I'm exactly the same; I'm going to stick with 2D, at least for the foreseeable future. For me, there's a whole bunch of reasons to favour 2D over 3D.

• Almost all mainstream PC games are 3D games these days, and I can't compete with them for content.
• I'd rather get good at 2D games than average at 3D
• Have you seen the interfaces for 3D modelling packages?! It's like trying to simultaneously fly a 747 and monitor a nuclear power station.
• I'm doing research into computer vision and robotics where we deal with multiple dimensions all the time, so I'm not keen on spending my spare time manipulating matrices as well.
• Plus I really like 2D games as well!

Quote:Original post by Trapper Zoid
I'm exactly the same; I'm going to stick with 2D, at least for the foreseeable future. For me, there's a whole bunch of reasons to favour 2D over 3D.

• Almost all mainstream PC games are 3D games these days, and I can't compete with them for content.
• I'd rather get good at 2D games than average at 3D
• Have you seen the IDEs for 3D modelling packages?! It's like trying to simultaneously fly a 747 and monitor a nuclear power station.
• I'm doing research into computer vision and robotics where we deal with multiple dimensions all the time, so I'm not keen on spending my spare time manipulating matrices as well.
• Plus I really like 2D games as well!

Agreed on all points except number 4, but that's only because I'm not doing computer vision and robotics lol.

I suppose I'm taking on the role of the outcast when I say that 3D is a very cool thing to get into. [smile]

Seriously, even if you decide not to use 3D directly (ie. a la OpenGL or Direct3D), just learning all of the math behind it is vastly useful. This is true even for 2D games. I've lost track of the number of times that knowledge of 3D mathematics has been (or would have been, if I had known it at the time) of huge help. A simple example might be an isometric game, whereas, while 2D, would benefit greatly with the usage of 3D transformation matrices rather than 'faking it' with a handful of tricky 2D math.

In addition, if one pursues some software 3D rendering, the information that you'll acquire regarding low-level optimizations and tricks involving pixel manipulation will be of great use even in high-level programming down the road. I've benefitted greatly off of this as well during the short time I spent writing a basic 3D renderer.

In short: even if you don't plan on making 3D games, learn all of the stuff that happens behind the curtain. A good programmer can certainly not have too much math knowledge nor too much low-level knowledge.

Quote:Original post by HopeDagger
I suppose I'm taking on the role of the outcast when I say that 3D is a very cool thing to get into. [smile]

Seriously, even if you decide not to use 3D directly (ie. a la OpenGL or Direct3D), just learning all of the math behind it is vastly useful. This is true even for 2D games. I've lost track of the number of times that knowledge of 3D mathematics has been (or would have been, if I had known it at the time) of huge help. A simple example might be an isometric game, whereas, while 2D, would benefit greatly with the usage of 3D transformation matrices rather than 'faking it' with a handful of tricky 2D math.

In addition, if one pursues some software 3D rendering, the information that you'll acquire regarding low-level optimizations and tricks involving pixel manipulation will be of great use even in high-level programming down the road. I've benefitted greatly off of this as well during the short time I spent writing a basic 3D renderer.

In short: even if you don't plan on making 3D games, learn all of the stuff that happens behind the curtain. A good programmer can certainly not have too much math knowledge nor too much low-level knowledge.

This is very true and as such, I've already learned a good chunk of it lol. I've actually started a lot of 3D projects, I've just never gotten far enough to post anything (mostly because I haven't learned a lot of the terrain stuff like spatial partitioning and LOD.)