I''m not really a newbie I know a few languages C being my lang of choice at the moment I am looking to make the leap into game programming though and I need to know what is the best way? I am finding that even a pretty decent programmer like myself is having a hell of a time making even a tetris game. I am using MS VC++ as my compiler, but I was told that a DJGPP compiler would be better for making games and that I should use allegro for graphics I cant find any info on what the hell allegro is does anyone know if it is any good? Also I have tinkered with DX7 and I dont like it at all besides allegro what are other ways to make graphics? Is OGL 3d only? I want to just make a tetris game and then a 2d side scroller. Someone please help SAGE that which does not kill me makes me stronger

quote: Original post by sage_in_progress
I''m not really a newbie I know a few languages C being my lang of choice at the moment I am looking to make the leap into game programming though and I need to know what is the best way? I am finding that even a pretty decent programmer like myself is having a hell of a time making even a tetris game. I am using MS VC++ as my compiler, but I was told that a DJGPP compiler would be better for making games and that I should use allegro for graphics I cant find any info on what the hell allegro is does anyone know if it is any good? Also I have tinkered with DX7 and I dont like it at all besides allegro what are other ways to make graphics? Is OGL 3d only? I want to just make a tetris game and then a 2d side scroller. Someone please help

SAGE

that which does not kill me makes me stronger

My best advice to you is use MSVC++ with either OGL or DX. Oh and yes, OGL is only 3d but hey so is DX as of version 8.0. That didn''t stop me from creating a 2D game though....



"And that''s the bottom line cause I said so!"

Cyberdrek
Headhunter Soft
A division of DLC Multimedia

Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!

"gitty up" -- Kramer

I use MSVC and it works fine for me...Althogh im working on switching to Linux just cause i think the OS is so much better

I _highly_ recommend SDL!

It provides a shell for handling video, sound, multithreading, system events(like mouse clicks, etc), cdrom, timers, etc. It is highly cross platform compatable which makes it very easy to make a game that compiles on several OS's with basically no extra code. It makes things SOOO much easier!!! It works well with openGL and is very easy to handle both 2D and 3D.

Go Check it out!
www.libsdl.org

Edited by - warpexplorer on September 7, 2001 12:33:33 AM

Yes, SDL is nice. It keeps the Win32 API out of my code . I''m only using it for OS oriented stuff, OpenGL handles the 2D/3D graphics still (not sure if I''ll use it or OpenAL for sound though).

DJGPP is only good if you want to make real DOS games. Allegro was a game programming library for DJGPP. MSVC is not that bad of a compiler, and it had a pretty nice IDE. OpenGL can be used for 2D just fine (orthographic projection matricies are just a little helpful). See nehe.gamedev.net for some OpenGL information when and if you need it .

[Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!]

I''m curious as to why you are already looking for an alterative
to the stantard fair. You might find out you like doing things
a different way but that seams like a later step. Get going first. Learn what all is involved in creating the types of programs you want. You might not like using DirectX to make
your leap into the VG world but you will have less trouble learning on something when there is such abundand support
and resorces avalible to you. Especial if you are alread finding
out that programing video games is not as easy as you might
have thought.