David Brian Mathews [Mathews - Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine

Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine

Beginner's Guide

Create your own computer game with this 3D rendering and game development framework

David Brian Mathews

Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine

Beginner's Guide

Copyright 2011 Packt Publishing

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First published: February 2011

Production Reference: 1040211

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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Olton

Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK. ISBN 978-1-849512-72-5

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Cover Image by Charwak A ( charwak86@gmail.com )

Cover Work

Kruthika Bangera

About the Author

David Brian Mathews is a graduate in Electronic Visualization program from the

University of Illinois at Chicago. He began programming in the fifth grade with QBASIC and has been designing games of various kinds, from table-top board games to computer games, since childhood. Prior to entering higher education, he served for two years in the United States Navy as a nuclear engineer before being honorably discharged for medical reasons, where he learned discipline, advanced mathematics, and nuclear theory, as well as teamwork and leadership skills. During his years in school, Mathews earned valuable experience with professional game development methods working both by himself and with teams. He is skilled at programming, 3D modeling and animation, drawing, and 2D compositing.

I'd like to thank my friends and family, who have been immensely supportive of me throughout the writing of this book. In particular, I'd like to thank my mother, Carol Malley, and my friends Jeff Fuja and William Hebert for all their efforts and sacrifices on my behalf.

About the Reviewers

Paulo Barbeiro Ferreira is Brazilian, from So Paulo, and graduated in Graphic Design in 2004 at Belas Artes SP college. He is a postgraduate in Game Development at SENAC SP. Paulo started his professional career in 1999 as a web developer.

Today, besides the web and mobile application development work, Paulo is involved in experimental educational projects in technology and cyber culture at SESC SP, where he leads activities about creative code and art software, such as interactive environments, games, and entertainment media.

Joni Hariyanto graduated from the Engineering Faculty of Brawijaya University a few years ago. Now, he works as a freelance architect.

Actually, he's just a hobbyist in the computer science world. He has been programming since first grade junior high in languages including Pascal, Python, and C++.

Bored with the never changing architectural visualization teaching materials at uni, he wandered on the Internet searching for a way to get unlimited control over visualization, for the sake of design clarity and without sacrificing too much time in the "post-design" phase; that is, rendering the gazillion frames.

He stumbled upon Panda3D in 2005, a free 3D game engine, which makes perfect balance of power, flexibility, and handling (from programmer's point of view). Liked it, melted with it in no time, thanks to Python.

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Preface

Panda3D is a game engine, a framework for 3D rendering and game development for Python and C++ programs. It includes graphics, audio, I/O, collision detection, and other abilities relevant to the creation of 3D games. Also, Panda3D is Open Source and free for any purpose, including commercial ventures. This book will enable you to create finished, marketable computer games using Panda3D and other entirely open source tools, and then sell those games without paying a cent for licensing.

Panda3D 1.6 Game Engine Beginner's Guide follows a logical progression from a zero start through the game development process all the way to a finished, packaged installer. Packed with examples and detailed tutorials in every section, it teaches the reader through firsthand experience. These tutorials are followed by explanations that describe what happened in the tutorial and why.

You will start by setting up a workspace, and then move on to the basics of starting up Panda3D. From there, you will begin adding objects such as a level and a character to the world inside Panda3D. Then, the book will teach you to put the game's player in control by adding changes over time and responses to user input. Then, you will learn how to make it possible for objects in the world to interact with each other by using collision detection and beautify your game with Panda3D's built-in filters, shaders, and texturing. Finally, you will add an interface, audio, and package it all up for the customer.

This is a simple but detailed guide to using Panda3D, which will take you from a blank text file all the way through the Python programming process to a finished game with a single level, including such topics as handling tasks over time, event handling and response, collision set up and detection, audio, and more.