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A couple of years, I reckon. The world is full of people who have figured out what a class is, and set out to write games. Check out the game dev sites, they are full of people 'starting the worlds best 3D engine'.
Take a sensible approach. Think about what a game needs, and create projects for yourself to learn those things. Be prepared to scrap 50% of what you learn of the current version of DX in order to use the new version that will come out while you are learning. Try to learn stuff that is more mundane, like data structures/STL/etc. first. Then write a 2D game. Write some 3D demos to experiment with 3D space and physics. Then you might be ready. Even then, remember that a commercial game takes a team of people a good year to write as a full time job.
Christian
No offense, but I don't really want to encourage the creation of another VB developer.
- Larry Antram 22 Oct 2002
C# will attract all comers, where VB is for IT Journalists and managers - Michael
P Butler 05-12-2002
It'd probably be fairly easy to make a bot that'd post random stupid VB questions, and nobody would probably ever notice - benjymous - 21-Jan-2003
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I learnt to program in C on my first game project way back (for me) in 1995, and whilst I haven't scraped the initial idea I have scrapped 100% of my code and started again almost every year since. This year I haven't scraped it though as it's coming along great, most likely because last year I took the time to lay down a fairly strict design document which I am following. 
I would caution against taking the much-hyped "start simple" approach. I just don't think it offers the level of motivation you will need to actually see a project like a game (where you probably wont have visibly runable code to show for your first few months work) through to completion when you are doing it in your spare time, not unless it is just a simple 3d pong or the like. You need to get used to it, not used to the opposite.
As to whether the original poster has what it takes, only he can tell himself that. I certainly didn't think I did when I started out, and I've been working as a developer for the past two years and am about to start a full time job in a week. It is not knowledge that gets you through these things, it is self-determination and the will - not the raw ability - to keep pushing. As some famous bloke said, even monkeys can write Shakespeare.
David Wulff
http://www.davidwulff.co.uk
I am only here to amuse myself. Anyone else is a bonus.h.a.s: 0.0.4
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David Wulff wrote:
I just don't think it offers the level of motivation you will need to actually see a project like a game
True, a lot of people who want to write games don't have what it takes to be programmers. But if he does, then that is the way to go. As you said with your own game, the alternative is to keep scrapping code as you realise what you needed to know in the first place.
David Wulff wrote:
As to whether the original poster has what it takes, only he can tell himself that.
True. I was trying to point out the pitfalls and hoping he'd respond with 'well, I know *I* can do it', the sort of determination he'll need to see it through.
David Wulff wrote:
It is not knowledge that gets you through these things, it is self-determination and the will - not the raw ability - to keep pushing.
Agreed. I still maintain that involves being willing to take baby steps before trying to take giant ones.
Christian
No offense, but I don't really want to encourage the creation of another VB developer.
- Larry Antram 22 Oct 2002
C# will attract all comers, where VB is for IT Journalists and managers - Michael
P Butler 05-12-2002
It'd probably be fairly easy to make a bot that'd post random stupid VB questions, and nobody would probably ever notice - benjymous - 21-Jan-2003
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carjackermike wrote:
how much work, how long will it take me to make a good looking 3D shooter with all the DirectX 9 and Cg stuff in it
It will take quite some time. I decided that I wanted to make a simple game, Tetris[^], while I was unemployed last year. I treated writing this game like my full-time job until I found a job, and I spent 3 months on it. Part of it was writing the frame work to handle the graphics and sound in directX, the other part was actually writing the game and adding the animations.
I didnt even have to do the artwork or music, my brother created that for me. So if you are on your own, you will need to spend even more time doing that.
A 3D game would be considerable more involved. One thing you can do to minimize the amount of time is to use a free 3D engine that someone else has developed.
carjackermike wrote:
What do i need to know
If you want to write the game engine from scratch, you should study your euclidian geometry, and trig. There are a lot of things that Direct X will do for you, but you still need to understand the basis of the math.
Besides that, it really helps to have a general understanding of all of the basic data types to help you properly organize the code in your game. The better you organize up front, the easier it will be for you to change your game in the end.
I would suggest to pick a somewhat simple game, and implement it, so that you get an idea of what is involved to make a more ambitious 3D game.
Good Luck
Build a man a fire, and he will be warm for a day
Light a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life!
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Depends a lot on what you mean by "good looking".
Consider that it takes 5 to 10 average to excellent experienced game programmers 1 to 3 years to make a "good looking" commercial shooter. And don't forget about the army of artists that are needed too.
