Vidya development

I'm being serious, this isn't a troll thread or whatever.

Im interested in developing games using C++ and OpenGL. My question however is, where do I even start? In a cg artist, so rigging/animating low poly models and creating landscapes isn't an issue. Can I even learn all this without going through a college CS course? What are the things I need to know (optimization, vector math, etc)? Any recommended books?

Can I even learn all this without going through a college CS course
hell no. You can take one if it is freely available to you, to learn basic stuff but I still wouldn't recommend it since it will be a lot slower progress. Most stuff they teach is useless since you will be working with shaders in any real project and they usually teach immediate mode which is useless.

You will need vector math and geometry. I don't think a book will be that necessary but I already took some math courses so not sure.

I would suggest a higher level library, Ogre maybe. You will need a lot of extra libraries to make OpenGL work for models, textures, math etc (it is very basic, it is for graphics only.)

>>2
Can I even learn all this without going through a college CS course
whoops, didn't read the sentence correctly. Yes you can. The stuff they teach in schools is mostly the basics.

>>2
Is it imperitive that I use libraries like Ogre orDarkGDK? I'm planning on using OpenGL ES so I can get it on consoles. Is there a way to do it with just straight GL ES and C++ (like how I'm assuming game companies do it)?

Forgive me if I say something stupid,  I don't know what I'm talking about.

>>4
Is it imperitive that I use libraries like Ogre orDarkGDK?
Of course not. It's just a lot easier. 3D engines like Ogre and Irrlicht handle a lot of the busywork like importing your 3D models and such. Why reinvent the wheel?
Though if you want to learn and have some NIH syndrome, you can obviously do it all yourself. It's just a lot of pain and not very exciting, which is why these sort of libraries/SDKs/game engines exist. And even large-scale commercial game companies use them--go look up some game engines on Wikipedia, most articles have examples of commercial games.

If you want to take that route anyway, I suggest learning C through K&R, then picking up something like the OpenGL Red Book (or the OpenGL ES equivalent). I'd delay learning C++ and actual game-specific features until later (though most OpenGL books touch on them) since they're basically an extension/superset of C.

>>1
Learn to program first. C, then C++.
After that, you can ask for help again.

Better don't.
there already are enough unimaginative games out there, no need to have another one. On the other hand if you already had a concept, knowing what you need to accomplish you wouldn't be asking these questions.

REPORTED FOR UNDERAGE FUKKEN B&

>>7
He said he's interested in developing games. Why would you discourage him solely on the possibility that his games may be unimaginative?

>>7
No.
To do something right, you have to try.
If you fail, try again, repeat.
Now you have a great amount of junk, but if you could make something good from it, then it was good.
If there are enough crap out there, then there aren't enough goodness out there, so people need to try more, implying in failing more, then creating more crap. So, for the sake of creating better things, there aren't enough crap already.

>>10
Then why don't you practice what you preach and attempt to give better responses you fucking piece of shit hypocrite.

>>10
asking "HOW I MAEK VIDYA" on a forum is not trying. google opengl tutorials, study them. even if opengl is not useful, on worst case you will be familiar with game programming and computer graphics. I can easily say you will fail since you are lazy and should waste your time on something else

>>12
Yup, so once again you have to vent all you little bullshit instead of writing some code.

>>11 I'm trying, there aren't enough shitposts yet.
>>12 I'm already failing my deadlines, LOL neural networks!

By the way, I like you, you're very funny. Hahaha! XD

>>13
I write code at my job and as a hobby and currently I am actually working on an OpenGL probject as a hobby. You don't see me asking stupid stuff on web. sage if you have nothing to contribute

>>15
I'm calling you on your bullshit. Your grammar, along with your technical description of what goes on, sucks.

>>16
English is not my first language, so what? here is an old video of the opengl project I am working on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBJN1L8JSJY

>>17
So how do you justify your sloppy technical responses?

>>18
what technical response? I don't remember posting any.
If you think you are really determined, google nehe or other opengl tutorials. But I think you really should start with a higher level library

>>19
I'm confusing with the 17 year old toilet scubber that is currently fagging up this place.

>>20
yeah, that fucking kodak

I suggest finding a game engine that will meet your needs, as building a game engine from scratch is a very intensive task. Granted, once your first functioning scalable game engine, you're set for pretty much anything in that field. There are some open source game engines. I haven't used any, so I can't give any personal recommendations, but the screen shots for Orge3D look pretty impressive. But if you would like to teach yourself the math you'll need, then get through this list:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_(mathematics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation_matrix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_product
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_product
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_projection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpolation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_angles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternions_and_spatial_rotation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_space_partitioning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSP_(file_format)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_detection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octree
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kd_tree
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_response
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_finding

It'll take a long time to learn it, and it would take a long time to implement a full game engine, but it could be useful for you as a 3D artist to be aware of some of these things.

Skip C
Just go straight to C++, buy a good book
dmr himself said people shouldn't make C style code in C++

Hi everyone, OP here. Glad to see my thread survived the night. I went to sleep after posting >>4, because it was 5:30 AM.

>>5

Very helpful post, thank you. I'll see how I do without a high-level library, but if the learning curve is far too steep, I might take one up.

>>6

Well the point of this post was to ask if it was possible to learn all of this without a college course and get a good starting point. That question got answered. I wasn't asking for help with actual programming (errors and such).

>>7

Listen to >>9, making games is just an interest of mine. It's not like I'm some 13 year old douche looking to make Call of Duty.

>>8

I'm not underage.

>>12

I wasn't asking "how do I make vidya." I was asking if it was possible without college courses and inquiring about a good starting point. Why would I want to waste time learning something that I could never apply?



>>22

Love it. Not sure if I'll use Wikipedia for learning them, but I'll look for books on that sort of math. Thanks.

>>24
Glad to see my thread survived the night.
Threads don't expire here, you can bump them until the 1000 post limit.

>>23
Mathworld!

>>24

Cool, yeah wikipedia is too terse and general for learning math, but it makes a good reference. I'd suggest getting a good solid linear algebra book, and learning how it directly relates to openGL, or whatever other low level 3D graphics library you end up using. But yeah, if you can get a solid foundation with linear algebra, you are pretty much set. There might just be a few dips into vector calculus, but they wont be too frequent.

I forgot:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affine_transformation#Representation

This is actually used in open GL, so that rotations, scaling, skewing, translations and the like can all be represented as matrices, and efficiently applied to coordinates. If you get some good resources for openGL, it'll help tie together some of the math. Some of it is used directly for graphics, and other stuff is more useful for simulating the physics.