In this, the final part of the series, we’ll cover the long-awaited subject of 3D models, as well as highlighting some of the possible problems you may have as you attempt your own 3D games.

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We’ve covered drawing basic meshes, and we’ve covered the all-important transformation functions. We’ve also covered lighting. Now that we have all these basics down, it’s time to start on some of the nifty tricks that you can pull using what we’ve learned.

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In Part 1, we learned how to set up a basic camera, and draw the 3D primitives that Game Maker provides functions for. If you took my advice and messed around on your own a bit, you’ll have noticed a few limitations to included scripts. For instance, how do you go about rotating primitives? There are no arguments for that in the functions. What if you want to scale primitives in interesting ways, beyond simply changing the size via the draw functions? Well, in this instalment, I’ll be answering these questions using a single concept – transformations.

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It goes without saying that almost every game developer probably started out wanting to make games in 3D. After all, practically all of the AAA games that we played growing up were in 3D, so it comes as no surprise that we want to create our own 3D wonderworks.

What you may or may not realize is that the humble Game Maker comes with the ability to draw 3D graphics. This makes the task of putting 3D games together a lot simpler. However, one thing I would like to emphasize early on is that 3D is just another tool – nothing more, nothing less. Giving a game 3D graphics will not magically make it better. In fact, it can complicate a design that would otherwise work perfectly well in 2D. Conversely, using 3D in GM can also simplify certain graphical aspects of your game. It’s up to you to determine whether it’s worth all the extra effort, and to be aware of the limitations of Game Maker’s 3D functions.

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