Jump to content

  • Log In with Google      Sign In   
  • Create Account





Member Since 13 Dec 2012
Offline Last Active Jun 29 2013 12:40 PM

Topics I've Started

Where are the .a files in SFML 2.0?

28 June 2013 - 03:28 AM

I am trying to use Code::Blocks to write up my supernoob first 2D graphics of a deformed excuse for a shape on my screen.

All seemed to be well and good, I added the SFML-2.0\include\ folder and followed the documentation for my incredible green circle, my IDE was smiling brightly upon me as I it recognized the RenderWindow term and allowed me to place in parameters without proceeding to mock me by filling my log up with red text and references to objects that I never even wrote. Upon excitedly hitting the F9 key to build and run my new AAA game that was going to make me millions of dollars and revolutionize the market, I was finally spammed with the sadistic shit that the IDE was taking pleasure in letting out on me with an error message on almost every line.

It's relatively the same error each time:



Anyway. Some Google searches suggested that I hadn't placed in the appropriate library files (I had linked to the .lib's beforehand) and so I went on to fix my problem based on my own incompetence when... there's no ".a files" at all. It clearly suggests that they are in the lib folder. But there are only the basic libraries (system, system-s, system-d, window-s etc.) in .lib format.

If I can't even figure this one out I might as well seek a new career line as a catholic priest. So someone please tell me what the heck I'm doing wrong before I repent to the good lord for all my wrongs and move to Russia where I can spank mutant deer with my new acquired religious friends. You guys are about to determine my future.

Touching base with GameDev... Where do I go from here?

27 June 2013 - 07:46 AM

I find that this community has a reliable sense of direction and that's also something I can appreciate when I'm finding myself lost every five minutes. Anyway.
So I went to watch TheNewBoston's tutorials on C++. I have now watched all 73 tutorials and I've completed all the tasks given. Keeping in mind that I originally wasn't going to learn the language on its own but through gaming tutorials in development with C++, I've now decided that it's best for me to learn the language itself. Obviously I'm no expert, but I've learned a decent amount and I've grasped the whole idea behind OOP finally.

tl;dr I'm able to understand and code in C++ syntax now and see where I go wrong.


I want to know now what the next step is. Some people are telling me to head on with OpenGL (or SFML) and others are telling me to just use UDK. I don't want to use an engine because I want to spend the next few years building my knowledge up from the ground.


Should I learn SFML and how to use it with C++ or move onto finding a tutorial series that shows game development with SFML at the same time? Does anyone have links or references to places I could find these?

Anyway, just any kind of directive advice I will appreciate a lot.
Again, I really don't want to learn Unity or UDK. I'm happy to make terrible games coding them myself until I get better.


Basic Concepts of Programming

22 June 2013 - 07:15 AM

I'm hearing a lot of fancy words the more I grow interested in programming. I don't really understand a lot of it. I wish programming tutorials would give more information about what they're talking about. Let's use C++ for example.

I know that setting a function to void means that it doesn't return a value. Returning 0 simply means that the program ran correctly. No programming tutorial has told me more than this. They have only ever elaborated on those facts. When I ask myself "In what situations should I set a function to void?" or "If I return 0 in another function, what would happen? Why would it cause an error?" I don't know how to answer them.


These might seem like insignificant details to you, because I could go on without them. But I want to know exactly when I should be using void, and when I should be returning a variable.


Object Oriented Programming is said to take data and code and put them into an object. They say this differs from traditional programming methods but I have no idea what traditional methods were and how different they were. I don't know the difference between my "code" and the "data". Can anyone please relate to me and see why I'm struggling?
It's almost like nobody bothers to sit down and take the time to explain why these things are so. Every tutorial I watch, book I read does not elaborate enough and it drives me up the wall. But enough complaining.


Can anyone give me some basic run through of the most basic principles of coding. I understand what integers are, floats, strings, booleans - for example. I know that it's more effective to use a single instead of a double when you're working with a smaller number, but why? I just need some explanations on common misconceptions and reasoning behind the crap I'm typing. I see it coming together, I see it working, but I don't know why it's working and I struggle to replicate it later because I don't know the reasons why I put certain things in places the first time.


