iOS Game Development Cookbook

Chapter 8. 3D Graphics

Using 3D graphics is the most popular approach for games these days. However, 3D is complicated. It’s so complicated, in fact, that we’re going to dedicate three whole chapters to it. The first chapter (this one) covers introductory 3D—setup, basic drawing, and understanding how 3D works overall. The next two chapters cover more intermediate and advanced topics in 3D rendering on the iPhone and iPad.

When you work in 3D, you use a library called OpenGL ES. OpenGL ES is the “embedded” version of OpenGL, the industry-standard library for computer graphics. OpenGL is everywhere—you’ll find it in desktop computers, in games consoles, in industrial hardware, and in mobile computers like iOS devices.

Because OpenGL is designed to be cross-platform, it doesn’t have the same nice API as you might be used to from working with other tools on iOS. Apple’s put quite a bit of effort into making things as easy as possible for developers, introducing a framework called GLKit that helps with the setup and integration of OpenGL in your game. However, you’ll still need to get used to how OpenGL works.

Because it’s not really possible to talk about 3D graphics features in isolation, this chapter is actually designed to be read in sequence. Whereas in other chapters you can basically jump straight to any recipe, we recommend that you start this one at the beginning and read through. As a precursor to the recipes, we’ll begin with an introduction to 3D math.

Working with 3D Math