KazDoran

Well, if you know C++ already, you should get a more game-specific book, explaining stuff about game loops, game logic, that sort of thing.If you don't, I'd suggest you first learn C++ without thinking in games already, because there's much more to it. Learn the basics and practice a lot to get the hang of the language.When you feel comfortable, grab the SDL API (http://www.libsdl.org/), which allows you to easily create high-quality 2D games, complete with keyboard, mouse and joystick events, and sound as well, all in a few commands. To learn how to use the API, I'd suggest Lazy Foo's tutorials (http://ww12.lazyfooproductions.com/). Great way to learn all sorts of things! :lol:Just remember that you can't make a game in C++ unless you know to use the language, so start working on that!

As far as I'm aware, there isn't a windows library function that deals with joysticks.Get the DirectX API and use DirectInput functions to get something. I'd do it.

Blender is good to begin with (heck, almost every single other 3D modeling software is PAID for, while Blender is absolutely free) and you can get some really nice results with it. Once you get the hang of the software it'll be easy as cutting butter with a hot knife. Mostly. :PI'd start by hand-drawing the characters/objects/whatever to figure out what's cool and then apply it in 3D.Don't worry too much about texturing the models at first, make their geometry look good but not TOO good (because no computer in the world will be able to render a frame with high-polygon models all over the place in time to be playable). After you're done with the geometry, Photoshop some textures and play around to get them in place (there are tutorials covering this for sure). You won't use the textured model directly in your game but you'll be able to see if it fits nicely.But, as pyost said, you gotta start in the bottom.Write simple programs, like a command-line calculator and then evolve to things that are a bit more complex and you may use in the development of your project (I'd say like... sorting algorithms and stuff).Don't only learn the language, but learn how to make efficient code. You'd be surprised how often a few code changes make a small yet complex program run in 3 seconds instead of 3 minutes.Then, get a team by asking around in forums such as these, or teaming up with pals. Don't be discouraged by the fact programming can be (and IS most often) a hard process. Only experience will get you there.If you care to make really small games just for fun, use GameMaker, but then try to replicate the game with your own code. You'll have fun AND learn at the same time!

True for the rest, I guess... It'll need at least a slot to put CDs in, a power button and a few lights... The rest is a matter of color and sleek lines. Hehe

Hi there! Helping as in "code with you" I can't right now (got my own projects), but I can lend you a hand on how you should start. Here's how it goes: First, you must decide whether or not you're going to use graphics because the way the main program will run will be a bit different. I don't really know any of the games you mentioned, but I believe they may be either RPGs or Board games. If you're going to go text, it's quite simple, decide what keyboard characters are going to represent every different kind of "thing" (you may reuse them in an RPG, but that's more a design decision so I'll leave it to ya ), a sort of screen size and that's it. If you're going to go graphical, then you still need to design art (no stealing ) and basically work your way around to present all menus graphically. For programming languages, I'd say just about any language will do for text-only games (perhaps C, PHP and Java are the best choices for that) and for graphics, a nice way to do it is to get the SDL Library which is very intuitive and easy to use in C++. I can point you around some tutorials for it if you want, too. If I knew a bit more on the type of game you're making, I'd give some more help, but no game you intend to make "escapes" what I said above. Good luck on your game!

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 @2.4 GHz with SSE2Memory: 512MB + 256 MB @333 MHzHDD: 160 GB Seagate Barracuda + 120 GB Seagate (something) ATA-100Graphics Card: XFX Geforce 6600GT 128MB AGPSound Card: SoundBlaster Live! 5.1DVD-RW: LG DVD-RW 16xCD-RW: Samsung 48-16-48

Thanks for all the good replies!Was off this forum for a few days and I'm happy to read your feedback! :oAbout Microsoft's position, I totally agree with hatim. Most of the times they do all the great stuff later than everyone else and claim to be innovative. Saw a few examples as a Microsoft representative showed off Vista in my university (Instituto Superior Tecnico, at Lisbon) and well... everyone saw all that stuff implemented in Linux already . But that's another story!Quatrux, the real reason Xgl didn't work on your brother's PC is the fact that his graphics card doesn't have hardware-level Pixel Shader support. That or he owns an ATI (Xgl is a bit more troublesome with those for now). If you compile the Xgl sources it'll work, I guess. 32 MB will be enough to run Xgl as far as I've heard. :oThe difference between a mid-end card and one like mine, a 128 MB Geforce 6600 GT, shouldn't be too visible.My hopes are like all of yours! That this kind of new software brings more and more people to the world of free software!

