VideoGameProgramming Beginner

[finalsayan]

Hi everybody, i am new in videogameprogramming
I have chosen Irrlicht mainly because it can run on Linux without any problem. I want to make my compliments to all the developers of this wonderful 3d engine

I have seen that irrlicht is only a 3d engine instead of a game engine. I have read about a lot of plugins avaiable for irrlicht to make it a real game engine. By the way i did not find any place where is a list of these plugins

I really don't know what I need, i think that a physic engine, a world editor and a AI engine are required even if wikipedia in his definition of game engine adds much more features

The core functionality typically provided by a game engine includes a rendering engine (“renderer”) for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, and a scene graph.

In this moment I have only found
irrEdit (3d world editor)
irrAI
Open Dynamics Engine (rigid body dynamics)
Newton (physics)

anybody has some suggestion for other plugins/ compatible applications?

thank you

[kornwaretm]

there's at least 7 elemen in game enginering

1. software enginering and planing
2. computer graphics ( rendering engine )
3. computer art
4. phisic simulation
5. computer sound
6. artificial intelligence
7. code optimation

game engine is all about the "entities" how they connected and comunicate, through interfaces, templates, inheritance, polymorfism etc. not only about rendering phisic simulation, ai etc. find some software enginering articles first.

[Brainsaw]

If you are new to game programming you might want to start with something simple that doesn't require all of the parts above, e.g. my first Irrlicht game "Marbles" (http://dustbin-online.de/marbles.php) does not do any AI, and communication between entities is not necessary. I just did it to get used to Irrlicht and to a physics engine (ODE).

[rogerborg]

I have read about a lot of plugins avaiable for irrlicht to make it a real game engine. By the way i did not find any place where is a list of these plugins

That's because they're not plugins per se, they're more peer components. Unlike some other engines, Irrlicht is meant to be usable as a component of your game engine, rather than as the engine itself. It's a subtle difference, but (to me, anyway) an important one.

I really don't know what I need

What you need to complete your game is entirely dependent on your game's requirements.

From the components that you list, I'm inferring that you're planning a full featured FPS game. I'd strongly suggest that you reign in your ambitions a bit. The intartubes are littered with the corpses of abandoned FPS, RTS and MMO games.

The definitive article is Why your next 3D MMORPG will fail (the principle applies to any complex game). It's more pragmatic and constructive than the title would suggest.

The classic first project is pong. How about you produce an absolute killer version of that (or some other simple game) first? The eperience will inform your decisions about what's really achievable for a sole developer.

[JP]

Yep keep it simple for your first project, just to familiarise yourself with the engine, something like pong would be a great start, it's fairly simple and will help you learn how to use the engine and what features are available etc.

Then you need to think about what your project is going to be, the one you really want to make once you know how to use the engine, as rogerborg says the components you need really depend on the game you're making and how far you want to take it. For example if it's single player then some kind of AI is probably going to be necessary and networking won't be needed. If it's solely a multiplayer game then you don't need the AI but you do need the networking.

[ehenkes]

Could you provide a link for an optimum pong, please?

[finalsayan]

thank you to everyone for the comments
I am enrolled in a class of videogameprogramming this semester. At the end of the semester we must present a full videogame.

The first step is to choose our game engine.

As I said before my first choice is irrlicht mainly bacause it runs under Linux. I mainly asked for the avaiable plugins because I am trying to evaluate the power of this engine together with the tools that are compatible to write a game. This is also because there are others commercial engines (torque, darkbasic pro) that seems to be very powerful and I don't want to loose the opportunity to make a good job.

So I am not starting with a complex task, it is just a matter of high level evaluation of the capabilities of this set of tools.

I hope that, no matter what type of game i will choose to develop (FPS, sport game ecc) , irrlicht (or some additional compatible project) will provide me all the instruments that are necessary

[rogerborg]

thank you to everyone for the comments
I am enrolled in a class of videogameprogramming this semester. At the end of the semester we must present a full videogame.

