3Dfx

[Arie]

Hey!

I want to do a game that will be a 3D game
but Football. Understand? So I need to know
just how to do a 3D space in VB.
If anyone knows so... Please! :(
It will need one simple map of the board.

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[KENNNY]

you need maths, lots of maths :)
and learn D3D IM, or OpenGL. If you haven't done a 2d game, do one first; 3d isn't easy :)

[Arie]

Thank you, Kenny!

But what are those names you named?
Exuse me, but I'm a begginer.

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[KENNNY]

sorry for the acronyms :) ok...

D3DIM = Direct 3d Immediate Mode - the good (and difficult) version of Direct 3d. There is (or was now- it's being phased out) Retained Mode - which is easier, but slower and restrictive.

OpenGL = another 3d API, like Direct 3d, for writing 3d programs. DirectX has better support for VB, so I'd use that.

[Arie]

Okey!

Do you have any addresses to recommand me?
Like Samples?

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[noone]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/

The full Direct X SDK will probably help you out a lot, the best way to learn is to look at code samples and experiment.

[KENNNY]

http://www.redrival.com/voodoovb/ is good - good tutorials

but you should probably use c++ im sorry to say :)
c++ ain't that hard really..

[Arie]

There is any special program that I need
to do it?

And I need a good program for good graphics.
Can you tell me some addresses?

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[noone]

Well do you mean a special program for C/C++ or a special program for Direct X? To program with Direct X you will need the Direct X 7 SDK from M$ (msdn.microsoft.com/directx). If you meant C/C++ you'll need a C/C++ compiler (eg: Visual C++).
Theres a whole range of programs for graphics, Photoshop is very popular, but you should be warned that programmers art isnt usually that impressive :-) (I know mine isnt).

[KENNNY]

if you use VB, you actually don't need the SDK, but the samples/docs are useful.
use visual C++ as it's pretty good, as VB is. the dev tools are m$'s only good products :)

[Arie]

Does PaintShop do 3D pictures?
Or any other program?

And in what can I do (short) AVI movies
for little effects in my games?

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[KENNNY]

hmmmm I think you should do a 2d game first m8 :)
anyway.. AVIs for effects??? no - write them yourself!

[Arie]

What do you mean, 'Write them yourself'?
There is any program that you recommand me
to write AVI files?
Or what?

And where can I get this Visual C++ thing?

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[Arie]

What about 3Dfx? Is this different from DirectX?
Or What?

Tell me...

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[KENNNY]

no i mean write the effects yourself - AVIs are crap :)

directx is a gaming API, 3dfx is a company. They have Glide, another 3d API, but no-one uses it now.
write a 2d game first.

[Arie]

No!!!

I mean making effects with the AVI
format.
Or you have some other format that is
better for short movies?

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000/

[KENNNY]

Is it for a game??
Because AVIs and games dont really mix.. except for intros.
AVIs are alright for Windows animations and stuff though :)

[HarryW]

Arie, from what I can tell about your knowledge of programming, I get the feeling maybe you're aiming too high? I mean, I've been programming a couple of years now and I would find what you are suggesting pretty difficult.

KENNNY is right, try a 2d game first. Also, you need to think about how you are actually going to make a football game. Football games are not easy, especially since the players need AI. Maybe you should try some kind of simple board game, or noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) first, just to make sure you're not going for too much. If you are at the stage when you can do that easily, then maybe you'll be ready to try the kind of game you're suggesting.

Sorry, I don't mean to sound patronising. Just don't underestimate how much work programming games is :)

Good luck anyway, I hope you make it :)

[Arie]

Thank you for the advices in this post.

I think i'm to exited about making games
in VB and i'll start from 0.

If i have any questions i'll come to you.

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[Arie]

Do anyone knows if there is any way to load
PaintShop files (I think *.PSD)?
Any code?
Any control?
Anything?

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

Ofcourse, what everybody has failed to mention is that at least two years of programming and especially API experience is really required to write this, and VB isn't suited to the task in any event.

There's no way you can learn C++ without some prior programming knowledge, unless you have a lot of time and some good books, or just the world smartest person.

Its a popular misconception that beginners can just get up and start writing DirectX based graphics engines, but
if you are really keen, play around with VB, write a text editor or something, move onto a 2d game that uses GDI and bitmaps, then a 2d game that uses DirectDraw, and then finally you can attempt a D3D game.

You can't run before you can walk, but best of luck!

