Book excerpt: This Wrox Blox will guide you through the world of 3D programming and give you solid knowledge and a foundation in game programming using Microsoft's XNA Framework. You will learn the fundamentals from 3D mathematics to model animation, including all the subjects needed to start developing 3D games, such as how to position objects in 3D space, handle collision detection, control the game camera, and understand the basics of shaders — special programs that execute on the graphics processor. Also covered are how to extend the XNA Content Pipeline to read and use model skeletal animation, and also load and play back timeline animation data created in 3D modeling tools. 3D concepts and systems can seem like a foreign language when you're a beginner. And not knowing the lingo can make it hard to know what terms to search for to solve a problem. This Wrox Blox will give you all the tools you need to build your own 3D game. Table of Contents Who Is This Book For? 1 3D Overview 2 Basic 3D Math 4 Right-Hand Rule 4 Working with Matrices 5 Identity, Scale, Rotate, Orbit, Translate (ISROT) 6 Working with Vectors 7 Unit Vectors 10 Working with Quaternions 12 Controlling the Camera 13 Basic Camera 13 Follow Camera 19 ViewPorts 20 BoundingFrustum 22 3D Models 23 Modeling Programs and Formats 23 Loading a Model 24 Collision Detection 27 Skeletal Animations 29 Extending the Content Pipeline 29 Manipulating Bones at Run Time 31 Using Model Animations 36 About Michael C. Neel 39