How to learn and understand Irrlicht?

[Krampe]

Hi @ll,

i want to learn Irrlicht, but i'm a newbie regarding C++ and 3d programming. I know some concepts, read the tutorials, the Irrlicht Help, but im not able to understand whats going on and how to create new things.

For Example, i wanted to create a simple 3d plane with a texture (perhaps even an array of tiles). One Tile would consist of 4 vertices. Now i tried to figure out how to create a vertice. I found something like this in the "custom node"-tutorial (it was just luck):

Vertices[0] = video::S3DVertex(0,0,10, 1,1,0,video::SColor(255,0,255,255),0,1);


To draw a tetraeder, this code is used:

driver->drawIndexedTriangleList(&Vertices[0], 4, &indices[0], 4);


But how to draw a simple plane? There are sooo many functions and expressions, i dont have a clue...

This was just an example... i could explain hundreds of situations in which i dont know what to do next. It would be so nice if someone could show me the way of learning irrlicht, but pls dont answer "learn c++ and directx and 3d programming" or something like that, because that wouldn't help. And i want to learn, want to do something for it, just need some more tutorials or anything that would help newbies understanding irrlicht.

Thx for reading

[saigumi]

A few ways to make a plane would be to make a custom scenenode similiar to Tutorial 3 that held the vertices that you want.

http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/tut003.html

Or, you could take a lazy approach and make a plane in a modeling package and load it like you would any other 3D Studio or Milkshape mesh.

Then you would just need to set the material. You could take the Tutorial 3 example and instead of building that lovely rainbow material, load your own.

Code: Select all

		node->setMaterialFlag(EMF_LIGHTING, false);
		node->setMaterialTexture( 0, driver->getTexture("mymaterial.bmp") );

Another cheap shot flat mesh that I used when learning was the HillPlaneMesh. That exploit is documented here.

http://www.saigumi.net/archives/000027.html

[Krampe]

Thanks Saigumi, this will solve one of my problems i think

But i wanted to give this thread another direction: how to learn Irrlicht so you can help yourself? How to understand the helpfile being a newbie (i dont understand a word )?

What kind of experience is needed to work with Irrlicht? Should i learn the basics of directx programming or just basic 3d concepts? Anyone knows good tutorials?

The official tutorials and Saigumis HowTo's are really great, but what if want to create something new? I dont want to ask for everything

So this thread should be about general learning concepts, not about concret problem solution.

Hope someone can understand my english


Example: now that i learned how to create several cubes or planes, i want to create a grid of several vertices, assigning different textures to some defined portions of the grid and changing the y-value of the vertices to create hills or something like that. After that i want to do this [insert problem here] and that [insert another problem here] Although these are really my problems, im eager to learn by myself

[[dx/x]=HUNT3R]

It would be so nice if someone could show me the way of learning irrlicht, but pls dont answer "learn c++ and directx and 3d programming" or something like that, because that wouldn't help.

Yes it will help and thats the only way to become a good programmer. DirectX is not necessary to use Irrlicht, but you must have a very good understanding of C/C++ and 3D mathematical & programming concepts.

What kind of experience is needed to work with Irrlicht? Should i learn the basics of directx programming or just basic 3d concepts? Anyone knows good tutorials?

There are of course a limited number of tutorials specifically for Irrlicht. If you do not understand what is going on in the basic Irrlicht tutorials then you need to get a good book on C++ like the "Standard C++ Bible" by Al Stevens & Clayton Walnum. Read and practice that whole book and you will be a C++ expert. Also, a good book on game programming would help like Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus by Andre LaMothe, but you should already know C++ good before starting a game programming book. Of course there are other good books and game programming tutorials on the net, just do a Google search.

Also, check out http://www.gametutorials.com, there are lots of good tutorials there on basic C++ programming as well as graphics programming techniques in OpenGL and DirectX (stick with OpenGL, it's easier).

[saigumi]

For non technical advice, take small steps and play with the system to try things out. The experience makes up for lack of knowledge. Think about what you want and make the engine conform to it instead of reading about the limitations of the engine and feeling confined.

Believe it or not, I only started using Irrlicht 2 1/2 months ago and have only been using C++ for 6 months. Before that, I was VB and Perl, only. The way I stated was to just take the Techdemo and modified it to see what it could do, which was to load a second quake map next to the castle that is there already.

[FleshCrawler]

When i first started to try to program, i didnt know anything @ all either, but after i found the irrlicht engine, much things started to make sense to me, so learning the engine is rather easy. maybe u should just read the tutorial a bit more, it really explains a lot.

and for what i'm now, i'm like 2 months further now, and i got like the basic knowledge now, and if i really dont understand, i ask in the forums or some of my friends.

so my opinion is ,try to find some basic C/C++ tutorials on the internet, the best in your own home language (mine is dutch, i found a nice site). and get a bit started on the easy stuff

[Krampe]

Thx so far... i hope i will learn some day C++ is not my problem, btw. I was used to Visual Basic for years, but i found lots of c++ tutorials. No problems there Its just about learning Irrlicht.

I think im missing lots of 3d theory, thats all. If you cant understand the sentence "Draws an indexed triangle list", you should know that you are a newbie who must learn, learn and learn

[saigumi]

What the heck is an indexed triangle list?

I know about what fans, and lists, and buffers are... barely. I couldn't make any of them without reading a ton more on it. But that's the joy of Irrlicht. You pretty much don't need to know or care to get a decent game out there.