- Gof

[drewski]

Do anyone knows if there is any way to load
PaintShop files (I think *.PSD)?
Any code?
Any control?
Anything?

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000


I don't know how to load a *.psd file but you could save the file in a different format such as *.bmp *.gif *jpg. You can load these files in to a picture box and then do what ever you need form there.

Hope this helps,
Drewski

[Arie]

So who told me to use *.PSD graphic
files in my works.
Anyway...
What is the best small format for graphics?
Maybe *.Jpg?
Maybe other that I don't know?

Thank you anyway,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[KENNNY]

Use Bmps, because you can load them easily with DirectDraw straight into a surface. The files wont be that huge, anyway, if and when you put the game on the 'net you'll zip it anyway.

[wengang]

Kenny, since you mentioned DirectX in the MIDI question, and I found it again here, I have considered checking it out. What I would like to ask (all of) you is:

what advantages does DirectX offer a game and will it neccessarily make a game better? For example, I just finished a long and tedious tetris game that was aimed at looking and functioning like an emulation of Nintendo's. Although I have found quite a few ways to "spruce up" the game's appearance and add functions above Nintendo's cart, I wonder what using DirectX could do to improve the game?
OR: is DirectX something that is used primarily for 3D engines....?
Thanks.

[HarryW]

DirectX is like a family of things, all to do with different things. You will have heard of Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectSound, DirectMusic, DirectInput etc. These are all grouped together under the title of DirectX, although they are used seperately.

Well that's how it is as far as I know anyway, I'm no expert on DirectX :)

KENNNY posted a good link the other day for tutorials, and one of them had an overview of DirectX. Take a look:

http://www.redrival.com/voodoovb

[KENNNY]

yeah, DirectX provides a whole "game API". The main advantage is almost direct access to the hardware, so it's fast :) You can use DirectDraw to make 2d games, and D3D to make 3d ones. DirectMusic is easy and pretty good, especially if you know the effects you can do. Basically, DX is pretty useful and not as hard as ppl think :) (well D3d isn't easy)

[wengang]

Well that's good enough for me, fellas.

I'll give this DirectX a looking over.

Anybody have a "favorite" book to recommend?

[KENNNY]

there aren't any DirectX VB books out yet, I think - I mean VB has onyl been officially supported for a few months (since DX7 release). Use the web - there's good tutorials out there, eg.
http://www.redrival.com/voodoovb/

[Arie]

But what is this DX?
Do I really see the diffrence in the graphics,
audio and other things that I use with DX?
Or maybe it's easier to use it?
Something?

I really don't understand it.
Please explain yourself.

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[KENNNY]

well,

1. Direct draw is fast.. very fast compared with GDI32 (BitBlt)
2. There are loads of parts to DX, so you can do all parts of your game with the DX API.
3. It has good helper functions so loading bitmaps is easy, etc.
4. and of course, Direct 3d lets you do 3d games :)

god, im sounding like a M$ sales rep :)

[HarryW]

Hehehe :)

The articles at that link are about as simple as they get I think. They aren't complex. Maybe it would help of you were more familiar with the basics of programming, like functions, statements, expressions, assignments, and all that kind of jargon.

I don't think you really need to worry about whether you use Direct3D or OpenGL and similar decisions at this stage, you might be better off trying out some of the other parts of the language.

If you really can't understand the DirectDraw tutorial, and you're determined to do graphics, then maybe you should try BitBlt instead? It's even simpler. I'll get on to Fox to post his standard BitBlt newbie example project in this thread ;)

Jeez, I was just stumbling through business apps with textboxes and listboxes etc when I started. First thing I made was a Celcius to Fahrenheit (or Fahrenheit to Celcius) converter. Can you do that? It's a 5 minute job. I know it sounds simple but I can't tell how much you know about programming. Stick it in your Desktop. Make an icon for it. Show your friends. I was really proud of mine hehe ;)

[KENNNY]

You can do DIrectMusic very easily, or DirectSound, without having to rewrite any other bits of your game :)
if you want, I could post a tutorial on Dmusic

[HarryW]

Err, yeah that's about it Fox :) Thanks for posting your example.

wengang: Yes I see waht you mean about not feeling like that tutorial has actually taught you how to use DirectX, but it's a one page article, you can't expect to learn something as complex as that so quickly. Hey I don't know why I'm telling anyone about DirectX, I don't use it! I don't actually write games yet, I'm just interested ;)
What that article does show, though, is that implementing something like that can be done in not too many lines of code. It, for me, takes away a lot of the mystery of how the whole thing is done. I only said it was an overview, not a complete course ;)

PS I just read my previous post again and I apologise if it sounds patronising, I don't mean it.

