Okay, so I see that here is a bundle of NeHe tutorials, and I also own the OpenGL game programming book. But are there any recomendations for efficiently learning this stuff. I want to but I guess I don''t know where or how to begin. I can program C/C++ etc.. so thats not the problem I guess its more the problem of: Here is NeHe''s great tutorials, I read through them. Then what? The code is done, Or i guess I could try to do my own code? What are good starer projects for learning this stuff? Since there are a lot of facets to learn about. Any pointing in the right direction would be helpful, I understand a lot is up to the indivudual how they learn, so maybe I can hear how everyone else went about it and survey the responses to choose what I think would be the best path for me. Thanks -Shane

I suggest taking NeHe''s first 5 tutorials, then reading the whole book, and then taking any tutorials you may need, or what hasn''t been taught in the book.

Ok the trick is this - now you''ve learnt OpenGL (Assuming you have read -and- fully understand the tutorials) you should set about attempting to write a game! Go for something simple, but do it as well as you possibly can - then make another game It''s quite simple really! *g* If you get stuck anywhere you have NeHe''s tutorials to go back to and use as reference material - though you should really try to apply all your knowledge and write your own code.

Just do your best, and if you drop one game project, start another one straight after! It takes practise to write a game and any work done is work well done!

Well,
as you said every one learns diferntlybut this is how I did it (and am very much still in the prosses of doing) is you just code stuff. I read the Red book and read the stuff online then just sat down and started work apps that intersted me. my first 3D app was a md2 viewer, then I worked on a first person type thing, load a world and wak arount in it, then for a while I lost intrest in 3D stuff for some time (worked on other programing interests cryptography mostly) but now have returen my attenction to 3D and I am hopeing to find some time to compleat my 3d world.

Oh well that may not have help you much but that is how I started.

Well yea, I could make a project. Which is what I like to do...Is make something, I guess the problem is to make something start to finish usually requires great amounts of time. A game requires more resources than I typically have available like art (i suck at it), sounds, level design and the tools etc... What is a good starter project. The MD2 stuff I read in the OpenGL game programming book and it made sense, but once again I don''t have any way of modeling MD2 files really (I have truespace 4.0 which can output .x files). I guess I could make a .x loader but then I feel im reinvinting the wheel LOL I just have to graduate school so I have more time to devote to all this, as I write this I realize how intensly time consuming it is. I thank you for your words of wisdom to. Perhaps someone has the perfect "small" project? That exercises some learning in OpenGL while being managable, fun and can create a good final product (however simmple it may be).

Thanks again,
Shane

Something that I find helps me with tutorials is to *not* copy and paste the code, but to retype it myself, using alt-tab to switch back and forth. While this obviously takes longer, I tend to get more out of it -- because I have to actually pay attention to what I''m putting in and you learn more in general, I think.

Beyond the tutorials, I''d suggest getting a book and then working on a simple game or modelviewer or something like that, as other people have suggested.

-Ascent

build a pong clone or space invaders
thatll teach u the basics of 2d
then mke more complex stuff
im rightnot building an asteriods clone and i am in the same position as u
as i suck at art
i cant create many things

I must say I go for Ascent''s approach. I am completely new to the topic as well, but by retyping all of the code instead of copy/paste, i really think you learn more. I try to just read the tut, make some very short notes on things that i don''t really understand, and then I just use the online help to find out the details about a function or command.

Everyone has his own ways, but this is how I do it! good luck

Yeah, those are good suggestions, I think my biggest "hmmmm" is how people just seem to magically go from reading the tuts to producing all these cool image of the days on www.flipcode.com and that. I mean how do you make the transition, hard work and time of course but what makes the connection. I read a few tuts of NeHe''s and then tried to get a 3d sphere bouncing around on the screen in a 2d plane (top or side view basicaly) but must of missed the tuts that showed me correctly how to do this. For some reason I could never figure out how to get the camera to lock in that plane, and once I did how to get screen cords etc.. (since I am used to working in pixels for 2d games, I never quite got how the seemingly arbitrary values for stuff like gluLookAt and that pertained to screen coordinates and locations...)

Perhaps I missed the golden tut that showed this probably very trivial stuff.

Thanks again all!

-Shane

For what its worth, this is how I''m going about turning what I''ve learnt from the tues into a game engine. First I''ve broken up a game project into manageable chunks:

Step 1. Move a camera around in 3 dimensions
Step 2. Load and draw an environment
Step 3. Load and draw models in the environment
Step 4. Do collision detection
Step 5. Model animation
Step 6. Effects /particles/etc
Step 7. Menus/Huds (spiffy user input)
Step 8. Sound
Step 9. Event Handling
Step 10. Gameplay AI

(OK, this is hopelessly naive, but you have to start somewhere )

Now I''m working my way through these with the tutorials. Most of these sections have at least something you can work from in there. I think the rest is in the OpenGL programming book.

I only get a few hours a week to code thanks to work commitments, but I am pleased with the progress so far.

(I don''t know what the game is going to be yet, that will happen in step 10 )

I guess my point is that it helps to break your project down into mini milestones so you can get quick feedback on your progress.



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