I''m 16 years old and I''m having the same problem..

But I''ve got a nice math teacher And he explained a lot to me..

Also, if you have a question you can mostly find it on gamedev or just ask it in the forum..

Have you aldready checked the reference section on gamedev?

My math teacher is lazy and evil :o

[edited by - Pegu on April 1, 2002 7:43:28 AM]

I would agree that vectors are what you should focus on at this point. Particularly the dot product. There are two types of products with vectors, the dot (scalar) and cross (vector) products. The cross product is effectively only defined in 3D, but the dot product is defined in any number of dimensions. So you can redo your 2D game using vectors and dot products. What the dot product does for you is to basically convert things into right triangles. So it makes a lot of the trig and geometry much easier. It is very simple to calculate a dot product, but the properties of a dot product are far from obvious. There are also a lot of theorems on how to use a dot product to accomplish differant tasks. So calculating it is easy, recognizing when and how to use it is less so. Multiplying a vector by a matrix is just a means of specifying multiple dot products at once. So vectors and the dot product is the starting point.

I too have had similar problems. Last year, when I started to learn 3d graphics programming (8th grade -mid. school :p) I was only taking a course on algebra. I read up on geometry, taught myself the basics of trigonometry, and read quite a bit on physics, just from random books relating to math, graphics, programming, and also from some web sites such as these. Now in 9th grade, I have mainly been focusing on continuing my study of physics, and learning as much as possible about geometry, and trig. I want to read up more on algebra (alg.2, i guess) and read some online courses on pre-calc, probably during the summer...->my point - just read as much as you can

*Sigh* I know your situtation very well...

When I was doing little games with BlitzBasic (now in C++), I was always wondering about how to know where the spaceship should next appear to. Then in school we were taught about the pythagorean-theory (whatever it is in English ). Actually my dad had told me about that few months before that.

Then tan, sin and cos were introduced to us. I knew that they were the solution for my problem. I didn''t realize how to use them in games until I found an old Pixelate (E-Magazine about Allegro) and learnt much from that.

A week ago, I asked from my math teacher about vectors. He said that I would learn them after a year or so !

Now I''m going to self-learn this stuff

Yes, the sin and cos functions are very good

Vincoof from gamedev tought me how to use them and how to draw a torus with them.. That''s very cool :D

quote:

---

Original post by Pegu
Now I''m going to self-learn this stuff

---

That''s the best way to learn. It''s easy with the help of a teacher but you''ll understand it better if you learn it by yourself!