Home | C++ | Graphics | Input | Sound | Video & Music | Industry | Resources | About | Search

Games Programming - Index

This area of the site contains many notes on getting started and developing a game. Content is aimed at the beginner to intermediate games programmer using DirectX and C++.

Games Programming - Latest

26th November - I have rearranged the graphics area and created a new page: Direct3D FAQ. I have been adding more Direct3D questions and answers so a page of its own was needed. Over the next few months you will see a lot of new additions to this area.

9th October  - Microsoft have released a new DirectX SDK, this time known as October 2004. As they said at GDCE they are going to release more frequent updates to the SDK from now on. The end user runtime has not changed, it is still DirectX 9.0c. Follow the links below to download:

• Release Notes
• SDK
• Extras
• Symbols

The main changes / fixes are:

• Improved help files
• PIX (Performance Analyser for DirectX) improved.
• D3DX bug fixes
• A number of new samples
• DirectShow tools and samples moved out of the main SDK into the Extras download

15th September - added the notes I made at the European games development conference held earlier this month in London: GDCE 2004

Games Programming Page Index

• Beginners - If you are a complete beginner to games programming read this page first
• Graphics - this section contains notes that cover the initial setting up of a Direct3D window all the way to rendering 3D graphics and some advanced techniques.
• Getting started
• DirectX Q&A
• DirectX 9.0c
• Windows 32 API programming: WinMain, WndProc, Windows 32 Advanced, GDI, Sound, Resources
• 3D rendering
• Primitives: FVF, Buffers, Rendering Steps
• Z buffer
• Matrices
• Lighting, Materials
• 3D Models, Simple, Animated
• Device States, Render States, Sampler States, Texture States
• Graphic techniques
• Collisions
• Skybox
• Camera
• Terrain
• Picking
• Solving invisible geometry
• Direct3D FAQ
• Input - a few notes on using DirectInput to handle key and mouse input.
• Sound - notes on setting up and using DirectSound.
• Video & Music - this section concentrates on streaming audio (mp3) and video (avi) using DirectShow: simple playback, main window video.
• C++ - general C++ questions and answers. This section also includes some information about using Visual Studio
• macros
• debugger
• patterns
• Techniques - a mixed bag of games programming techniques
• Resources - game programming links, books and other resources.
• Industry - some comments about working in the games industry and how to prepare for an interview
• Glossary - some terms used on this site.

Navigating this site

To navigate you can use the buttons to the left. Hovering your mouse over them causes a child menu to appear, you can drill down until you find the topic you are looking for. There is also a site map that provides a pop up window for easy navigation.

The site map opens in a new window and allows you to quickly move around the site. If you switch it to outline mode it is quite easy to find the correct page. Additionally it provides a search facility that allows you to search on a page name.

The site includes pop up notes (uses javascript 1.2). These are really helpful as they allow me to explain a term with a mouse hover. You can spot them as they are in a dark red coloured ink. Here is an example: SDK (hover your mouse over it).

Last modified: Friday, November 26, 2004

© Keith Ditchburn 2004