it's a sad day, my friends (book suggestions)

docyoung83 · 2004-06-09T01:04:51

There comes a time in every young programmer''s life when he realizes that part of the term "game programming" includes the word "programming." If you can''t program, you sure as hell can''t program games. For years I''ve tried to jump ahead of the pack and dive right into game programming without having a firm understanding of C++. Well, maybe it''s just maturity setting in, but I''m finally ready to put games on hold and just go after being a proficient C++ programmer. My end goal is still Win32 game development, that will never change, but I need to get good enough at C++ where it will be more second nature. I have a plethora of C++ books, some good, some not worth crap. I''m making my way through Accelerated C++ and am doing pretty good with the concepts. However, I''m almost finished and I will shortly be needing another book. I was looking at C++ Primer, 3rd Ed , which I''ve heard a lot of good things about. Does the difficultly level pick up where Accelerated C++ leaves off? I don''t need anymore beginner books, but something in the intermediate range. Ideally, my goal is the following: Accelerated C++ -> C++ Primer (or something equivalent) -> OpenGL Programming Guide -> OpenGL Game Programming . Any feedback is welcome. Thanks.

For Beginners

Started by docyoung83 September 22, 2003 01:47 PM

17 comments, last by docyoung83 19 years, 10 months ago

SoulSkorpion

238

September 23, 2003 09:27 PM

1: I'd avoid anything with "in 24 hours", "in 24 days" or "for dummies" in the title. If you can read it in 24 hours it won't last you longer than 24 hours, if you can read it in 24 days it won't last you longer than 24 days, and dummies don't last long writing complex games!

. Seriously, if you want an in-depth knowledge of your language of choice (and you're going to need an in-depth knowledge of your langauge of choice, as you've discovered) don't rely on these books.

2: You mentioned that you wanted to develop games for Windows. This is one area where (as far as I know) you can take a shortcut. You don't need to know much about Windows programming at all to write decent stuff in Windows using OpenGL or D3D, and tutorials on those APIs generally cover the basics which you need.

...

quote:strastru watzhisname

Bjarne Stroustrup?

[edited by - SoulSkorpion on September 23, 2003 10:28:19 PM]

-------------"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."- Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

cowsarenotevil

3,015

September 23, 2003 10:04 PM

quote:Original post by SoulSkorpion
1: I''d avoid anything with "in 24 hours", "in 24 days" or "for dummies" in the title. If you can read it in 24 hours it won''t last you longer than 24 hours, if you can read it in 24 days it won''t last you longer than 24 days, and dummies don''t last long writing complex games! . Seriously, if you want an in-depth knowledge of your language of choice (and you''re going to need an in-depth knowledge of your langauge of choice, as you''ve discovered) don''t rely on these books.

Have you even read C++ in 21 Days? It''s one of the best books available for beginners, and since it''s free online (see my post above) why not?

-~-The Cow of Darkness-~-

Bakingsoda36

211

September 23, 2003 10:33 PM

quote:Original post by cowsarenotevil
quote:Original post by SoulSkorpion
1: I'd avoid anything with "in 24 hours", "in 24 days" or "for dummies" in the title. If you can read it in 24 hours it won't last you longer than 24 hours, if you can read it in 24 days it won't last you longer than 24 days, and dummies don't last long writing complex games! . Seriously, if you want an in-depth knowledge of your language of choice (and you're going to need an in-depth knowledge of your langauge of choice, as you've discovered) don't rely on these books.

Have you even read C++ in 21

Days? It's one of the best books available for beginners, and since it's free online (see my post above) why not?

Have you read any other beginner books on C++? If you haven't you can't really say it is one of the best...

[edited by - Bakingsoda36 on September 23, 2003 11:35:25 PM]

cowsarenotevil

3,015

September 23, 2003 10:37 PM

quote:Original post by Bakingsoda36
Have you read any other beginner books on C++? If you haven''t you can''t really say it is one of the best...

I have, though.

-~-The Cow of Darkness-~-

ChillingSP

122

September 24, 2003 03:45 AM

quote:Original post by SoulSkorpion
Bjarne Stroustrup?

He he

i know, i just find his name so difficult to write...

There are 10 kinds of people in the world : those who know binary system and those who don''t.

Ekim_Gram

418

September 24, 2003 01:57 PM

quote:Original post by ChillingSP
quote:Original post by SoulSkorpion
Bjarne Stroustrup?

He he i know, i just find his name so difficult to write...

Now that you can spell it, learn to pronounce it.

R.I.P. Mark Osback
Solo Pa Mi Gente
VG-Force

Anonymous

September 24, 2003 04:02 PM

So if you want to learn game programming, know action and Mel scripting, meaning that you are familiar with rudimentary programming concepts such as loops, but don''t know the c++ language and want to learn which is the book to get? A book on c and then followed by c++ or can you simply jump to a c++ beginners book?

S

Anonymous

September 26, 2003 10:35 AM

I learned C/++ because I wanted to do some simple games and all the game programming books at the time were written for C/C++. The book that worked for me, helped me learn C and the basics of game programming was a book called Flights of Fantasy by Chris Lampton. It is a wonderful book. (granted, I could already program in pascal so learning C was mostly an issue of snytax, not logic)

Good luck

wezman2k

122

June 09, 2004 01:02 AM

[inappropriate comment deleted]

[edited by - SiCrane on June 9, 2004 2:04:51 AM]

i want to crawl all over her

it's a sad day, my friends (book suggestions)

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