Game development (C++/Opengl)

[billbarsch.bizhat.com]

Hello...
I´m looking for people interested on games development
I´m creating a game and I know that I have to learn much more...
So I´m using opengl because its a windows integrated graphic api.
And I use c++ because I know that this is the most used language...
My game will show a big 3d terrain and some 2d chars walking, all online and they will fight to get weapons or some think like that...(like Ragnarok)
I´m just waiting those "24h" to use my bizhat account...
them I will post here my first demo to download...
lest talk about this... the game development is an art and I love it.
If you want to learn more about this.. I will help with pleasure...
I´m not american ... my words are not so good but I can comunicate with all you.
By.

[@reynoldlariza@]

wow :o
Dang it's C++? it could be massive, and would take a lot of time, suck all your patience and leave you out no where :oops:

I was attempting to learn how to do this own my own too. But there are a lot of things to learn and to gather ,which i can't at most, due to limited time allotment I can put in it, coz I too myself are also developing custom applications/plugins.

Anyway, which 3D engine are you using on this project? (im just curious )

For newbies who like to get in to game development. Don't do this on the rough side immediately, it will just put you in frustration :oops:

Here are some links to try out:

Game Maker 6 - http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/gmaker/

cool and easy to use 2D/3D game development software. I have this installed on my system, and it gives me ideas of what, why, how about game development, check in the forum, guides, and how-to tutorials. The software contains almost all the tools you'll need to develop a game.

3D RAD - http://www.3drad.com/
similar to Game Maker 6, but much more advanced and in pure 3D only game development. It let's you create 3D terrains/objects on the fly too.

Almost forgot:

BASIC4GL - http://www.basic4gl.net/
this is a BASIC interface for OpenGL technology. Its similar to any BASIC development software (interpreter/compiler) which focus more in game development using OpenGL.

Now the most important I guess:

NeHe Productions - http://nehe.gamedev.net/
if you really want to get in to the game development you must know this site. It contains a quite a pack of archived articles, links, tutorials, etc about game development. Don't get leave behind :oops:

[billbarsch.bizhat.com]

Yea... I know that c++ is not the most easy way
but its the language used by professionals
I have been programming in clipper... and after in Visual Basic...
after in Delphi and now I discovered that c++ is not easy but... the best
On internet we have several examples that can be used to learn how to develop a game, and from this examples 80% are to c++.

Ok... that´s my choice. I can help with delphi and Visual Basic too.
I don´t like those "games creators" released. I think a game have to be written to specific purpose, and games created by those tools are "generic" applications, they are not bad, but we cant compare the quality!

I´m using the opengl engine, I use the those basic opengl functions like
gllookat() (for camera) and glbegin() glend()(to draw).
I like these basic functions, I can do more detailed games with that.

So... now I have my "50mb" account but I dont have a "really good" demo to post here.
Wait please.

[billbarsch.bizhat.com]

Ok we are on a teaching ambient.
So I´ll explain some things...

A game is like an application, basically all applications creator can create a game. To create an application we have to know some programing language.
It works like this:
You create a text file (with wordpad) and write the programing to your program or game.

Generic Example
hello.txt:
"Hello world" application:
****************
main()
{
printf("Hello Word");
printf("Hi Word");
printf("Hello friends");
}
****************
("printf" is a command, its a function that shows text messages on screen)

"Compiler" is the applications creator, its a program that takes the hello.txt file, read it, and output the program to run on your operating system
EX:
Compiler: Visual Basic
Operasional system: Windows
The programs written on Visual Basic I´ll run on Windows (not on linux)
Compiler: Delphi
Operating system: Windows and Linux
The programs written on Delphi can run on Windows and linux.(if you want and know how to do that)

The "compiler" creates the hello.exe that can be used by any one.

In this case our program is just some messages on DOS screen.
And we can run it on DOS with:
c:\>hello.exe
the result is like that:

c:\>hello.exe
Hello World
Hi World
Hello Friends
c:\>_

hehe! I know its very poor but, to be understood by any one.

Programs can be very complex, and use more commands.
like:
If (condition)
do some thing
else
do some thing else


Ex:

*****************************
main()
{
if(the user press "A" button)
{
printf("You pressed A");
}
else
{
printf("You pressed oder button");
}
}
******************************
Now our program have a condition, and its the basic thing!
Microsoft wrothe some billions of conditions to do the "Microsoft Word" for example!

