I''ve talked about engines with other people on Gamdev, but there is one think that I want to know. How can I go about writing my own graphic engine? I mean, all I really need to know is how to actually get a pixel onto the screen. Yo Tyler, I hear your mum''s goin out with... SQUEEK!

If all you thin an engine does is to plot pixels then your in for a shock, engines do much much more than just rendering the scene, they need to handle input, sound, collision detection, rendering, networking and prolly many more that i can''t think of so if you want to write your own engine then be prepared for a lot of work.

If it''s a 3D engine, let''s not forget viewing frustum culling and camera control.

Plus, a really good engine has its own scripting language.

I bet you know what they are saying, it is difficult so why they say it.. Don''t know!
But whats your question really ?
What do you want to know ?
If you know the basics of c++ and plugged some library in your DEVELOPERS ENVIROMENT, you should begin with something..


Nothing and all, by some meaning, no difference

Yeah, I really only want to write something that can draw a pixel onto the screen at a reasonable speed.

Yo Tyler, I hear your mum''s goin out with... SQUEEK!

First of all it depends which OS you plan to develop for. If it''s Windows, i think DirectX is your way. But before that, you must dealing with windows programming, GDI, math, 3d theory and so on. When you can harness those things try to study an already made engine...
Good luck!

Fire burn wisdom in me,
Wisdom set mind and spirit free,
Moonlight shows me the mysteries of life,
Winternight gives me clearsight and storms to fight.

if he wants a graphics engine... opengl has proved a little more robust than DX. However, DX is a much larger API, allowing you to do more than just graphics. opengl is also cross-platform. DX i believe only has a windows implementation...after all, it was developed by microsoft . opengl i think is also easier to learn... but this is just my opinion...im not trying to start up a flame-war

Read some assembly gfx tutorials if all you really want to do is plot a pixel.

Yes.. both OpenGL and DirectX are great for graphics.. it''s only a choice of taste.. So, study the two API''s and choice what''s better for you!
For example I feel better with DirectX but under Linux I use OpenGL of course..
For OpenGL, check out the great OpenGL Mesa3d implementation (www.mesa3d.org)!

Fire burn wisdom in me,
Wisdom set mind and spirit free,
Moonlight shows me the mysteries of life,
Winternight gives me clearsight and storms to fight.

I''m going to assume some things here.
1) You are interested in programming for Windows or Linux
2) You are not a very experienced programmer.
3) You don`t know a whole lot about computer graphicss theory.

To put a pixel onscreen can be a fairly large task, depending on which library you use, and what OS you use.

The OpenGL library, combined with the GLUT toolkit for it, makes it very easy for basic Windows graphics.
I have heard good things about a library called SDL for Linux.

If you are focussed on Windows and making more complex graphics, DirectX is a good way to go, but last time I checked, it was much more complex to set up than OpenGL.
It also gets updated fairly often; the current number is 9.0, with 9.1 coming soon. Don`t look at anything earlier than DX7.

I personally use OpenGL because it is fairly easy to get things done.

However, game industry standard is DirectX.

I recommend you spend a few days reading up on graphics engine tutorials, both for 2d and for 3d.

A very full-featured engine is OGRE(Don`t know the link, but it should be easy to find).

Graphics engine theory and implementation is a complex topic with a lot of current research being done with it: its a whole field of its own.:D

Then when you have amassed some knowledge and perhaps done some work on setting up stuff, come back and ask some more specific and more educated questions, okay ?

~V''lion




Bugle4d