Hi guys,

I figured this would be a good place to start a thread about making the jump from "Hello World" to building a game engine. I don't mean details in what exactly it takes (I don't think) but I'm hoping for a general discussion in this progression.

To give a little background about myself, I took C++ classes in high school and afterwards studied the language through books, forums, mentors, etc. I spent a few years writing custom code for a private Ultima Online shard, a Neverwinter Nights module. So basically, I have somewhat of an understanding of most c++ basics like variables, building functions, allocating memory, using classes, etc. I haven't really touched anything in the core of an engine though. (Most of my programming has been in console applications, which usually turn out to be shitty calculator programs based in the command prompt format. UGH, so tired of not being able to do anything else!)

Now I love programming, but I can't find a bridge that can take me to building applications and GUI (specifically games), and rendering. Any time I look at source code for a video game (or ANY application for that matter) it's like a completely different language that seemingly isn't using much of what I've learned. I end up asking myself, do I really know anything about C++?

I understand that I need to incorporate a graphics engine like OpenGL and learn about it. When I start a new codeblocks project, incorporate OpenGL, it loads so many lines of code that I don't even have a clue where to start. Keep in mind this is just to render a default color pixel triangle. I ask myself, how do I go about rendering a .bmp for a background, and loading another image to walk around on top of it? Why must it be thousands of lines of code? Lol.

Don't get me wrong, I want to learn how to do it. I've just no clue where to take the next step after all c++ basics.

Could you guys give me any suggestions on how I can improve my c++ past these basics so I can really understand the language? Hopefully, soon, I can start building a game engine)

(Oh, by the way...I realize that there are probably millions of tutorials and articles out there, but everything I've found thus far is either too vague, makes too far of a jump to harder stuff, or just doesn't cover what I need to know so thought it might be nice to actually talk to people about my current position.)

Thanks.

The best way to learn how to make game engine is to make a game. Now I need to apply this wisdom to myself

Don't get me wrong, I want to learn how to do it. I've just no clue where to take the next step after all c++ basics.

My lecturer a few years ago gave me a few tasks:

Basics:

- Render a triangle, triangle with texture, make triangle spin.

- Bonus points: do it with shaders too.

Matrices and delta time:

- Make an Earth model that has a Moon and turns around the Sun. This small solar system model should have correct rotation based on the real world data. You should be able to speed-up/slow-down the time. Models can be simple wireframe or solid color.

- Bonus: texture them, add correct light.

3D basics:

- Render a globe (or any curved model) with a texture correctly applied. Then make it smooth by using the correct normals.

- Render a model loaded from a file. File format is not important. Animate it: make it move/spin.

- Make a few kind of lights: a spotlight, point light, sun light.

- Make an object cast a shadow.

- Implement basic collision for something.

- Make a camera, which is switchable between three modes: FP walk, FP fly, examine (you turn around the target, or third person).

- Bonus points if you do it with shaders.

- Bonus points: make the same object cast shadows for all light types.

- Bonus points: make the shadow nicely blur and fade out in a distance.

By the time you finish this, you will have a much better understanding of many things, which will help you in many aspects of games programming. You can even do these things as part of some small game(s), to make it less boring. All of this can be done with the tools of your choice.

Short answer: you don't jump from "Hello World" to writing game engines. What is your primary focus? Is it to make games or are you more interested in the programming side of things?

Thanks for the input guys.

GeneralQuery, I have to say my primary focus is the programming aspect, working on AI, etc. I'd love to spend time developing an engine similar to Ultima Online (or RunUO), I'd contract someone to design a model package and particle effects with maybe a couple hundred designs, and do most of the coding on my own.

(I'm considering going back to college to get a degree in software development and maybe find an actual career in programming).

Graphics are probably the shiniest and most visible sign of progress - but don't forget that there is an audio system, game logic, physics, input output, file loading, networking, and whatever else your game will require. If you're still not super comfortable with your language of choice - start by implementing simpler systems. By the time you've implemented those other systems, at least the complexity of the language will no longer be a constant stumbling block because figuring out 3D APIs and linear algebra and everything else needed for 3D graphics is complicated enough on its own.

You've probably already figured out that there's going to be a good few steps between where you are now and where you want to be but I'd suggest winding your expectations back even further and start afresh. You say you have some basic programming experience. That's a good start as you're probably already familiar with some of the fundamentals but I have to ask, why C++? In my opinion it's a language fraught with problems as a first language as there are better, more noob-friendly languages that are great to cut your teeth on to get a handle on the programming fundamentals. Python gets touted a lot on here as being a good introductory language but I have no first hand experience with it so really can't recommend it either way. From what I've seen though it looks very forgiving, easy to grasp and has a wealth of libraries to do a lot of the heavy lifting (think mindless boilerplate code) to actually get things done. Graphics, sound, UI, networking, all that sort of stuff. Getting things done is fun, the theoretical understanding is of course important but it takes a back seat to enjoying yourself in those precarious early steps. Anyway, whatever language you choose (and I'm sure you'll get some good recommendations from other members) these are some things to bear in mind.

After getting reasonabley comfortable with a language there's no set path but it's usually just pushing yourself to doing a project/game (no matter how basic) you misguidedly think is within your current reach, messing it up, figuring out how you messed it up and then repeating this process until you have a level of confidence and competency to make something of merit (set aside a good few years for this). Start off really basic with something like a number guessing game then work your way up. Try a small very basic text adventure game, pong, tic tac toe, and so on. There's no real point it attempting to forecast a multi-month/year learning schedule as I'm sure your questions and expectations will change as you go along but I'd recommend getting your hands on one of the existing game engines (Unity, UDK, that sort of thing) and using them in the meantime to make some games to supplement your programming learning. It's useful to get a feel for being on the other end of the stick with regards to game engines but realistically you can put your goal of rolling your own on the back burner for now and start with baby steps.

The mantra "make games, not engines" gets repeated a lot here but it's good advice. When thinking of goals in terms of "game engines" (and believe me, it gets mentioned a lot on this forum) it really misses the point. An engine of any scale is really the accumulation of tried and tested solutions to problems that you can confidently expect to encounter. Problems you've encountered through experience of making games. You see the horse/cart problem with a beginner thinking in terms of game engines? I see it as more of a philosophical difference of approaches rather than "engines=bad".

Graphics are probably the shiniest and most visible sign of progress - but don't forget that there is an audio system, game logic, physics, input output, file loading, networking, and whatever else your game will require. If you're still not super comfortable with your language of choice - start by implementing simpler systems. By the time you've implemented those other systems, at least the complexity of the language will no longer be a constant stumbling block because figuring out 3D APIs and linear algebra and everything else needed for 3D graphics is complicated enough on its own.

What do you mean super-comfortable? I am programming with PHP for more than 4 years, and I am nowhere near super-comfortable with it. It is even harder to get comfortable with C++. Those three tasks I mentioned were given to more than 50 students and 95% of them finished them. There were various languages: C#, Java, Python, C++ being the most popular. Loads of bad, inefficient, incorrect, crashing, lagging code was written. The most important thing: these tasks served as an initial steps towards something better. Have fun hacking!