Questions for game programmers

[fullmetal84]

You may not need to be excellent in maths, but if you want to program, then it is necessary to understand how to handle objects onscreen. Like yaustar said, for physics programming, object interaction is dictated by physics and math formulas that are applied to the collisions and movements. The best thing you could do is to make small games or game demos in your spare time to familiarize yourself with that sort of programming, and from there, you can determine yourself whether or not you have enough math knowledge to be an effective game programmer.

[sonicth]

Actually i am not a professional games developer but you dont need to be one to figure out that you do need maths of the real world to model a games world. Things like geometry, basic calculus and all the cool maths associated with physics.

The problem with maths in school is that it's taught by people (i.e. teachers) who have the least interest in it! Yes, the girls and guys who actually find maths fascinating go on to be come university professors or bankers, actuaries, engineers, games developers and so on.

If you are not interested in maths, the chances are you did not like it in school. You either need to find interest in it or find a career in database programming (but even then, depending on how far you go its useful).

But the thing is you almost certainly WILL be into it if find the right take on it.

My advice is get a basic book on calculus and look a the examples.

Dont bother with algebra and matrices at this point because it is actually quite boring until you know where you can apply it. You can also look at some basic probability theory. But! dont just read the theory, try the examples!!! Instead of staring at the textbook for too long - get a paper and a pencil and hack something yourself! I found you can actually enjoy learning even the most boring theory if i try the examples first.

If you look at most famous scientists - they did it not by doing all the exercises or reading all the books in their college days, in fact some did exceptionally badly (do i need to name a few...), but by making their subject exciting for them.

[Gshonk]

Originally Posted by sonicth

Dont bother with algebra and matrices at this point because it is actually quite boring until you know where you can apply it.

Aww but matrices are so much fun and so powerful. I didn't understand how amazing they were until a few weeks ago now I use them all the time.