koobas.hobune.stream
Math and game development
Hello,I know that other people asked the same question but I want to ask it myself What kind of math do I need to be a Indie game developer?
You can only program what you know. A game engine does certain basic things for you, but you have to learn if you want to do more. What math depends on what you want to do.
Read all the Intro to Unity stuff. And read about standard features in any gameEngine. Lookout and MoveTowards, etc... will handle most of the angles and trig for you. The physics system will run the algebra and trig to make objects bounce around nicely.
If you want to hand-run movement and timing, you need to review your high school algebra. Want to draw arcs or tweak the built-in physics, you need more physics math and calculus. Want fancy aiming -- need different trig and Quaternion math. Want to roll specialized random numbers, need more statistics-type knowledge.
It's kind of like asking what color crayons you need to draw a picture.
"It's kind of like asking what color crayons you need to draw a picture." -> Great analogy!
You definitely need to know enough linear algebra that you know what cross and dot products are.
If you have time learn about the basic linear transforms (scale, rotation, translation). You need to know enough to explain global and local space to your little sister. You should be able to describe the space hierarchy of eg the sun -> the earth -> the moon in terms of transforms.
You need to know a bit about quaternions and how they are used. You do not need to know the inner workings of them though, just enough that you understand how awesome it is to be able to "slerp".
I'd say those are the basics just to survive in a game engine. You can never know too much math though! :)
Trust me I am no math expert, yet I managed to code everything I wanted, unity does not ask for advanced math knowledge. Go ahead with C# as scripting language and dive in!
thanks,can you be more precise on what games you are developing?(I am trying to make a 3D game and I don't know what kind of games you are developing) I know that I am nitpicking but just want to be certain.
Ok,did you publish your game cause I whole shan't to see it.pls
from my 4 year experience with Unity, about 95% of the time you only need to know what the outcome of math methods will be, not how they work.
Example1: If you want to know if an enemy is infront of the player, you would transform its world position into the players local space and check the z-axis for a positive value. You don't need to know matrix calculation, only how to use Transform.InverseTransformPoint(Vector3 worldPoint)
Example2: You want the player to face the enemy. You don't need to know how to calculate Quaternions, only how to use Transform.LookAt();
Read what the methods give you and learn when to use them.
2) is a good example: LookAt solves it very easily. But then people want a gradual turning motion so have to learn about Quaternions (or EulerAngles ... .)
1) you may have forgotten when you learned that. I'd say that the ability to visualize local-space, and to know that every coordinate comes with an "in which space" -- that ability counts as math. It seems to stump people, and takes a while to learn.
It will be good to know vector calculations, basic algebria, basic geometry and basic trigonometry, Unity handles other things.
