XNA 4 3D Game Development by Example: Beginner’s Guide

Overview

• Learn the structure of a 3D world and how to implement a variety of 3D techniques including terrain generation and 3D model rendering.
• Build three different types of 3D games step-by-step, including a first-person maze game, a battlefield tank game, and a 3D sidescrolling action game on the surface of Mars.
• Learn to utilize High Level Shader Language (HLSL) to add lighting and multi-texturing effects to your 3D scenes.

What you will learn from this book

• The core concepts of 3D graphics and how XNA describes the 3D world
• Build a 3D maze that the player can explore in search of the mysterious spinning cube
• Create 3D terrain based on a 2D height map image, adding texturing and lighting to the terrain’s surface
• Load, display and animate 3D models
• Build a button-based user interface overlay for your 3D game
• Create a billboard particle system to produce dynamic explosions
• Build a skybox to give your worlds full 3D backgrounds
• Detect collisions between 3D objects and have your game react accordingly