Question
I started in the game games engine and juwt manted to ask what topics of math(trigonometry, algebra, calculus etc.)do you need to know for 2D games and can you please explain me why???
I don’t think you need to know calculus to make a video game, but if you do, you can use the built-on functions to skip a lot of math. It’s helpful to know trigonometry because you’ll need it to understand how angles are calculated, but Godot does have functions that will calculate angles for you. You don’t need to know algebra if you’re not doing anything too complicated with calculating numbers.
I guess it really depends on what kind of game you want to make. So what kind of game do you want to make?
Also, while it’s nice to carry a bunch of useful tools on your belt, little good tends to come from worrying how to solve problems you haven’t encountered ‘in the editor’ yet. Just work on your game, and the subjects to study further will reveal themselves sooner or later. For instance, if you’re trying to make an enemy walk about randomly, you’ll discover you need to set is velocity. Then you find out you need to know about vectors for that, and that’s a good enough reason to look more into vector mathematics.
It depends on what game you are making and what things you want to happen. For example, you may need:
Interpolation, which is often used for smooth transitions between two values.
The Derivative, when you need to convert a set of positions into a set of velocities.
Polar coordinates, which can be helpful when dealing with rotation-related tasks that are difficult to handle in plain coordinates.
I guess you should have some understanding of mathematical logic.
And may God have mercy on your soul if you ever need to deal with all those matrix-related things.
You don’t have to know all of those. Just knowing such things exist is more than enough
knowing on how to work with matrices is something that comes in handy at some point
I have been informed that there is more “complicated” math involved in even simple games than I realized.
For example, when you accelerate and de-accelerate a character, that is calculus. It’s just that it doesn’t really resemble how people are taught calculus in school, so people don’t associate speeding up a character’s movement with calculus.
So you shouldn’t worry about having to learn all of calculus before being able to make a game. You won’t need to know everything, just the stuff that is relevant to the game you are making.