Ok! and games???

Imagine this program:
Now this is a windows application (not DOS):
*****************
main()
{
show_a_window(600,480);

if(the user press "left" button)
{
draw_on_my_window("A_big_red_ship.bmp");
}
else
{
draw_on_my_window("the_stars.bmp");
}
}
*****************
what's the difference?
"show_a_window(600,480);" says to compiler show a blank window with
600 pixels (whidth) and 480 pixels (height)
"draw_on_my_window" is a function that draws a image file on the screen!

But! how can I create a game with this?

Imagine some conditions that draw our ship and the stars, and maybe some enemies, and if the shoots are near the enemies, we draw an explosion!

It's very poor again, I know, but its just to explain how to create a game!

Finally... A 3D game is not so diferent!
but the "draw_on_my_window" function is very complicated
and microsoft created this for us!

Microsoft created a graphic api (directx) and your program may use this
help:
EX:
*******************
main()
{
show_a_window(600,480);

if(the user press "left" button)
{
directx_draw_on_my_window("my_3D_ship.3ds");
}
else
{
directx_draw_on_my_window("my_3d_terrain.3ds");
}
}
*******************

Ok...
I think any one can understand this, I remember that I´m not american
so... I don't know how you read it! In my opinion it´s very easy to understand!!

Some key words:

Some Compilers (programs to create programs):
Delphi (by Borland)(Windows and Linux),
Visual Basic (by Microsoft)(Just Windows),
Visual C++ (by Microsoft)(Just Windows)
Borland J++ (by Borland)(Windows, linux, BE OS, UNIX, bla bla),
GCC (maybe by Linus)(Just Linux)
and oders...

Some programing languages (how you talk to the compiler):
Delphi: Pascal
Visual Basic: the most easy lenguage, I dont know the name!
Visual C++: "C" language and "C++" language
Borland J++: Java
and oders!!

Some graphics apis (some useful functions to help the creation of games):
DIRECTX (Have 2d and 3d functions and helps to create games like Midtown, Monster Truck, Age of Empires, and much more)
OPENGL (Have 3d functions to do lights effects and more!! Helps to create the Counter Strike, Half Life, Quake and mooooreee)
and oders!!

[@reynoldlariza@]

well that's just the basics of C programming language. It can't be compared with a real game's code. Printing a "hello world!" text into a console window is nothing compared to loading sprites, resources and/or dynamic graphics (may it be 2d or 3d) rendering.
well, on your side you OpenGL is probably easy for you to read coz you already have done it. But for a newbie in programming it'll just result into furstrations (mostly in C++). Coz there are somethings must be done in game which are not in a common windows application. one if it is jumping and moving images/objects to certain locations or coordinates on a screen.

the game dev tools i mentioned are not as what you think they are. Besides I learned openGL better using one of em than starting from scratch working with openGL functions. Ofcourse if you use these tools, you can only doo what is available in it, but most of the time there's no more you need than what these tools offers. But if required, yes they can be integrated to it (e.g. external libraries/resources). All of it depends on what game you'll develop and which platform(game genre) it is.

[billbarsch.bizhat.com]

Hello reynoldlariza...
Ok... I´v entered on those sites and I saw what those tools can do...
Some screenshoots are very good!
But... lets start doing some thing?

I have my idea, a 3d online game with a lot of users walking and fighting in a big or maybe infinite terrain!
I can do the chars and the 3d terrain, the textures and maybe some light effects.

But, to create a online game, we need a server.
My opinion is:
We can use a free mysql server to save the users ip
And all user that login in the game can see the other users.
To do this, we have to know how use the "winsock api", to communicate user to user
and "mysql c++ api" to select the ips registered in the server.

you got it?
I dont have a good experience with winsock, just some tutorials but I never did a real program.

I know that use a free mysql server can turn the login process very slow
but I don't know other way to save the users ip´s on the internet!

You know some thing like that?

My friend draw this:


Good no? he I´ll put this char walking.

[billbarsch.bizhat.com]

the first sprite:

http://billbarsch.bizhat.com/charsprites.jpg

[billbarsch.bizhat.com]

a very interesting site on my development list is:
http://focusej.cjb.net
it`s brazilian
it`s using php + mysql to forum and some things!!
every one can e-mail me to get some php codes, or mysql help!
by :o