3D RAD DOCUMENTATION - Resources to help you learn how to
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To get started with 3D Rad - free 3D game maker - after you have read this overview and followed this introductory tutorial, make sure you then follow the importing tutorial from the beginning. If you do not know how to make your own 3d models, watch this video instead.
Then, the best thing to do is examining all the demo projects, by making sure that, for each object in the project, you have read at least once the related help file.
To run a demo project, run 3D Rad, press Ctrl+O, choose a demo project to open and press the Space Bar to launch it. For a description of each project, please see the following table.
| SAMPLE PROJECTS, TUTORIALS, ARTICLES | SOURCE DEMO PROJECT To open a project, launch 3D Rad, press [Ctrl]+[O] | ||
| 3D Rad overview | editor functions | hotkey list | |||
| Your first interactive project: tutorial | |||
| Getting help on specific object's usage: video tutorial | |||
| NO modeling required! Making interactive projects with any 3d model from the Google 3D Warehouse: recommended technique | |||
| Understanding event-objects. Custom game logic without coding: article | |||
| Compiling projects to stand-alone executables or applets embedded into a web-page at your website | |||
| The official tutorial about importing, rendering and enabling physics for your own 3d models. | |||
| SkinMesh object overview: video | |||
| Interactive/AI characters from your animated models: video tutorial | |||
| Walking character, using various controls configurations. | CharacterNoMouseDemo CharacterJoystickDemo | ||
| Adjusting walking character speed | |||
| Animation blending. Switching between different animation sequences (e.g. from walking to sitting down) smoothly | SkinMeshOneLoopDemo SkinMeshDemo | ||
| Frame-by-frame animation. 3D animation as a sequence of different static models | |||
| Making a walking character (or a spaceship or anything else) follow a pre-defined path | |||
| Making animated characters carry objects, lights, particle emitters (e.g. torches) and trail sources | SkinMeshBoneLightDemo SkinMeshBoneParticlesDemo SkinMeshBoneTrailDemo | ||
| Controlling individual bones of animated characters, while the pre-defined animation plays | |||
| Making fists, kicks of an animated character interact with the environment (per-bone collision detection, physics) | SkinMeshBoneControlRigidBodyDemo | ||
| 1St person, 3rd person and fixed view modes: article | |||
| Switchable view modes, simple demo project | |||
| Controlling camera orientation with the mouse | |||
| Controlling camera zoom with the mouse wheel | |||
| Making the camera follow a pre-defined path | |||
| Implementing split-screen games | |||
| Simulating water with dynamic environment mapping, camera filters (post-processing) and other tricks | UnderwaterDemo UnderwaterCameraFilter | ||
| Imposters! Populating your scene with hundreds of thousands of polygons and multiple particle effects with minimal performance loss, implementing explosion forces, creating/destroying volume triggers run-time and more! | ParticleImposters GForceImposters EOLImpostersDemo | ||
| Determining if an imposter is visible | |||
| Imposters without scripting | ImposterMeshMapDemo | ||
| Managing Level Of Detail (LOD) for the SkinMesh object | |||
| Lens flare effects with occlusion test! | |||
| Rendering glass | |||
| Bloom effect | |||
| Explosions, shock waves | ExplosionParticles | ||
| Implementing a flashlight effect | |||
| Adding trails to any moving object: video | |||
| Drawing 3d lines by using ready to use script functions | |||
| Dynamically stretching a SkinMesh from one object to another | |||
| Setting up natural environments: video | |||
| Animated clouds and snow: example | |||
| Implementing game menus, the basics | |||
| Letting the user click & select with mouse buttons (icons, sprites) on a menu or 3d objects in a scene | MouseOverSkinMesh MouseOverSprite | ||
| Letting the user input some text | |||
| Playing short video clips (cutscenes etc) with the Sprite object | |||
| Rotary-dial based speedometer, simple demo project | |||
| Heading indicator, simple demo project | HeadingIndicatorCam1StPerson | ||
| Scrolling text horizontally, vertically | TextScrollingV | ||
| Animating sprites by using scripts | |||
| Saving screenshots from your scripts | |||
| Implementing a marbles track with Google SketchUp: video | |||
| Achieving collapsible structures by linking objects with breakable joints | |||
| Implementing rag-dolls: resources | |||
