind-of tips-and-tricks catalogue
intended as a follow on to the Graphics Gems series.
CVS
- Each team has a CVS directory on the main servers (e.g. Team 10 has a repository at ~elec478/cvsroot/team10).
- A simple introduction was prepared by Jim Blandy.
- A solid online manual for CVS is available at The GNU Organization
- A good tutorial on using CVS over SSH (for access from home for example).
- For CVS on WIndows try wincvs.org and their guide for using SSH and WinCVS.
- For SSH on WIndows, there are two tools, putty and openssh and a simple tutorial for using WinCVS with putty is Anders Nordby's.
- There is also a Brave GNU World guide that emphasizes openssh.
Useful Libraries
- One generally useful portable library for developing games is plib, which has modules for
sound, various devices, and other helpful stuff.
- Another one you might want to check out is the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL)
AI Programming
- AIWisdom is a companion
site to AI Game Programming Wisdom.
Game Design and Development
I will add more references to this list.