Yo. Math tutorials anyone?

No offense, but as an engineering student at a university, I assure you, everything you need to know can be found in your math book, and that math book does pertain to games, as it pertains to build bridges, as it pertains to landing on the moon.

The only thing different about games is that everything is virtual and inside of a computer.

As for the math tutorials, search the web for anything to do with calculus and get an early start. You'll be amazed once you start learning math what all it can do, and the relationships of how one relates to the other should get more clear as you continue on.

If someone knows of a good "Math as it pertains to making games" book, it'd be good here. I'd check your local library for it, and especially your college/university library if you can get access. I know my library has a book about OpenGL (as it's been how I've been learning the API myself), you never know what kind of gold you'll find flipping through everything.

Good Luck!

YEH GO CALCULUS... wait did i say that to loud...

Quote:

Original post by Adam Gleason YEH GO CALCULUS... wait did i say that to loud...

hehe

it's ok, we won't tell anyone...

Hi Ravan,

I agree with everything that ciroknight said but I wanted to suggest that you give us a better idea of what you know. Are you in highschool? How old? Working and want to learn more?

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So does anyone know where I can find a tutorial for game math? A real nice one that helps you understand why things work and not just throws equations at you and expects you to go "Oh! I get it"

There are some pretty bad books and tutorials on mathematics out there. They are not always the hard ones or the ugly ones. Some make you feel like you understand the material when, in truth, you have been short-changed. I've been doing mathematics for a while and I still come up against problems, proofs, derivations, etc. that have me stumped. You will too. One of the important lessons in mathematics, which is seldom taught, is that working through difficult problems is worthwhile. It helps you to understand the underlying concepts and pitfalls of a problem in much greater depth.

So don't think that you are expected to "get it" first time. Most people don't. It'll probably take a bit of time and effort. But it's worth it. Don't go for tutorials or books that "accessible" unless they have good content, often "accessible" translates into "makes the student feel good" rather than providing a good understanding. Also remember that when you get stuck on a problem, you can always ask for help [smile]


-Josh

Well said, everyone, :).

definitely well said - when I was a sophomore in high school I realized that there wouldn't be any kind of mathematics pertaining to games only, or 'game math' as it was called a post or two ago.

So I decided to jump on a Physics major bandwagon (which is very small) to help me make games. After taking Intro to Physics my senior year in high school, I could make a very basic physics 2d engine. Now i'm just a freshman in college. However, now I've decided I will be double majoring in Physics and Computer Science, which are fully supported by just about every freaking math class on campus at IVC, and UCSD.

Now, I doubt that nuclear physics or any kind of theoretical physics will help me much when making games, but they are just so damned interesting.

A few classes in Philosophy or Psychology might aid in the development of games as well. Which I've tacked on...

Hey Ravan, I just so happened to be going through my library today and I ran into two titles that might really help you out. They were in my university library, but they might be at your public library as well.

The first is "Computer Graphics through Key Mathematics" by Huw Jones. It's a pretty terse book, but it has a lot of good information, and is definitely a starting place for anyone in graphics. It even goes through explaining the matrix operations that make your graphic cards work, and different ways to make it more effecient.

The second is "3D Game Engine Design, A Practical Approach to Real-Time Computer Graphics". For a book about game engines, it really doesn't talk at all about how to plug a video game into the graphics engine it describes, but it's a great graphics engine tutorial. It's more in depth than the former book, and it actually comes with some code examples on CD. You can probably pick it up on Amazon.

Good Luck!