How important is maths?

[andersonmat]

[QUOTE=Spoco;17951174]Wait, aren't addition, subtraction, multiplication and division all part of knowing [b]basic algebra[/b]?[/QUOTE]

Personally, I'd think of algebra more of an abstract idea than basic arithmetic?

[nerdygamer]

[QUOTE=Sippeangelo;17934838][url]http://www.garry.tv/?p=1151[/url][/QUOTE]

Wow that pretty much inspired me.

I have had geometry and I am in tech math (Algebra 2 is to hard for me) and I seem to be doing fine. In visual basic that is. C# here I come.

[Elspin]

Implementing 3 different engines and writing an application framework took me next to no math. That being said, I do a shit load of math, I just rarely need to use it in programming. It depends on what you're doing. Any good SDK will have libraries that do the math for you, and it's only when you're doing things like WRITING the libraries or doing physics calculations you really need math. You can use unbelievably simple math for GUI sizing to make it look nice, but that's about it.

For example. If you want to launch a brick into the air, you can just do something like, say

//not in any real language or using any SDK, just showing an example
ent->addForce( Vec3(0,10,10) );

simple. Did exactly what you want. But if you where that's going to aim and land, (up, and forward in the y direction for ogre, different than source), you need to know what each direction means and the physics (math) for it.

[Mr.Hoff]

Math really helps solidify your logic and problem solving skills, which are crucial for programming.

[AaRoNg11]

Rooky, from what I understand most game development courses (at least in the UK) have maths modules that will provide you with everything you need to get going. If you have a basic knowledge of algebra and trigonometry (mostly vectors), the rest will be easy enough to understand. Where are you planning to study?

[Giraffen93]

2D: No, not that much.
3D: YES.

[Shanethe13]

Math is fairly important if you are doing anything involving graphics. However, you should be able to get by fine without having any prior knowledge of most concepts. There are so many resources available on the internet that you'll be able to learn anything you need to know from tutorials or code examples. As long as you make an effort to understand what you are coding, it shouldn't be long before it becomes second nature to you.

[BoingBoing]

[QUOTE=Giraffen93;18170445]2D: No, not that much.
3D: YES.[/QUOTE]

You need sin and cos to rotate, dawg.

[andersonmat]

[QUOTE=BoingBoing;18181569]You need sin and cos to rotate, dawg.[/QUOTE]

Not that much math though. That's like geometry or Algebra 1. :P

[Elspin]

[QUOTE=BoingBoing;18181569]You need sin and cos to rotate, dawg.[/QUOTE]

People who don't program shouldn't be giving advice... 90% of libraries will have some form of rotate function, such as

ent->rotate(deg) //may be in radians or have an overloaded/different function for radians.

see my post above. Using libraries -> little to no math. Writing them -> a lot of math.

[r4nk_]

[QUOTE=Elspin;18203729]People who don't program shouldn't be giving advice... 90% of libraries will have some form of rotate function, such as

ent->rotate(deg) //may be in radians or have an overloaded/different function for radians.

see my post above. Using libraries -> little to no math. Writing them -> a lot of math.[/QUOTE]

Sine and cosine are very basic (I don't mean that in a harsh way), I would recommend everyone have a good understanding of them. There is really no excuse not to know these, you get taught them in school and if you weren't listening then you can look it up on google and do some experiments. There are lots of uses for them. For example, if you want something to bob up and down on screen:

[cpp]
const float speed = 1.0f;
const float height = 10.0f;
draw( position + vec2f( 0.0f, sinf(time*speed)*height );
[/cpp]

So sine/cosine are very handy to know. I mean you should [I]at least[/I] know these.

[Elspin]

[QUOTE=r4nk_;18204112]Sine and cosine are very basic (I don't mean that in a harsh way), I would recommend everyone have a good understanding of them. There is really no excuse not to know these, you get taught them in school and if you weren't listening then you can look it up on google and do some experiments. There are lots of uses for them. For example, if you want something to bob up and down on screen:

[cpp]
const float speed = 1.0f;
const float height = 10.0f;
draw( position + vec2f( 0.0f, sinf(time*speed)*height );
[/cpp]

So sine/cosine are very handy to know. I mean you should [I]at least[/I] know these.[/QUOTE]

Of course I know what sine is, how it works, it's trigonometric identity as part of tangent etc, etc. That wasn't what I said. The poster asked the question "How important is maths?" and the answer is, unless you're writing a library or need to calculate the result of something, usually you don't need much.