Game programming is best done in straight C++ with occasional/frequent inline assembly thrown in. OOP programming adds a great deal of overhead to programming in general. But then with the powerful systems in use today, I suppose it is "ok" to use OOP to write games (although I wouldn't). Perhaps that is why so many of today's games require high-end systems, or maybe not. You're going to need/want some graphics/data files. There are a number of tools and probably some graphics you can download, but in the end you're going to need to make some files of your own. I don't do anything with OpenGL or game writing, although I have written and designed a few games. So I may not be the best source of information. There are certainly some objects you can create directly from inside OpenGL (triangles, boxes, pyramids, complex combinations of the same, etc).
Go here and take the tutorial. It should also answer your questions better than me.
-----Original Message----- From: rsobba
I am not a gamer but an on again off again home OOP programmer. I need something to keep my interest up while I am learning. Have any of you done any game programming? I am wanting to program in C++ and Open GL but am curious about the graphics end of it. Will I need to create images using a package like Adobe Illustrator first or is this all done somehow within Open GL.
Thanks in advance. Rick
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Brian Densmore wrote:
Game programming is best done in straight C++ with occasional/frequent inline assembly thrown in. OOP programming adds a great deal of overhead to programming in general. But then with the powerful systems in use today, I suppose it is "ok" to use OOP to write games (although I wouldn't). Perhaps that is why so many of today's games require high-end systems, or maybe not.
I agree with Brian's comments except for that I would wager that some of today's extremely large games wouldn't be possible without OOP. Certainly OOP would not be required for anything you will be doing as a hobby but when 'objects' you're manipulated in 3D space are -- well -- objects... I can't think of any better use of OOP. Though, I feel dizzy to think of the inheritance digrams for those kinds of games.
As a side note, knowledge of Calculus III would be extremely helpful in any 3D programming you might do.
I have often thought it would be neat to get a peek at how companies like Blizzard do game development -- the quality of their games is so superb.
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Brian Densmore -
Jason Clinton