Thanks guys for the advice, I will keep with it.
What about starter kits? I know McMillian do one. But I dont think its
C++.

TWild you must be able to read my mind!

Well, I''ve decided to read the SDK documentation for directdraw7 while reading through that book AGAIN. I''ll see if this helps things. If you have ICQ or MSN I''ll be glad to add you so we can share what we learn together. Just an idea After I figure all of this stuff out I plan on writing a couple of tutorials from my perspective. I seem to be good at teaching people.

I dont know about modern directx, but when I went and grabbed a book on OGL year ago or 2, it was vastly easier than DX.

I got home, and in 30 mins was doing things onscreen.
No bullcrap about IThis and IThat and 20-parameter functions.
boom boom bam, I was seeing graphics onscreen.

For 2D/3D...
heres a interesting piece of data
if you have a 3-space R3, and you create a subspace S, defined on [x, y, 0], it will mimic the XY plane.
So if you have 3D abilities, you have 2D- its just that simple.

Also-
Learn the hard way- don`t get wrapped up in libraries and stuff until you know whats going on- write lots of your own graphics code, even if its not that great.


oh yeah
TWild- be aware that there are errors in LaMothe`s code.
I don`t know which ones they are , but be aware that its known the codes buggy. I do wish I had the book here with me at college, theres alot of concepts in there that I don`t know off-hand and I don`t wanna dredge the books for them.

My AIM sn is vlion1066, my yim sn in thefifthlion.
Good luck.

[ps]
I'm working on a OGL 2d engine at the moment, if you feel like looking at code email me.


Bugle4d

[edited by - Vlion on October 16, 2002 2:11:01 AM]

I want your pricey books!

try nehes site (hosted here on gamedev) the tutorials there start at the beginning

http://uk.geocities.com/sloppyturds/kea/kea.html
http://uk.geocities.com/sloppyturds/gotterdammerung.html

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Somebody needs to make a book called "Teach Yourself Game Programming with SDL in 21 days". "Teach Yourself Game Programming in 21 days" by Andre LaMothe got me started with DOS back in the day... it was so easy I created my first shareware game within 6 months of learning to code.

SDL can do the same for you.

Did I mention SDL?

Ive downloaded the SDL libraries. Looks promising.
amazon.co.uk have an SDL book

Every once in a while C++ complexity smacks me in the face but this is a cycle I got used to.

Here are the steps you need to make:
1)Learn C part of C++
2)Write couple of console apps in C
3)Write your first window app under win32 in C
4)Write simple "blue screen" type graphical ddraw app with dx7
5)Learn about other 2D implementation specific aspects, clipping, etc.
6)Learn C++ and OOP(object oriented programming) concepts and write couple of windows/console apps in OOP
7)Learn some data structures and STL(hash tables, linked lists, trees, etc.)
8)Start your main game project by creating C++ objects and interfaces
9)Work on implementation using 2D concepts you learned before i.e. you''re writing internal object''s code now
10)Try not to learn implementation during design stage, make sure you have most of your objects pat down and a good design on paper before you write a line of code. This to prevent never ending rewriting of your game everytime you get new idea.

I think these steps are logical since I''ve done it this way and I''m doing well. These steps might take you anywhere from 1-2 years for c/win32 to 4-5 years with mfc/oop/stl/maths, etc. Good luck!

I reread the message, steve skip to step 5 There''s also CDX library I think that''s like SDL but uses dx. Good luck!

Oh, forgot the most important thing. If I had a penny for every time I felt hopeless I would be a rich man now. It takes time and patience to make a game. You must be persistent and be self motivated. The results will come but not as fast as you might want them to. Contrary to the belief, you don''t have to be genius to make games just persistant and open minded and be willing to work really hard. Ok, my motivational speech is over, I felt you needed a hugh and realize I too get depressed sometimes but I press on going and I hope you do the same. There''s also allegro game library Just came to my mind.