Your idea for a game seems nebulous. I don't know what you're making I don't know what you want you just talked a lot about descriptions of things that you could put into a game, but no semblance of structure, game play, or reason the player would want to play. I am totally at a loss. I'm not trying to shoot you down, I'm ...

The problem you are probably talking about is called gimble lock. The best alternative to matrices are using Quaternions, and then take the resulting quaternion, and transform it into a matrix for the purpose of making the transform matrix. The Quaternion is simply a way to represent a 3D angle, combining multiple quaternions to get a ...

Unless you are talking about a huge model like a terrain or something. It's probably easier to simply have multiple versions of a model for different levels of detail. While it's possible to split a model into multiple vertex buffers and use quadtrees to render it specially for each view. I think the end result would actually be ...

Not entirely sure what you are talking about. Game Animation usually deals with the positions of the vertexes of a model, usually rotates and translated with reference to a bone within the model. XNA doesn't NATIVELY do anything regarding animation, however the model classes natively support animation information regarding the bones of ...

You don't need to merge your models per se, you could just position each part model relative to each other according to some structure recipe (perhaps xml), and then after they've been placed in their relative locations at the origin, move them again by the structure's position. Code wise: Create two transformation matrices, ...

Indeed, it's a possibility that he saw your thread, and that this is a direct result. I wouldn't count on it, but it's a possibility. Don't you love the internet?

I'm sorry if anyone thought I was out to trivialize the identification of core game elements. My point was that a list of examples of game mechanics is ineffective, and impractical. Reading books about game design, is much more effective. Examples can be cited of mechanisms that work or have been used, but they don't really help you ...

Anyone working with maps further in the north or south will tell you that mapping longitude and latitude coordinates to a plane is not so simple. spherical projection mapping has always been a difficult and artifact riddled mess. The best solution is usually a cube map. But for the pupose of the thread what you could do at every ...

I'd say the first thing you'll want to do to get started is devise a way to manage screens or scenes and the components that make them up. The most common practice is to have the game manage a collection of Scenes, each managing a collection of components. The game updates and draws Scenes, the Scenes update and draw ...

Okay, lets dissect Super Mario Bros for Game Mechanisms Movement: 1) Player can move left or right to move himself across a platform 2) Player can jump 3) Player can jump from one platform to another platform 3) Player can jump over or on top of an obstacle 4) Player can duck to avoid being struck due to his stature (if ...