I am just 16 and start leaning VBasic for A-level. We are doind VB because they can not finaince C++. I have always though C++ was the best for Game programming. But now is VB. Can Any body tell if VB is any good. Are they getting any better? Is it easy to learn C++ after ward or are they completely differet? Graphics ( Especaily Direct X ) programming and sound programming with VB, how good are they?

Visual Basic is good for starters who''ve never written any code before. I learned VB first, then I learned Delphi and then C++. You don''t have to do it in that order, and you don''t have to learn Delphi.
I think C++ is the best for game programming. You can use DirectX with VB, but I don''t know if it''s good enough for advanced games, cause I''ve never tried.

It''s easier to learn C++ after VB or perhaps after any language, because most of them have quite many similiarities. And VB is good, but even as I know just a little about C++, I can say it''s better because it''s faster.

DirectX isn''t hard to use in VB. There are also a lot of ActiveX controls, and other VB wrappers available for interface. Also VB isn''t that much slower that C++. There''s an old thread on this forum that goes more into depth about visual basic as a game programming language.

I''ve been programming DirectX for VB about 1.5 years now and I think it''s really easy (xcept for D3D) and I can''t say it''s slow in any way, there might be some minor speed differences between C++ and VB but hardly noticable.
Even DirectPlay is really easy.

VB is a really good beginner''s language but it''s also a really powerful Visual development tool (not useful in games programming though) and I can''t think of any better way of starting to learn games programming with DX than with VB. Sure, some functions are simplified and some don''t even exists in the DX7 VB library, but it''s alot easier than starting directly with DX in C++.

But as I''ve programmed a while in VB I notice the benefits of using C++ instead, especially if you want to do advanced games programming stuff (scripting, advanced oop and such), therefore I''m learning C++ now.

I was 15 when I started programming DX in VB (17 now) so, Iwod, I think it''s a great start for you with VB and after some months, you might wanna consider coding C++, but DX for VB is the best start you can get.

There''s a really greate homepage for DX VB programming, VoodooVB (http://www.redrival.com/voodoovb) with some basic tutorials to get you started and a great msgboard too.

Good luck!

Daniel Netz, Sentinel Design

VB is a great programming language for begginers, the only thing that''s bad is the size of the compiled code and it''s dependencies on its runtime dlls which have to be installed to make the programs run. The dlls are huge too...

I''ve been programming DX with VB for 2 years (I can do C++ aswell) and in my opinion its fast enough for any 2D game you would want to create, what lets it down is the speed of D3D though.

If you''re really interested in games programming I would definately look into C++ though.

I''ve written some graphic programs in VB6.0 but it is SLOW. If you''re using an external graphics product like DirectX, it might be fast but when doing any kind of pixel modification yourself, it won''t be fast. Try just writting a loop that draws a form black pixel by pixel. You can see how long it takes (BTW: keep your form''s scalemode to pixel or it will really take forever)

But I do still use VB for quick development. When you want to do something fast or you want to use the vissual interface (class builder utility rocks!) then use VB. When you need speed, I''d use C++. Also, I''m always having trouble with all the DLLs VB needs. They should have an option to compile down to one single application. (I wrote a small red/yellow/blue to red/green/blue convertion utility but it needs all those darn DLLs to install it on any other machine! And I''m to lazy to redo that entire interface in VC++)

E:cb woof!

I share your opinion dog135. I''ve read a part of VB Graphics programming and the functions Stephens uses there are very slow. DirectX in VB is much faster.

You can actually do pixel plotting pretty fast in VB. You can retrieve an image pointer (there are some undocumented functions in VB actually, at least they were in VB5) to the surface and modify it with a pretty decent speed. Im not really sure how this is done though, found some code on it a long long time ago. And it was kinda messy too.

-- Staffan