c++ to ? = games 4

[branrx]

I'm a smart guy teaching myself c++ from a couple of textbooks, with the intention of one day creating excellent games. So far everything is about math, loops and simple number input. Looking forward in the chapters it seems its more complex math, which is fine but I wish someone would tell me the title of the chapters that jump to the next level of graphics and whatnot. Could someone give me a hint as to when the fun really starts, cause without a clear vision of the future Im losing my erection.

new guy brandon

 

[branrx]

Per..tell me your recomendation, really. Visual Basic with direct? I think the problem Im having is clear vision.. I can learn anything I need to, I just want to do something that I can quickly get little teaster programs on the way to my ultimate goal. Ive been playing with Visual Basic, and downloading some source code for games, and I wasnt impressed. I think I feel VB will be learned but then its a deadend, with no other place to go but C++ which is a totally different code. I just dont want to waste my time to the top, and I need to see something.

Could someone check out the games at Popcap.com and give me their impression to their concievement.

 

[PerFnurt]

>Per..tell me your recomendation, really. Visual Basic with direct?

Yes. Read my first post in this thread.


/Per

_{if (typos) cout << &quot;My fingers are faster than my brain. Sorry for the typos.&quot;;}

 

[branrx]

oops, sorry.. too many threads to remember

 

[BGrego]

Whatever language and graphic interface you choose is up to you. It is important to understand though...when people talk about understanding the basics, it's because the basics are very similar in all languages. All language have basic program flow that is similar. The reason that you may want to learn a different language is not to make the development of your games easier; it is because you need to get the basics of programming down so that you can apply those basics to more difficult languages that possess more power for what you want to do. Like I said before..don't expect to just create an amazing game without being familiar with the basics of programming. You should try learning a simple language, then begin doing simple graphics with that language. Then, work your way up the ladder. You could start with C++, but this is pretty difficult without understanding programming basics, especially when dealing with something like directX or openGL. DirectX is an extremely large and powerful interface, but it is also very difficult to use and understand. If you want to get involved with programming games, you may try a more simple interface...ie- Dark Basic or Java. Java is a good language to start with because it is very similar to C++, but it supplies its own classes for handling graphics and GUI. I recommend that you develop some simple games in Java, once you understand Java and using its graphical capabilties, you may be ready for C++. As I said, the Java language closely resembles C++. The best thing that you can do to help you on you ventute is is...buy a good game programming book. I suggest anything from Andre LaMothe game development series!!! Good luck!!! You have a long, hard, and FUN road ahead. Don't begin by hating the programming part. Programming is hard, but learn to love it. Programming is fun. Game programming is just a bonus.

 

[lionelhill]

BGrego, I think you make a lot of really good points, but I disagree with you about necessarily learning an easy language first. I personally think C let alone C++ is a hideous language (sorry all!), but it IS just about the most important language out there, so there's a lot of sense it tackling it. OOP is horrible to get your head round, but it's expected nowadays.

But what I do feel (very strongly) is that if you're going to learn C++, do it with really, really stupidly easy programs. Start with hello world, and work your way through hangman to pacman/tetris as BertV suggests, and onwards. Very few people can tackle a new idea (pacman) and a new technology (C++) at the same time. Same reason as I always tell people to do their first calculation on a bit of paper before they try to write a spreadsheet.

Hey, and what's wrong with Pacman??! It's still one of the most playable games ever, and there's an awful lot of really awful implementations of it out there, and not quite so many really good ones available as freeware ... there could be worse ways to make yourself popular.

I'm off to start writing pacman...

 

[branrx]

Well, an update....Ive been learning c++ about 2 weeks now and on my own, without a teacher, this is a bitch!!! Im using two textbooks and about 20 online tutorials!! The way data is stored for efficiency is diving me crazy. I can see why its a good language but I wish the computer could just know how much space you need so you could avoid declaring EXACTLY what you want it to do... It seems actually there are just a few basic concepts in C++ just a million different ways to organize them.. Anyway, Im stickin in there. Should be able to write tic tac toe, by 2005..haha

 

[PerFnurt]

>I wish the computer could just know how much space you need so you could avoid declaring EXACTLY what you want it to do

If that is important to you, you should perhaps go Basic. No need to declare anythen there.

/Per

_{if (typos) cout << &quot;My fingers are faster than my brain. Sorry for the typos.&quot;;}