[wengang]

Well, I didn't see a tutorial there on that page for DirectMusic so I went to M$ 's website and found a good example in their MSDN online library. I just pasted in the code and then I had a midi background for my game.

Now I just need to figure out how to make it stop!

Anyway, I am always appreciative of a reply. Don't worry about being patronizing. I'm pretty thick-skinned at this point. And I will be a game writer yet!!

[Arie]

Hey, Kenny!
If you can give a tutorial of DirectMusic
I'll be happy and it will help me a lot
to understand it.

Now I have another question:
Did anybody made a good and small game
(simple one) to give me so I can look
at it and learn?
Tell me a little of your games.

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[HarryW]

Check out Fox's brand-spanking new website for demos :)

Check it out here (http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/Der_Zirkel/fox/index.htm)

[Arie]

Thank you, I will.
Do you have a good graphics program
that have lot of effects beside PaintShop?

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[HarryW]

Do you mean PhotoShop? The most common commercial 2D graphics drawing app is Adobe Photoshop I think. There are other apps like it, some of them free. Remember that VoodooVB (http://www.redrival.com/voodoovb/) site? Well it has a forum and I remember I saw a message with some links for freeware drawing apps.

[Edited by HarryW on 04-20-2000 at 05:09 PM]

[Arie]

Thank you.

I have a question:
In draughts, can a piece move back?
for example:
first move: White - One pass forward.
second move: White - One pass backward.
Is this illegal in this game?

If you didn't understand something just ask.

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[KENNNY]

ok, I'll get onto doing a tutorial.
To stop Dmusic, you call DirectMusicPerformance.Stop (I think). Forgotten the parameters, have a look in the DX docs.

[Arie]

Thank you, Kenny!
I appreciate this.

If you need something just tell me.

Did you read my last post in page 3?
About the Draughts.
If not, read it.
If yes, answer it.

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[HarryW]

In draughts, at the beginning of the game all the pieces can move only diagonally and in one direction - towards the opponent's side of the board.

One a piece gets to the opponent's edge it it made a king (another draught gets put on top of it) and then it can move diagonally in any direction.

[*Super Sniper*]

Well, my name is in now.

[wengang]

Kenny, that is the right code for stopping the midi but I also don't know (and haven't guessed correctly) at the parameters, since everything so far has produced one error or another.

I'm going to post the MIDI question as a New Thread.

What I want to ask is:
I bought a 9-CD set of VISUAL STUDIO 6.0 which includes 2 CD's entitled MSDN LIBRARY. Does anybody know if that includes the DirectX7 SDK ? I am asking because when I followed the link from this website to MS's website, they said that the SDK had been moved to be included in the platform SDK. Since I felt a bit clueless......

just asking.

[Arie]

Thank you for the help in draughts.
Now I can finish my draughts game that
i'm making.

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[KENNNY]

no it doesnt, well not anything for VB, you'll need to download it (either the whole thing or just the docs) from MS website.

[Arie]

Hey Guys!
Could you tell me some of the finished games
of yours?
I'd like to see them.

Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[KENNNY]

download a test version (not finished at all) version of my game - http://www.hlzone.co.uk/Storm2R.zip

requires DirectX 7

[HarryW]

Hey Kenny, I tried your game and it kinda didn't work, but I didn't try the online version. Is that the only bit that works?

[KENNNY]

huh? "kinda didnt work"
all you can do is kill that unit with the red box around it (the enemy) at the moment.

works for me!!

[HarryW]

I tried client and server, and they just crash out, with an error. Can't remember the error now, 'wnexpected file name' or something. Not sure. I'm at work now so I can't check.

[Arie]

Hey, Guys.

I have a problem.
There is any way to control the volume?
Or control something in the sound?

I want to do a simple Audio Studio.
Thank you,
Arie.

Visit: http://www.nip.to/camel2000

[HarryW]

Yeah it's 'File not found'

[KENNNY]

er.. that's really weird. Are you sure you unzipped it WITH folder names intact? (directory structure). Anyway there's a new version up, but I'm working on path finding so units don't get stuck :)

[kinjalgp]

goto http://www.genesis3d.com or http://www.morfit.com to get free 3D engines and a free 3d environment creating program like 3Dstudio Max.


Kinjal