In Tank Battles, we will create a 3D version of a classic game, in which the player controls a stationary tank doing battle against a computer-controlled tank, by alternating turns while firing shots at each other.
The player can adjust the direction, elevation, and power applied to their shots to zero in on the settings necessary to hit the enemy target, but they need to do so before the enemy does the same to them.
We will build tank battles over four chapters, and in this initial chapter, we will look at:
Implementing an arc-ball camera
Generating terrain based on a height map image
Applying textures to our generated terrain geometry
Along the way, we will also take a look at the basics of HLSL (High Level Shader Language), the programming language used to instruct the graphics card on how to render our 3D world.