Book Image

OpenGL Game Development By Example

By : Stephen Madsen, Robert Madsen
Book Image

OpenGL Game Development By Example

By: Stephen Madsen, Robert Madsen

Overview of this book

OpenGL is one of the most popular rendering SDKs used to develop games. OpenGL has been used to create everything from 3D masterpieces running on desktop computers to 2D puzzles running on mobile devices. You will learn to apply both 2D and 3D technologies to bring your game idea to life. There is a lot more to making a game than just drawing pictures and that is where this book is unique! It provides a complete tutorial on designing and coding games from the setup of the development environment to final credits screen, through the creation of a 2D and 3D game. The book starts off by showing you how to set up a development environment using Visual Studio, and create a code framework for your game. It then walks you through creation of two games–a 2D platform game called Roboracer 2D and a 3D first-person space shooter game–using OpenGL to render both 2D and 3D graphics using a 2D coordinate system. You'll create sprite classes, render sprites and animation, and navigate and control the characters. You will also learn how to implement input, use audio, and code basic collision and physics systems. From setting up the development environment to creating the final credits screen, the book will take you through the complete journey of creating a game engine that you can extend to create your own games.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
OpenGL Game Development By Example
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Let there be light!


Until this point, we haven't worried about lighting. In fact, we just assumed that light would be there so that we could see our images. OpenGL has a light setting that lights everything equally. This setting is turned on, by default, until we tell OpenGL that we would like to handle the lighting.

Imagine what our scene would look like if there was no lighting. In fact, this is going to happen to you some day. You will have everything set up and ready to roll, you'll run the program, and you'll get a big, black, nothing! What's wrong? You forgot to turn on the lights! Just as shown in the following image:

Just like real life, if you don't have a source of light, you aren't going to see anything. OpenGL has many types of lights. One common light is ambient light. Ambient light appears to come from all directions at the same time, similarly to how sunlight fills up a room.

Lighting is very important in 3D games, and most games have multiple light sources to add realism to...