Noob moving from XNA/C# to ??/C++
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Hello,
This thread is some-what similar to what I posted a little while ago, but since it is in fact a different question, thus I created a different thread. Anyways, I'm 16, have (what I think) is pretty good programming experience, in QBasic (hehe), Visual Basic (.NET), C# (.NET), and am now getting into C++. I have also used the XNA Framework in C# and certainly liked it's-ease of use. I am now moving everything over to Ubuntu Linux (yaaay, no more Windows/Vista), and thus do not necessarily care about cross-platform support, it would be a feature that would be nice, but not a decision-maker. I am looking for a good type of framework similar to XNA or whatever. It has to support (only) 2D Graphics, Audio, Input, and 2D sprite rotations(as these cannot be done by hand). I was looking into SDL, and then began looking at Allegro, and then looked at SFML......I'm-to put it lightly, a bit confused as to which to go to, because evidently SDL does not support 2D sprite rotations, which is exactly what I need...The problem I kind of see with SFML is that there is not much documentation. Is it not popular? Or, is it so easy nobody needs more than the few standard tutorials?
Could someone(s) please provide me with some insight, as I desperately want to start getting into game creation again, and have been going through programming-withdrawal lately :)
Any documentation links you could give me, or personal experience would be awesome.
Also, would any or all of these be able to be setup on KDevelop (Linux C++ IDE).
I'm also not sure how I would do animations...
P.S. I am also kind of new to the whole C++ area.
I'm not in a position to answer most of your post, but to answer your PS: It shouldn't be too hard to pick up if you have a decent knowledge of C#. I Would recommend going through the C++ tutorials at cpluscplus.com.
Pars of it you'll be able to skim over because it should be fairly self explantory, but other parts you'll want to read carefully. The tutorials and documentation on C++ serve as a good reference for me if there's some particular point of syntax that I want to check, seeing as it hasn't been all that long since I was just learning C++.
There's also an extensive set of docs for the STL at cplusplus.com as well, which is extrememly useful when getting to know containers and iterators for use in games.
metal
EDIT- I would recommend FMOD for sound. I use DirectX for a lot of stuff but i found DirectSound to be a bit of a pain. FMOD is extremely easy to set up and use and from what I can gather can be quite powerful. It's been used in AAA games, but is still free to use for the hobbiest :)
Pars of it you'll be able to skim over because it should be fairly self explantory, but other parts you'll want to read carefully. The tutorials and documentation on C++ serve as a good reference for me if there's some particular point of syntax that I want to check, seeing as it hasn't been all that long since I was just learning C++.
There's also an extensive set of docs for the STL at cplusplus.com as well, which is extrememly useful when getting to know containers and iterators for use in games.
metal
EDIT- I would recommend FMOD for sound. I use DirectX for a lot of stuff but i found DirectSound to be a bit of a pain. FMOD is extremely easy to set up and use and from what I can gather can be quite powerful. It's been used in AAA games, but is still free to use for the hobbiest :)
I'm using Allegro right now since "Game Programming All in One" is the best resource I could find for making 2D games that covers all aspects from map making,sprites,etc
OpenGL/C++ There's a whole forum on it. Pretty easy. Don't do DirectX, really hard. www.videotutorialsrock.com. I'm 14 and using OpenGL. No problem, right? Well, if your using OpenGL, that's multiplatform. Omly 2D? Flash, hehe.
From what I know, SFML is pretty new, but it seems to be developing quite nicely. I'm planning to give it a try once I'm done with my current project. It'll certainly be better than 'plain' OpenGL - after all, rendering isn't all that a game needs.
That, or you could look into a more full-blown engine, such as Haaf's Game Engine. That one only runs on Windows though, but perhaps you can find a good cross-platform engine with similar capabilities.
That, or you could look into a more full-blown engine, such as Haaf's Game Engine. That one only runs on Windows though, but perhaps you can find a good cross-platform engine with similar capabilities.
Quote:Original post by Predator106SFML is very new, so there isn't much (if any) material apart from the basic official tutorials and anything you can find on the SFML forums so far. Almost everyone I know of who's tried it seems to like it however, so I can see it becoming very popular as it matures and as word spreads, eventually leading to more documentation.
The problem I kind of see with SFML is that there is not much documentation. Is it not popular? Or, is it so easy nobody needs more than the few standard tutorials?
It is a nice clean and simple API, the official tutorials are quite good for the basics of getting started, and the (still small) community on the forums are pretty helpful, but if you're not yet comfortable working without extensive examples and help it may not (yet) be for you; I'd certainly suggest it's worth giving a try if you're willing to put some effort into figuring things out for yourself where documentation is currently lacking though.
I agree about what the previous repliers have written about SFML. I highly recommend it, I've been using it for a little less than a year and I love it. I had no previous experience from any other library (SDL etc.) before trying SFML. The members of the forum are very helpful so getting help won't be a problem.
Give it a try, you won't regret it (I don't)
Give it a try, you won't regret it (I don't)
Author
Quote:Original post by MJP
Ditching C# and XNA for C++? You have a tough road ahead of you. [smile]
Yep :) Well I tried standard C++ a while back (console based), but that was before I started learning Visual Basic, when I was trying to figure out the best language to learn from QBasic :P
-dabo- Okay, I think I will go with SFML, I really like how its laid out and everything, and it looks like it supports everything I need-and then some. The only problem is, I'd like to have a definitive outline of what formats they support i.e. Sound, Sprites (Images). I mean does it support PNG, it says it supports .jpg, .wav. .ogg (whatever that is), but its not clear as to what ELSE it supports, it just says there are a lot more...
Quote:Original post by Predator106Visit the Features page. The listed image formats are (I believe) the only ones supported unless you use another library to load them, but are all the common formats and should be just fine for your uses. The listed audio formats should cover your needs - .ogg is the Vorbis format, which is similar to mp3 but without the associated licencing problems. If you actually need a format that isn't listed then you should ask about it, otherwise just get into using it, as the listed formats should provide everything you need.
I'd like to have a definitive outline of what formats they support i.e. Sound, Sprites (Images). I mean does it support PNG, it says it supports .jpg, .wav. .ogg (whatever that is), but its not clear as to what ELSE it supports, it just says there are a lot more...
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