VS 2008 SP1 standalone iso

I deployed my project on a new development system and realised that it doesnt work anymore. Quite a bit of functionality was missing. After spending a fair amount of time, I figured that the reason it had stopped working was because I was referring to code added in SP1.

In any case, I downloaded the installer for VS 2008 SP1 but surprise, surprise - everytime I would need to install SP1, I would have to download the file. Since, this seemed like a less than optimal solution, after a little bit of googling, I found a stand alone iso for the SP.

For all of you who need it, you can get it from the following link

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=13276

Ten things to achieve when starting 3D programming

I came across this interesting article which gives a nice guideline to learn the basics of 3D programming. This list got me thinking about how I would go about understanding 3D programming. Even though, for the most part my list is the same  as the original list, there are a few minor differences.

So without further ado, here's my list to achieve basic proficiency in 3D programming

1. Build your own custom graphic initialization function.
   This is useful to understand how things are managed internally and will give you more comprehension of what you are doing.
   Tutorial 1 - Creating window.html
   Tutorial 2 - Initializing Directx.html


2. Code a 2D custom Graphic User Interface (GUI)
   This is useful since you can make your custom GUI controls and understand concepts like event handling and event capturing.
   Tutorial 4 - Displaying Sprites.html


3. Implement your own camera.
   This is useful to understand concepts like vector handling, translation matrices, angle conversion, etc


4. Understand primary 3D concepts


5. Successfully make your own collision algorithm


6. Code a 3D model loader
   This is useful to understand how 3D models are saved and how everything it’s drawn in a graphics engine


7. Make your custom lighting


8. Implement a small particle engine.
   This is useful to understand concepts like particle emitters, particle behavior and bill boarding techniques


9. Learn the basics in a 3D modeling software.
   Without this knowledge, you will have to depend on other people to do your first game


10. Load and play an animation

Hopefully, it will help people getting started with 3D programming

You can read the original article here

http://vasilydev.blogspot.com/2011/08/ten-things-to-achieve-when-starting-3d.html