Dave Mathews [Dave Mathews] - Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine

, Installing Panda3D and Preparing a Workspace guides the reader through downloading and installing Panda3D and Notepad++ (an open source text editor) as well as acquiring assets provided with the book (from CD or website) and setting up the file structure for that content using Windows Explorer.

, Creating the Universe: Loading Terrain is the reader's first opportunity to get their hands dirty with some coding. It will take them from a blank file to a simple program that will load up a terrain model and introduce related basic concepts.

, Managing Tasks Over Time introduces the reader with tasks, the task manager, and controlling processes that need to occur over time or in an ongoing manner.

, Taking Control: Events and User Input focuses on creating user controls for the game. Keyboard, mouse click, and mouse movement response will be covered. Camera control will be integrated with handling mouse input.

, Handling Large Programs with Custom Classes ; as the game has grown larger, the time has come to show the reader how to break it apart into custom classes.

, The World in Action: Handling Collisions will focus on making the reader comfortable with collision detection and the different collision event handlers. Collisions are vital to a working game and their use is one of the hottest topics on the Panda3D forums.

, Making it Fancy: Lighting, Textures, Filters, and Shaders will explain textures and the built-in shaders available in Panda3D while allowing the reader to apply lighting, textures, filters, and shaders to the world and the characters in it.

, GUI Goodness: All About the Graphic User Interface takes the reader through the production of the game's GUI, including the HUD that displays during game play, the start menu, and other bits and pieces.

, Animating in Panda3D ; here the reader will replace the static models of hover cycles with actors and learn all about actor animation and joint manipulation.

, Creating Weaponry: Mouse Picking and Intervals focuses on using intervals to create weapons and their controls and describes how sequences and parallels can be used to create interval scripts.

, What's that Noise? Using Sound ; here with the game nearly complete, it's time to introduce some sound effects and background music to bring the game to life. This chapter also introduces editing the config.prc file to change the audio library Panda3D uses.

, Finishing Touches: Getting the Game Ready for the Customer is the final chapter of the guide and focuses on some important functions for Panda3D-based games, including saving and loading files, garbage collection, and packing the game into a standalone package ready for shipping.

, Creating a Sky Sphere with Spacescape teaches the reader how to use the freely available software Spacescape to create engaging backdrops for Panda3D applications.

, Using Egg-Texture-Cards and ExploTexGen ; here the reader learns how to create explosion animations with the freely available software ExploTexGen and learns to turn them into Panda3D assets with the Egg-Texture-Cards command-line utility.