3Ddreamer

Mono/GTK

Yeah, ray tracing is so demanding that I never use it in my work. It simply is not needed for a game with the alternatives. 

 

Someday, maybe within 10 to 20 years, computer power will allow significant ray tracing in any game with all the other assets, but until then it is relegated to image rendering for the most part.

 

Master shader technology and you will forget about ray tracing.  Usually you would get more real life, realistic appearance with shaders anyhow.

Well, there is a lot of room for flexibility.  Experienced people can help you once they are on the team.

 

Take a look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Development

 

Really there is need to keep things simple as possible.

 

 

Clinton

That's very cool!  Nice work!  It must feel good. 

Some wonderful 2D or 3D games have been programmed entirely in Python.  Python has strength as a scripting language and freeing the programmer from memory management lower level programming.   The 3D graphics rendering is doable, but not the strength of Python compared to some other languages such as C++ or C.  The beginner and intermediate game programmer will probably have plenty of capability to make a very nice game using Python. Once getting into advanced Python scripting, the coder should choose another language to compliment it for lower level programming or other issues such as server implementations and so on.

 

Python is a great language worth mastering in any case. By the way, physics programming works well with Python for game scripting.  Pretty much almost anything which is end user operated is an area for excelling in Python scripting. It also interfaces very well with other languages and is well supported to do so. 

There is a nice foundation for future development.   

 

Is this entirely rendered in the D3D 9 API environment or is this done with the Blender game engine, too?

Hi,

 

 

I am a 2D and 3D fanatic, so I will say nice start but you have a long way to go.  The basics are all there but I feel that you need to slow to a careful, snail's pace.

 

  It looks rushed to me. Get into the dirigible mindset because the Graf Zeppelin was not a blimp.  A dirigible has actually few similarities to a blimp in the many parts of it. The internal skeleton of a dirigible makes a drastic difference in the appearance details compared to the blimp.  As a semi-professional, I can assure the reader that research is a huge part of the process to make large vehicles such as a Zeppelin.  Now, if you intend to make one of the most recent Zeppelin crafts, then you are closer, because composite materials have made them appear more blimp in appearance than the past models. 

 

As a reference, a 3D model of the Graf Zeppelin would take 50 - 150 hours of research and several hundred more hours of creation to really give it justice.  I would charge a professional game developer thousands of dollars for a realistic, animated, and user-operated version.

 

For a nice 2D model, you could cut all that to about 1/4 of the above estimates.  This would include putting it into the game in alpha.  A 2D editor work would include some assisted tools and brush strokes.  Gradients would help you much, as a tip.

 

Make the parts in the background first, preferably by 2D editor layer, and parts in the foreground last - all the while using an outline underneath as a guide layer. GIMP is very nimble with the layers. 

 

A nice start you have there, so learn and keep up the good work. 

This is a thread about matrices, not about API choice.

 

API choice narrows the focus about matrices, so it is very relevant in my opinion.  Albert Einstein had the same philosophy of wanting to learn only that which he needed at the time or in the conceivable future, making him a mediocre student but high achieving physicist.  If one chooses, the same strategy can save the XNA user much learning of things not used with XNA.  Beginning and intermediate programmers are in heavy need of completing tasks through the workflow pipeline and not exploring the whole world of matrix theory which can lead to a PhD by itself.

 

I still stand by my recommendation to get a couple good books about XNA which include the math, particularly the matrices.  

Hi,

 

 

You need some books on XNA programming and implementation.  There are numerous ones out there.  Even one or two which are 1 to 3 years old would help a lot.  Some cover the drawing/ mesh area very well.  AmazonDOTcom is a good place to get XNA books, but there are others.

 

Everything you need to learn and implement XNA is already out there, so no - it is NOT dead - but mature. Mono is one of several ways to implement XNA cross-platform, so the ability to do so will be available for years - one reason why Microsoft does not directly support it anymore.

Ahhh! ... Game Design Analysis at its finest!

 

 

Thank you!

Newbies reading this with little or no prior experience:

 

  You need to program simple applications, preferably console ones, before ever starting to make a game. It only takes a few, maybe 3 to 5 of them, and then - only then - will you be ready to start in making a game.  Make "Hello World", simple data base, letter display application, very simple text editor - that sort of thing. Use only a beginner friendly language such as Python, Lua, C#, and so forth.  Stay with only one language until you reach intermediate level of proficiency. Do NOT start with C++!  It could be a good second language after you get an auto-memory management language understood in all the fundamentals.