I'd say it's the other way around... C++ has all that C has and more (like classes for Object Oriented programming) and if you know how to move your way around you can avoid a WHOLE lot of pointers, which for some reason I fail to understand makes some programmers get all scared up. Indeed, it is pointless to start making a game if you are not absolutely sure what you want to do. If you don't think up thoroughly, you'll just end up giving up in the middle. No need to get through every little detail, though. Work out the basic game mechanics, find a suitable (i.e. plausible and feasible) setting for the game story (if any) and basically figure out what puts it all together. If making a game for fun, I'd say all you actually need to know is how much time you're WILLING to invest in the creation process and the language you will use (ask yourself questions like: "Can I do it with this?", "Am I fluent in this language?" or "Should I lose a few more weeks to learn this language because it fits the job better?"). Requirement analysis can't be done effectively without crippling the game before you even started coding. Unless you know the limitations of platforms you are expecting it to work and the limitations of the language itself. Definitely! You can ignore the 4th step if working for fun!

Thank you!

Ok Daniel, here's the thing: 1. It works on non-SP'ed Windows XP... 2. Your program disabling sure allows you to prevent stuff from loading, but you must do it with care really, sometimes leaving only firewalls and anti-viruses isn't enough to get your PC stable... There are some essential programs some people may have that are NOT included in this category, and sometimes getting there through the executable's file name can be tricky. 3. Just because messing around with virtual memory like you did, and I quote: "in the two boxes put the number 1000 in each box, this will take 1 gig away from your hard drive but you will live!" can be actually HARMFUL. Here's why: Virtual Memory (known in other OS'es as Swap memory) should generally be greater than the amount of RAM in your system, most systems work optimally at twice the amount of RAM, but not every single one of them. So let's say you have 1 GB of RAM (1024 MB not 1000 MB) and you apply 1 GB of Virtual Memory. Well, even if your disc and memory are fast enough, you will probably have a performance DECREASE, because every time you need more memory pages in the swap area to cover up your memory, you won't have it, so it makes your system do a lot more memory-to-disc swaps to compensate. Just... try to be careful while giving advice, really.

Actually I've had the same problem, already PM'ed one of the admins, but he seems to be offline for a few hours now. Looks like Hotmail also rejects your e-mails for some reason. I have an alt e-mail for those matters: sevenjp@gmail.com

As Linux becomes more and more a mainstream OS, in the image of Windows and MacOS, it seems Linux distro developers are becoming ever-more interested in developing appealling graphical interfaces for this great OS. The latest example is the introduction of Xgl, a graphical subsystem that runs over OpenGL to introduce some special effects (aka eye-candy) to existing graphical desktops, like Gnome. Novell recently showed off their most recent Linux Desktop running Xgl (you can get a good look at it on this site). Xgl is part of FreeDesktop development so it will be avaliable to all linux distros sooner or later. I've installed it on my development version of Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) and I must say I'm very impressed. It has very good effects with very good performance, and I'd dare to say it beats MacOS X and will beat Windows Vista in those aspects. Now the question is... how will the introduction of Xgl change the way developers and users alike look to Linux? Sure it may increase the appeal to regular PC users (most of them like to have the latest "bling" on their desktop) and it opens new windows (no pun intended) of development in that area, as developers will be able to create their own effects, increase performance and whatnot. But how will it affect the current development of linux distros? In the long term, will it take attention away from security or performance aspects to please consumers eager to have a cool looking desktop? Or won't it, and Linux will stay a "techie-only" OS like everyone wrongly seems to look at it today? Shout out your two cents!

Personally, I think Vista is going to be to XP what XP was to Windows 98... A face-lift with a few extras that come along. I mean, seriously, I'm all for innovation and clearer, more appealing designs, as long as it doesn't require to have a machine that can lift off with all the fans around to cool it.I like to have performance as well, and only fairly recently has Windows XP achieved that requirement.I have absolutely nothing against Windows (well except for the fact it has some... uhh... "features" ) and I'm both a Windows and Linux user, and what one can't do, the other does, so...Anyway back on topic.From all the beta versions I've seen around, the recommended specs are indeed pretty high, even if it was XP with just another graphical interface. Hopefully, Microsoft will make it to decrease the specs quite a bit, otherwise only people with top-of-the-line PCs will be able to run it decently while running, let's say, a next-generation game.Probably you'll just shut down to the 98 graphical interface after a while, but hey, whatever. :oOn other matters, well, we'll just have to wait and see it, because some of the stuff that'll be "new" on Vista looks appealing, but you never know how it's really going to work.If you don't/won't use Windows for whatever reason you may have, and would like some extra eye-candy on your Linux, fear not! Xgl is coming, and let's say it's fast as hell, even with a mid-range PC.

