I'm new to OpenGL, but am spending all my free time learning about it and how to use it. A couple friends and I want to make our own game, but we want to run it off our own engine. Several of us are proficient in C++, and we're going to use 3ds Max 8 for our modeling. First, is advanced knowlege of OpenGL and C++ enough to make a suitable engine for our game? Second, where should I start? Third, am I completely missing something very important that no one has yet informed me of?

Yes, games are more than just graphics, but graphics are all I have to worry about. I'm director of graphics, the others are directors of sound and story. The team consists of about 12 to 15 people.

Also, I use google a lot, but I don't like all the junk-results, as I call them.


[Edited by - Hypoon on December 17, 2005 2:35:41 PM]

Quote:Original post by Hypoon
First, is advanced knowlege of OpenGL and C++ enough to make a suitable engine for our game?

Your maths needs to be solid. You'll at the very least have a reasonable ability in algebra, and know the basics of vectors and matrix arithmetic - or at least the principles.

Quote:
Second, where should I start?

Do a small amount at once. Don't try for anything too fancy.

I'll assume that you've already completed a OpenGL base code doing simple things like drawing hard-coded shapes using immediate mode.

You'll need

- OpenGL setup code (I assume you already have this)
- Texture loader (Included in many libraries)
- Model loader (Included in some libraries) - loader / renderer go hand-in-hand, or you could take somebody else's and modify it to suit your needs.

Quote:Third, am I completely missing something very important that no one has yet informed me of?

Making a game is a lot more than just graphics. You'll need:

- Object management
- Input handling
- Physics handling - even if very simple (e.g. 2d) - includes collision detection, clipping etc.
- Timing - the game needs to go at an even speed regardless of renderer speed etc.
- More advanced graphics optimisations - such as culling and LoD - only needed once your game gets somewhat more complicated.

Plus loaders for whatever level file formats or other custom file formats you need to load.

You'll want to start off with:

- A vector class - pretty much essential, takes a lot of effort out of doing things
- A matrix class - if you plan on doing your own transformations - which is necessary for many types of game.
- A viewport setup routine - to set up your view port with a perspective projection (1).

There are lots of other decisions you'll need to take on the way, such as how to actually do the rendering - some objects might need more than one pass, you might need to do one pass for opaque objects and come back for translucent ones. You might need to do depth sorting for some of your rendering - depending on whether you use z buffering etc.

Mark

(1) Only if you're using a perspective projection of course - some games (f.e. isometric) use orthographic (i.e. axonometric)