i had this question when i first started. most people will give you a bad answer, because it isn't really a great question. i picked an api i wanted learn first. i looked at opengl and directx and settled on directx then i set out to choose a language. directx and opengl have support for a lot of different languages.

i looked at c++, managed c++ (yum), and c#. i really like the idea of managed c++ because you can mix managed and unmanaged code in the same assembly while still using the .net framework (yum). my thought was that it would be really useful when i started reaching the point where things need to be faster.

but then i realized that was beyond the scope of what i even had in mind for my project and that it was unlikely i would reach that point anytime soon. in fact, by the time i want to do that i should be skilled enough to port to another language without an insane amount of effort anyway.

so i settled on c# (yum). by the time i start thinking about optimization i may code some parts in m/c++ or c or hla or assembly. don't be afraid to mix languages and don't let some fanboy tell you that his way is better either.

look at this:

http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/
http://bytonic.de/html/jake2.html
http://www.espresso3d.com/
http://jogre.sourceforge.net/main.htm

hey and remember runescape? have you seen that lately?

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2301/26defence.png

it's about 1000000 times better than anything ive done and it runs in your browser my god.

also ive seen graphics programming in visual basic. just in case you were curious:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xeii/

there is more on codeproject

oh and by the way


YUM!