XNA vs Tao OpenGL
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Currently I'm using an onboard video card so I cant really mess with XNA. I plan on building a new PC in the next week perhaps, and about that time I want to get back into game programming.
I have a good grasp on C#, and i've made a text based game. So now I want to start in graphics.
I've heard XNA is great for the beginner. I do have one question though. Will the things I learn from XNA also help me with OpenGL or DirectX even? Or would it just be a complete re-learn?
I'm in a somewhat similar beginner situation and after going back and forth on the issue I decided that (for the most part) learning a specific API isn't as important as learning the general concepts of game/graphics programming. Therefore I've been using XNA to get comfortable making games (specifically making fully finished games). Once I'm comfortable I plan on moving into more specific areas such AS SDL/OpenGL or DirectX.
However since I'm just a beginner as well I'm not sure if that's correct. I'd love to hear what other people have to say about it as well.
However since I'm just a beginner as well I'm not sure if that's correct. I'd love to hear what other people have to say about it as well.
I learned XNA 2.0
And I regret it, REALLY, i REALLY regret it...
Yes, XNA is easy, cool for begginers, but it suck if you want to show your portifolio, not everyone has a windows + XNA Framework + .NET 2.0 + right version of DirectX in a shining condition, few people could play the game that I made, and even myself is struggling to run my game on other computers inside my own house (to run the game I must install all those behemots, and sometimes something else from microsoft, the thing is that XNA does not say what is needed, it plainly crash until I install everything)
Now I am trying to learn Irrlicht, and I tough that if I spent my time learning XNA learning Irrlicht instead, I would be much better now.
Btw: I also learned Allegro, and altough it does not support 3D (for now, 3D version is coming), it is one of the best things that I made, while using Allegro I learned A LOT, I was a C++ programmer for 6 years when I learned Allegro, and my knowledge of C++ DOUBLED when developing a game with allegro (I am being serious here, it really doubled) Also Allegro is great for begginers without a 3D card, I could develop a simple 2D game with it in two weeks.
And I regret it, REALLY, i REALLY regret it...
Yes, XNA is easy, cool for begginers, but it suck if you want to show your portifolio, not everyone has a windows + XNA Framework + .NET 2.0 + right version of DirectX in a shining condition, few people could play the game that I made, and even myself is struggling to run my game on other computers inside my own house (to run the game I must install all those behemots, and sometimes something else from microsoft, the thing is that XNA does not say what is needed, it plainly crash until I install everything)
Now I am trying to learn Irrlicht, and I tough that if I spent my time learning XNA learning Irrlicht instead, I would be much better now.
Btw: I also learned Allegro, and altough it does not support 3D (for now, 3D version is coming), it is one of the best things that I made, while using Allegro I learned A LOT, I was a C++ programmer for 6 years when I learned Allegro, and my knowledge of C++ DOUBLED when developing a game with allegro (I am being serious here, it really doubled) Also Allegro is great for begginers without a 3D card, I could develop a simple 2D game with it in two weeks.
Theory wise it would help you (rotations, transforms, basic rendering loop) but actually implementing graphics calls in OpenGL is much different then XNA. So I would say it would help you with the thought process of how graphics work but if you want to use Tao then you will have to learn the OpenGL syntax. DirextX is pretty similar and would be the most direct translation.
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