Pong is a full videogame. This isn't meant to be a trite comment. A "full videogame" might mean a flaky but playable demo of a small subset of a feature-rich design, or it could mean a feature complete, tested and deployable implementation of a simple idea.

They're both valid goals: you can learn valuable lessons from glorious failure, or modest success. I'd check with your lecturer/tutor about their requirements.

Which brings us to...

The first step is to choose our game engine.

...I'd expect the first step should be to design your game, i.e. draw up its requirements. Then find tools to help you implement those requirements.

Irrlicht should be fit for purpose. IrrKlang provides a decent solution for sound.

After that, what you need is really dependent on what you want to produce. I would urge you to simplify, simplify, and simplify again in your design. You will be amazed at how rapidly features creep in, simple tasks mushroom into complex ones, and debugging unforeseen interactions between components eats into your ever-reducing time available.

Since you know your delivery date, you could calculate the total hours of development that you have available and start the clock running now. Reading this post just ate up some irreplaceable time that could have been used for last minute debugging...

[finalsayan]

Pong is a full videogame. This isn't meant to be a trite comment. A "full videogame" might mean a flaky but playable demo of a small subset of a feature-rich design, or it could mean a feature complete, tested and deployable implementation of a simple idea.

Sorry, my fault. What i mean for full videogame is something that will take 3 months of development with 3-4 people involved in the project. Maybe at the end we will produce just a demo, but it must be complex enough to show the work of a 3-4 people team

...I'd expect the first step should be to design your game, i.e. draw up its requirements. Then find tools to help you implement those requirements.

I don't really know why our tutor starts with this point (choose the game engine), maybe because even if we can state a clear idea of what the game will be we are not able to select the right engine

After that, what you need is really dependent on what you want to produce.

My dream is to create something related to the sport, something like World Cup for NES, if someone remember that game
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... +nes&vt=lf

you think irrlicht is an appropriate choise?
thank you very much

[jontan6]

3 months is not a lot of time when doing a game, even if 3-4 people work on it fulltime. Im assuming you also have many other schoolworks, papers, and exams. You'll be surprised at how much work it needs to complete even a simple game.

I suggest start with a simple fun game available out there, and just make a little fun twist.

like 4 years ago my boss gave me a task to create a J2ME game. SInce one of the hardest part in doing a game is creating a good concept, I just chose to clone bejeweled. But instead of jewels, I replace them with fruits. So the player must form patterns of fruits. Then what I did is at the bottom of the screen I placed bears falling in line, with their mug waiting to get filled. Each time player makes a pattern, juice dops from the machine and fills the cup of the bears. Seems simple, but still took a lot of time because of lots of cleaning up when you want something decent to be published

so i suggest not to be too ambitious and just keep your targets realistic

[pera]

Check out "project announcements" and "code snippets" sections of this forum. There you can find irrlicht source for various games, engines, editors, half finished games, and useful game modules... most of it free to use. Im not saying you should cheat on your exam by taking full game and claim it yours, Im saying reusability and seeing how others did it.

[rogerborg]

...I'd expect the first step should be to design your game, i.e. draw up its requirements. Then find tools to help you implement those requirements.

I don't really know why our tutor starts with this point (choose the game engine), maybe because even if we can state a clear idea of what the game will be we are not able to select the right engine

It's a peculiar way of doing it, but I can see the pragmatic merits of picking a tool and then deciding the limits of what you can build with it. In the commercial world, you often get given a particular engine / SDK / platform to use, and just have to make the best of it.

My dream is to create something related to the sport, something like World Cup for NES, if someone remember that game
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... +nes&vt=lf

I think that a sport game is a smart choice, since the rules are generally well defined; this will save you quite a bit of time in the design phase.

you think irrlicht is an appropriate choise?
thank you very much

Yes, it should be fine for your purposes. The SDK examples cover most of the basics, the forum is replete with more examples (search is your friend), and we're here if you get stuck.