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02.02 - Game Development Tools

Teej · 2004-04-22T16:00:51

Game Development Tools If you want to write games, you’re going to need more than NOTEPAD . In this article I quickly run through some of the tools you should have at your disposal, and mention some other considerations as well. The Operating System What is the target platform for our games? Although Linux is gaining popularity by leaps and bounds of late, we’re still going with the most popular of platforms, Windows. Of course, Windows comes in many flavors, and those we’re interested in are 95/98/ME/NT/2K. Luckily for us, software on these operating systems is compatible… …but not 100%. If you’re not aware of DirectX technology, don’t worry about it for now – all you need to know for the time being is that we’re going to be using DirectX components in our games, and one of these aforementioned operating systems doesn’t adequately support DirectX (at the version we’re going to be using). I’m referring to Windows NT, which is too bad because it has always been the choice for software developers. While it is true that there is a version of DirectX on Windows NT, it’s outdated – we would have to restrict ourselves to using it, and we wouldn’t be learning new technology, so it’s a concession we’re going to make. That leaves us with Windows 95/98/ME/2K. Hey, what about plain ol’ DOS? For years, DOS was the gaming platform, even when Windows was in wide use. The problem with the Windows of old was that it didn’t allow direct access to the hardware, and therefore games written for it were too slow to be considered. In DOS, you had direct control, and in Windows you had the GDI (Graphics Device Interface), which wasn’t designed for high-speed graphics applications. Of course, this was eventually remedied with technologies such as DirectX, which allowed games the conduit to the hardware that’s needed for speed. There’s one other important thing to note about using Windows as our gaming platform, and that’s compatibility. Windows provides an abstraction to the hardware in the form of drivers, which implement a consistent interface to the hardware’s capabilities. This allows us to utilize the video card, sound card and other devices without even knowing what vendor they’re from. In DOS, we’d have an insurmountable problem on our hands – all hardware is not created equal. Bottom-line: write your game in Windows and it’s going to work on a wide variety of systems and configurations. The C Compiler It probably won’t come as a surprise to you that I use Microsoft Visual C++ for all of my C/C++ programming -- it’s easily the most popular compiler out there. What about the others compilers out there? At first, you’d think that any C compiler would be fine, but there is a caveat: our code will be considered C++, and utilizes COM components. Sure, we’ll be coding in C, but we’re also using DirectX in our programs, and that requires a C++ compiler. Microsoft provides DirectX libraries for use with their own compiler (MSVC) and for Borland, so it would seem that there are your options in a nutshell. I’ve heard of people using other compilers successfully, but you’ll have to inquire in this forum about which compilers can get the job done. Graphics-Editing Software Since you’re in Windows, you already have at least one graphics-editing package – the infamous [b]PAINT . Right off the top of my head I can think of a couple of reasons why that won’t cut it, one being it’s lack of palette editing support, and another it’s total lack of features. Perhaps we can get some feedback from others in the forum on what they use – some will be rather interested in Freeware/Shareware applications. Personally, I use JASC’s PaintShop Pro . I’ve never had need for anything else when it comes to bitmaps. Sound Editing Software This may not be an important consideration for you right away, but there comes a time when you’re faced with the prospect of creating and editing your own audio clips. For the time being, I’ll just mention a few of the more popular types of audio software and let this aspect of game development slide until we have occasion to make it an issue. Sonic Foundry’s SoundForge is a sound-processing tool that let’s you manipulate almost any type of audio file, and is considered the ‘cream of the crop’ by many. Of course, you could use darned-near anything to record a sound, but if you need to do anything to it (other than copy it) you’ll need a sound-processing package such as this – there’s an amazing amount of features at your disposal. MIDI soundtracks can be created with a tool such as Twelve Tone System’s Cakewalk Pro Audio software. Steinburg’s Cubase is a similar title that comes to mind. Check out their websites for more information. Feel free to reply to this topic with your questions, comments or suggestions.

Hands-On Interactive Game Development Workshops

Started by Teej April 09, 2001 12:09 AM

58 comments, last by Teej 20 years ago

Anonymous

August 17, 2001 11:47 AM

www.samer.ws
i got mine there too (Visual Studio 6) Couldn''t afford to buy one !!!

folleitor

122

August 19, 2001 01:59 PM

http://knowledge.ye.hu/toolz/languagez/ms/vc6/vc6.html

Exellon2000

122

October 13, 2001 12:57 PM

Graphics Editing Software

I have found that 3DS Max is the most popular one out there in making 3D graphics, as most of you already know. I also recommend CorelDraw and CorelPhotoPaint 7, 8, or above. They are very good for making professional looking design documents and logos, but not for in game graphics, although you may be able to use PhotoPaint for interface items such as menus and buttons.

[small]:P I'll lick it if you lick it first :P[small]

Anonymous

October 29, 2001 06:01 PM

I just got Dev-C++ to compile DirectX stuff!!! YES!!!! OH HAPPY DAY!! I just wanna thank the guys in the chatroom for helpin me with finding out how to!

...I would tell you where I got the files from so I could do it...but...I forgot

spicoli

122

December 13, 2001 02:16 PM

You could also use Hash''s Animation Master. Coparable to 3DS Max, and it costs $299.

http://www.hash.com

bob_the_third

122

January 24, 2002 09:37 AM

One of my friends bought the "Game Programming Starter Kit 4.0" and I''m not sure I''d recommend it after seeing what you actually get. The compiler is the introductory version which means you aren''t allowed to legally distribute the programs you create with it. The DirectX SDK is free anyway. As for Genesis, I''m not sure how good it is...we never did get it to finish compiling the sample scene (twenty minutes wasn''t enough); granted my friend''s computer was a PII 400 so that might not be a problem now. I haven''t tried the character editor, but I suspect it has some sort of license restriction or it wouldn''t be so cheap. Instead of $40 for the kit, you could pay around $100 for the professional edition of Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0. The only thing I found worthwhile in the kit was the book (not a bad read on game design concepts). If you just want the book, go for it. Otherwise I''d suggest spending a little more on the compiler (with no license restrictions) and downloading the free DirectX8 SDK from Microsoft.

Dragoneer

122

February 08, 2002 10:02 AM

well, I myself have adobe 6.01 and PSP 6

but i only have Dev-C++ to along with DirectX 8. it better work *whines*

I just read that it may not be compatible with DX8, but then i read a post that said it was working. Do i need a new compiler?

To all! from Dragons Emotion

To all! from Dragons Emotion

Okiesmokie

122

February 22, 2002 08:32 PM

I use the Mingw compiler, is that compatible with OpenGL and DirectX?

QuantumProgrammer

122

March 24, 2002 03:16 PM

Still Here

quantum kidthe guy who invented the wheel, he was an idiot.the guy who invented the other three, now he was a genious.

Young and impatient

122

July 16, 2002 10:36 PM

Hey i need some help i got xp and all the c/c++ compilers i d/l i can''t use. Most of them i cannot even find how to d/l. can i have some help i''m impatient!

Oh and adobe paintshop 6.0 is a great program for jpegs and bitmaps. $100 with a rebate of 30. peace easy

Only the eyes of a true player will see what realy happened. Peace easy!

Only the eyes of a true player will see what realy beholds the game. Only the eyes of a true player may see the pixels and nothing else. Only the eyes of the true player can see the game, feel the game, be the game. I am a true player. Are you?

02.02 - Game Development Tools

Graphics Editing Software

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02.02 - Game Development Tools

Graphics Editing Software

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