The New Guy

[mikeymike2nz]

hello everyone, hope this finds you all happy and full of pizza.

I just want to know where to begin with games programming, comming from database programming (groan) as i have many ideas but do not know how to impliment them yet,

any help is appreciated, cheers

Mike :D

[Crisp_N_Dry]

Hey MikeyMike. Welcome to the forums, I'm sure you'll find everyone here friendly and helpful. In fact this is one of the only forums that I frequent that hasn't descended into mindless noise. And so onto your query. I'm guessing you already have a decent enough knowledge of the Delphi VCL so this would be an ideal place to start. While there are more powerful graphics libraries out there, the Windows graphics API should suffice for your first foray into games development. Familiarise yourself with the TCanvas, TImage and TBitmap components, a good way to do this would be to read the following:
http://www.pgd.netstarweb.com/viewtopic.php?t=199
which is a tutorial written by TheLion who is one of the staff members on these boards. A common mistake made by developers who are just starting out in the game dev scene, and this is something I did myself, is aiming too high for their first game. Start very small. A Pong clone would be ideal, then perhaps Space Invaders clone. Simple and uninspired but they are perfect to give you a feel for how a game is structured. Although I'm sure your previous experience will serve you well when it comes to structuring your code. When you have a decent grasp on what makes a game you could work towards learning a faster more powerful graphics library such as SDL which is very easy to learn and will give you about as fast software rendering as you are likely to find even if you went right down to the DirectDraw headers. From then on it's all about playing around with ideas and seeing what you can come up with.

[Traveler]

Welcome!

I agree with all what Crisp_N_Dry said, though IMO the standard Windows graphics API may be a bit too easy and dull to begin with. It all depends of course on the kind of games you're going to start with, but unless you're going for tic tac toe, I'd recommend looking into a wrapper like delphix, omega, or one of the others listed [here (http://turbo.gamedev.net/wrappers.asp)]. I found especially delphix a great tool to start with.

[mikeymike2nz]

:D cheers man thanks for the reply.

i will look at the link and go from there. lookin forward to lots of late nights up reading and practicing.

cheers!
mike 8)

[mikeymike2nz]

hey guys, i'm trying to install delphix from turbo into my borland delphi 2005, and it seems it cant find the file vcl50.dcr. any suggestions anyone?

:cry:

[mikeymike2nz]

:D
i have chosen asphyre as my compnent of choice, and it's working fine.

any suggestions on first code to write would be great :)

i'll be up all night again lol

:idea:

[Traveler]

I'm not sure if you have the correct version of delphix, you did use the file DelphiX90.dpk? In any case. To make a dcr file known to Delphi, you need to add its directory to the library path under Tools -> Environment Options. (Not sure if its called that in D2005, though, but it should be something like that).

Hope that helps.

[mikeymike2nz]

cheers for that man.

I'm using asphyre, the game i'm interested in making is only 2d isometric at the MOST (further down the track) so it should handle that just fine.

thanks once again to the renegade master...

i mean cheers guys.

mike
:shock:

[WILL]

Hi Mikey. Welcome to PGD!

DirectX suites like Asphyre are great, but unfortunately you can only make Windows games with them. If this is all you want to do and youare satisfied wih DirectX, then cool. JEDI-SDL is another excellent API that uses either DirectX, OpenGL or the GDI for graphics and allows for cross-platform development. Also when you feel you are ready to start getting a bit more advanced with your game's graphics engine you can as an alternative make use of either the DirectX or OpenGL headers. DelphiGL.com hosts a set you can use or there is plenty of sites that host DirectX headers.

For sound there is OpenAL as an alternative to DirectX's DirectSound API.

Lots of options for later and some a bit more involved than drag and drop components that are available. VCL can be expensive and cumbersome at times plus other solutions offer more oppertunities and speed increases provided you take the time to learn them and depending on what your end goals are for the project aswell.