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This is the original poster speaking =) I am starting out studying C++ and as of yet i have no idea how to make a GUI program. I know some of the terminology. I have already formed a development team of some friends. We expect to have a finished product by the year 2006. So far there are 3 of us, I handle the hard part, the programming, another guy handles 3D modeling and animation and textures, and the other handles sounds, as he is a professional DJ, and the last guy handles physics. There is a new book coming out called "The Cg Tutorial: The definitive guide to programmable real time graphics, and I thought that that would help me. I do not even know HOW to start, or how to write an engine. Perhaps someone could help and answer all of my burning questions?
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Hello,
Noting the date on that last post, I'm not sure if you'll get this message. If you do, however, respond to this post or send me an email at Alexander@wisemanweb.com. I am willing to answer some of your questions. At one point I was in your situation, though now I have learned a bit more.
Hopefully, I will talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
Alexander Wiseman
Est melior esse quam videri
It is better to be than to seem
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I created dialog application and in it's view class I declared some function. so, when I create some new dialog class(child of the previous) I must do some data exchange with main application. for example: in child dialog I type "name", and after I press OK it should be inserted in CListCtrl. so I declare my view class in child dialog(use InsertItem function in OnOk), but program terminates in this point while running. so, can you give me an advise how to make data exchange in this situation
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I can't figure out what you're saying you did, but a function in the child dialog, to be called by the parent is the way to go. For the program to terminate, you've done something pretty wrong, perhaps posting some code would help.
Christian
No offense, but I don't really want to encourage the creation of another VB developer.
- Larry Antram 22 Oct 2002
C# will attract all comers, where VB is for IT Journalists and managers - Michael
P Butler 05-12-2002
It'd probably be fairly easy to make a bot that'd post random stupid VB questions, and nobody would probably ever notice - benjymous - 21-Jan-2003
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Hi all.. I'm working on excel automation..
One thing that i found out was some file doesn't allowing to set the paper size.. even you dont user automation... I mean just using MS Excel Application to open and go to file->pagesetup and the paper size combo box is gray.. that's mean you can't set any paper size for that file except the paper size what the person who create that excel file.
is there anyway that I can detected whether that paper size combo box is not in gray color before I actually use my code? I used long pagesetup::getpapersize().. before I use pagesetup::setpapersize()
the function return the paper size unless the papersize combo box is not in gray color. if it is in gray color, I got the error message saying "type not match".. I tried to use
if(!getpapersize()) <font color="red">
{ <br />
<br />
}<code><br />
but still getting the same error message..
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I'm still looking but dont see how get my richEditCtrl to show up with the text in in NOT selected.
I tried:
myRich.SetSel(0,0);
but thats not it....
Appreciate your help,
ns
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myRich.SendMessage(EM_SETSEL, -1, 0);
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Thanks, but that didnt do it either......but thank you for helping.
Appreciate your help,
ns
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If you explain your problem in detailes, think I would halp to sove it.
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WHn my CrichEDitCTrl comes up in the app, it alreday has windowtext in it, but it shows up as selected....even though its read only...
Appreciate your help,
ns
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Hi
I was wondering if it was possible to grey out checkboxes in a Treeview using any VC++ keywords or do we have to create our own code for this ?
Thanks for any help
Regards
Nitin
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Hi!
Is there any way I can remotely terminate an application A from another application B?
I want the exact functionality provided by the "Kill Process" feature of the Process Viewer application on Visual Sutdio.
Any pointers?!
Thanks!
-Me
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One advantage to dynamically DLL linking is using custom DLL if applicable. You may load non-MFC DLL including those you design and implement.
Kuphryn
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Yes, I think the first entry in the search path for DLLs is always the current directory (your apps installation folder).
At my small app, I link MFC dynamically but I forgot why 
Regards,
~ Florian
--
Florian Heidenreich
http://www.mp3tag.de[^]
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Hi, if I have an iterator on a vector, does
iter - vec.begin() return the index of the very element into the vector?
I guess so, but didn't find a place that says it is.
So many people long for eternity that don't know what to do on a rainy sunday afternoon.
[sighist] | [Agile Programming] [doxygen]
If you look for evil in me you will find it whether it's there or not.
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This is correct: iterators traversing an std::vector are random access iterators, so this kind of expressions are guaranteed to work.
Joaquín M López Muñoz
Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo
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I want to default the CFileDialog class to browse from a folder in the network. I can't use the drive letter. The drive mapping to the folder can be different from client to client. I want to get the UNC path. I tried calling WNetGetUniversalName function, but I got an unresolved external symbol error message at linking. I am using VC++ 6 enterprise and Windows 2000.
Eilzabeth
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Have you linked mpr.lib?
Joaquín M López Muñoz
Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo
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