[Sudo Vi]

Hi all. I recently completed a Java course for college. I started looking at other languages and what you can accomplish and found game programming to be highly interesting.

I hope I don't sound like an idiot. I started doing some research and reading up on DirectX and OpenGL but then I got confused. The more I read I started seeing stuff about XNA, PhysX, and MS Visual Studio.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I think I understand the background about DirectX and OpenGL but not the others mentioned. Do DirectX and XNA work in conjunction with one another. Is PhysX more of a component?

If I were to pick a book or tutuorial about game programming with DirectX or OpenGL what would you folks recommend I read first? Or do you think I should attempt to learn other languages like C++ or C# before I dive into anything else. Thanks in advance for your guidance.

This post has been edited by Sudo Vi: 12 March 2008 - 05:32 AM

[Nykc]

Definitely will want to learn C++ or C#. Preferrably C++ for portability. You dive into DirectX and XNA you are selling yourself exclusively to Microsoft.

[MorphiusFaydal]

DirectX and OpenGL are graphics libraries. They make it easy to draw stuff to the screen. (Well... DirectX technically also has sound, input, networking, and some other stuff... Direct3D is the graphics component.)

XNA is a C# framework that is supposed to take some of the repetative code out of creating games. It uses DirectX, although you never do any actual DirectX code yourself.

PhysX is a third party physics system. It handles all the physics related stuff in game, and that's it. So it's a part of a game engine.

IMHO, you should get a decent grasp of C/C++/C# before you dive straight into game programming. So you're not trying to learn a million things at once. 99.9% of tutorials/books will assume you already have a decent understanding of the language, so they won't stop to teach you about the base concepts. Of course, it is up to, so if you want to try it, go right ahead.

[Sudo Vi]

Thanks, you've really helped clarify what all of the different items are. I've been doing some more research and it seems like C++ is a really good standard language to learn.

I go to college online and I have full access to the U's library which is very cool. I already downloaded 2 C++ ebooks. So my plan is to read the books and write some code as I go and see where I'm at in the learning process in about 6 months. Then once I feel comfortable I will check back into game programming. Thanks a ton!

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“Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - unknown

[KYA]

Nykc, on 12 Mar, 2008 - 06:43 AM, said:

Definitely will want to learn C++ or C#. Preferrably C++ for portability. You dive into DirectX and XNA you are selling yourself exclusively to Microsoft.

Most commercial apps use directX and they aren't all married to MS...or are they??? (cur dramatic music)

[Tom9729]

KYA, on 12 Mar, 2008 - 05:23 PM, said:

Nykc, on 12 Mar, 2008 - 06:43 AM, said:

Definitely will want to learn C++ or C#. Preferrably C++ for portability. You dive into DirectX and XNA you are selling yourself exclusively to Microsoft.

Most commercial apps use directX and they aren't all married to MS...or are they??? (cur dramatic music)

They're "married to Microsoft" because they only work on the platforms that Microsoft will let them work on. It doesn't matter too much because a language is a language, and you probably won't build up a codebase you would want to use later while you're learning, but you should know that there are alternatives out there and that as long as you program for one of Microsoft's platforms, they to some extent have control over you.

[Nykc]

@KYA - Unless DirectX is cheating.... dah dah daaaaaaaaa.....

[MorphiusFaydal]

I'd say DirectX has a larger market share than OpenGL. Pretty much every game out there is DirectX based, and the OpenGL port is reserved for if they try and put it on Mac or one of the very few companies who do Linux ports *cough*Epic*cough*

[Tom9729]

MorphiusFaydal, on 12 Mar, 2008 - 06:28 PM, said:

I'd say DirectX has a larger market share than OpenGL. Pretty much every game out there is DirectX based, and the OpenGL port is reserved for if they try and put it on Mac or one of the very few companies who do Linux ports *cough*Epic*cough*

It doesn't matter how much market share it has. OpenGL is an industry standard, DirectX is not.

[MorphiusFaydal]

Tom9729, on 12 Mar, 2008 - 08:46 PM, said:

MorphiusFaydal, on 12 Mar, 2008 - 06:28 PM, said:

I'd say DirectX has a larger market share than OpenGL. Pretty much every game out there is DirectX based, and the OpenGL port is reserved for if they try and put it on Mac or one of the very few companies who do Linux ports *cough*Epic*cough*

It doesn't matter how much market share it has. OpenGL is an industry standard, DirectX is not.

I would take exception to that. OpenGL is standardised, yes. But the "industry standard" - the one the industry primarily uses - is DirectX.

[KYA]

Tom9729, on 12 Mar, 2008 - 07:46 PM, said:

It doesn't matter how much market share it has. OpenGL is an industry standard, DirectX is not.

no

Quote

I would take exception to that. OpenGL is standardised, yes. But the "industry standard" - the one the industry primarily uses - is DirectX.

yes

This post has been edited by KYA: 13 March 2008 - 02:25 AM

[SudoVi]

Thanks all. It seems like both DirectX and OpenGL have their advantages. I downloaded Visual C++ express, DirectX, and Dark GDK. Time to play around...........thanks again!

[keithgarry]

Tom9729, on 12 March 2008 - 11:34 PM, said:

KYA, on 12 Mar, 2008 - 05:23 PM, said:

Nykc, on 12 Mar, 2008 - 06:43 AM, said:

Definitely will want to learn C++ or C#. Preferrably C++ for portability. You dive into DirectX and XNA you are selling yourself exclusively to Microsoft.

Most commercial apps use directX and they aren't all married to MS...or are they??? (cur dramatic music)

It doesn't matter too much because a language is a language, and you probably won't build up a codebase you would want to use later while you're learning,

Popping in here to say this is most likely true. Gyrovorbis on youtube has been making an RPG engine in C++ and after about a year of dev ended up recoding everything.

Quote

Any fool who uses "bare" DirectX or OpenGL in any project is just asking for trouble in the long run...

Woah, you'll have to explain that.

[reaper4334]

keithgarry, on 04 May 2010 - 04:38 AM, said:

Quote

Any fool who uses "bare" DirectX or OpenGL in any project is just asking for trouble in the long run...

Woah, you'll have to explain that.

I think that he means that you would create methods to handle the stuff and then have your game code seperately, rather than using the ""bare" DirectX or OpenGL" in your actual game code, if that makes sense.
Could be wrong, that's just what I got from it