Viruses/Worms for Linux don't really surprise me, because there was bound to be some jerk around trying to do harm to other people using linux someday, and the ever-increasing number of linux users (especially those who really don't know much on using it, which is quite natural) makes linux a particularly appealing target for viruses in a near future.Linux viruses aren't unheard of, however... In my own opinion, things as rootkits, which allow access to root through memory stack hacking and buffer overflow, should be classified as viruses, even if they're useful to some people who often forget or mistype their root passwords. Remember that a virus doesn't always have to self-propagate through various machines.

From personal experience and your problem description here's what may be causing the problem: 1. You're using a router but didn't open the ports required for the game. 2. You're behind a firewall but you didn't give the game the proper network/internet permissions. 3. You're behind a router but the game doesn't actually use your external IP address. May as well be any combination of these 3 problems. You'll just have to figure it out. Well, let's check it up case by case shall we? In case nr. 1, you'll have to access your router configuration (usually via HTML page by typing your router's IP address on your browser like you were going to access a web site). Then follow the instructions on this web page:port forwarding for your specific router All should be OK if this is your problem. Now for case number two. You should go around your firewall configuration and check if your game has it's permissions set up. Usually you'd like it to be able to access the internet/LAN and sometimes it's required for it to be able to accept incoming connections (aka "act as a server"). This is a bit dependant on the software you're using, so I can't go into really much detail here. By the way, if you're using something like Norton Personal Firewall, ZoneAlarm and such and you have Windows Firewall enable too, disable this last one, in my personal opinion it brings more problems than it solves (including a false sense of security). For the 3rd problem, usually the problem can only be solved by connecting directly through the internet. Not much to say about it. Try these things and say if you got anywhere. I'll be here to help!

Make sure all your computers are on the same Windows Workgroup (right-click on My Computer, click Properties, Computer Name tab).If it's exactly the same, then try checking the Subnet Mask you have configured.Just by any chance, please make sure you configure a new network on your laptop through the Home Network Wizard (may be different name, I'm using a portuguese version) besides using the Wireless LAN Wizard if you're using it.Make sure you give the workgroup name OK, most people don't get things right at first because of a typo in that very important field. If you're using a router, try checking if your laptop is getting an IP address from it and/or if you can access the web, for example.

Most likely you don't have the environment variables well set up. You'll need to define at least the PATH variable. It can be useful to define the CLASSPATH variable as well, but not really necessary as long as you compile and run your program with the -cp flag (like this: javac -cp <place where your .class files are> program.java)If you want to define the PATH environment variable in Windows XP just do this:1. Right-click on My Computer and click Properties.2. Click the Advanced tab.3. Click the Environment Variables button below.4. If PATH isn't already defined, click the New button on the User Variables block (or System Variables if you want every user to have it).4.1). On Variable Name type PATH (all caps) and on Variable Value type the path to the bin folder of the JDK. Something like: "C:\Program Files\Sun\JDK-1.5.0\bin;"4.2) If PATH is already defined, select it and press Edit. Next add the path to the bin folder right after the ";". DON'T GIVE ANY SPACES BETWEEN ; AND THE PATH OR IT WON'T WORK!5. Press OK all the way back to the Desktop. You're done!

Well, Flash isn't "yet another web animation software"... It's THE web animation software! Sure, nothing competes with Flash because... well... there is basically no competition. Don't get me wrong, Flash is indeed a great tool... too bad it's fairly unique in its kind. I've seen loads of Flash animation and there is some really cool stuff you can do with it, if you get around how poorly one can draw with a mouse and take over ActionScript (which is easy if you can program in, say... Java). Anyway you should never EVER try designing a full website on Flash. It may work fine in most cases, but sometimes it's either just too damn slow to load (preloading scripts will go around most of these cases), or your page gets real ugly real fast, or you take a LOT more time to do your site than in HTML, or it simply won't work correctly on certain browsers (seen stuff work on IE but not on Firefox and vice-versa). However, if the only thing you're after is doing some nifty animations and you expect your visitors to have at least 128kbps or your "Flashies" are just a few (10-100) KB big, it's definitely better than gif pictures.

