quote:
This tutorial will show you how to create a very simple MFC program and how to customize it for your application. This program will be a base for other tutorials that I write for OpenGL and DirectX. I will be going through this tutorial in Visual C++ 6.0.

Wow, not bad when I was looking on a totally non game development related site for a general MFC tutorial!! Fate seems to be telling me this is a good move with every step I make... go figure

Ok, I''ve just found my holy grail.... MFC was fun to dabble in to my surprise but having spotted in another thread reference to a program called Gmax (simpler 3DS Max designed for level and character creation) this would solve a lot of my problems!! ... hmm why does the word fickle spring to mind Ahh well, I''m going to investigate... my project is still on temporary hold until I find out more though, but I''ll still update when things start rolling.

So do I!! but I was expecting to be using Q3Radiant.... now I have to learn an entire new package (no recent experience with 3D max) I''ll see what I can do, but until I am comfortable with GMax and loading its file format a game simply wont happen.. once I am comfortable I''ll start work with the same time scale. But don''t worry, I learnt Worldcraft almost entirely through in little less than 2 weeks, although I think my total sleep quota over the 2 weeks was about 10 hours , what can I say... I''m an Everquest fan.. personal best over 48 hours online without sleep while after an epic item (and man was that a killer!!).... but thats how much I love my games which in this industry is a valuable trait I''m sure... or just sad perhaps

First game I made was a Slippery clone (that one with a work that eat lifes). Also an editor for the levels in tha game. It took me about 4 days but was a big step for me.
Pet.

GMax is a fairly expensive package... do you really want to allow your users to create models, or wouldn''t it just be better to get 3DSMax?

Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates
- sleeps in a ham-mock at www.thebinaryrefinery.cjb.net

Yup... just realised that I can''t export to any file other than the native format unless I fork out for the developer version... and 3D studio max.... ouch!! 3k + dollars?!! umm that''d be like 3 or 4 months wages with no money to eat or to pay rent and bills!! I''ve managed to fix milkshape 3D by installing the Mesa dll''s but I''ve overrun my trial period now of course, so thats useless until I can get mine registered... plus I''m still not that keen. But I''ve settled upon an idea of creating a higher level world editor rather than a complete editing suite. I plan to use Milkshape 3D to produce simple mmeshes and allow the user to orient these meshes in real time and to be able to edit object properties. That way I don''t have to deal with the complexities of creating my own modeller, but I can still resort to Milkshape for model creation on a lower level. I figure if I''m dealing with only a 2D landscape, I just need to allow the user to load a ground mesh, specify it as being the ground mesh and set a texture. Then other models can be added and have properties set. All the editor will have to cope with is storing the locations of models, references to the mesh file in use and properties for each object, defining if it is the ground, armour, a weapon, an obstacle, a power pod or some other kind of entity. This would keep things very neat and simple, the editor wouldnt have to deal with things on a vertex level, only on a positioning level, and with an overhead viewpoint overhangs will not be used (at least not at the moment). Setting the properties in this editor would keep things simple and efficient when it comes to things like collision detection because it would know to check against the ground object to determine character height location and only to check wall objects and characters for movement collision tests.

I also have a great idea for path finding that would be quite simple to implement, make enemies seem pretty intelligent and responsive while not taking an eternity to develop. It roughly works along the lines of how a monster would think. He wont react to the player unless he has line of sight (which is good enough for a simple game) and so long as the player is within a certain awareness range. If he has line of sight that means no obstacles are blocking the path between the player and monster and thus he wont have to intelligently navigate around the terrain. The problem will occur when the player moves and moves out of line of sight. So the monster would then switch to follow last known position. The player would keep a recent path stored in its structure. The monster would move to the last point it had the player in its line of sight and then begin following the players waypoints until it finds the player or the player moves out of its awareness range at which point it would either wait or attempt to return to its starting point by backtracking (could be small problems there if he''s moved a long way but I''m thinking on it)

Anyways I can''t get anything done until I register my copy of Milkshape... unless anyone knows of any other decent modelling programmes that are either very cheap or free and support X files?

Very early days yet, but there is the first screenshot of my level editor, ETA to completion of the editor is 8 weeks. Assuming this deadline is met, work on the actual game will commence.

Dude, I can''t beleive you posted this in the beginners section, my first game will be Pong made in VB6, lol, with a tutorial yet!! I wish I could skip these beginning years and get to the good stuff...good luck. At least you know what your doing!