 

After months or even as long as a year, make 3 to 5  very simple copy-cat games.  Here is a list to consider:

 

Crossword Puzzle

Tic-Tac-Toe

Pong

Tetris

Pac Man

Defender

Asteroids

Donkey Kong

Mario Brothers

Galaxy

 

... or other simple 2D games... Make each one well and add some of your own features before moving to the next one.

 

Stay on the proven path thru the jungle of game development until you have the experience to be a trailblazer or I guarantee that the jungle might eat you for breakfast, lunch, and supper! ... stay on course!

 

You can do this!  Most people have the natural ability to make great improvements over the coming years in game development, so likely you can too!  Stay at it and have fun!

 

 

 

 

 

Game engines do very in complexity and what they cover.  One thing that they all have in common is that they eliminate much or sometimes all of the lower level coding such as the shader coding done for you, for example.  Some game engines come with default end-user interfaces and some do not but leave that to you.  The purpose of a game engine, after all, is to free the game developer to focus mostly or all of the effort on what the developer does best:  Creating games by the coding process, so make a game source code instead of adding a game engine source code to the difficulty.



The game engine is the software and applications layer between your game coding and the runtime environment (such as Common Language Runtime or Java Runtime Environment) and/or machine/assembly language. In the case of industry or corporation APIs such as OpenGL, DirectX, Java APIs and so forth, these APIs are also a layer between your game coding and the machine/assembly level, but leave much of the tool making and other application work up to you as far as games are concerned.  Consider these APIs to be more general application programming and open ended than a game engine which is made for programming a game. By the way, game engines depending on design can be an interface between a language which you use in the game engine such as C++, C#, C, or Java and APIs like OpenGL or DirectX within a framework such as Java Framework, .NET Framework, or Mono (an implementation of .NET actually). Simply remember that a game engine is the development environment layered or sandwiched between your game coding and lower level coding which you probably will never handle directly. The game engine is really a set of interfaces (at the core of it) between your coding and assembly/machine coding, but can sometimes be used with another intermediate layer such as OpenGL.

Hi, The general rule, purely from a technical and not an artistic viewpoint, is that each of those categories in the original post should be as lean as possible to accomplish the artistic concept. I have done a whole car with one material and one texture and a ship with several each.  You use the least amount to accomplish the most visual impact PERIOD Duplicate identical parts exactly the same in view, UVmap, and texture as possible - sometimes going out your way to do so.  For example, you would not want to make each section of hand railing from scratch.  You would make a section of hand railing complete with texture, any material, and any shader, then duplicate that section many times to cover a bridge, ship, pier, boardwalk, balcony, and so forth where the handrail will span.  Another example are legs of a monster.  Say your monster has twelve legs.  Most or all of the legs would come from one source leg which was duplicated.  Another example are faces of any object - say a boat: Instead of making each section of deck or hull from scratch each time you would make one and duplicate it, placing each duplicate into the right position.  An alternative is to select already existing faces and apply the same texture/material/shader to each.  Later you can always go back and take a few of them to have another layer applied for variety. It is very advantageous for any game developer to get 3D model experience so they understand optimization of a model.

Brian,


In my opinion, you seem to be in a good position to try an existing game development system such as Unity 3D or Torque 3D. You have enough programming experience that getting back into the groove will happen soon. I recommend for you in your position to choose an attractive game engine and use the language or languages which are native to it.


The C# is an excellent general purpose language. It can't do everything, but is broad in capability.  Unity 3D uses some C#. There are ways to compile to or from C# in some game engines, as is true in some cases with other languages.


Here is a list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines


You can use a 3D engine to make 2D games - very important to remember that.  If the 2D game is going to be very simple than a game engine made for 2D might be better.  Look at PyGame, GameMaker, Blender, ... many others.   Choose one and begin to get familiar with the engine, meanwhile sharpening your knowledge of the language with later online tutorials and books in the language.

The most important search is inside of you.  Your imagination has far more potential to inspire both you and others than any external source filtered thru you.