Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine Beginners Guide

This is the A-Z of Panda3D for developers who have never used the engine before. Step-by-step, it takes you from first principles to ultimately creating a marketable game. You'll learn through first-hand experience and clear explanations. OverviewThe first and only guide to building a finished game using Panda3D Learn about tasks that can be used to handle changes over timeRespond to events like keyboard key presses, mouse clicks, and moreTake advantage of Panda3D's built-in shaders and filters to decorate objects with gloss, glow, and bump effects Follow a step-by-step, tutorial-focused process that matches the development process of the game with plenty of screenshots and thoroughly explained code for easy pick up What you will learn from this bookCreate and use tasksRespond to and handle eventsImplement texturing with built-in shaders Exercise collision detectionImplement a graphical user interfaceUtilize the Panda3D animation systemMaster the power and purpose of intervalsAdd audio and use the OpenAL library Understand garbage collection Package the game into an installer Use Spacescape and explosion texture generator to create certain art assets Approach This book is a step-by-step, tutorial-driven guide to game or application development using Panda3D that follows the process used in professional development. You will learn through first-hand experience how a Panda3D developer goes from literally nothing to a finished product. Along the way there are illustrations to explain difficult topics and to display the results of progress, as well as a complete archive of thoroughly explained code for every tutorial. Every single code file the reader saves is mirrored in the example code, finished and explained. In addition, every art and audio asset required by the tutorials is provided, so the user need not provide any assets of their own.Who this book is written for If you are an independent developer interested in

Dave Mathews

David Brian Mathews is a graduate in Electronic Visualizati on program from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He began rogramming in the fifth grade with QBASIC and has been designing games of various kinds, from table-top board games to computer games, since childhood. Prior to entering higher education, he served for two years in the United States Navy as a nuclear engineer before being honorably discharged for medical reasons, where he learned discipline, advanced mathematics, and nuclear theory, as well as teamwork and leadership skills. During his years in school, Mathews earned valuable experience with professional game development methods working both by himself and with teams. He is skilled at programming, 3D modeling and animati on, drawing, and 2D compositing.