Beginning XNA 3.0 Game Programming: From Novice to Professional

CHAPTER 83D Game Programming Basics

In Chapter 2, we talked about 2D coordinate systems, including a special case of such systems: the screen coordinate system. When dealing with 3D coordinate systems, however, a lot more is involved with defining a 3D virtual object and transforming such an object into a 2D representation on the screen.

This chapter covers the basics of creating 3D games. First, you'll learn the fundamental concepts, and then you'll see how to apply them in a simple XNA project. This will prepare you for creating a complete 3D game in the next chapters.

Note XNA 3.0 currently does not support creating 3D games for Zunes.

3D Coordinate Systems and Projections

When dealing with three Cartesian dimensions, two types of coordinate ...