About making a game engine...

[Joey]

Im kinda confused about this. i want to make a fps like doom with c++ once i learn it (i know it wont be soon but i am just curious about this now.)do i save it as like engine.cpp? what do i tell the engine to do? im really not sure what an engine does in the first place. then why is there a need for other .cpp files if i have everything i need in the engine?

im just really confused about this...

[BI lazy]

*gg*

welcome in the world of includes, object files and programming in general!

This engine.cpp which you mention will be a subsystem, and after compiling and before linking, it is an object file. you have public call-able functions a linker can refer to. These public functions have parameters (of course...).

You have to declare them in each other object file as EXTERN so the linker knows He, this is a symbol i can find in an other object file.

What an engine does???!!!: game control subsystem, rendering subsystem, animation subsystem ... what you want to have the computer do, program it, link it and debug it. *gg*

Hope this helps. but be so kind and provide yourself a copy of "C++ for dummies". It is a good book.

[Eero Ränik]

And while you're shopping, grab a copy of some book about 3D game programming. Those will answer to a lot of your questions.

[Pype.Clicker]

i suggest you get a look at OGRE (Object-oriented Graphic Rendering Engine), which is fairly well documented, and introduces clearly a large amount of concepts.

[Schol-R-LEA]

BTW, how did you do with that Learn C++ Today! book you were going to get? I gather it didn't help much, or else that you never had time to work on it.

As I said before, you might want to try a simpler language first, such as Scheme; but if you are determined to struggle through C++ right away, you might try one of the online tutorials at Intapp, Cprogramming.com, Game Tutorials, or C++.com, and see if they help.

Also, if you need any help, don't hesitate to ask us here. I would be glad to help, as would most of the others; that is what the forum is about, after all.

[Joey]

i havent had a chance to work on it, but i am going to start the book all over from scratch. before i got stuck at one point and just gave up there. im gonna try to finish it with all the free time i have. well...ALMOST all the free time i have

[Quantum]

one book tought me the whole thing...

C++ for dummies

i swear that is the most helpfull book ever created! ;D

[Brian_Provinciano]

If you want to make 3D games, pay close attention, work hard, and stay after class to get your trig (sin/cos/etc.) down. If you ever needed to learn anything for game creation in normal school, that's it, heh.

[Joey]

there arent any programming courses in my highschool or not that i know of. i cant decide which to work on: c++, or vb6. i want to make fps, but i also want to make an overhead rpg like Castle of the Winds. i think c++ would be good for an fps, and vb6 would be good for a cotw type game. i just cant decide which to do first. it is going to take a lot of work, and i want to be able to create things i want once im done reading from the book. so what i mean is, once i finish the c++ book, i doubt i will be able to make an fps, but if i could make a different type of game once i finish the book, like a platform game, or an rpg or something, i will be happy still. i dont know. what would you recommend?

[Joey]

also, AGI is the only language i know :-\ i know some basics about programming, and i kinda have an idea on how they work, but only a little. so maybe i should learn a different language first? but i dont want to spend a lot of time on something i will be able to do nothing with. like i dont want to learn a language, then once i learn it i cant make things i like with it. like it will be extremely difficult to make a little game, where it would be a snap doing it with another language.

please let me know what you guys think.

[Eero Ränik]

Brian meant trigonometry which is usually taught in math class...
I suggest you to go with C++. CotW type games can be made in C++ much better than in VB. And after reading the book you should know pretty much to create simpler games in C++...

[Joey]

ok thanks. perhaps i will start looking at the book this weekend if i have a chance to.