FAQ v3.1 | Small Games you can make | DirectX Starter Projects

[NoteMe]

General graphics programming FAQ:


NB: Always add the green check mark to all the threads you are making that gets solved. Simply edit your first post, and add to the subject line [Resolved]

If you want to write a tutorial for this FAQ please submit them to the Utility Bank - Tutorials section. Also send a moderator a PM to tell them link, and it will be added .

Quick Q's
How do you make a object move at an angle (2D)?


1. What language to use for game programming:

• Thread 1

2. Where to start (programming games in VB):

• Tutorial [Snake using Picture boxes] NoteMe's Game tutorial 0.4
• Tutorial [Snake using BitBlt] NoteMe's Game tutorial 0.5
• Thread 1

3. Simple picture box games (samples/tutorials):

• Tutorial [Snake using Picture boxes] NoteMe's Game tutorial 0.4

4. How to use BitBlt to improve speed (samples/tutorials):

• Tutorial [Snake using BitBlt] NoteMe's Game tutorial 0.5

5. How to use DMA to improve speed even more (samples/tutorials):

• Electroman's invert color sample
• Electroman's Alpha Blending sample
• Electroman's AlphaMask Tutorial

6. How to move objects on the screen using keys (even with more then one key at the same time):

• Tutorial [Move with Keypress] NoteMe's Game tutorial 0.1
• Thread 1
• Thread 2
• Thread 3

7. How to make a Game Loop in VB:

• Tutorial [Game loop] NoteMe's Game tutorial 0.2 (novice)
• Cyborgs Game loop tutorial (advanced)
• Thread 1
• Thread 2

8. How to rotate or flip a picture(API & DDraw):

• Thread 1
• Thread 2

9. How to open up PNG files:

• Sastraxis PNG library for VB (link no longer works )

10. How to anti alias pixels:

• Cyborgs Anti Alias Pixel tutorial

11. How to make your own resource file:

• Cyborgs resource file tutorial

12. Simple Animation:

• MetalMidgets Simple Z Order Animation

13. Side Scrolling Game:

• MetalMidgets Side Scrolling Game

14. Preventing leaks in VB6 code (focussed on GDI/GDI+):

• Classic VB - Memory Leak Prevention and Detection [New]

If there are other questions, answers, links or tutorials you want to add to the FAQ, please post in the FAQ Discussion Thread. But if your answer is not here, it does not mean that it is not meant to be found. Try the button. You will probably find it there.


Ideas for more tutorials so far:

• How to check the size of an image without loading it (NoteMe on the job)
• Vector algebra
• Linear algebra
• Complex numbers and quaternions
• Game dynamics
• Artificial intelligence
• Collision detection (Keda will probably write a Math/Physics tutorial. NoteMe And Manavo are writing a VB Tutorial.

[NoteMe]

DirectX FAQ:


NB: Always add the green check mark to all the threads you are making that gets solved. Simply edit your first post, and add to the subject line [Resolved]

If you want to write a tutorial for this FAQ please submit them to the Utility Bank and put "Tutorial" at the start of the thread title. Then it will be verified and added to the tutorials section. Also send either Electroman or NoteMe a PM to tell us the link to it and we will add it .

1. OpenGL or DirectX:

• Thread 1

2. VB: DirectX samples/tutorials:

• GameDev initialization of DX [DDraw 7 + VB] [New]
• DirectX4VB [Updated Again]
• BodwadUK's Starting DDraw in VB6 sample
• BodwadUK's Transparency in DDraw sample
• Lucky's VB Gaming site

3. VB: OpenGL samples/tutorials:

• NeHe

4. C++: DirectX samples/tutorials:

• NeXe
• GameTutorials
• Andy Pike
• DrunkenHyena
• Flipcode
• Mr. GameMaker
• 2D in Direct3D using Textured Quads [New]

5. C#: Managed DirectX samples/tutorials:

• C# and Managed DX Resource site
• The Z-Buffer
• Craig Andera's DirectX Wiki. [New]

6. C++: OpenGL samples/tutorials:

• NeHe
• GameTutorials [New]

