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

Creating an Installer


Once the game is ready to go, we just need to pack it up and get it ready to ship to the customer. For this, we'll use a command-line utility called packpanda. This utility will compress the game and all of Panda3D into a convenient Windows installer that our customers can use to install the game on their own computers. The customer won't need to install Panda3D to run the game; they won't even need to know that the game runs on Panda3D.

For the packpanda utility to work correctly, we'll have to adjust our file structure a little bit. We'll need to move all the game components into a single folder (it can have subfolders). We'll call this folder SuicideJockeys (any name is fine, but that's the one we'll use). In that new folder, we'll need to create a file called main.py that launches the game. For packpanda to work, the launch file must be called main.py, and it must be located in the SuicideJockeys folder, not in any subfolders. We can also put three optional files...