Complete game tut's
In my opinion, a program is an "engine" when you can alter almost anything in it without touching (and recompiling) the .EXE code. Quake 3 is a good example : you can change all the basic game rules (the interpreted .qvm files), you can add levels, textures, sounds, models, animation etc... All without having to recompile the code.
So an engine would contain basic things like reading data, rendering the world on every frame, accepting input and changing the world model. Everything else should be in external files (.MAP for maps, .TGA for textures, etc) so that things can easily be altered without having to dig into the code.
**DISCLAIMER: THE AUTHOR OF THE ABOVE POST CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES WHATSOEVER, AS THERE''S A LARGE CHANCE HE WAS VERY, VERY DRUNK AT THE TIME OF WRITING**
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"Maybe this world is another planet''''s hell." -- Aldous Huxley
So an engine would contain basic things like reading data, rendering the world on every frame, accepting input and changing the world model. Everything else should be in external files (.MAP for maps, .TGA for textures, etc) so that things can easily be altered without having to dig into the code.
**DISCLAIMER: THE AUTHOR OF THE ABOVE POST CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES WHATSOEVER, AS THERE''S A LARGE CHANCE HE WAS VERY, VERY DRUNK AT THE TIME OF WRITING**
_________
"Maybe this world is another planet''''s hell." -- Aldous Huxley
quote:
**DISCLAIMER: THE AUTHOR OF THE ABOVE POST CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES WHATSOEVER, AS THERE''S A LARGE CHANCE HE WAS VERY, VERY DRUNK AT THE TIME OF WRITING**
Sweet. :-)
Hmm, Rather than an engine tutorial, info on where to start on a game would be helpfull.
For example, on a example project. should I work on a map format loader so I can get terrain on screen? Or should I get terrain on screen so I know it works then modify it(rewrite it) to handle maps. Then get a little guy walking around. Once again rewrite the entire thing so its nice and object oriented and engine like.
Obviously this is wrong as the entire thing should be setup with objects from the start. For a newbie this is generally hard because they dont know how to do these things in the first place. I Think a small series of tutorials showing people how to setup engines from the idea that they should be dynamic and modual would be a good idea. Get the new game programmers into making simple systems that work together. Other tutorials show them how to get terrain and other things up.
This is a rant as i wanted this when i was a newbie, i didnt know how to start. The only thing i could do was make a bunch of seperate working things. I wast able to throw it all together till I had made a few SMALL games and then rewritten them with objects.
Newbies have it hard, most of them dont know how to programvery well yet.
Note a perfectly fine game can be made from scartch and be unorganized but a large project will most always be harder this way. Beautifull engines are made very versatile... look at quake3, use that engine for anything. Make it a racing game if you want....
For example, on a example project. should I work on a map format loader so I can get terrain on screen? Or should I get terrain on screen so I know it works then modify it(rewrite it) to handle maps. Then get a little guy walking around. Once again rewrite the entire thing so its nice and object oriented and engine like.
Obviously this is wrong as the entire thing should be setup with objects from the start. For a newbie this is generally hard because they dont know how to do these things in the first place. I Think a small series of tutorials showing people how to setup engines from the idea that they should be dynamic and modual would be a good idea. Get the new game programmers into making simple systems that work together. Other tutorials show them how to get terrain and other things up.
This is a rant as i wanted this when i was a newbie, i didnt know how to start. The only thing i could do was make a bunch of seperate working things. I wast able to throw it all together till I had made a few SMALL games and then rewritten them with objects.
Newbies have it hard, most of them dont know how to programvery well yet.
Note a perfectly fine game can be made from scartch and be unorganized but a large project will most always be harder this way. Beautifull engines are made very versatile... look at quake3, use that engine for anything. Make it a racing game if you want....
best thing I find is to plan out EXACTLY what you''re going to do and how it all fits in. Then build it. Its easier that way
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Baldur K
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Baldur K
Author
Going slightly off the subject for a sec....
I have been fiddling with opengl since my first post and I am getting a hang of the basics reasonably well, I think I need to construct a VERY basic game, to stop me just copying things from the books, this will let me know how much I have ''got down''......I have had a search but without much look, for a tutorial on constucting a very simple game, even something like moving a few blocks around with basic collision eg Pong, what first game did you guys do?, what sources did you look at?, I dont want to start reading up on importing models and playing with textures until I can get some primitives moving around etc.
"Smoke me a kipper, I''''ll be back for breakfast"
A.J.Rimmer, Red Dwarf
I have been fiddling with opengl since my first post and I am getting a hang of the basics reasonably well, I think I need to construct a VERY basic game, to stop me just copying things from the books, this will let me know how much I have ''got down''......I have had a search but without much look, for a tutorial on constucting a very simple game, even something like moving a few blocks around with basic collision eg Pong, what first game did you guys do?, what sources did you look at?, I dont want to start reading up on importing models and playing with textures until I can get some primitives moving around etc.
"Smoke me a kipper, I''''ll be back for breakfast"
A.J.Rimmer, Red Dwarf
pong is a good place to start
try to make it as organized and as clean as possible
and then you will be able to "extend" the same practices to
something more impressive
try to make it as organized and as clean as possible
and then you will be able to "extend" the same practices to
something more impressive
As a first game make pong. It was my first game and the only code I "borrowed" at the time was to get a nice looking ball and paddle on screen and to get a working mouse. This was in basic. If your making a first game, dont get caught up in making it organized, ussually that vission of how it goes together comes with practice. Write a simple pong game, then when your done, do it again but break everything up, realize that if you had just put your ball into a struct, you could just new yourself more balls.
follow this to make a pong game..
1. Make a ball
2. Make a paddle
3. Get the ball to move with one random velocity
4. Check if it hits a paddle.
5. If it hits the paddle just negate one of the velocity components.
6. Your done.
lol, I rember making pong the first time, I didnt even understand basic collision detection. In qbasic all I knew was how to tell what color a pixel was at a location. For my collisions I made shure to draw the ball before the paddle, if at the balls position i saw a paddle color we had a collision.
If you really need help with a pong game, email me and ill walk you through it with no source though. =)
follow this to make a pong game..
1. Make a ball
2. Make a paddle
3. Get the ball to move with one random velocity
4. Check if it hits a paddle.
5. If it hits the paddle just negate one of the velocity components.
6. Your done.
lol, I rember making pong the first time, I didnt even understand basic collision detection. In qbasic all I knew was how to tell what color a pixel was at a location. For my collisions I made shure to draw the ball before the paddle, if at the balls position i saw a paddle color we had a collision.
If you really need help with a pong game, email me and ill walk you through it with no source though. =)
to the babbling fool who posted "You can make money using OpenGL, and not D3D. Look at Quake3. It doesn''t use D3D" I suggest you rethink your statement.. look at games like Max Payne, which used their in-house engine.. and D3D.
For the everlasting newbie (at some point you have to become an oldbie), I recommend reading up on some design patterns, and even perhaps some anti-patterns. Take the Model-View-Controller or the Factory patterns as your starting point. I''d also recommend reading the Singleton pattern.
my $0.02
-fs
http://www.CornflakeZone.com
//-- Modelling and animation in every dimension --//
my $0.02
-fs
http://www.CornflakeZone.com
//-- Modelling and animation in every dimension --//
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