I've been programming for 2 years now and became fluent in Scheme (now moving on to LISP), C/C++ and Java, and what can I say? I can't get enough of it! :PI know it may seem too little time for so many languages, but I've been doing a lot of self-practice and many languages aren't THAT different from one another. Like Scheme and LISP, C/C++ and Java. Same paradigms, just a few syntactic details that need sorting! :oDon't be discouraged by any troubles you may encounter, you'll get there with a bit of hard work, programming isn't trivial. That's my advice.

Definetely. Sure, you could have a fairly large free open beta running around like some fairly recent MMOs like Gunz Online and Fly for Fun have, but to support a basis of hundreds or thousands of players with recent updates, bug fixes, powerful enough servers and other stuff has it's (high) costs. I didn't quite get from your post whether you are trying to do all this by yourself, join up with a team of coders or even present your idea to a big company. In the latter case, they'd probably take care of the business model for themselves, but it's always a bonus to present thought up ideas on those aspects. Some of the ideas you presented seem a bit too thought up for now though, like the starting money and all that, since it's all going to depend on how well balanced the overall economy of the game will be when the number of players becomes reasonably large and stable. You'll find out more often than not that all those details will be radically changed either during the initial release development or during the maintenance phase. And you should definitely organize your development like Vyoma pointed out in his post. Make loads of concept art and design thinking. Sometimes (more often that you'd like) your idea looks great on your mind but on practice it doesn't fit well with the rest of the stuff. Now for some suggestions about the game itself: From the way I see it, unless you organize the game world in seperate servers for different regions in the real world (because of time zone differences for example) each with it's own instance running, the game will definitely collapse onto itself because, let's say you have Europeans and Koreans both on the same server... When all of Europe is asleep the Koreans will simply overrun the European-controlled territories because I doubt any AI will stop their murderous rampage (don't get me wrong Korean mates ). Add different resources for different regions of the game world. It'll be an incentive for players to conquer or make treaties with the neighbouring countries for those materials they lack and need to increase their power. Money only is a bit too simple. Think of iron, wood, food, stuff like that. Since it's not an RTS or any offline strategy game, you'll need to think about a LOT of different types of units, buildings, and other various items, to allow players to have greater strategy flexibility, and also as to add uniqueness to every player. It wouldn't be much fun if every character in a MMORPG wore the same clothes and had the same hair style, now would it? Think of this as the same. All in all, keep those ideas you have and when you finally work it out, you'll have a chuckle on those points you're happy you didn't implement and you'll also remember some stuff that you'd really like to do but didn't manage to get there (maybe on an update?).

OpenGL definetely gets my vote here for all the above reasons and a few others.I guess the best point about it is indeed the fact it's cross-platform and since I tend to use Linux to code a lot more than Windows, yeah it's good!

Hmm I'd say MSDN is the best reference you can get on that. If you plan to use it on games, then go through the DirectPlay API, otherwise, try learning WinSock 2.0, which looks quite a bit with socket programming on Unix. Guess you can get some nice tutorials about those at GameDev.net.

Allow me to disagree. Java has it's good points and it's bad points. I wouldn't recommend anyone to even START with Java, first of all. Sure it's a (almost) perfectly safe language, you can't write beyond array boundaries and stuff, but it has quite a lot of details in the actual writing and compiling of the code which doesn't help much. It takes a while for a novice programmer to get around trivial but really annoying problems like having multiple public classes in a single file and all that. All around I prefer C (C++ has its problems as well) and you could pick up the SDL libraries to easily create 2D games using mostly C. There are loads of tutorials around and the libraries are actually simple to use. Is simplifies mouse, joystick and keyboard input, as well as multi-channel sound output, networking, multi-threading and timing. Plus, it's and excelent introduction to graphics programming, most people jump off to OpenGL afterwards. You have more info at http://www.libsdl.org/.

Actually reinstalling Grub can be quite the pain... getting it to work afterwards that is.I usually follow what yordan said in his 1st post, and what I'd suggest (giving you have your /home in a seperate partition - believe me, it's worth it) is to actually give Fedora a clean install and then as root replace the home directory. Once saved all my projects when I screwed up my Ubuntu installation.