Any advice for someone attempting their first 3D game?

ReFrame · 2012-05-25T16:58:02.498336+00:00

Unity looks like a strong engine, but I am concerned about it being in another language than Java.

Don't be.

The biggest difference between Java and C# is the API, not the language. If you want, until you need to learn the big differences, you can consider C# to be Java + extras. Extras you probably won't need when playing with unity.

What you want to do in unity is as simple as creating a plane and a box prefab. You can instantiate prefabs at run-time, and it's really simple.

This way, you can worry about learning to compose your game, and you won't be forced to care about minutiae, such as if your lighting is specular or diffused or ambient, or if you camera is orthogonal or perspective.

You can care about only one thing at a time, and that's going to save you a lot of sanity.

Step one when learning to code with OpenGL is to create your first triangle, then making sure said triangle doesn't disappear, or just turn white, or display upside down, or a have the texture be all distorted and weird, etc etc etc. Transitioning from Java to C# is going to be a lot easier than trying to get OpenGL to behave and then get discouraged.

pragmojo · 2012-05-25T16:47:49.732134+00:00

Minecraft divides the maps up into sectors.

You could also use something like a quad tree where the nodes are lazily loaded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadtree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_loading

The quad tree essentially acts as your cache. when you navigate, you either load an asset that already exists in your tree, or you can load another node from disk.

Rock-n-Roli · 2012-05-25T16:23:23.969435+00:00

Don't down-vote this guy for not knowing. It hasn't been on the air since 2004.

typhoonfish · 2012-05-25T15:08:19.157771+00:00

Elizabeth Warren has not proven she has a Native American ancestor, instead saying she based her belief on family lore

Well, how exactly are you supposed to prove it then? Is genetic testing to a point now where you can test for specific traits?

IsleCook · 2012-05-25T14:55:34.719965+00:00

Still baller. At least now he's picking up better looking chicks.

linucs · 2012-05-25T13:07:19.785954+00:00

Are they seriously going to pull the C# compiler from the fucking SDK???

No, since the compiler and the run-time are one in the same. Just use sharp develop.

CRASNY · 1 day

This is the tech equivalent of meth engineering.

GeneralWarts · 1 day

Gamertag: pnpbios

Age/Location: 26 years old. New Prague MN

Looking for more regulars to play with in the area, around the same times I play. I want to play with people who understand that the T in TDM stands for team. I play TDM, TKC, and Dom.

ferret4073 · 1 day

midwest, usually play after work tag is pnpbios

Rachel53461 · 1 day

Heh, I used it to set up multi-meters, environment chambers, and pressure controllers. GPIB is all over the place. I'm sure there's a CNC machine that takes GPIB sentences as well.

blackhole12 · 1 day

If you are working with games, you really need to pay attention to these.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd997392.aspx

specifically, "Avoid Executing Parallel Loops on the UI Thread"

This goes beyond simply winforms, but if you are doing any OpenGL, or anything where the graphical context is bound to the thread in some manner.

sgtsaughter · 1 day

This is actually a good question considering how many bad sites there are out there.

http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_intro.asp

W3 schools has saved my ass more times than I can count. Good luck.

subignition · 1 day

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms706716(v=vs.85).aspx

Looks like there is some sample code here on how to enumerate your wireless devices.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms706749(v=vs.85).aspx

The example here gets all the wireless networks for all the wireless devices.

I think ultimately though, your solution is going to be to just acquire a new usb wireless device.

Chanz · 1 day

With the right refactoring tools, you can take almost any block of code and make it generic enough to use anywhere. The big thing to avoid though is using magic numbers. That's what constants are for.

bluish_ · 1 day

http://www.charlespetzold.com/dotnet/

What C/C++ programmers need to know about .NET.

Chanz · 1 day

My advice is to try not over think it or over abstract it.

At the end of the day, you're writing a bomber-man clone, and the most important thing you can do in bomber-man is place a bomb.

I would drop everything right now and create a static method called PlaceBomb

void MyGame::PlaceBomb( Player &p, MapInstance &m)
{
    ...
}

destinys_parent · 1 day

Frum Forum is about as sane as you are going to get.

blackhole12 · 1 day

a better idea would be for the gfx thread to make a shallow copy of the game objects and their matrix transforms.

blackhole12 · 1 day

that is sexy.

cosmicr · 1 day

it's probably not modern enough, it's been around since the 70's.

cosmicr · 1 day

If SDL's software pallet manipulation isn't enough for you then maybe you just need to write your own then.

blackhole12 · 1 day

If you start playing around with UI threads, you'll find out why.

Some objects can only be manipulated in the thread they were created.

blackhole12 · 1 day

because with a propperly designed model, your physics engine can act as part of your control, while your graphics acts as your view.

If you are really worried about graphical tearing, double buffering your collection of matrix transforms isn't all that hard.

blackhole12 · 1 day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor_model

blackhole12 · 1 day

Not really, I've done some experiments with Async minecraft style terrain.

Check out pycraft demo 1 and 2 http://www.joellonganecker.com/portfolio

The trick is to use a readwriterlock http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.threading.readerwriterlock.aspx

The most important thing you can do is queue up your writes to the terrain and put a delay between subsequent writes. That way instead of your game becoming unplayable, the terrain just takes a few ms longer to change.

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