The time has come when 3D addins arrive on your Prizm... starting with Checkers!

Download here

3D Checker, almost finished but lacking a few features, is a checkers game, well, in 3D. The playing board is viewed with perspective rendering and rotates around to your side when it is your turn. The addin is backed by the Simple Checkers engine and makes sure that all moves are valid, as well as providing the actual AI (AI is there, but not put into use by the addin yet).

About the engine:
The engine was written by Markus Trenkwalder for the GP2X handheld platform. Just like the prizm, the GP2x doesn't have any floating point unit or any graphics hardware. The 'software renderer' (No name found, referred to as that) is written in C++ and allows you to make 3D scenes and have them rendered using a programmable pipeline. The program supplies its own Fragment and Vertex shaders in C++ for no special hardware requirements. The engine is complete with affine (perspective correction may be toggled) rasterization and fixed point math.

This engine compiles and runs with a some modifications, however doesn't get great speed as the CPU is the limiter. I suggest running Pover and OC'ing your Prizm to at least 87MHz for a good speed.

Please note that since this addin isn't done and I am releasing it at its current state, be aware that the icon, about menu, title menu background, color customization, and single player features are still missing and will be completed soon.

The demo video is pretty stunning. How long did it take you to port the software renderer over to the Prizm?

Thanks! The game turned out well

What was it, 3 days? Started the end of Friday and finished the end of Sunday.

Bravo! This is quite stunningly awesome

Those are definitely some nice graphics going for it!

Will there be an animation of sorts showing a jump for taking a piece, and a bit of sliding action when just moving to a spot over just being there?

That looks very nice!
Well done

That looks very pretty, but the effect is quite dizzying.

That will be added in the future.
Would it be fine if I added in a settings section in the addin to have the effect toggled?

Amazing work, AHelper! I'm particularly impressed that you threw those main menu effects together that fast.
I think it might be a little less dizzying, at least for me, if it alternated rotating clockwise and counterclockwise instead of always going rotating in the same direction. What do you guys think?

now to download it and try it out!!!

I think the background color should be black... just my preference

I see your proposal and raise you that it could be a textured background of some sort.

The title screen has the images in 3d, but it has no added visual effect. I was planning on having checkers pieces rain down on the sides. What would suggest the background be? Just black?

I think maybe something bouncing in the back or a background that ashbad had on pong would be cool. Also when will single player come out for checkers?

This looks really awesome. I love everything so far except the lack of an icon and the board always spinning in the same direction.I agree. It would look more balanced that way.

I will fix it eventually. Thanks for playing it The next update should have the AI added plus any thing else mentioned in the topic.

Superb, can't wait for the update! Also, would you say that the 3D engine is currently in a form where it would be appropriate for other people to try using it, or not quite as much?

Probably. I will release the source when time allows.

Can't wait to try your AI How far along is it?

I didn't make one. I am using a checkers library and the AI was always included. I just never added in a single-player mode to use it.