Beginning 3D Game Programming

Understanding the Need for a 3D Game

It's important to realize that this game (actually, any game) does not “need” to be rendered as a fully 3D world. Considering that your monitor is most likely a rectangular flat plane, even your fancy 3D rendered images will be displayed on a 2D plane. It would be entirely possible to create a set of 2D sprites that cover every possible scenario that would need to be displayed in your world, but the art assets required for something like this would be enormous. Look at this experiment as an example.

Assuming you have the DirectX SDK Summer 2004 Update installed, load the DirectX Sample Browser (see Figure 2.2) and make sure the Managed option is the only item checked on the left. Click the Direct3D heading, ...