So it’s been a number of years since I had to do any type of math… and I was just curious, is there anyone else out there that just “hacks” it together? Seems like half the time, I have no idea wtf I’m doing in the math department these days. and I just throw stuff together until it actually works ><
I don’t think for Gameplay programming at least it’s necessary to understand the why and how of the mathematics side of things.
All you need to know is the what mathematical functions do.
Want to see ‘how aligned’ two vectors are? Dot product. Vector perpendicular to two other vectors? Cross product. Doesn’t matter how and why those functions do what they do as long as you understand the inputs/outputs.
For graphics or engine programming you will need a much deeper understanding though.
Vector math, trigonometry, and probability are all essential for rudimentary gameplay programming. An understanding of discrete mathematics and / or kinematics also goes a long way.
That’s not what I was getting at. Yes you need to know what those things do, but you don’t need to have an academic knowledge of the workings of them.
e.g.
You don’t need to make sense of everything here :
As long as you understand this :
By User:Acdx - Self-made, based on Image:Right_hand_cross_product.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, File:Right hand rule cross product.svg - Wikimedia Commons
Don’t be put off by pages of seemingly unintelligible maths, the basic concepts alone will get you a long way.
IMHO, there are 2 wrong approaches to this:
- I need to know all this irrelevant to my goal academic complex math which will slow me down and distract from actual goals
- I don’t need to know this math stuff to make games and can hack around without understanding of math I’m constantly using to achieve my goal.
Just be smart and learn parts of math that are required for gamedev tasks. Actually, @ambershee mentioned all relevant stuff you’re probably going to use.
Search “Vector math/Trigonometry/etc for game development” and you will find relevant pieces of information. Sometimes you might find that provided “gamedev” piece is not enough, but it’s easy to dig more details on particular math aspect when you know limits and won’t dig to deep.
As an example, I found this series of gamedev trigonometry articles here there and used this as a map - which trig. concepts I might want to use in game, then I found their implementations in FMath/BP math and nowadays if I want more details I just look up this trig. concept in more advanced books and expand it on my own using only “useful” math.
For game play, get an understanding of vector math.
Just more stuff that I should probably pick up, once I’m done with all this learning stuff for my (real) job, heh.
Job
MCSE: Enterprise desktop and apps
MCSE: Server Infrastructure
Network+ (how do I not actually have this by now?)
Security+
CCT-RSTech (see above)
CCENT
CCNA - Routing and switching
Ok… after that stuff, then I suppose I’ll sit down and study for this “sci-fi simulator” game thing-a-ma-bob I’ve got going on…
Game
Mathematics for Game Developers (not entirely essential tbh, I can hack it enough and my google-fu is decent)
General Chemistry Principles, Patterns, and Applications (high school level chemistry book… yea)
Psychology of Space Exploration
General and Chemical Soil Analysis
Atmospheric Thermodynamics
Atmospheric Data Analysis
ugg.