Game Development Areas

#1

Hey All

I just signed up but have been visiting for a few weeks just doing some general reading.

This might go on a little bit because im crap at explaining!

I dont really understand this field. I was reading a different post about the best things to do to learn some game development stuff. I dont really understand it. I enjoy 3d max when i am at university and mess around with it etc but in order to get anywhere in this field of career it seems i have ALOT to learn. The university i goto does a games technology degree BSc and its 4 years long including a year in the industry. So how is it possible to learn complicated maths, c, c++, open GL and/or DX in effectivly 2 years when it took me about a year of self learning to learn flash 5 actionscript.

Last year i was in first year Multimedia Systems and i had 10, 1 hour lessons in C. Flash is nothing but it did mean i had a little head start with what vars an functions etc were. At the end i was expected to “know” C. In effect, have 10 hours worth of french lessons and write a novel. Is that pretty much standard to learn it that quick?

Im not really stupid or inexperienced with computers on windows platforms and i do think i pick things up well but it seems the only way to get anywhere in this field is do several degrees @ once or one after the other!

Do i make any sense here? Another way of putting this, say im a master @ 3dmax and i can pull some amazing photorealistic work off, would i still be on the streets because i dont know C/C++ and high end maths? Or if im amazing @ C++ but dont have a clue about 3d would i be in the same position?

See the reason im writing is because i always liked the thought of making computer games but how many fields are there and what do you need to know for each? If it means learning high end maths, programming and good 3d practise im leaving uni and applying to the local council to be a road sweeper!

If i erased my computer knowledge and started again soley to be good in this area of IT how would you suggest i start? A math book and a pen or just jump into a compiler and start belting stuff out till something works?

Thanks for any input to this dull thread but im interested :stuck_out_tongue:

Clarky

#2

One thing to point out is that being able to use 3ds Max doesn’t help your programming ability one bit (well, ok, unless you do everything exclusively in MaxScript ;)). Creating art and programming are two very different things.

If you want to be a games programmer, and you want to eventually write more than Solitaire and Majhong clones then you’ll want to learn the math. It’s really not that hard, it’s just a load of linear algebra really, high school level stuff in the main. You’ll also want to learn C and C++ (see the thread about industry standard coding languages for a discussion on that).

#3

It’s worth picking up some good books, these might be worth checking out

Math for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics - Eric Lengyel - not read it, but I’ve heard good things about it

3D Game Engine Design - Dave Eberly - good book, might be math heavy at first, but it’s definitely worth getting, invaluable

Computer Graphics, Priciples and Practice - Foley, Van Dam, Feiner, Hughes - the standard by which many graphics books are measured. A little old now, but still relevant, and provides a good grounding

The C++ Programming Language - Bjarne Stroustrup - a reference for C++, not a tutorial book. Don’t try learning C++ by reading this book, but it’s an invaluable aid once you’re up and running.

If you can buy all those, then you’re probably rich and don’t need to work anyway ;). If that’s all a bit expensive for you then check out some of the programming sites (and hang out here and feel free to ask questions :))

#4

http://www.flipcode.com



http://developer.nvidia.com
http://www.ati.com/developer
http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx
http://www.opengl.com

Now, that all assumes you want to be a programmer. Maybe you don’t want to (what? blasphemy!! ;)). Maybe you’d rather be an artist and leave all the coding and math to people who eat too much pizza and mutter about “dot products” and “separating axis theorem” under their breath. In that case you probably don’t need to know any of this, your time would be better spent practising modelling, learning anatomy/architecture, all that sort of stuff that I know absolutely nothing about.

HTH. I can understand if it doesn’t. Feel free to ask more questions if all I’ve done is confuse you more :slight_smile:

#5

and if you’re wondering why I posted that in 3 separate messages, the board told me that the message (when I tried to post as a single large message) had too many images in it. Er, what? Maybe I went a bit smiley crazy, but other than that…

#6

ohhhh :shame:

#7

:thumbsup:

Thanks for that Gooberius! Sorry i aint replied sooner, i been away for a few days. YEah ill deffo keep looking into this topic.

thanks again :stuck_out_tongue:

#8

You want to know what it takes to become a REAL games creator?

Obtain the “Tricks of the Games programming Gurus” books by Andre LaMothe.

If you can work though these and understand half of the material covered in them - you should be more than a match for games programming!:thumbsup:

#9

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.