Elysian Shadows

OpenGL
Lua
C++ *

I'm going to start buying more books soon, so does anyone have any recomendations?

*With the C++ book , I have Sams Teach yourself C++ in an hour a day(not finished with it yet, but it is a great book) but do you think I should get a more advanced C++ book? or will I know the language fluently enough to start game dev?

Thanks guys, later!

EDIT: Oh, and should I learn anything else while I'm at it? Languages, APIs, Libraries, etc?

Sorry, no suggestions from me. Learned all those online, using tuts & official docs.

OpenGL - "The OpenGL SuperBible"
Lua - "Official Lua 5.1 Reference Manual" (online, free reference) - http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html

GyroVorbis wrote:OpenGL - "The OpenGL SuperBible"
Lua - "Official Lua 5.1 Reference Manual" (online, free reference) - http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html

Sweet thanks, I've seen that OpenGL SuperBible, I'll pick it up around the time I finish the book I'm on now.

But will the Sams C++ book be sufficient for game dev, or will there be a high benefit of getting a more advanced book?

Oh and before I really start devving, any other languages, APIs, Libraries, etc I should check out?

XianForce wrote:

GyroVorbis wrote:OpenGL - "The OpenGL SuperBible"
Lua - "Official Lua 5.1 Reference Manual" (online, free reference) - http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html

Sweet thanks, I've seen that OpenGL SuperBible, I'll pick it up around the time I finish the book I'm on now.

But will the Sams C++ book be sufficient for game dev, or will there be a high benefit of getting a more advanced book?

Oh and before I really start devving, any other languages, APIs, Libraries, etc I should check out?

No book on this planet will make you into a proficient game developer. long long endless nights complaining that your compiler is broken morphs you into a might morphin power game developer.

avansc wrote:

XianForce wrote:

GyroVorbis wrote:OpenGL - "The OpenGL SuperBible"
Lua - "Official Lua 5.1 Reference Manual" (online, free reference) - http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html

Sweet thanks, I've seen that OpenGL SuperBible, I'll pick it up around the time I finish the book I'm on now.

But will the Sams C++ book be sufficient for game dev, or will there be a high benefit of getting a more advanced book?

Oh and before I really start devving, any other languages, APIs, Libraries, etc I should check out?

No book on this planet will make you into a proficient game developer. long long endless nights complaining that your compiler is broken morphs you into a might morphin power game developer.

lol, I know, but think of it this way:

You can't jump into it without knowing how to use C++. If you went into it with no knowledge prior, you would fail hard...I'm just trying to get the knowledge of use, then later comes the application and experience

Personally I started by taking a class on C back in the day, along with countless hours of fiddling around with Visual Basic in high school. From there I just grabbed the C++ book that the local community college was using for their C++ classes (Sams C++ Primer Plus by Stephen Prata) it's a huge book, but it goes very in depth on the language (sometimes he gets a little overly wordy imo though).

Even if you just plow through the 24 hour book, once you're done with it, just start making a game. (start simple though) When you run into a problem that you don't know, figure it out. Look online, post here, post in programming forums, ask questions. You'd be surprised at how much you learn just by figuring things out that you don't know... I've learned more on my own with each project I finish (game programming or not) than a semester of a programming class. (or maybe I'm just taking crappy programming classes :P)

In short, programming is very much "learn by doing"

MarauderIIC wrote:In short, programming is very much "learn by doing"

Yes, I know, did you guys not see my previous post though?

If you don't know the built in functions of an API/Library, or how to implement something such as Lua, your going to screw yourself over. I want to learn the knowledge of the langauge/API, and then get the experience.

Does that make sense?

If you're looking for basic use, there's plenty of starter tutorials online. I posted a few http://elysianshadows.com/phpBB3/viewto ... ?f=6&t=148

MarauderIIC wrote:If you're looking for basic use, there's plenty of starter tutorials online. I posted a few http://elysianshadows.com/phpBB3/viewto ... ?f=6&t=148

Ya I'd like to take a look at those, but I like having a solid reference so I can read/review at school on trips, etc.

Tangable references, I feel ya. I was similar when I first began learning.

One thing I did notice, though, is that as time progressed my reference books got smaller. ;P

(Sam's Teach Yourself in 21 Days (~900pgs?) -> C++ in a NutSheel - A Pocket Reference (~60pgs?) )

Arce wrote:Tangable references, I feel ya. I was similar when I first began learning.

One thing I did notice, though, is that as time progressed my reference books got smaller. ;P

(Sam's Teach Yourself in 21 Days (~900pgs?) -> C++ in a NutSheel - A Pocket Reference (~60pgs?) )

Makes sense, after a while, you won't need the book to explain it, You just need to know how to declare/initialize something.

XianForce wrote:

Arce wrote:Tangable references, I feel ya. I was similar when I first began learning.

One thing I did notice, though, is that as time progressed my reference books got smaller. ;P

(Sam's Teach Yourself in 21 Days (~900pgs?) -> C++ in a NutSheel - A Pocket Reference (~60pgs?) )

Makes sense, after a while, you won't need the book to explain it, You just need to know how to declare/initialize something.

So any other suggestions guys?

I am going to get a book called game coding complete, but i havent read it yet, so i cant say if it is good or bad. But people seems to like it.