7. C++: Win32 tutorials: [New]

• GameTutorials
• FunctionX [New]
  

8. Where to download back dated DirectX SDKs:

• DirectX 7 SDK
• DirectX 8.1 SDK
• DirectX 9.0c SDK Summer 2004 Update (VC++ 6) [Updated]
• DirectX 9.0c SDK December 2004 (VC++ .Net 2003) [Updated]
• Sneak Peek of DirectX Next

9. Vertex & Pixel Shaders

• Thread 1
• NVIDIA SDK 9.0 [Updated]
• RADEON SDK March 2005 [Updated]
• Render Monkey 1.6 [Updated]

10. Free Game Engines:

• Electroman's 2D Engine (Using DDraw 7 & D3D 7)
• YDCore (DX8/Winsock Engine)

If there are other questions, answers, links or tutorials you want to add to the FAQ, please post in the FAQ Discussion Thread. But if your answer is not here, it does not mean that it is not meant to be found. Try the button. You will probably find it there.

[Electroman]

Getting Started in DirectX

As many members here will tell you www.DirectX4VB.com is a great site if you want to get started in using DirectX with VB. However such a resource for C++ is rather well hidden (if it exists).
The point of this post is to give you a head start in creating DirectX games, be it C++ or VB. I have been creating a C++ project, with the help of NoteMe, to make an optimised C++ & Dx9 project. We have now got it to the stage where its in a working state and we can release it to all of you as a head start.

This project was creating in VC++.NET 2003 however I also created a project file for VC++6 incase you don't have .NET 2003. The project runs extremely fast and doesn't have any frame limiting implemented so it has an FPS far higher than any monitor will display. All this nice stuff is left for you to do but all the tricky things like initialising the project and getting it to work smoothly has been done.
For example we also coded the device recovery so if you run it in Fullscreen mode and Alt + Tab then it will pause your game and let other apps take control untill it is given focus back. At which point it correctly restores the device. When the application isn't active it will suspend both Threads until focus is given back.

The more impressive part of it is that it is optimised to take advantage of Hyper-threading processors. The Game runs two threads, one handles the windows messages while the other does all the game code. The WinThread is also optimised so that it never uses up more processing cycles than it needs so that the GameThread gets the most cycles possible.

Well your probably sick of reading by now so heres the project files:

C++ Projects

VC++.NET 2003 Version (508KB) Last Updated 17/6/2004
VC++6 Version (22KB) Last Updated 17/6/2004

Notes: The .NET one is bigger but this is mainly because of the nbc file.
The VC++6 one doesn't have __declspec(align(4)) on the variables that span threads but I have solved this by using #pragma pack(4).

One extra thing, if you have your own project you want to submit here just let me know.


VB Projects

If you want to submit your own project here then let me know.


Discussion

If your wanting to discuss anything about these projects then please use the Discussion Thread.
Thank You.

[Electroman]

This list is here for you games programmers who come across one of those rare days where there is nothing to do. Well when your in the mood to make a nice little game and you suddenly find you can't think of any titles which you think you could program with little time. Well thats what this thread is for. Here we'll make a list of those types of games which you could easily make in your spare time.

As people make some of these games I'll add a link next to them so you can have a play of them and even give some feedback if you wish. To submit your game make a thread in the Games & Demos SubSection and send a PM to one of the Super Moderators, who can add it to the list.

So here are the games:

1. Pong (BodwadUK, Fox)
2. The Worm Game
3. Tic Tac Toe (Psychotomus)
4. Five Stones
5. Breakout (Arkanoid) (jcis)
6. Lander (Lunar)
7. Space Invaders (Electroman)
8. Snake (NoteMe)
9. Tetris
10. Asteroids (Halsafar)
11. Pacman
12. Gorilla (Bananas)
13. Defender (Missile Command) (NoteMe)
14. Manic Miner
15. Qix
16. Qubix/QBert
17. Chess
18. Lemmings
19. Gradius

To add any new Items to this list use the Discussion Thread for this topic. I have colored and ordered them by difficulty, if you disagree with how I've rated them feel free to post in the Discussion Thread and I'll discuss changing it to what you think .