Hey, this is a very cool topic. I, Myself, am a true beginner in programming. My first thought early on, was to learn programming so I could build games, applications and provide solutions to freelance and be my own boss someday. Java was all the hype. It boasted about how much easier than C++ it was in how it used no functions and the syntax was supposed to be "cleaner". What I found out, was that after falling asleep while scanning through the huge API and class moduals, I lacked retention and applicable skill set on how to put my ideas into a pseudo-code sketch and translate that into functionling programs. But, Hey, I sure could make a interesting "Hello World" program. I started experimenting with arrays and loops, creating objects like people with extra arms and body parts and bad table manors. but I was still unable to grasp the tangability of OOP and making it work for me. I feel the approach to programming for a beginner, depends on the person. I once talked to a awesome coder in a yahoo chat room who told me that "...if you can code well in one language, you should be able to be able to code well in any language that is OOP. Coding is an art". He got mixed responses from others in the chat room. but I was able to relate with his "artistic" analogy. To veiw somting as an art, fuels creativity. I am a musician. I play a few diffent instruments, including piano. some with piano then branch off. I had no interest in piano, but I found my nitch and was good at my nitch. I also got better from sharing my ideas and teaching people and collaberating with other artists. I probably would have lost the desire to learn music if I started with piano. I am still glazing over Java to see what sticks in my mind in hope that it will make sense to me someday. And C++ the same. I relate to java a little better because it looks a little closer to JavaScript(even though entirely different) to me. I have gotten into 3DCG some time ago with VRML and my roomates AutoCad. Then I found out about a program called Blender. It was absolutly freightning in that it lacked documentation and the interface seemed so cryptic. The site said that it was able to do all this stuff and that more was comming. It's functionality was based on this language called Python. I was truely intimidated. I gave up on the Blender. Then some 4-5 years later, I typed Blender in google and was blown away. It has it's own API(Application Programming Interface) of Blender called the Blender Python API. I hit a recommended link to one of their many support and development sites and found an enormous community of people who give freely of their time and skill sets to help Blender grow. I am addicted to learning python and Blender now. for the beginners like myself, this is about as close to the power of game programming and development you can get without learning C++ or Java and Java3D right way. I found that python is a great primer to C++ and Java because it was based off of those 2 languages and Turbo Pascal. The Language does not require compilation and is highly interactive, OOP and you see the results of everything you type in real time with it's IDLE and SPE(a cool IDE for Blender Python) development environments. What makes Blender Rock so hard for the noobie programmer is that it is a Full Suite of tools that are growing on a daily basis and you can talk directly with the people who build it and even add to the builds yourself. to make this incredibly long story shorter, in Blender, you could model a low poly game figure, give em unique materials and texture, unwrap and paint UVs, paint directly on the model, access or create your own plugins easily and even get help for creating them from other coders, rigg your model, add pose keys and sliders(RVKs: Relative Vertice Keys, Actions and NLA: Non Linier Animation strips) pose and add awesome IK/FK, Port your animations to the Game engin controls, export toall of the major 3D formate, export to VRML, import many formats as well, Use intuitave interface tools for handling game engine physics, Rigid body dynamics, gravity, AI, and (Oh, did I forget to mention it has it's own built-in game engine?)more, At the same time have a video compositor with numorous plugins(even make your own) for alpha, blue and green screening and make movies in numorous formats, make renders that are photorealistic, Radiosity and angularmap rendering, HDRI illumination, video and interactive matirial and textures, full keyboard , mouse, joystick, tablet intergration, socket programming, and custon GUI building and all while learning python! That is really exciting to me. And I am understanding more about c++ and Java now because of my increasing knowlege of Python with this cool and easy model/composite/render/game programming application. And it is Open Source (GNU). There is countless documents, learning materials and tutorials for all levels. last week, I even grabbed a copy of DEV C++ to try and stumble through some "hello World" tutorials and I'm going to reinstall Eclipse IDE and head back over to IBM Websphere to go though the RCP and TCP/IP Sockets tutorials again and hope that I gain an even deeper understanding of the languages. Just like music, the instrument can be really inspiring to create cool things. I mean, I can play "Little Wing" on a 40 dollar pawn shop guitar and still be good. But when I pick up a PRS and plug into a Seymore Duncan and add a lil chorus and play little wing, people cry. Music is my Tao, and soon, OOP will be too. I hope this long letter was an inspiration to other beginning programmers like myself to find and object oriented language that you can get close to immediate results to inspire you. It gets intimidating being a person in a foreign land where you can't speak the language. But eventually, you will meet enough people who will guide you and point you in the right direction. But there will always be those people who could just go to Barnes & Nobles and learn to speak Laotian in a week. Here is a link to some amazing screenshots to showcase some of the functionality and UI of Blender and the Game Engine. This site and community is like the HUB of Blender users. This screenshot section are viing for recognition at the main developer and documentation site. Here, a beginner can quickly get their feet wet with Blender/python and game engin programming in python(a awesome language). It's not C++...Yet. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ I will create small tutorials here for beginners, and I encourage you experienced programmers to put love here to and show cool ins and outs of how a beginner gets to where you are. It will only make you stronger, not to mention the good Kharma. Everything I learn well and test, will find it's way here eventually to help out beginners in OOP to grasp python game programming such as standalone RCP python applications, Custom GUIs and IDEs, Pygame, and Blender Python. Thanks for tolerating this and hope that I had not overstepped my bounds in this forum. As my intentions are well, but I will always attempt to surround myself with kind natured people and walk away from negativity and ego always. Thank you P.S. Reality Factor is a cool and intuitave game creation program also, but nowhere near the power of Blender though. And it's not entirely Open Source.
