Software for Creating Games Question?

LoSTimberWolf · Post by **LoSTimberWolf** » Wed Jul 31, 2002 10:03 pm

A friend of mine asked me to join him and his brother in making a computer game (mainly because I have a differnt perspective then his brother). He is buying the DarkBasic Mega Pack, and I was wondering how good this software is. The link to the web site is <a href="http://darkbasic.com/,">darkbasic.com/,</a> or <a href="http://darkbasic.com/">Click here</a>. If you say this program is good, great, or exellent, then what would I need to buy to just help create maps and vehicles for the game? I have no clue about what we are getting into but I like getting into new things. Thanks for you help. -LoS-TimberWolfvehicle specilist<img src="http://65.108.58.179/image_upload/Mech3.jpg" align=left><hr>Click <a href="http://ngal.fateback.com">here</a> for wierd creatures."Don't Drink And Drive, Get High And Fly Home" said by Neckhole"To Love A Woman Is To Know Heaven And Hell Personaly" Don't Recal Who Said This<hr>

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Wed Jul 31, 2002 11:54 pm

I don't know. I've always heard that it was easier to program games in C or C++ over BASIC and its derivatives. <img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/avatars/ashaman2.jpg width=150 align=left> <left><a href=http://www.dragontalonmercs.com>Dragon Talon Mercenary</a> <a href=http://www.xmenclan.org>Member of the XMEN</a> Have a Nice Day! "Politics, war, martial arts; these are tools to bend the universe to your will."</left> Edited by: <a href=http://pub3.ezboard.com/uxmengambit.sho ... ge=EN>XMEN Gambit</a> <img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/images/x.gif> at: 7/14/02 8:16:26 pm

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 5:36 am

Nonono. Not easier. Better, because the programs run faster and take less space. Basic is almost always easier to program than C/C++. On the other hand, as a learning experience, it'd be great. I've heard of DarkBasic but never even had a chance to look at it. From what I gather it's pretty decent - and would almost have to be to still be around three years from when I heard of it. Modern compilers can get quite a bit of Basic code down to near-C++ speeds. Not all of it, but between that and the power of today's PCs, you should be able to make a very playable game. You may want to talk to Viper; he also likes to mess with this stuff (he bought the Torque engine to play with) and I think he's used DarkBasic. As far as your specific questions - haven't a clue, sorry. <img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif border=0 align=left>XMEN member Card-carrying DTM OKL Fish-napper Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained. - The Tao of Programming Life is complex; it consists of real and imaginary parts.

LoSTimberWolf · Post by **LoSTimberWolf** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 12:53 pm

I just sent Viper an email. I hope he still uses the email addy, or else he checks this thread. -LoS-TimberWolfvehicle specilist<img src="http://65.108.58.179/image_upload/Mech3.jpg" align=left><hr>Click <a href="http://ngal.fateback.com">here</a> for wierd creatures."Don't Drink And Drive, Get High And Fly Home" said by Neckhole"To Love A Woman Is To Know Heaven And Hell Personaly" Don't Recal Who Said This<hr>

Spinning Hat · Post by **Spinning Hat** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 2:47 pm

World Craft is a good editing tool to create maps. You can get it off a Friend's Half-Life CD, if you can't find it online. (Which is unlikely.) <div align="center"><embed width="250" height="200" src="http://www.theta_mercenaries.homestead.com/files/sphat.swf"></div>Why Do I Always Die?!?!?!?!

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Thu Aug 01, 2002 4:11 pm

Aha! Thanks, Gambino. I knew that C was awesome for computational math, but didn't know it outclassed BASIC like that. <img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/avatars/ashaman2.jpg width=150 align=left> <left><a href=http://www.dragontalonmercs.com>Dragon Talon Mercenary</a> <a href=http://www.xmenclan.org>Member of the XMEN</a> Have a Nice Day! "Politics, war, martial arts; these are tools to bend the universe to your will."</left> Edited by: <a href=http://pub3.ezboard.com/uxmengambit.sho ... ge=EN>XMEN Gambit</a> <img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/images/x.gif> at: 7/14/02 8:16:26 pm

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 12:36 pm

hrmm... I have never used one of these game making kits, but I can say that they cut our a whole lot of hard work and study. Such kits cut out the need for: * a working knowledge of a programming language (they use very simple scripts... most do not compile, only use VMs) * fluency in atleast calc 1 * months of study on game engine structure * many months of study on graphics programming * expensive modelers and tools (they provide cheap tools for you, expensive ones are not needed... the engine provided tends to be quite limited and can't handle high-poly models and quality art work... probably dated by 3 years) and much much more... but as I said... dont expect to make something that you could market... heck, unless you are quite determined, don't expect to finish anything... *shrug* Viper has done nothing but toyed with the Torque SDK... he changed the HUD a bit and made about 3 or 4 models... me, I've made a few 3d demos from scratch... most of them physics related... but game programming takes lots of physics and much more calculus but I'll sick viper on this thread for you "I'd love it if you worked here Bilton, then maybe you'd really know what, why, and have genuine insight. Then I could fire you."--Geof Evans, Producer: WWII ONLINE If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance!

