Hello,

I am a certified bookkeeper during high school and college I worked in my fathers construction company.
I see the world through the eyes of a carpenter and a bean counter.
Programmers are modern day alchemists and I struggle to wrap my mind around your magik.

I want to create a game for my son. I have 2 friends one codes only in Delphi and the other since he works for a fortune 5oo company has experience in everything. They both say I am crazy, both are supportive, and both chuckle regularly at my questions. I do not want to abuse/over tax my friendships so I am attempting to teach myself what I need to know via books, tutorial, forums, and the occasional supportive stranger.

As I said I would like to create this game for my son but since one of the motivating factors is that he likes to help me play my on-line game, I am thinking that maybe there may be a much wider interest in this project and to that case I want to keep it open source. Furthermore he uses a PC, his mother uses a Mac, and I am teaching myself Linux so I am thinking maybe make it cross platform.

So I start at the library and Google. I am exposed to the wonderful world of IDEs, game engines, terrain engines and even though Qt and Code::Blocks advertise code once deploy every where I am finding that there are nuances to C++ structure from Windows, Linux, and Mac. So my ego is cowering in the corner, my sanity is hiding in the closet, and I am starting to believe my friends when they said I would be treading a lot of water before I made any head way. So after spending time in the forums at Qt, Code::Blocks, Irrlicht, Ogre, and a half dozen mapping sites I stumble onto NeHe and am given a breathe of clean, fresh mountain air.

To finally “meet” some one who has gone through the same struggles, and from what I understand Mr. Molofee is already a Magi of the modern era. To have already knocked down the walls of elitism...and to actually comment on every event within the source code.....THANK YOU.

To start I would like some confusion cleared up. At the end of each tutorial there is the code. There is code for Linux, Linux/GLX, Linux/SDL and Linux/GLUT. As I quickly went through each tutorial and downloaded the code for Visual C++, Mac OS, I did not know which Linux to download and some times different “flavors” were missing. I know you are going to think I am nuts but I intend to look at each tutorial from all three OSes and compare them line for line so I can gain a deeper understanding of what is happening.

So which Linux should I focus on?

I am thinking of using an IDE to keep things simple for me, and as I seek to make it cross platform I was looking at Qt and Code::Blocks as they seem to be the most popular. But, I have found that the developers of Qt are not at this point comfortable with Qt's gaming abilities, so it appears Code::Blocks is the way to go.

Any thoughts on the use of an IDE?

Now about my project.

Think Curious George meets Dinosaur Train meets Sliders. It will be a first person experience where traveling by bus, train, plane, boat, and space ship the player will venture through portals to visit different places and times. To learn about history, society, geography, science, and maybe math. Hopefully kids from around the world will upload information about the history and culture of their areas. For example a player travels to the Grand Canyon where they read about the history and geology of the canyon then take a virtual mule trip down the the river and have a lunch before returning to the rim. Or a journey to Stonehenge during the height of the Druid influence to experience a summer solstice festival. And with the technology the player will not have to just watch a video but actually be in the video as they experience the site via a helmet cam.

A massive project but I believe it will take on a Frankensteinian persona once it is developed.

So what do I need....

A 3D globe with NASA images on it
A terrain engine to create artificial terrain at ground level, since I have yet to find any NASA images not corrupted with streets and buildings at ground level, and it would not due to arrive at Pharaoh's Egypt only to find splotches of roads, buildings, et cetera cluttering the landscape.
A tunneling widget to get the player straight through from here to there, I got that idea from OpenTTD.
A data base which can be updated by users but be scanned for inappropriate material.
Wikis and YouTube type markers...hijacked from KDE's marble project
Some interior spaces for getting on and off trains, planes, and boats. I am working on exteriors.
3D images of famous places and landmarks...I am investigating using Googles SketchUp warehouse images of state capitol buildings.
AND most important must focus on CPU processing not GPU processing as it is unknown what computing capabilities the users will have. My son's PC is a 5 year old Pentium with 1 gig RAM and a Nvidea GeForce 6100 nForce 405. Not exactly a top of the line gaming rig.

So...
Who is insightful enough to answer my questions?
Who is crazy enough to give me positive advice? ...lord knows I have been told by enough engine developers to give up.
Who is brave enough to join the team? ….;)

Thanks for your patience,
Bill

Update,

I just got done comparing the first tutorial and I could not have been more wrong in my original thought process. The only similarities where in the include statements for gl and glu other than that there was not enough to even begin to compare.

My learning curve just got steeper.

Now I have to try and understand how Code::Blocks and Qt can make their claims. Programmers work your magik and then the black boxes of IDEs work it even more.

There is no way I am ever going to understand this.

Oh my 42, 42, 42, 42,.....

And as of this post.....thank you to the 23

I wish there was a blog on this site...I could probably use one.

Bill