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In taking a first step in 3d, I decided to make things simple and limit myself to a top down 2d game. My first question was where to put the camera. Seems simple enough.

Assuming a left handed coordinate system I believe the natural place would be to subtract from the z coord so I see down on a x/y plane as I'm used to. When I think about orientation, heading rotation is about the Y axis, so if I wanted to look "down" on my models I would add to the Y coordinate for the camera and use the x/z plane to move about on. If I don't have models in this orientation I assume the helper functions like "turnLeft" and "pointAt" won't work as expected.

Any suggestions on the easiest coordinate system to get started with? (This is for DarkGDK, but I think the question is independant of that)

I'd position the camera in the positive Y plane, and then point the camera straight down. Then you won't have to re-orientate your models to work for a different view. It will also make it less confusing when your programing movement and any other functions that require path finding or object movement.

Thank you for the response Josh; very helpful.

Does anyone have some books specific to 3d game programming they would recommend? I have "3d math for Games and Graphics" and a good understanding of c++. Now I just need some reading material on 3d game design.

I've looked on amazon. "Game Coding Complete" and "Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 10" look promising.

3D game design, or 3D programming? If you're looking for game design/game writing I'd get The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design.

I'll move this to the DarkGDK board. Although your question isn't asking for code related help, you are probably best off here.

Cheers,
BiggAdd

There are a number of free E-Books that you can download from the WEB that are specific to programming Games in C++, either with DirectX, or OpenGL.

There is a book titled "Learning Games and Graphics with C++" that uses DarkGDK as its graphics interface rather than straight directX code. So it is a much shallower learning curve(no winAPI stuff to worry about learning right away either like there is in the majority of "learning games and C++" books), in my opinion anyway. That book was actually featured in a recent TGC newsletter and looks very interesting, you can find a link to it from the DarkGDK page at thegamecreators.com .

Try searching through http://rapidlibrary.com/(although I believe alot of the books there are actually pirated so you would need to be careful you arent breaking the law, there are quite a few legit. freebies there aswell related to game programming in C++ and 3D in general - and it never hurts to know if something is going to be worth spending your money on or not ) or http://www.scribd.com/(scribd has a massive collection of EBooks, you cant download them unless you buy a membership but its all legal and as far as i know they have arrangements with publishers, but you can read alot of them and preview them before you purchase anything) or there is also http://my.safaribooksonline.com/ who are similar to scribd, but with more of a traditional library feel. Here is a quote from their website regarding how they work :



Personally, I find online/electronic books more useful than the normal variety as I can carry around hundreds of them in my mobile(NokiaN95 8gig) while im out and they are just easier to use, bookmarks dont fall out, pages dont get coffee spilled on em or torn, that kinda thing