If typing something up here is too much to ask for, that's probably right, lol. I'll appreciate any information or tutorials, videos etc. that anyone can link me to in terms of coding and their core foundations and reasoning behind its basic principles. Just the silly things that nobody bothers to elaborate on as I explained above.

How exactly are video games made?

22 June 2013 - 03:37 AM

I'm hearing a lot of the same thing when it comes to this topic and it seems most people are pretty confident and in the same mind. So I can't help but think I must be missing something pretty crucial if I can't seem to rationalize the very concept that an entire community keeps talking about. I suppose this confusion comes from one primary basis, which is, how do you translate code into an interactive environment?
So I keep hearing, that people design models in Blender or draw them for use with animation, then they'd download some shaders and use Dynamic Link Libraries with all that support to examine and configure the input/output. I've heard it all.

What I don't understand is that there is a huge gray area in between where I am at now, and how any of that works. Truth be told, I could go and purchase Unity3D right now if I wanted to. Heck, UDK engine is free as long as 25% of revenue is handed back to Epic. I'm sure I could thrive off of that crap if I had the determination but I want to start from the basics and the reason I am doing this is because I want to understand the basics. I want to know how I got there. Not download an engine and have the fish handed to me, I want to learn how to catch the fish myself. Get it?


Here's my problem, then.

I've decided to use C++ (no, duh?) and I'm finding it to be typical in terms of Object Oriented Programming. That's great. I've learned all the basic concepts and I intend to keep learning before I even attempt to make my crappy spin off of Pong - but before we even go there, I want to get some answers on where you'd have to take the language to get that kind of interaction up on screen.


So far I've been learning about if statements, arrays, classes, variables, operators - all the noob jazz. If I want to get something up in console I'd just type cout << "Hello world!" << endl; in one of the statements in my main function and then return 0. SUPER simple stuff, I know. What I'm having trouble understanding is how I can go from typing text into a console, and using this exact same language to render graphics onto a screen and have characters move around. Let's say that I wanted to remake the original NES Super Mario's first level (no way I'm doing this, but hypothetically) in C++. How do I draw up a graphic of Mario with a running animation, add in a background and put in my static objects, and then interact with them. It looks good on paper to make all these objects and classes but I don't know how the hell you'd get there.

Can we really talk on the most basic level? Can someone explain this gray area to me? What steps does someone need to take to get from displaying text on a console to displaying interactive images such as Pong? To type "Game Over" would I still use the cout << "Game Over" << endl; statement or something completely different? Would I just call another class which tells it to position the text in the middle of the screen and in a white, ASCII font? I'm so confused and I can't even fathom how you'd get 3D graphics on screen with textures and enemy AI if I can't even grasp this concept.

Really, as I said. I just need a basic explanation, dumbed down as much as possible to its core foundations of how a programming language such as C++ displays images on a screen that a user can interact with in full functional environments. Even if it's just something like Pong, or the original Mario, or Donkey Kong. Really, really basic stuff.

Game Engine / Game Coding?

18 June 2013 - 10:16 PM

I've been thinking of getting into the game creation business for a while, seeing as playing them is my passion. I'd like to slowly build up on the concepts over the next few years and maybe one day create a game. Whilst those kinds of pipe dreams are probably decades away, I'd like to start by asking a few questions to you all about where the best point is to begin that progression.

Specifically, I've used game engines like UDK and Unity before. I had the basics down, got player movement happening and created terrain with shaders and effects. Anything above that felt very overwhelming, so I'd like to code everything from scratch such that nothing is beyond what I already know.


I've decided that the best programming language I could begin this kind of work in would be C++ (please correct me if you have a different opinion) however I'm not sure whether I should think about actually programming an engine over time for me to create games in. At this stage I'm only interested in making classic platformers such as Banjo Kazooie or Donkey Kong 64 (with Direct X 11, of course) but I just cannot stand working with a tool that another company has created. I feel as if as an indie developer the best thing I can do for myself is to make everything myself, as opposed to someone else doing it.


Lets say that over the next few years alongside my studies I work on a 2D platformer or a 3D side scroller. As a community, would you suggest that I make a game engine myself with the various internet resources at hand or program the game in a language by itself without creating myself a tool to do that work for me?

Please also note that I understand the concepts of basic programming but I've never actually made anything before. That's why I'm trying to be so realistic in this topic, because frankly no matter how much I want to make a game, it's probably not going to happen for a very long time.