Before I started using OpenGL I knew how to program but never had done any 3D stuff. OpenGL is so friendly that I have been able to do many cool things in 3D without any REAL understanding of the 3D maths involved so I purchased a 3D book, but it seems that it requires basic 3D knowledge from the start because it explains little theory and just writes ALOTA maths. I believe that I can do the maths eventually but I was wondering if anyone here could tell me of any sites with basic 3D theory tutorials, such as the equations needed to convert 3D coordinates to 2D screen coordinates and examples of how to implement this into code (matrix transformations for rotation and translation etc) Thanks for the help guys ps-How does D3D compare to OpenGL with respect to 3D knowledge required, much harder?

Try this...

Think about what you want to draw and then figure out the math.

For example, if you have a camera that you want to rotate through the edges of a sphere about two axis you will need to convert spherical cooridinates into cartesian cooridinates to use with gluLookAt(). Just by a basic trig book full of formulas...that should do the trick!


Thanks!

John William Blair

Thanks JWBlair.
i just thought I ''d say, incase someone else is looking for a good 3D tutorial site I found one at
http://www.3dica.org/3dica.htm
See ya