Elysian Shadows

Hello, my name is Sam. Im very interested in computer science and i have some programming experience and now i wish to begin learning more about game programming. I stumbled upon GyroVorbis's channel on youtube and i became motivated to begin learning game programming. I have a couple of questions like, where do i start? where did you begin learning? what great books/material answered your questions and gave you better insight into game programming?

Would really be nice if i could get some responses on what i should follow up on or read.
Cheers

Sounds cool, but what language are you planning to use?

I started my true Game Programming Quest when i started learning C++. Sounds like a stupid idea but i already knew the Syntax, how pointers work, etc; I started with SDL and eventually decided to start using OpenGL as my graphics API and OpenAL as my Audio Library (along with libvorbis/libogg).

If you are going to use C++ i would recommend:
SFML or SDL

SFML is considered an updated SDL, but it's C++ object oriented design. There is nothing wrong with that, but i just prefer a procedural C library (SDL).

if C#, i recommend looking into the XNA framework or i think there is something named Tao's framework or something.

Any other language and i wouldn't have a clue as i don't program games outside C++.

and btw, how experienced would you rate yourself at the language? i ask this because games programming is somewhat unique to other uses.

Have Fun

Star with C.

Move onto C++ when you feel comfortable.

Well, the next step in learning should really depend upon what you want to create and what you already know. If you have some programming experience then it's not a bad idea to start out with the language you already know. Using a language you already know will allow you to focus on game programming topics like rendering, game structure, collision detection, AI, etc; rather than focusing too much on the syntax or usage of the language.

The only exception would be if you want to make something for a platform that won't work with your language of choice, or you have some other language that you're more set on learning than actual game programming (at least for the first few months with it).

So what languages do you know?

Also, I just wrote my story about how I got into programming (if you're curious) in the "When did your journey with programming start and why?" thread in the General/Off-Topic forum.

Welcome to the forums Sam.

Aleios wrote:Sounds cool, but what language are you planning to use?

I started my true Game Programming Quest when i started learning C++. Sounds like a stupid idea but i already knew the Syntax, how pointers work, etc; I started with SDL and eventually decided to start using OpenGL as my graphics API and OpenAL as my Audio Library (along with libvorbis/libogg).

If you are going to use C++ i would recommend:
SFML or SDL

SFML is considered an updated SDL, but it's C++ object oriented design. There is nothing wrong with that, but i just prefer a procedural C library (SDL).

if C#, i recommend looking into the XNA framework or i think there is something named Tao's framework or something.

Any other language and i wouldn't have a clue as i don't program games outside C++.

and btw, how experienced would you rate yourself at the language? i ask this because games programming is somewhat unique to other uses.

Have Fun

Im doing most of my programming in C and C++ but mostly C. Ive heard of SDL and it seems quite nice! what's you're exprience with it? I feel that i havnt grasped all the aspects of the language quite yet but im quite sure of the syntax and pointers, structures etc.

SDL is a nice library, but it is also a little restrictive in that you can only have 1 window at a time, and its normal drawing, compared to SFML (which is based on OpenGL), runs about as fast as an elephant with a broken knee. It does the job, but I can't say it's great.

SDL is a nice library, but it is also a little restrictive in that you can only have 1 window at a time, and its normal drawing, compared to SFML (which is based on OpenGL), runs about as fast as an elephant with a broken knee. It does the job, but I can't say it's great.

True you can only have 1 window at a time, but how many games really use 2 windows? And don't forget, you can initialize SDL with an OpenGL context. But yea, i have to admit, if i didn't find SDL first, I would probably be using SFML right now.

My advice would be to look at the structure of both of them and decide which one seems like it be the better option.

If your mostly using C then SDL would be a lot easier to learn but if your planning to learn more C++, SFML is an awesome object oriented alternative!

Ginto8 wrote:SDL is a nice library, but it is also a little restrictive in that you can only have 1 window at a time, and its normal drawing, compared to SFML (which is based on OpenGL), runs about as fast as an elephant with a broken knee. It does the job, but I can't say it's great.

In SDL 1.3, pretty much all of the reasons why you would use SFML instead of SDL go away. There is support for multiple windows, and the rendering is hardware accelerated. Also, I much prefer SDL to SFML, because I feel that I have much more control over how things are structured in the game.

Edit: Also, you can use SFML in C, you just have to use CSFML, which has a fairly nice API. I prefer SDL to CSFML though, probably because it was the first API I used.

lotios611 wrote: Edit: Also, you can use SFML in C, you just have to use CSFML, which has a fairly nice API. I prefer SDL to CSFML though, probably because it was the first API I used.

Ops forgot about that, good point!

lotios611 wrote:

Ginto8 wrote:SDL is a nice library, but it is also a little restrictive in that you can only have 1 window at a time, and its normal drawing, compared to SFML (which is based on OpenGL), runs about as fast as an elephant with a broken knee. It does the job, but I can't say it's great.

In SDL 1.3, pretty much all of the reasons why you would use SFML instead of SDL go away. There is support for multiple windows, and the rendering is hardware accelerated. Also, I much prefer SDL to SFML, because I feel that I have much more control over how things are structured in the game.

Edit: Also, you can use SFML in C, you just have to use CSFML, which has a fairly nice API. I prefer SDL to CSFML though, probably because it was the first API I used.

I just took a look at SDL 1.3, and... wow. SDL used to be an over-simplified, and somewhat restrictive, library, but now (from what I've seen in my cursory look), it's at least as powerful as SFML. I am truly impressed

Sure i do most of my programming in C but i will eventually learn c++ aswell, to get into object oriented programming! I was thinking of just starting out very easy and create something like pong. I watched alot of gyrovorbis videos and i agree that the project at hand has to be equal to what you can perform! having to high expectations really can ruin things. It has happened before, like for many others out there.

My favorite book recently is "Game coding complete, 3rd edition" with source code available to download. Really great book, it made me to rethink so many things and showed me how little I knew about game engine development before reading that book .

Moving to programming...