(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

System requirements

Before we take a look at how to download and install ShiVa3D, it might be a good idea to see if your system will handle it. The minimum requirements for the ShiVa3D editor are as follows:

• Microsoft Windows XP and above, Mac OS with Parallels

• Intel Pentium IV 2 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2600+

• 512 MB of RAM

• 3D accelerated graphics card with 64 MB RAM and 1440 x 900 resolution

• Network interface

In addition to the minimum requirements, the following suggestions will give you the best gaming experience:

• Intel Core Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+

• 1024 MB of RAM

• Modern 3D accelerated graphics card with 256 MB RAM and 1680 x 1050 resolution

• Sound card

Downloading ShiVa3D

Head over to http://www.stonetrip.com and get a copy of ShiVa3D Web Edition. Currently, there is a download link on the home page. Once you get to the Download page, enter your email address and click on the Download button. If everything goes right, you will be prompted for a save location—save it in a place that will be easy to find later.

That's it for the download, but you may want to take a second to look around Stonetrip's website. There are links to the documentation, forum, wiki, and news updates. It will be well worth your time to become familiar with the site now since you will be using it frequently.

Installing ShiVa3D

Assuming your computer meets the minimum requirements, installation should be pretty easy. Simply find the installation file that you downloaded and run it. I recommend sticking with the default settings. If you do have issues getting it installed, it is most likely due to a technical problem, so head on over to the forums, and we will be more than glad to lend a helping hand.

The ShiVa editor

Several different applications were installed, if you accepted the default installation choices. The only one we are going to worry about for most of this book is the ShiVa Web Edition editor, so go ahead and open it now. By default, ShiVa opens with a project named Samples loaded. You can tell by looking at the lower right-hand quadrant of the screen in the Data Explorer—the root folder is named Samples, as shown in the following screenshot:

This is actually a nice place to start, because there are all sorts of samples that we can play with. We'll come back to those once we have had a chance to make our own game. We will cover the editor in more detail later, but for now it is important to notice that the default layout has four sections: Attributes Editor, Game Editor, Scene Viewer, and Data Explorer. Each of these sections represents a module within the editor. The Data Explorer window, for example, gives us access to all of the resources that can be used in our project such as materials, models, fonts, and so on.

Creating a project

A project is the way by which we can group games that share the same resources.To create a new project, click on Main | Projects in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. The project window will open, as shown in the following screenshot:

In this window, we can see the Samples project along with its path. The green light next to the name indicates that Samples is the project currently loaded into the editor. If there were other projects listed, the other projects would have red lights besides their names. The steps for creating a new project are as follows:

1. Click on the Add button to create a new project.

2. Navigate to the location we want for our project and then right-click in the explorer area and select New | Folder.

3. Name the folder as IntroToShiva, highlight the folder and click on Select.

4. The project window will now show our new project has the green light and the Samples project has a red light. Click on the Close button to finish. Notice that the root folder in the Data Context window now says IntroToShiva.

Creating a game

Games are exactly what you would think they are and it's time we created ours. The steps for creating our own games are as follows:

1. Go to the Game Editor window in the lower left-hand corner and click on Game | Create.

2. A window will pop up asking for the game name.We will be creating a game in which the player must fly a spaceship through a tunnel or cave and avoid obstacles; so let's call the game CaveRunner.

3. Click on the OK button and the bottom half of our editor should look like the following screenshot:

   

Notice that there is now some information displayed in the Game Editor window and the Data Explorer window shows the CaveRunner game in the Games folder. A game is simply the empty husk of what we are really trying to build. Next, we will begin building out our game by adding a scene.

Making a scene

We can think of a scene as a level in a game—it is the stage upon which we place our objects, so that the player can interact with them. We can create a scene by performing the following steps:

1. Click on Edit | Scene | Create in the Game Editor window.

2. Name the scene as Level1 and click on the OK button.

3. The new scene is created and opened for immediate use, as shown in the following screenshot:

   

We can tell Level1 is open, because the Game Editor window switched to the Scenes tab and now Level1 has a green check mark next to it; we can also see a grid in the Scene Viewer window. Additionally, the scene information is displayed in the upper left-hand corner of the Scene Viewer window and the Scene tag says Level1.

So we were able to get a scene created, but it is sadly empty—it's not much of a level in even the worst of games. If we want this game to be worth playing, we better add something interesting. Let's start by importing a ship.