Hello, this is my first message on GameDev. I am new to game developement, and so wanted to start with something small. My plan is to learn DirectGraphics (3D, I have no interest in 2D ) by developing a rendering system on top of it. I would start with a class to handle the DirectGraphics device, initialization, rendering, state changing. This is basically what the rest of the game would deal with when trying to draw something on the screen. Then I might work with the basic modeling of triangles, textures, lighting, and meshes. I think I would need something to manage these resources for the game, to properly load and unload everything between 'levels'. Does this design seem acceptable for a beginner? Is there anything else I should either look at, or worry about? I like to prepare ahead of time. Added: I almost forgot to mention that I am using Dev-C++. I cannot afford to purchase a professional setup, and the stores around my university and the one downtown never seem to have a student version of anything available. Am I going to run into any trouble using Dev-C++ (mingw32)? I already have a basic DirectGraphics program compiling. [edited by - Kohai on January 19, 2003 6:20:16 PM] [edited by - Kohai on January 19, 2003 6:20:48 PM]

Hi,
What you''re trying to do is what we ''programmers'' usually call a
"Graphics Engine". I''ve never worked with Dev-C++, I work with
Visual C++, however I think you''ll have no problems at all developing
in Dev-C++. I see everyday people saying that Dev-C++''s compiler is
great and is free, so good luck

BTW: I wouldn''t start with DX8 when DX9 SDK is already available, so
if you''re a begginer you could start with DX9 just to don''t have to
switch later and don''t have problems to compile DX8 apps with DX9 SDK,
people say that DX is backwards compatible but there are some modifications
you have to do to your code in order to get it working with a newer SDK.
I was not able to compile large projects I made in DX8 with DX9 SDK
(too much lines of code to modify...)

KaMiKaZe

Thanks for the words of confidence. I already have the DX9 SDK at home and at work, most of my programming time is spent at work unfortunately.

I am pretty happy with Dev-C++ right now, but thanks for the suggestions. I was only worried that there may be issues down the road.