Thank you all so much for posting! I really appreciate your thoughts. I will continue to learn C++. From what I remember, I (only) left off on Chapter 8 in my book which covers Loops.

DaMangz, you have discovered my problem exactly! It took me a couple hours to figure out what my problem was. I am expecting to much out of myself and in so little time. I keep thinking that I can figure things out in a matter of hours and become the world's best programmer or modeler or whatever.

I understand that I can't but that was all the motivation I had when I began programming. I needed to believe that I could be something in order to continue programming. I suppose I set my goals WAY too high and now the damage has caught up to me.

As for 3D Studio Max, I only expected to learn how to do basic stuff during my first 1.5 weeks with it. All I could figure out how to do was stretch and color two spheres and place them together to form a hotdog! Big deal, I guess.

I always loved hearing people talk about their programming jobs. To me, programming brings life to games and that is what I would love to do, and so I shall. I may not compare to Carmack, even when I'm 90 years-old, but I will live to program a hit game!


Again, thank you all for posting!

minipadawan

[edited by - minipadawan on December 26, 2002 12:21:33 AM]

hmm inspired by the guys at midway? me too kinda. you from chicago? maybe we should talk sometime.. but anyway:

as for c++ im not very good either right now.. i look at some directx code and have a heart attack, but i keep getting that feeling to go back and try to learn some more. i do need a better book, but some people do teach themselves

as for 3dsmax, its much harder to teach yourself anything beyond the basics. for 3ds i found the included tutorials can help you a lot more than the ones on the net can. just go to help and look at the guides, they include partially completed scenes and give you step by step instructions. once you get the hang of it go check out 3dlinks.com (dont try it the other way around)

and btw that feeling of not knowing how to do anything when you look at 3dsmax.. i tried out maya one time, man, got that exact same feeling. its obviously more advanced but even knowing a few techniques in max didnt help me right off the bat

give it some time

If you think programming is too hard in the first place, go to www.clickteam.com... They have a exelent game and application making program. You simply "program" by an easy point and click interface... The koncept is simple... If something is true, then do whatever you want... (Like alot of if''s in C++)
If "Player" collides with "enemy"
Then---> Substract 3 from counter "playerlife"

if counter "playerlife" lower or equal 0
Then---> Destroy player
Then---> End application
(The possobilities are endless...)
Note: Ít isn''t a scripting language. (The program asks for all the parameters if you select a given function or action...)

The program is very easy to use if you are a beginner but you can also do alot of advanced stuff. You can make simple games in minutes but if you plan to make a flexible engine with all types of thing it can take just as long as a year or more.. It''s up to you... The program is called: Multimedia Fusion
It''s actually just as powerfull as Visual Basic and more easy to learn... I have used this program (early versions) for 6 years now, and i can''t really stop using it.

Many programmers hate theese programs, but i don''t see the bad in it... It helped me to understand alot about computers before i start to program. On the net there are alot of "plugins" called extensions (Can be compared to header ".h" files) There are precompiled functions and alot more in theese. If you want to make your own, then download the extension SDK from their homepage.

If you are into 3D, Clcikteam has also made a completly new programming language called Jamagic. You can easy make 3d in it, but as before, if you want to make something serious in it, it can take time.

Multimedia Fusion is 2D only, but I have made lots of 3D effects in it...

The price is quite cheap if you compare it to the professional game making tools (C++)and if you compare it with the amount of entertainment you get while you make anything...
It only costs 99$.
You can freely sell what you make.
Try out their demo on their website.

Andos