What this book covers

Chapter 1, Applying Special Effects: Discover the principles behind some common special effects used in big budget titles, and add them to your own games.

Chapter 2, Building 2D and 3D Terrain: Learn some of the tricks behind creating landscapes in both two and three dimensions.

Chapter 3, Procedural Modeling: Explore what's involved in creating models in code, instead of using an external 3D modeling package.

Chapter 4, Creating Water and Sky: Add depth to your worlds with some virtual atmosphere.

Chapter 5, Non-Player Characters: Inhabit your virtual worlds with characters that can move and interact in intelligent and interesting ways.

Chapter 6, Playing with Animation: Have a peek into some of the ways that animation can be both produced and displayed.

Chapter 7, Creating Vehicles: Launch your players onto the roads or into the skies with the addition of vehicles.

Chapter 8, Receiving Player Input: Discover how your players can drag, drop, point, and type their way through your games.

Chapter 9, Networking: Expand your virtual world across to the real one by adding the ability to communicate.