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

Understanding Intervals, Sequences, and Parallels


Intervals are very similar to tasks in that they are used to perform an action over time.

Note

They are also similar to animations because they can be controlled with simple start, loop, and stop methods just like animations.

Unlike tasks, Intervals automatically take into account the passage of time instead of executing on each frame, or waiting an amount of time to then execute in a single frame. They also use a finite duration of time, and stop automatically when that amount of time has passed.

To use Intervals, we need to import them with this import line:

from direct.interval.IntervalGlobal import *

Then, we can create Intervals by calling the constructor and giving it the necessary arguments:

myInterval = Constructor(arguments)

The actual constructor varies from Interval type to Interval type.

Exactly what an Interval does depend on the type of Interval in question. Here's a list of types of Intervals:

  • Lerp: A large variety of Lerp Intervals...