Games Programming Links

Games Programming Sites

• GameDev -  game development news, articles and a busy forum
• DevMaster - a worthy replacement for the now closed Flipcode
• Riemer’s - DirectX tutorials for C# with XNA and C++
• Triple Buffer - some great DirectX tutorials
• 32bits - has some good DirectX tutorials
• Nomad - games programming
• AIWisdom - site for games AI

Manufacturer Sites

• NVidia developer - aimed at the developer has lots of good articles and downloads for the graphics programmer.
• ATI developers  - as above but aimed at he ATI range of graphics cards

Reference Sites

• Programmers Heaven C++ FAQ - a brief FAQ for complete beginners to C++
• C++ FAQ - this is huge but extensive , the next link might be better for simple look up
• C++ FAQ Lite - this is a smaller FAQ but is quick to find simple answers in
• Vector FAQ - everything about vectors
• Matrix FAQ - everything about matrix

General Programming

• CodeProject - Source code and Tutorials
• Programmers Heaven - as above
• Bruce Eckel’s Free Books -  A few good C++ books are free to download from here

Maths

• Essential Math for Games Programmers - a very useful collection of slides on the maths needed for game creation
• 3D Maths - quite a nice site with information on vectors, matrices etc.
• MathWorld - comprehensive site answering all your maths problems
• Matrix FAQ - everything about matrices and quarternions

Free 3D Models and Editors

Obtaining free models for your games is not that easy, most sites seem to be just trying to sell nowadays. However I have found the following sites with free models:

• 3DCafe - a large collection of 3D objects under various categories
• Klickers - common 3D objects and some textures
• 3D Plants - lots of plant models
• FAWS - a number of common 3D objects

Editors / Tools:

• Pandasoft - .x file exporter for Maya and Max:
• Blender - popular free 3D package
• DeleD 3D Editor - another free 3D editor

Textures

Some places to get free textures and sprites

General Textures

• Image*After - free photo and texture collection
• Texture Bin 342- various textures
• Mayang - 3800 free textures to download
• Burning Well - free for any use images
• Blender textures - a free texture disk

2D Sprites and Tilesets

• Sprite Database - lots of sprites
• The Shyguy Kingdom - lots of sprites including classic game sprites and new custom ones
• Game Sprites - a collection of sprite sheets from old classic games
• Reiner’s tilesets - many high quality free sprites including 3D style sprites
• molotov.nu - mainly RPG tilesets
• game maker - resources originally for Game Maker but in transferable format. As well as sprites these resources include sounds etc.
• game sprite archives - lots of sprites from old game systems
• Fenrir’s Sprite Domain - Fenrir's Sprite Domain has many sprites from old games
• The Leaf Forest Zone - Sonic sprites
• RPG Underground - RPG sprites
• NES-SNES Sprites - includes 40,000 SNES sprites and 24,000 NES sprites
• Retrogamezone - sprites from old games
• Background HQ - 2D game backgrounds
• Blambot fonts - comic fonts and lettering

Applications

• ppFonter - a tool for converting true type fonts to bitmaps

If you know of any more I would appreciate the link.

Sound / Music

• FMOD  - free (for non-commercial use) cross platform audio API
• OpenAL - another free cross platform audio API
• FindSounds - masses of free sound effects
• Sound Effects Archive - some good sounds but be aware of all the pop up ads

Amazon keyword book searches

Search for DirectX related books at Amazon:
Search for Games Programming related books at Amazon:

Amazon Book Shops:

• amazon.co.uk
• amazon.com
• amazon.ca
• amazon.de

Other Sites

• GamerBeef - daily updated gaming news from all genres and consoles

© Keith Ditchburn 2004-2013