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For more about three-dimensional graphics, but not about DirectX, see my book
Visual Basic Graphics Programming.
Mike has released an improved version of his solar system explorer.
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 for details.
This version uses improved camera control, draws rings around the planets that should have them, and loads its data from a .X file. Direct3D features it demonstrates include:
- 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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