Help with Direct x 7 stuff (see later posts)

I am having a great idea for a game have several models etc etc. Now i want to create my game with Direct X 8 i found some tutorials but all of them seem not to work when i create them myself with the tutorial then i download there example and that one works. still i dont understand how to use it. does anybody know a site wich really tells me how to leanr DIRECT X 8 step by step? thanks in advance

directx4vb.com
check it out, it helped me alot.

i tried that site and it is just what i mean i try the entire code they gave me (after reading it all over and over again), then i tried to run it .. nothing. i downloaded there code and got a diffrend kind of approach of the code. :confused: ... still will try that site but am hoping for a beter one

If you're failing on the device call, it's probably you need to tweak the settings - you may have an older card.

I have a geforce 2 mx and that is really not the problem the example code is just not working like there final code looks like (wich is downloadable as a zipped file) i just dont see the blue screen while theirs does show it. anyway know any other sites?

anyway i also saw that there are DIRECT X 8 engines to download but the only one i saw sucked ass and was still in beta . if i cant figure directx 8 out myself i am willing to use an dll than for the engine

When you start a project by yourself, you have to set "DirectX 8 for Visual Basic Type Library" in Project -> Refrences.

Maybe that's why it doesn't work.

i have m8 ;) anyway i found a DIRECT 3d FOR DUMMIES wich has some things i really like to know and step by step reviewing :P lets try that for a moment :D... any links are still welcome

So do the downloaded zip files run OK?

Basically I am as thick as they come and they work for me.

If the downloaded zips dont work u can guarantee it will be one of the colour settings. I think he sets them at X8R8G8B8 or R5G6B5 or FMT16 ( u will find these settings at the top of the function called Init (or initialise).

Muck around with these.

Also try running the enumeration program (lesson 2), it will tell u what your machine supports.

Hey man I even got those programs running on a crap P2 with no hardware acceleration.

If all else fails swith the device to REF not HAL. This will cause the program to run slow but at least the program will run.

Good luck

Dan

yeah after a while i found out how to fix it :) it was the colour settings thing .. anyway i now know how to do a simple d3d thingy with a car in it and a building and some objects. the car can move around (rotate etc etc). can any of you help me with getting the camera behind the freaking car? :) like they do in race games? also an example of collision detection would be very helpfull :D (like how to use bounding boxeS)


oh btw i am now trying to learn DX7 (the example showed me how to do this and i understand the basics now:) )

and if you need the source here it is.
dont mind the sloppy programming it will be beter once i know how to do stuff. if you know how to make the camera follow the car please insert it in the code and post it back again :D.

other things i really would like to know :
Adding a texture to the model
Making a sky
Making a floor tile for the entire field (like a horizon with sky and floor)
Collision detection (think i will learn the other things first ;) )



To bad i had to replace my nice models with 2 squares :P

For a sky, you'll be doing a skybox (makes it look like the sky is static). Look into rendering a viewport onto a texture, and then make a box somewhere out of your racetrack. Make the camera look upward, and render that onto the top texture of your "world" box.

err ok i know what a skybox is (in unrealtournament i used it) i know what you mean with the rest of those things you tell me but how to create it? :S that is another question might helping me with that in my included program above? thnx allot

Ok, to make the camera follow the car just add:

FR_USERCAR.AddChild FR_Camera


below after you load your car mesh.

The textures are usually not loaded onto the models, the models are already supposed to be made with textures. But it can be done. Give me a few minutes, I'll try to figure this out.

Ok, here it is, I added texture to the car, clouds - cheap effect, but before you get a sky box it's good enough, collison detection between car and building - only when going forward, I got do lazy to do the rest. For the ground, just make a flat mesh and load it in just like you did with other x files and add the grass texture that I added to the car:).

Hope this helps.

hey thanks it is working , i have to go to work right now so i will look over the code when i get home :) :D:D:D (woohoo i am going to learn DIRECT 3d good now :P)

err yeah the texturing thing is great :D thanks , the sky is cheap but a simple alternitive, collision detection really well sucks if i have 200 buildings i should set them all to be detected and will make a gigantic code i am hoping to learn how to use bounding boxes