what should I do after the first experience

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1 comment, last by idinev 14 years, 7 months ago
Hi, I've finished the book "Beginning OpenGL Game Programming 2nd Edition" and realized that most from the OpenGL Graphics Library package 4th edition that I thought would be reference, are deprecated in 3.2 (and in future) but I bought already, what can I do ? :( Anyway, would you mind asking your suggestion that what should I do after this book ? I still feel like being a newbie and want to have some more knowledge to get solid foundation in OpenGL and GLSL. Or should I start creating games using real world game engines like Torque? I just wanna get some ideas from people who are much more smarter, like you guys :)
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I'm in this same situation, but I heard that, it's better when I'll learn GLSL. I was decided to do that. Now, I'm a newbie in shaders, but I know more. Now shaders is the best way to programming in 3D, so why you won't learn this? For example this tutorial is great:
http://www.lighthouse3d.com/opengl/glsl/

And you should read a documentation. There is a lot of important things.
You can even now start applying what you've learnt. The book doesn't cover only character-animation (skin-meshes) from what is needed to make a game. OpenGL is a tool with many faces, with technology that spans a decade. You can mix bleeding-edge techniques with ancient ones, so you really don't need GLSL/stuff to make something useful.
I'd say - do as me - and read everything on the net about GL and DX and graphics and console-APIs, but I got away with it as I'm a fast reader. So, to let us point you to a good direction, describe your situation a bit more - what you want to do with OpenGL.
- just make some game, not heavy on "eyecandy"? - start making that game, and read tutes+info when you get stuck somewhere. Don't worry about performance and eyecandy, just make the thing playable.
- research shiny pixels? - In a GL2.1 context just whip-up code, mixing FFP and GLSL in any way you see fit. PCF shadowmaps and post-processing effects (motion-blur, depth of field, HDR) are a start.
- research optimization - to push as many objects, triangles, textures and glXX commands as possible? - start studying in a _pure_ GL3.1 or GL3.2 context, no FFP. Use IHV-specific extensions when available and useful. Do measure cpu-cycles (RDTSC) and gpu-counters; study articles on how specific modern hardware works internally.
- searching for a possible gamedev job after 2+ years? GL3.2 , brush-up your matrix/quaternion/etc maths, study the 3 paths above (making a game, shiny pixels, optimization); see how some engines work and what interface they have, learn to get easily accustomed to a 3rd party engine; study the artists' pipeline and try to make importers/exporters from 3dsMax and Maya; some scripting for those modelers. Keep an eye on DX gamedev, too - almost all ideas and techniques from there are possible and easily mapped to GL


- finally, I hope you're not on an Intel gpu. An nVidia card is best for widest-spectrum of GL paths, an ATi Radeon HD2X00+ is suitable for portable GL3.X (nVidia drivers are not strict, and permit deviating from the specs - nice to simply research for yourself, but horror to let ATi users run into the hidden bugs).

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