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 – creating a menu system


Armed with that knowledge of the DirectGUI system, we're ready to start building a Menu class that we can use to create all of our game menus.

  1. Open a blank document in NotePad++ and save it as MenuClass_01.py.

  2. Our first step is to import some things we'll need to make this menu happen. Type in this code:

    from direct.gui.DirectGui import *
    from pandac.PandaModules import *
  3. Now, we need to define the class and give it an __init__ method. Add this code in next:

    class Menu:
      def __init__(self, menuGraphics, fonts, inputManager = None):
        self.menuGraphics = menuGraphics
        self.fonts = fonts
        self.inputManager = inputManager
        self.self = self
  4. Now, we're going to create a method that initializes the menu. This may seem silly, when we already have an __init__ method, but it will help keep the arguments we give the menu from getting even more confusing. The system will take a complicated list of arguments, but with two different methods we can separate...