Theory & Practice - Issue 00 - Introduction by (17 May 2000) | Return to The Archives

Introduction

Hi there. Welcome to the first issue of Theory and Practice. You might be wondering what this new column is doing here taking up bandwidth. Let me take a moment or two and explain. This column is for -- well -- game developers who find game programming interesting. If you're like me and are often thinking of ways to implement something new, create something cool, or just figure out how do make something work, this column is for you.
For the past several years I've been interested in 3D programming. When I began writing 3D engines, I came up with most of my own ideas, or took something that I heard and tried to figure out how I would implement it. These days there are many good sources of information out there: tutorials, technical resources, source code. I thought I'd contribute by creating my own. Perhaps someone out there will benefit from this column; perhaps they will read it and come up with new ideas. It should be an interesting journey...

Overview

The column will basically consist of weekly (hopefully) discussions. I say discussions, because there will probably be no rigid format for the issues. For example, I won't always write tutorials. Sometimes I might talk about something I've recently thought of. Sometimes I might write an essay on a particular issue. And naturally, the issues will deal with the theory and practice of creating computer games.
I am interested in math and computers in general. It has been my experience that math comes in very handy when you're creating various algorithms, and computers come in very handy to model mathematical ideas. Therefore, my approach is usually to present the problem, the solution, the theory behind it, and sometimes the code. Often a discussion might have a section which explains different mathematical ideas. Don't be alarmed if you don't know some of the math presented in a discussion -- usually you can understand a subject without it. But I found that mathematics helps you to develop solutions in a very general way (analytically). After all, that's the theory part. And finding a way to realize the theory in practice is half the fun!

Article Series:

> - Theory & Practice - Issue 00 - Introduction
> - Theory & Practice - Issue 01 - Collision Detection
> - Theory & Practice - Issue 02 - Collision Detection - Part 2
> - Theory & Practice - Issue 03 - Curved Surfaces
> - Theory & Practice - Issue 04 - Curved Surfaces, Part II
> - Theory & Practice - Issue 05 - Landscapes
> - Theory & Practice - Issue 06 - Event Handling Model

Copyright 1999-2008 (C) FLIPCODE.COM and/or the original content author(s). All rights reserved.
Please read our Terms, Conditions, and Privacy information.