flipCode - Portal Engine Column


Please update your bookmarks.

This column interface is outdated. These articles have been reformatted and placed within our article archive.

This page is here to avoid broken links, but please update your bookmarks to reflect the new URLs in the article archive.


Have you ever wondered what all this talk about 'portals' actually means when it comes down to cutting-edge 3D engines? Step through this portal and find out! The Phantom (Jacco Bikker) has completed an excellent column on building a 3D portal engine from the ground up! Even if you're not interested in portals, you'll find plenty of gems in this series that you will most likely learn a lot from! The entire series is 17 issues, so start reading!
  • Issue 01 - Introduction
  • Issue 02 - Graphics Output Under Windows
  • Issue 03 - 3D Matrix Math
  • Issue 04 - Data Structure For 3D Graphics
  • Issue 05 - Coding A Wireframe Cube
  • Issue 06 - Hidden Surface Removal
  • Issue 07 - 2D & 3D Clipping: Sutherland-Hodgeman
  • Issue 08 - Polygon Filling
  • Issue 09 - 2D Portal Rendering
  • Issue 10 - Intermezzo - 8/15/16/32 Bit Color Mixing
  • Issue 11 - 3D Portal Rendering
  • Issue 12 - Collision Detection (Guest Writer)
  • Issue 13 - More Portal Features
  • Issue 14 - 3D Engine Architecture
  • Issue 15 - Space Partitioning, Octrees, And BSPs
  • Issue 16 - More On Portals
  • Issue 17 - End Of Transmission