ARTICLES

Welcome to the 'Other Sources' articles, whilst no matter how much I write, and whatever it is about there will always be things I haven't covered, or things that I cant explain. The following lists are from 3 of the best gaming/multimedia programming websites on the planet - ones which you should regularly visit if you have the time. These links go directly to the respective web page, bare in mind that I have no control over these sites thus these pages could well move/not exist in the future (hopefully this wont happen though).

GameDev.Net
• Quadtree's
    - An ever popular algorithm for reducing the calculations required to render a landscape/3D World.
• Shadows
    - A discussion of the techniques used to create shadows in 3D games
• Bezier Splines
    - An article on the popular formula for generating curved interpolation/lines
• Spectral Synthesis Noise for Generating Terrain
    - A method for generating random terrains
• Geometry Culling in 3D Engines
    - A discussion of the main techniques for reducing the amount of rendering in 3D worlds
• Simple Scripting Engines (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
    - A three part series illustrating how to write scripts using VB
• Simple Bounding Sphere Collision Detection
    - A simple, but fast method for checking if objects have collided
• The Art of code documentation
    - How to document your code and projects
• DirectXGraphics for Visual Basic
    - An article written by myself, Jack Hoxley, which can be downloaded as a complete, revised pdf document here (858kb). Contains all 3 parts in one 71 page document ready for printing.

Gamasutra.Com
• Steps towards more realistic path finding
    - How to adapt the common A* algorithm to look more realistic
• Advanced particle systems
    - A fast, flexible and extendable particle system
• Real Time LOD landscape rendering using ROAM
    - An excellent algorithm for producing stunning landscape rendering FAST
• Advanced collision detection
    - A discussion of how to use accurate collision detection with more complex worlds
• Real time LOD calculations using adaptive quadtrees
    - Another discussion and method of producing stunning landscapes in real-time games
• Occlusion Culling Techniques
    - A very clever way of reducing the geometry rendered in a 3D game
• Pathfinding
    - A discussion of the more popular path finding algorithms

FlipCode.Com
• Voxel Landscapes
    - An alternative way of rendering high speed, high detail landscapes.
• Advanced Lighting using lightmaps
    - How to use lightmaps to generate more realistic and complicated lighting in 3D worlds
• Fast Terrain rendering using geo-mipmaps
    - How to use mip-mapping to perform LOD style rendering for landscapes
• Decals explained
    - How to render bullet holes, explosion marks and other decals onto 3D primatives
• Sky Domes
    - How to generate sky domes for your games
• Introduction to Octrees
    - A technique similar to quadtrees, but for a more generic 3D world.
• Casting shadows from detailed objects
    - A discussion about casting shadows from high detail objects in 3D
• Voxel Polygons
    - How to make voxel based polygons
• Bilinear filtering
    - How to perform bilinear filtering