3d software engine

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Original post by blue-ice2002 but do u think learning software programming is a direct method of making 3d games,or not a must.???what do u think?

it can be me, but i have an idea you dont understand what the softeware does. the software is a layer between the hardware and what you wanna do. before the hardware does anything, i have to ask it. and that asking happends with softeware. of course there is software emulation. that means you let software do the trick if the hardware cant do it. but most games just use hardware.

if you dont know how to program, how can you ever ask the hardware what you want then? software is all the programming code, and direct 3d is nothing more then a high quality API to communicate directly to the hardware.

Learning how to write a software 3D engine will give you a much deeper understanding of all the underlying princliples used in 3d graphics. This knowledge will help you when using an API such as direct3D as you will have a greater understanding about what is happening 'under the hood'.

I have started reading this book also after already learning the basics of Direct3D and now find that it has given me a deeper understanding

It's certainly possible to use the high-level rendering API without ever really learning the theory behind it. But it's going to be very confusing at times and you'll loose time on things that would be very simple if you really understood the background. So, software rendering isn't the future, but it makes you a better graphics programmer for high-level renderers. Also, graphics cards become more and more programmable every generation, so all the deeper math becomes exposed, looking much more like software rendering, on a specialized processor.

So, my general advise is to always, with whatever you do, learn the low-level theory first. It's the building blocks for all the rest! You can build a house without knowing all the types of brick, but you'll build a house that survives a storm when you do. It doesn't have to take long. One or two months should suffice to grasp the important theory behind 3D rendering. Don't loose time trying to optimize your software renderer, just get things like projection, clipping, rasterization and texturing working.

you can be a good programming in Java, python or c# without ever having done any ASM or c, but learning the lower level languages is definatly worth the effort if you want to improve. If your goal is to oneday get into the industry then a software rendering demo you've written yourself would be a great folio piece to show, but if your interested in it more as a hobby then its probably not worth the effort. But like always you get out what you put in.