Games Programming Links

Games Programming Sites

CodeGuru - general code development site
GameDev - game development with great discussion groups
DevMaster - a worthy replacement for the now closed Flipcode
Riemer’s - DirectX tutorials for C# and C++
Triple Buffer - some great DirectX tutorials
32bits - has some good DirectX tutorials
Booyah.com - 3D Game and Shader development
Nomad - games programming
Shaderx - for vertex and pixel shaders Wolfgang Engel is your man and this is his site.
Ultimate Game Programming - very good site with some good DirectX tutorials
AIWisdom - good place for games AI

Manufacturer Sites

NVidia developer - aimed at the developer has lots of good articles and downloads for the graphics programmer.
ATI developers - as above but aimed at he ATI range of graphics cards

Reference Sites

Programmers Heaven C++ FAQ - a brief FAQ for complete beginners to C++
C++ FAQ - this is huge but extensive , the next link might be better for simple look up
C++ FAQ Lite - this is a smaller FAQ but is quick to find simple answers in
Vector FAQ - everything about vectors
Matrix FAQ - everything about matrix

General Programming

CodeProject - Source code and Tutorials
Programmers Heaven - as above
Bruce Eckel’s Free Books - A few good C++ books are free to download from here

Maths

Essential Math for Games Programmers - a very useful collection of slides on the maths needed for game creation
3D Maths - quite a nice site with information on vectors, matrices etc.
MathWorld - comprehensive site answering all your maths problems
Matrix FAQ - everything about matrices

Free 3D Models and Editors

Obtaining free models for your games is not that easy, most sites seem to be just trying to sell nowadays. However I have found the following sites with free models:

3DCafe - a large collection of 3D objects under various categories
The Singularity - about 30 mainly space based models
Klickers - common 3D objects and some textures
Amazing 3D - quite a large and varied collection of free 3D models
3D Plants - lots of plant models
Art of Gaming - Starcraft and Tiberium Sun 3D models
FAWS - a number of common 3D objects
NASA JPL - NASA spacecraft models
The Singularity - various 3D models
3D Valley 3D Links - a large list of other 3D model sites

Editors / Tools:

Pandasoft - .x file exporter for Maya and Max:
Blender - popular free 3D package
DeleD 3D Editor - another free 3D editor
gameSpace - from the makers of Truespace
Modular D3D SkinnedMesh article on Flipcode

Textures

Some places to get free textures and sprites

General Textures

Image*After - free photo and texture collection
Texture Bin - lots of free textures under many categories
Texture Bin 342- various textures
3D State - free textures designed for 3D games
Mayang - 2300 free textures to download
Planet Textures - textures of planets etc.
Free Game Textures - as it says
Burning Well - free for any use images
Blender textures - a free texture disk

2D Sprites and Tilesets

The Shyguy Kingdom - lots of sprites including classic game sprites and new custom ones
Game Sprites - a collection of sprite sheets from old classic games
Reiner’s tilesets - many high quality free sprites including 3D style sprites
molotov.nu - mainly RPG tilesets
game maker - resources originally for Game Maker but in transferable format. As well as sprites these resources include sounds etc.
rmxp.net - a collection of tilesets, screens, animations, music and sounds
game sprite archives - lots of sprites from old game systems
Sprites Inc. - More than 1300 images of Megaman sprites:
Sonic sprites - Sonic sprites
Emugifs- Emugifs
Fenrir’s Sprite Domain - Fenrir's Sprite Domain has many sprites from old games
mfgg - Mario Fan Games Galaxy
Mortal Kombat Warehouse - anything Mortal Kombat
Nintendo Sprite Sheets - Nintendo game sprites
Super Mario Portal - Everything Super Mario
The Leaf Forest Zone - Sonic sprites
Zelda Fan Game Network - Zelda sprites
Tantalus Resources - Tantalus sprites
RPG Underground - RPG sprites
NES-SNES Sprites - includes 40,000 SNES sprites and 24,000 NES sprites
Retrogamezone - sprites from old games
Kyodai Mahjongg - Kyodai Mahjongg Tilesets
mugwump - Mugwump Dillard's Kyodai Mahjongg Tilesets
Background HQ - 2D game backgrounds
Androcity - Androcity Backgrounds
Blambot fonts - comic fonts and lettering

Applications

ppFonter - a tool for converting true type fonts to bitmaps

If you know of any more I would appreciate the link.

Sound / Music

FMOD - free (for non-commercial use) cross platform audio API
OpenAL - another free cross platform audio API
FindSounds - masses of free sound effects
Sound Effects Archive - some good sounds but be aware of all the pop up ads
Koumis - some free sounds + textures + 3D models

Misc

Comparison table of the different Visual Studio versions: here
The new Visual Studio 2005 site: here
The Microsoft .net compiler is the best compiler currently (unfortunately it can be rather pricey, if you are a student however you can get it free.)

Amazon keyword book searches

Search for DirectX related books at Amazon:
Search for Games Programming related books at Amazon:

Amazon Book Shops: