Book Image

Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine Beginner's Guide

Book Image

Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine Beginner's Guide

Overview of this book

Panda3D is a game engine, a framework for 3D rendering and game development for Python and C++ programs. It includes graphics, audio, I/O, collision detection, and other abilities relevant to the creation of 3D games. Also, Panda3D is Open Source and free for any purpose, including commercial ventures. This book will enable you to create finished, marketable computer games using Panda3D and other entirely open-source tools and then sell those games without paying a cent for licensing. Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine Beginner's Guide follows a logical progression from a zero start through the game development process all the way to a finished, packaged installer. Packed with examples and detailed tutorials in every section, it teaches the reader through first-hand experience. These tutorials are followed by explanations that describe what happened in the tutorial and why. You will start by setting up a workspace, and then move on to the basics of starting up Panda3D. From there, you will begin adding objects like a level and a character to the world inside Panda3D. Then the book will teach you to put the game's player in control by adding change over time and response to user input. Then you will learn how to make it possible for objects in the world to interact with each other by using collision detection and beautify your game with Panda3D's built-in filters, shaders, and texturing. Finally, you will add an interface, audio, and package it all up for the customer.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Time for action – reading data from a file


To get a look at file handling in action, we're going to replace the prepLoadGroup method of our Preloader class with a file loading operation.

  1. Open PreloaderClass_01.py. Scroll down to the prepLoadGroup method and copy this line with Ctrl+C:

        self.totalItems = len(self.models)
  2. Once you have that line copied, delete the entire method.

  3. Scroll back up to the __init__ method and find the line where we call self.prepLoadGroup. Highlight that line and hit Ctrl+V to paste the line we copied over it, replacing it.

  4. Right above that line we just pasted, add this code:

        file = open("models.txt", "r")
        self.models = file.readlines()
        file.close()
        for N in range(len(self.models)):
          self.models[N] = self.models[N].replace("\n", "")
        print(self.models)
  5. Resave the file as PreloaderClass_02.py. Open WorldClass_01.py, update its import to use PreloaderClass_02, and then save it as WorldClass_02.py. Run it and watch the command prompt for the print...