In need of guidance
Author
Hello all,
This is my first post on the forum, so let me briefly tell sth about myself first. I am a mechanical engineer and live in Istanbul, Turkey. I have used C at the university for numerical methods and can call myself an intermediate user.
Having played computer games for years, i decided about a month or two ago that i wanted to learn game programming and write my own games as a hobby. What i really like about game programming is the artificial intelligence and physics behind. (Worms is my favorite in this manner).
After searching the internet, i saw that many people use and advise C++ for game programming. Thus, i downloaded some documentaries and ebooks about C++ and started working through.
What is really bugging me at present is i continually hear different things from people about C++. For instance i should stop learning C++ and start with C# or VB.NET immediately, since i can achieve much more with these languages in a shorter time and C++ is an old technology; there are also many programmers who switched to C# from C++
C++ is as far as i know a hard language to master. Can you say an investment of 3 years for C++ will be worth it in the long run? Or do you say you can learn much more in a shorter time with aforementioned languages?
Thank you for your assistance,
Can
I cant speak from actually industry experience wether something is worth it.
But I can tell you this from my experience.
1.) C++ and C# are very similar. So whichever one you learn it will be no big deal to learn the other one afterwards as well.
2.) C++ is more difficult no doubt about that but also more powerfull in its capabilities(its more low level - nearer to machine code'). So depending on what your aim is learning c# may be sufficient.
3.) C++ is not a 'dead' language. It is used very widely. The only area where it will be used a little less in the future is windows programming. Especially GUI. Meaning its often used for standard windows applications, since its faster.
4.) At the moment c++ will make very slightely faster programms.(3% or so)
Conclusion:
If you just want to stick with the easier which will suffice for many purposes do c#. It is the future of windows programming.
If you want to go deeper learn c++.
In case you want to learn both you will have to decide where to start.
Starting c++ would be harder but has the advantage of you getting the ultimate basis from which everything is easy.
Starting c# is a more step by step approach and probably faster. You will however have to suddenly get used to pinters and such.
-CProgrammer
But I can tell you this from my experience.
1.) C++ and C# are very similar. So whichever one you learn it will be no big deal to learn the other one afterwards as well.
2.) C++ is more difficult no doubt about that but also more powerfull in its capabilities(its more low level - nearer to machine code'). So depending on what your aim is learning c# may be sufficient.
3.) C++ is not a 'dead' language. It is used very widely. The only area where it will be used a little less in the future is windows programming. Especially GUI. Meaning its often used for standard windows applications, since its faster.
4.) At the moment c++ will make very slightely faster programms.(3% or so)
Conclusion:
If you just want to stick with the easier which will suffice for many purposes do c#. It is the future of windows programming.
If you want to go deeper learn c++.
In case you want to learn both you will have to decide where to start.
Starting c++ would be harder but has the advantage of you getting the ultimate basis from which everything is easy.
Starting c# is a more step by step approach and probably faster. You will however have to suddenly get used to pinters and such.
-CProgrammer
For game programming, you'd probably still want to stick to C++, especially computer platform games. If you're thiniing about smaller and shorter games, then you'd might want to go into VB or python-like languages (online).
I suggest you learn c++ first. Learning c# when you already know c++ takes about a day. If you look on any game company's website, the required language is c++. It's always c++. That might not mean much to you as a hobbyist programmer, but it does mean that there's an abundance of c++ game programmers out there and thus an incredible amount of resources for learning. The best tutorials and books I've found use c++. So, if for any other reason, learn c++ because of the amount of stuff out there that teaches with c++. Also, it isn't nearly as hard as most people say it is. It was my first language. If you already know c, all you need to learn is object oriented programming and you're pretty much set. And by the way, you're making the right choice by learning to make games. It's the funnest thing in the world
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