Help Me Get Started
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Here's my situation: I've done plenty of programming, I have a BS in Comp Sci and all, been doing it since I was in 9th grade, been doing C++ since I was 15, done the whole object oriented stuff obviously, including even a bit of MFC. I am learning a little win32 here and there, but I am little rusty overall since none of the jobs I've had since college have been programming. But I have always wanted to do games, but am nearly clueless on where to get started on just doing something basic. I've been looking at some DirectX stuff, and it's nearly mind-numbing, and I'm wondering if I shouldn't just get some libraries online to handle initialization and all that, or how I should approach beginning so I can at least get to drawing stuff on the damn screen.
So yeah, I need a little direction. I know how to program, and I get all the message handling main loop stuff, it's mainly the graphics part I'm hung up on right now. Just trying to make something basic though, before I send my resume off to the local game company.
Yes you can join a college course on Computer Graphics like cchase88 said. But note that you won't learn DirectX the first time you code with it. You need to understand whats going on before you can use it effectively. If you start reading articles on computer screens, perhaps even GPUs, then you will find learning DirectX isn't that hard(atleast that's what happened to me).
Good luck! [smile]
Good luck! [smile]
Perhaps you could try using a simpler graphics API such as SDL or Allegro to start with. You could also look into using existing engines (such as Haaf's Game Engine or the PopCap Framework) to do some of the work for you so that you can actually get a game up and running rather than worrying about all the initialisation details and whatnot.
//EDIT: The links I provided are mostly good for 2d, if you want to try something 3d you could look into OGRE or Torque. There are plenty of other libraries and engines around (both free and commercial) if you Google around a bit.
//EDIT: The links I provided are mostly good for 2d, if you want to try something 3d you could look into OGRE or Torque. There are plenty of other libraries and engines around (both free and commercial) if you Google around a bit.
I found dx also difficult to understand but now that i have read this little book partially:
http://www.rush3d.com/reference/opengl-redbook-1.1/
I find it much easier to understand the principles in directx also. I recommend reading this since it explains the basics very clearly. Even though directx of course differs a lot from opengl but it helps.
http://www.rush3d.com/reference/opengl-redbook-1.1/
I find it much easier to understand the principles in directx also. I recommend reading this since it explains the basics very clearly. Even though directx of course differs a lot from opengl but it helps.
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