Introduction

While simple demos and applications can get along with basic primitives like cubes and spheres, most real-world applications and games use 3D mesh models which are modelled in 3D modeling software such as 3ds Max and Maya. For games, the models are then exported into the proprietary game format and then the models are loaded into the game.

While there are many formats available, some formats such as Autodesk® 3ds and Wavefront® OBJ are common formats. In this chapter, we will look at recipes for loading these model formats. We will look at how to load the geometry information, stored in the external files, into the vertex buffer object memory of the GPU. In addition, we will also load material and texture information which is required to improve the fidelity of the model so that it appears more realistic. We will also work on loading terrains which are often used to model outdoor environments. Finally, we will implement a basic particle system for simulating fuzzy phenomena such...