scratchmonkey1 · Post by **scratchmonkey1** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 1:45 pm

Basic and C might be equally good for games, depending on how used. I'd use C/C++ for low-level stuff that needed to be really fast, but Basic would be fine for high-level stuff that made overall decisions and then relegated performance-critical stuff (like rendering) to the C-based "engine". My rule of programming is, first get it right, then make it fast. So I would favor a strict language that also compiles to tight code. Modula 2 or a Pascal dialect like Delphi would be good for any beginner. C++ is ok if you have some experience programming and some good tools to catch your mistakes, such as Purify.

LoSTimberWolf · Post by **LoSTimberWolf** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 2:40 pm

I will be learning C++ in my Computer Science class in College. My friend is buying basic, and since my dad already has C/C++ then I will just keep with that as I learn how to program. -LoS-TimberWolfvehicle specilist<img src="http://65.108.58.179/image_upload/Mech3.jpg" align=left><hr>Click <a href="http://ngal.fateback.com">here</a> for wierd creatures."Don't Drink And Drive, Get High And Fly Home" said by Neckhole"To Love A Woman Is To Know Heaven And Hell Personaly" Don't Recal Who Said This<hr>

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Sun Aug 11, 2002 9:56 am

C++ language takes about 4 hours to learn completely... <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> or atleast that's how long it took me... all them darn libraries and APIs and SDKs take forever to get fluent with <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("> I'll fire aimlessly if you don't come out!

LoSTimberWolf · Post by **LoSTimberWolf** » Sun Aug 11, 2002 10:32 am

I will have 2 hours a week in the Computer Science Class, then another hour in the week in a lab using C++. I expect to be making games in that lab all year long. -LoS-TimberWolfvehicle specilist<img src="http://65.108.58.179/image_upload/Mech3.jpg" align=left><hr>Click <a href="http://ngal.fateback.com">here</a> for wierd creatures."Don't Drink And Drive, Get High And Fly Home" said by Neckhole"To Love A Woman Is To Know Heaven And Hell Personaly" Don't Recal Who Said This<hr>

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Sun Aug 11, 2002 12:36 pm

When using C or C++, one of the best things to learn is how to debug efficiently. Well, that and making sure you release any memory you've allocated and don't write to memory you haven't. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> <img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif border=0 align=left>XMEN member Card-carrying DTM OKL Fish-napper Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained. - The Tao of Programming Life is complex; it consists of real and imaginary parts.

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 3:51 pm

you mean like thi........ oops... crashed <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/happy.gif ALT=":D"> 1/2 of the program crashes I get are from writing to memory that my proggie didn't own... and when most of the memory you use is allocated on the fly... things can get messy worst debug is to find exactly where you are writing to the wrong memory... Exception Handling is something I never covered.... and where you don't need max speed... be very redundant <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> I'll fire aimlessly if you don't come out!

LoS Malthus · Post by **LoS Malthus** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 7:08 pm

TW remember to pay closest attention to the concepts behind the language and programming in general. As anyone here who has programmed will tell you, once you learn the concepts, you can write in just about anything, provided you have enough reference material. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> And comment, comment, comment! <table width="40%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"> <tr> <td>-LoS-Malthus</td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href=http://www.lordsofsteel.com>Lords of Steel</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src= "http://www.lordsofsteel.com/image_uploa ... .jpg"></td> </tr><tr><td>"Everyone can be taught to sculpt: Michelangelo would have had to be taught not to. So it is with great programmers. " - Alan J. Perlis, Yale University.<td></tr></table>

scratchmonkey1 · Post by **scratchmonkey1** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 12:34 pm

4 hours?! That's enough to learn the syntax. It takes a lot longer to know how to be effective and all the idioms. Once you learn the basics, subscribe to C/C++ Users Journal (AKA "CUJ") and C++ Report. The latter is more meaty but more advanced, and covers OOP and "Design Patterns" (important OOP concept). It also has the C++ obfuscated code column. Some unreadable code is presented and you have to figure out what it does. Pretty fun. <a href="http://www.cuj.com/">www.cuj.com/</a> Alas, it looks like C++ Report ceased publication. It used to be at <a href="http://www.sigs.com/">www.sigs.com/</a> but I think it must have gotten lost in the dot com implosion. As someone who writes for more than one platform, I strongly recommend  not littering your code with Windows-isms. Keep all GUI stuff in one place and separate it from the meat of your program. Write the core in platform-independent code and put all the platform stuff in separate files. That makes it easy to port to the Mac or to Linux.

Software for Creating Games Question?

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