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For more about three-dimensional graphics, but not about DirectX, see my book
Visual Basic Graphics Programming.
Mike took a look at my series of Direct3D
tutorials posted at VB Explorer,
Using Direct3D with VB.
Using those ideas, he built a 3-dimensional solar system simulation.
The program lets you "fly" around viewing planets (arrow keys to steer, and B for forward and backward).
You can also click on a planet's option button to go to it. See the code and the tutorials mentioned above for
details.
The program also has these features:
- Sphere function that creates a sphere that's made up of a single triangle list object.
(Mike actually got this function from a Web site called TrackSys which he says is very cool.)
- The Sphere function also creates spheres that can be viewed from the inside.
- A function that rotates, scales, and translates a matrix in a single call.
- Toggle lighting, smooth shading, and background star environment map on and off. (The star
field may hurt performance on some computers.)
- It has a generic Render function that is driven by data in an array of 3d object data.
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