| Implementing skinned rag-dolls: resources | |||
| Working with joints and springs, simple example | SkinmeshStretchTrueSpring | ||
| Setting initial velocity and spin | |||
| Making things get blown away by wind | |||
| Making a wheeled vehicle sail with an airfoil and some wind: notes | |||
| Implementing paddles and similar objects that interact with the environment but aren't affected by it | |||
| Map-free, zero coding path finding: article | |||
| Classic path finding, A-Star algorithm: resources | |||
| Character A.I., target chasing: plug-in | |||
| Remapping default keyboard controls, enabling gamepads/joysticks/steering-wheels: article | |||
| Creating multi-level projects: article | |||
| Path object editor, creating complex paths directly on terrain: resources | |||
| Goal arrow, to help the player reach a location: plug-in | |||
| Formatted timer, minutes, seconds and milliseconds in 00:00:000 format: plug-in | |||
| Updating score on collisions | |||
| Triggering events when two objects are no longer in contact | |||
| Intercepting EventOnInput keys from a script | |||
| Activating force-feedback devices on collisions | |||
| Managing game stats (lives, health etc) without using a script | |||
| Translating, rotating, scaling objects run-time | |||
| Showing/hiding objects and/or animation sets run-time | SwitchAnimSetDemo | ||
| Additional resources from the community | |||
| A basis for scan-based weapons (for bullets, lasers etc) | EventOnObjectIdDemo | ||
| Shooting projectiles from a moving vehicle | |||
| Shooting projectiles from an animated character hand | |||
| Hiding projectiles when they hit a target. | |||
| Hiding/showing specific objects when projectiles are shot or expire. | |||
| Attaching particle and trail emitters to projectiles. | ProjctileParticleTrail | ||
| Targeting system: plug-in | |||
| View-locked 3d props, like a carried gun in a FPS game | |||
| Making a door open/close when a character approaches/leaves:discussion | |||
| Realistic driving simulation in a box: article | |||
| Using your own car models with Car Physics Layouts: video tutorial | |||
| Setting up a racing game: video tutorial | |||
| Adding A.I. cars to your projects: video tutorial | video | |||
| AI racing demo. Race against car-physics layouts controlled by the CarAI object | |||
| AI cars targeting other objects | CarAITargetFleeSwitch | ||
| Wheeled vehicles stability tips: article | |||
| Preventing wheels from drifting when the vehicle is still on a sloping terrain | |||
| Speedometer/tachometer (HUD): plug-in | |||
| Hand-brake simulation for the Car object: plug-in | |||
| Not-rolling wheel props (like exposed sports car brakes) and replacements (like snowmobile-like skis): plug-in | |||
| Implementing dust from car wheels | |||
| Setting up a rear-view mirror | |||
| Road system, snapping road pieces together: video tutorial | |||
| Flight simulation: video | |||
| Arcadish flight gameplay | |||
| Detecting Above Ground Level | |||
| Starting a level with an aircraft already in flight | |||
| Simulating an helicopter: resources | |||
| Adding wind to your flight simulation | |||
| Creating realistic boats with the Buoy object. | |||
| Implementing a C&C Unit: resources | |||
| Solar system resources: video | |||
| Creating multiplayer games: article | NetBallArenaServer NetBallArenaClient | ||
| Sending textual strings from the server to remotely connected client PCs | NetworkStringServer | ||
| Updating your 3d world with data from a remote server | |||
| Attaching 3d sound emitters to moving objects: video tutorial | |||
| Clickable advertisement units in your games that lead to user-defined URLs: article | |||
| Get started with the introductory mini tutorials. | |||
| Function usage examples. Please see the Script object help file for details. NOTE: these projects are in theScript_Functions_Usage_Examples subfolder. | iDLLCall iFileStringReadWriteTest iFloatTendTo oPrint iObjectLocationSet iObjectPicked iObjectScan iStringFind iStringMid iSpherePicked iSphereSegmentIntersect iScreenRay iStringReplace iStringStr iStringUCase iStringVal | ||
| Writing your own render shaders for the SkinMesh object: tutorial. | |||
| Entry Level 3D Race Car Game Creation using 3D RAD by HobbyPress, available as printed booklet and e-book | |||
| Entry Level 3D Action Shooter Game Creation using 3DRAD by HobbyPress, available as printed booklet and e-book | |||
| A comprehensive list of user-created tools, documentation pages, tutorials and resources: index | |||
For your convenience they are also below. Click an icon to open the document.
