Math Needs

#1 Just another note. I fell asleep in Math class, so I am gonna need alot of learning. But it is never too late.

#2 Im not a maths expert but understanding vector calculus would be a good thing to know.

linear algebra also

#3 It depends.

If you want to be an artist or designer, not much math.

A game programmer? Calculus, Linear Algebra at a minimum.

You want to program a physics engine from scratch? Learn /everything./ :)

#4 I realize this thread is 4-5 months old. But I'm weak in math as well, and was thinking of getting some night math courses.

I see people said calculus, and linear algebra. But what about Geometery and Trig?

#5 Geometery and Trigonometry are prerequisites for learning Calculus and Linear algebra - so yes, you'd want those first.

#6 I took (and recently passed!) the Game Mathematics course at Game Institute. It was a pretty decent run through the math that is used in games. It was a great way of learning the basics, and figuring out what to learn next.

#7 I'm reading the book "Mathematics for game developers" by Christopher Tremblay at the moment. Worth checking out if your wanting a game oriented view of maths. There are a number of other books as well, theres a beginning math and physics for game programmers, although I've not read that one, it does sound like a good intro book.

From what I've found so far, geometery, trig and algebra are pretty much essentials. Do you best to understand these as well as you can :)

#8 You can pick up "Mathematics for 3D Game Programming & Computer Graphics" 2nd edition (2003) by Eric Lengyel really cheap on eBay. There's a seller who starts all their books at $0.99. I think I picked this book up for around $12 with s&h included. The book has end of the chapter exercises and answers in the index like a text book. One exercise for each of the math chapters has you create a class to implement the math you've just learned. However, there's no answer to those exercises.

#9 One other thing to keep in mind, it is one thing to know Calc, and it is another to know how to implement calc operations like integration efficiently on a computer. If you get the opportunity take a class on numerical methods.

#10 What if your not good at math if your life depended on it, because math is not my subject.

#11 I took calculus is college. I have since fogotten all of it. I took a look at my text books and could make heads or tails of it. Now I am relearning calculus using a book called "Calculus Made Easy" by Silvanus Thompson and Martin Gardner. I am now beginning to understand calculus BETTER than when I was in college. This book explains everything. However, you need to have a good back ground in algebra and trigonometry. This book is forcing me to go back and relearn things like algebraic division. Also, this book focuses on linear methods that may need adaptation to discrete applications like game programming. The funny thing is that I have written PID loops that use discrete versions of derivatives and integrals, and that seemed easier in concept than some of the theoretical stuff. Go figure. Anyway, the book does not scare the reader away like a lot of books. Definitely a good resource book to supplement difficult textbooks.

Good luck,
Frank

#12 Bah, i do hardcore programming (algorithms) all the time, and i dont need better math than multiplication.

However, I dont do any game programming. you should at least know how to copy an algorithm (such as a pick-ray) from a book and have it work. I think it'd be much more valuable for you to have a good book of common algorithms used in game programming than it would be for you to spend a year taking more math classes.

This is assuming of course that by 'i'm bad at math' you still have an idea what a "quadratic equation" is. if you have no idea what i'm talking about, then yeah take some math :P