Camera & Transformations: Introduction

Welcome to the "Camera & Transformations" chapter of our "Building a Simple Engine" series! In this chapter, we’ll dive into the essential mathematics and techniques needed to implement a 3D camera system in Vulkan.

Understanding how to manipulate 3D space is fundamental to creating interactive 3D applications. We’ll explore the mathematical foundations of 3D transformations and implement a flexible camera system that will allow us to navigate and view our 3D scenes from any perspective.

In this chapter, we’ll focus on:

  • Understanding the mathematical foundations of 3D transformations

  • Implementing different types of transformation matrices (model, view, projection)

  • Creating a flexible camera system with different movement modes

  • Handling user input to control the camera

  • Integrating the camera system with our Vulkan rendering pipeline

By the end of this chapter, you’ll have a solid understanding of 3D transformations and a reusable camera system that can be integrated into your Vulkan applications.

Prerequisites

Before starting this chapter, you should have completed the main Vulkan tutorial. You should also be familiar with: