If you have had the pleasure of doing both what do you prefer? Programming for a Mod like Quake or Half Life or starting your own game? And if you have programmed a Mod before do you feel that you learned more from programming that or programming your own game? Which do you think has better benefits for learning? Just trying to get the boards opinion If my compiler was voice activated with the voice of my mother-in-law....there would be no errors!

The advantage in writing a game from scratch is that you know every function and how it works.

When you use a SDK (Half-Life for example) you only get a piece of the code. It's enough to make a little game but:

1. You don't have completely freedom to make what you want
because you are alway tied to the engine (and it's limitations)

2. You have to understand all the given functions (which can be *very* hard) and how they work together

3. People who want to play your mod must have a [legal] copy of the game

The advantage is that you don't have to write the engine by yourself. It can be a very educating thing to write a mod but for beginners its crap...

That's what I think so everybody has to think this way!
God save the Queen
Amen


Edited by - Howie on October 11, 2000 4:49:33 PM

I completly agree Howie.

I''ve started programming C about a year ago.. (Did a little QBasic before that ;p). 1/2 year ago i got into a Game Development Company (well, we say it''s a company... ) I that i know have 4* the knowledge about programming / Opengl / 3d Theory
/ Memory Management!

I don''t think that i''d be in this lucky position if i''d be in a group that''s developing a mod... nope, never.. But, if you really are thinking seriously about getting into the biz, I''d try to find a team you work with, ''cause the team keeps you workin'', and you really work as hard as you can, and you study until your brain hurts (mine hurts at the moment, but that''s because i''m sick a bit *G*). And never ever think that you can''t get something running, if you do that you''re lost... i did that once and gave up that programm (it wasn''t that necessary anyhow ;-). I''m now thinkin'' of rewriting it (it''s really simple to do for me now), just that i know that i never give up a project, even if it seems impossible, ''cause there''s nothing impossible to do (at least for GameProgramming) maybe it will not work now (due to the hardware limitations) but someday it''ll work...
(wow, talked long about this part).

And yes, If you''re starting c programming now, don''t be confused if you''re trying to get EOF from the keyboard (wow, i didn''t programm due to that for about 5 week, i was so upset) and it never appears.

Well, good luck!
cya,
Phil

Visit Rarebyte!
and no!, there are NO kangaroos in Austria (I got this questions a few times over in the states ;)